8:00 AM – 2:00 pm
Registration/Information Desk Open
8:00 am – 9:00 am
Arrival, check in (Coffee/tea and light refreshments provided)
Master of Ceremonies: Shelly Dauphinee, Chief Engagement Officer, WCB Nova Scotia
9:10 am – 9:30 am
Opening Remarks: Setting the Stage
9:30 am – 10:30 am
Creating an Environment for Return to Work
Dr. Arla Day, Director, CN Centre for Occupational Health and Safety
10:30 am – 10:50 am
Refreshment Break
10:50 am – 12:00 pm
Employer Panel: Challenges and Successes with Achieving Return to Work
Jason Slaunwhite, Director, Employee Wellbeing, HRM
Adèle Green, Director, Disability Management and Workers’ Compensation, J.D. Irving, Limited
Jane Caudle, VP of People and Culture, Cherubini Group of Companies
Anna Marenick, Vice President of People, Culture and Belonging, Nova Scotia Health
12:00 pm – 12:15 pm
Threads of Life
12:15 pm – 1:15 pm
Networking Lunch
1:15 pm – 2:15 pm
Get Ready for Duty to Cooperate
Valerie Royle, Partner, Rock Disability Management and former President/CEO of Yukon Workers’ Compensation Board Engagement
2:15 pm – 2:30 pm
Wrap Up and Next Steps
What to Expect – Secure Your Spot Today
The must-attend event features lessons learned from employers and leading experts who have successfully led return-to-work initiatives within their organizations. Through insightful presentations and interactive discussions, participants will gain valuable strategies and have opportunities to engage, share experiences, and learn from both presenters and peers. Register now.
Featured Speakers and Topics
- Create an environment for return to work. Learn valuable insights to create a workplace environment for return to work from Arla Day, Director, CN Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. Arla is a Professor of Industrial/Organizational Psychology and former Canada Research Chair at Saint Mary’s University.
- Get ready for Duty to Cooperate. Join Valerie (Val) Royle, former President/CEO of Yukon Workers’ Compensation, for a powerful conversation on Duty to Cooperate as Val shares her experience navigating the introduction of this type of legislation across two Canadian provinces.
- Learn from Nova Scotia employers. A panel of employers just like you will share their challenges and successes with achieving return to work in their workplaces. The panel includes Jason Slaunwhite, Director, Employee Well Being, Halifax Regional Municipality; Adèle Green, Director, Disability Management & Workers’ Compensation for J.D. Irving Limited; and Jane Caudle, Vice President of People and Culture, Cherubini Group of Companies.
+
LEADERSHIP IN FOCUS SUMMIT | RETURN TO WORK
Paulette Raymond
Threads of Life
With a background in business administration, Paulette worked as a ward clerk in children’s oncology. She is a proud mom of three children, as well as a very proud grandma to two grandsons and a granddaughter. Paulette is a tremendous baker and was chosen to audition for the Great Canadian Baker Show. Paulette volunteers in many capacities and has even traveled to Nicaragua for a mission trip.
Today, Paulette is here as a volunteer of Threads of Life—the Association for Workplace Tragedy Family Support and its Speakers Bureau.
Threads of Life helps families affected by a workplace fatality, life-altering injury or occupational disease along their journey of healing. It provides these families with referrals and a one-on-one peer support program delivered by trained Volunteer Family Guides who have also experienced a workplace tragedy. Threads of Life is currently working with thousands of family members from across Canada who have been affected by a workplace tragedy.
Threads of Life promotes public awareness and accountability for workplace health and safety. Its mission is to lead and inspire a culture shift where work-related injuries and illnesses are morally, socially and economically unacceptable.
Paulette will share her personal story with us today. We do ask that to honour Paulette’s privacy, please do not record her presentation.
+
LEADERSHIP IN FOCUS SUMMIT | RETURN TO WORK
Valerie Royle
Partner
Rock Disability Management and former President/CEO of Yukon Workers’ Compensation Board Engagement
Valerie holds MBA and B.Comm. (Hons) degrees from Memorial University of Newfoundland, the Certified Disability Management Professional (CDMP) designation and a Workplace Mental Health Leadership Certificate from Queen’s University. With decades of leadership experience across post-secondary, workers’ compensation, government and the private sector, Valerie understands the practical realities facing organizations and brings her considerable experience to Rock DM to help your organization maximize its workforce potential through organizational design, culture, human resource management, technology, occupational safety and return to work.
