Archived events
Workplace Accessibility
October 10, 2023 @ Vancouver, BC
This month’s event was presented by
Meet the panelists
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In May 2022, Stephanie Cadieux was appointed to a four-year term as Canada’s first Chief Accessibility Officer (CAO).
Before her appointment, Ms. Cadieux was a member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 2009 to 2022. Between 2010 and 2012, she held various positions, including Minister of Social Development, Minister of Labour, Citizens’ Services and Open Government, and Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development. As Minister of Social Development, she served as lead social policy maker and introduced a breakthrough approach to remove policy barriers for people living with severe disabilities. From 2012 to 2017, she served as Minister of Children and Family Development. In this role, she placed a special focus on increasing adoption levels and support for young people aging out of foster care. She also championed a single parent employment initiative that led to thousands of single parents being able to move into the labour market in jobs that would have previously been inaccessible due to lack of training and childcare support.
Prior to her engagement in provincial politics, she was the director of marketing and public relations for the BC Paraplegic Association.
Ms. Cadieux is a member of the disability community and has used a wheelchair since the age of 18. Her lived experience gives her a deep understanding of the unnecessary barriers faced by people with disabilities and the cost of these barriers to our collective wellbeing.
She has long been an enthusiastic change leader, and a strong advocate for diversity, accessibility, and disability and gender inclusion. She is passionate about creating environments where everyone is welcome and diverse talents are embraced. She is a firm believer that as a society, we can no longer afford to accommodate inaccessibility and must challenge outdated mindsets and unconscious bias at every opportunity.
Throughout her career, she has been a tireless advocate for increased accessibility. Her volunteer activities have included serving as Director for Disability Alliance BC, as an Ambassador with the Rick Hansen Foundation, President of the Realwheels Theatre in Vancouver, and mentoring with the YWCA.
She brings a forward-thinking outlook and extensive experience in strategic policy development to her role as CAO and is dedicated to driving results that create real, positive changes in the lives of people with disabilities and empower us, as a society, to make better decisions and identify innovative solutions that will benefit everyone.
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Charlotte-Anne Malischewski was appointed Deputy Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission in October 2022. She brings to the position extensive experience in human rights and administrative law, and her commitment to building a more just and equitable society.
Prior to joining the Commission, Ms. Malischewski practiced civil litigation in Toronto, with an emphasis on civil and professional liability, administrative, and public law. She has represented individual in human rights and constitutional law litigation, has acted as prosecution and defense counsel in professional disciplinary proceedings, and has acted in a range of commercial litigation matters.
During her time in private practice, Ms. Malischewski remained dedicated to social justice causes through an active pro bono practice. Her work included acting as a designated representative for unaccompanied minors before the Immigration and Refugee Board, acting as counsel to an intervener in an important privacy case at the Supreme Court of Canada, and in a landmark constitutional challenge to the practice of solitary confinement in federal prisons.
Ms. Malischewski previously served as a judicial clerk at the Federal Court of Appeal, worked in criminal and family law for the Newfoundland and Labrador Legal Aid Commission, and conducted research on human rights approaches to statelessness at the Calcutta Research Group in India.
Her experiences throughout her career deepened her commitment to human rights and access to justice issues.
She holds a BA Honours in International Studies and Music from Earlham College, a Masters with Distinction in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from the University of Oxford, as well as a Bachelor of Civil Law and Bachelor of Laws (B.C.L. and LL.B.) from McGill University’s Faculty of Law. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 2016 and is a member of the Law Society of Ontario.
She was born and raised in St. John’s, Newfoundland and is a fiddle player with a passion for promoting traditional Newfoundland music.
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Profile TBA
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Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia was recently described on Global BC’s news as “A force of nature.” The British Columbia-based entrepreneur and philanthropist is fueled by her desire to make Canada the most authentically inclusive place to live for people with autism and cognitive differing abilities.
Wendy’s day job includes being the Owner and Chief Executive Officer of the Century Plaza Hotel. Wendy and her husband founded Canada’s largest independent spa chain, Absolute Spa Group, which they recently sold. However, her passion and pride are in being the Co-Founder, along with her husband of the Pacific Autism Family Network in B.C. and Autism Intellectual Disability Exchange in Canada (AIDE). AIDE is a new charity receiving an $11 million grant from the federal government.
Wendy is the proud mother to two young adults, with their son being diagnosed with autism. For decades, she has been advocating for those that can’t speak for themselves, focusing on meaningful inclusion, especially for those with invisible disabilities such as autism.
Her community involvement includes serving as the Vancouver Board of Trade’s fifth and youngest female chair in its 130-year history, the Vancouver Police Foundation’s first female Trustee, and a Victoria Royal Roads University Fellow.
Wendy has a long list of provincial, national and international recognitions. At a global level, she received the Variety Club’s International Corporate Fundraiser of the Year. Most recently, Wendy was honored with the Order of Canada, Order of British Columbia, and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Wendy has also received two Honorary Doctorates from the Justice Institute of British Columbia and Vancouver Island University for her autism advocacy work, as well as the CH.I.L.D. Foundation Humanitarian Award, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100.
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Kathleen is blazing a trail in a sector that values trailblazing above all else since. Since founding Vancouver’s first tech-focused PR and strategic communications firm, the “Forty Under 40” award winner has gone on to build a diverse roster of clients spanning continents and growth stages. Switchboard helps multinationals to join and support the Canadian tech ecosystem; leverages strategic communications to help SMEs collaborate, grow and scale; assists startups in making names for themselves; and champions innovation at all levels of government. As a business leader and as a new mom with low vision, Kathleen relies on assistive tech in her personal and professional life. No wonder her passion for innovation as a tool for good is so profound.
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Parm Hari joined the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority as vice president, people, process and performance in 2021. She is responsible for human resources, internal communications, facilities and administration, events and experience, and the business transformation office. Parm also oversees guest experience at Canada Place, which is owned and operated by the port authority.
In her role, Parm leads a variety of initiatives to enable data, people, processes, and systems to drive organizational wide excellence and continuous improvement. Under her direction, the organization has expanded to leverage enterprise-level data analytics to inform decision making, and better align projects to improve overall business performance. From a human resources perspective, she is focused on growing and enhancing the organization’s strategic HR practices in order to attract, retain, recognize and develop exceptional talent. Through her work with Canada Place, Parm supports external events and guest experiences at Vancouver’s iconic landmark, venue, and cruise terminal.
Prior to joining the port authority’s executive team, Parm was executive director, people and culture at
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCH), where she served as the people strategy lead in B.C. for the largest-ever vaccination campaign in history. Before her time at VCH, Parm was vice president of global strategy for Pierre Fabre Group, a French multinational, where she transformed a key subsidiary from a US-market only brand to an international player in 10 countries.
Parm currently serves as a special advisor to the HR committee with the VGH & UBC Hospital
Foundation. She is also a faculty advisory board member with UCB Sauder School of Business.
Parm holds a master of business administration degree in strategy and consulting, and a bachelor of commerce degree, both from the University of British Columbia, Sauder School of Business. As a champion of life-long learning, she recently completed board governance and compensation committees programs through Harvard Business School and attended the Cambridge Academy of Transport.
She also holds certifications in executive and organizational coaching, advanced change management, project management, process improvement, leadership, and organizational development.