She got her career start with Workplace NL in roles ranging from Extended Earning Loss Specialist, to Manager of Assessments, Director of Human Resources, to Executive Director of Worker Services. From there, Valerie was recruited to the Yukon Workers’ Compensation, Health and Safety Board for their President/CEO from 2005 -2012. Between 2012 and 2021, Valerie has served as Yukon’s Deputy Minister of Education, Tourism & Culture, the Women & Gender Equity Directorate and the French Language Services Directorate. In 2015, she left Yukon Government for two years and promptly entered the private sector as Vice-President of Workplace Safety and Apprenticeship with Bluedrop ISM using technology as a tool to advance workforce potential.
While she was doing all that, for two decades Valerie also taught organizational behaviour, organizational theory and design, strategic management, marketing and business communications at Memorial University and workers’ compensation and return to work with the National Institution of Disability Management and Research and the Pacific Coast University for Workplace Health Sciences.
+
LEADERSHIP IN FOCUS SUMMIT | RETURN TO WORK
Anna Marenick
Vice President of People, Culture and Belonging
Nova Scotia Health
Anna Marenick is a successful human resources and transformational change leader with extensive regional and national experience leading multi-faceted and complex programs in diverse and challenging environments.
Anna joined Nova Scotia Health in 2021 in the role of Senior Director of Organizational Change Management and later took on the role of interim Senior Director of People Services.
Prior to joining Nova Scotia Health, she was the senior director of people and governance at Develop Nova Scotia. Her creative, inclusive approach to solving complex problems in a variety of settings makes her exceptional at collaboratively propelling ideas and people forward.
She sits on the Boards of Directors at Saint Mary’s University. She is also actively involved in the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference.
Anna has a Master of Business Administration from Saint Mary’s University and Bachelor of Arts (Political Science) from St. Francis Xavier University. She is also a Prosci Certified Change Management Professional and a Chartered Professional in Human Resources.
+
LEADERSHIP IN FOCUS SUMMIT | RETURN TO WORK
Jane Caudle
VP of People and Culture
Cherubini Group of Companies
Jane Caudle has been dedicated to the manufacturing and construction industry for the past 20 years, working with the Cherubini Group of Companies. She currently serves as the Vice President of People and Culture, supporting a workforce of approximately 600 employees across Nova Scotia in both unionized and non-unionized environments. Jane is also proudly on the board of directors for Easter Seals Nova Scotia, an organization who works to support inclusion across the province.
Recognized as an empathetic and authentic leader, Jane believes in leveraging the expertise of those around her to drive success. She looks forward to sharing both the successes and challenges encountered at the Cherubini Group and welcomes conversations with those looking to strengthen their own safety programs.
Over the past decade, Jane has played a key role in leading a significant shift in Cherubini’s safety culture—from a mindset of simple compliance to one where the company actively seeks every opportunity to support one another in achieving top safety standards. Encouraging open reporting and consistency in senior management engagement has been a primary focus, ensuring that safety remains the top priority. As a result, more employees go home safe everyday, the quality of work and production have improved, which in turn puts the company in a better financial position to continue to sustain itself and grow.
+
LEADERSHIP IN FOCUS SUMMIT | RETURN TO WORK
Adèle Green
Director, Disability Management and Workers’ Compensation
J.D. Irving, Limited
As Director of Disability Management & Workers’ Compensation for J.D. Irving, Limited, Adèle combines workers’ compensation knowledge with private employer experience. Formally with WorkSafeNB, Adele combines over a decade of experience in the field of both occupational and non-occupational claims. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Mount Allison University, an MBA from the University of Fredericton, and currently sits on the Board of Directors of AbilityNB.
+
LEADERSHIP IN FOCUS SUMMIT | RETURN TO WORK
Jason Slaunwhite
Director, Employee Wellbeing
HRM
Jason Slaunwhite is the Director of Employee Wellbeing at the Halifax Regional Municipality. As part of the senior leadership team within the department of Human Resources, he leads organization-wide strategies designed to support and enhance workplace health, safety, and employee engagement.
Over his 20-year career, Jason has guided numerous organizations in developing effective injury prevention programs, fostering cultures of work connectedness, and creating sustainable conditions for psychological health and safety in the workplace.
Jason serves on the Board of Directors for Safety Services Nova Scotia, is an active member of the Canadian Psychological Association, and holds a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Saint Mary’s University.
+
LEADERSHIP IN FOCUS SUMMIT | RETURN TO WORK
Dr. Arla Day
Director
CN Centre for Occupational Health and Safety
Dr. Arla Day is a Professor in Occupational Health Psychology at Saint Mary’s University and Director of the CN Centre for Occupational Health & Safety, a training, research, and community outreach centre at Saint Mary’s. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association and was a Canada Research Chair for 10 years.
She was awarded an Erskine Fellowship from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, to teach and conduct research on psychologically healthy workplaces. Arla served as an international advisor on the Stockholm Stress Center’s Advisory Board and was on the American Psychological Association’s Psychology in the Workplace Committee. She also chaired the Nova Scotia Psychological Healthy Workplace Program Committee for 15 years.
Arla’s research and consulting work revolves around developing and validating effective organizational initiatives to create healthy workers and workplaces. She has authored articles, books, and book chapters on psychologically healthy workplaces, workplace respect and civility, leadership, employee stress and well-being, and work–life balance. She works closely with organizations to share best practices to help them develop their workplaces.
+
LEADERSHIP IN FOCUS SUMMIT | RETURN TO WORK
Karen Adams
CEO
WCB Nova Scotia
Karen Adams is a CEO and Board Director with international and multi-industry experience. She became the CEO of WCB Nova Scotia in August 2023.
Karen was recognized in 2017 as one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women by the Women’s Executive Network and was voted by her peers as “CEO of the Year” by Wealth Professional in 2019.
Karen has served as the CEO of numerous companies, including Fundserv Inc, Alberta Pensions Corporation, and HSBC Bank. She is a change leader, repeatedly managing large technology transformation projects and leading people through cultural change.
Although born and raised in Toronto, Karen spent much of her career outside Canada. She has lived and worked in Mumbai, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul, Dubai, London and Amman.
Karen snowshoed 100 km across the Article Circle on The True Patriot Love Women’s Expedition – Baffin Island 2019, raising over $1 million to support Canadian military members, Veterans, and their families.
Karen has a double major in Mathematics and Economics from Queen’s University in Kingston, an MBA in International Finance from The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and an ICD.D designation from The Rotman School of Management and Institute of Corporate Directors.
+
LEADERSHIP IN FOCUS SUMMIT | RETURN TO WORK
Shelly Dauphinee
Chief Engagement Officer
WCB Nova Scotia
As Chief Engagement Officer, Shelly Dauphinee BA, MPL, ICD.D leads the WCB teams that advance Prevention, Employer Engagement, and Psychological Injury. Her vision, informed by decades of experience as an executive leader in workers’ compensation, will bring new ideas, new approaches, and new opportunities to improve how the WCB protects the Nova Scotia workforce, through an emphasis on innovation, strategy and keeping customers at the centre of design.
Shelly has spent her career in leadership roles across Canada with the Ontario Ministry of Health, the Canadian Red Cross, Pacific Coast University and WorkSafeNB, where she forged key relationships with employers, bringing expert knowledge and lived experience in strategy, policy and operational excellence to advance occupational health and safety, disability management and compensation insurance issues and opportunities. In New Brunswick, she led end-to-end prevention and compensation service delivery, including oversight of compliance officers under the OHS Act.
Shelly has a Corporate Director Designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. An accomplished executive with broad leadership and prevention experience, she was a former governor of the Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety, and currently holds positions as a Director for Threads of Life - The Canadian Association for Workplace Tragedy Family Support, a former member of the Nova Scotia Ministers Advisory Committee (OHSAC) and a member of the Executive Leadership Committee of the National Poverty Reduction Initiative through the National Institute of Disability Management and Research (NIDMAR).
