I’m an LPN currently working for the SHA in the new Rapid Access Addiction Medicine clinic. Previously to this I spent 14 years working with youth struggling with addiction and mental illness at the Youth Stabilization Unit.

I came from Calgary where my passion for harm reduction was discovered while volunteering with a local agency delivering care to unhoused people. Within a year I was enrolled in nursing school and have focused on mental health and addictions for my entire career.

I volunteer in the community by co-coordinating First Aid at the Ness Creek Music Festival.

Isa is a R.N., B.S.N. M.P.H. who relocated to Treaty 6 territory and the homeland of the
Metis approximately 4 years ago from BC. She is currently a nurse-manager with TB
prevention and control Saskatchewan and holds experience in harm reduction and
assets-based program development from a variety of locations within Turtle Island. The
participatory projects on which she has worked integrated the fundamental
acknowledgement of the linkage between injustice and poor health status; she
considers community and self-determined actions to be essential to wellbeing. Her
experiences include the integration of community expressive arts, linkages to
Indigenous cultural revitalization and activism within prevention interventions.

Michelle Neufeld was born in Rosthern and raised in Saskatoon from the age of 4. She holds a bachelor's degree in Sociology and is passionate about community and contributing in a positive way. For the past 10 years, she has worked in the non-profit sector and currently works in annual giving fundraising at St. Paul's Hospital Foundation.

Ronni Nordal moved back to Saskatoon in the summer of 2023 (after moving away in 1985) and currently practices law from a home office in the area of professional discipline and acting as a neutral arbitrator, mediation and investigator.

Ronni has been a long-standing volunteer and advocate regarding issues relating to substance use; houselessness and mental health and sees Prairie Harm Reduction as a key organization for meeting people where they are at and treating all persons with respect and dignity.

Barbara Fornssler (PhD) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Saskatchewan and the Knowledge Translation and Exchange Coordinator for the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Matters (CRISM) Prairie Node. Barb has been working in substance use research since 2011 and is the Director of the Graduate Certificate in Substance use Health and Wellbeing. Barb’s research program focuses on community-based and participatory approaches to addressing mental health and substance use harms. She advocates for drug policy change at all levels of government and emphasizes that people with lived and living expertise should lead the way. Most recently Barb has collaborated with community and research partners to evaluate SCS services, provide evidence to decisionmakers about the potential impacts of decriminalization, and supported municipal leadership to enhance substance use service provision. When she’s not in the classroom or doing research, Barb enjoys camping adventures alongside her partner and their dogs, a Great Dane named Opal and Lab named Kal.

Emily Coates is a social worker (MSW, RSW, APE) with over 12 years experience in the healthcare system supporting youth and families struggling with mental health and addictions. Emily often utilizes a harm-reduction approach in her work, and and is a proponent of harm reduction services as an essential part of evidence-based substance-use treatment and recovery. Emily is a passionate advocate for social justice and works hard to make changes within the profession of social work as a member of the Saskatchewan Association of Social Work's Standards of Practice Committee.

In her free time, Emily is a cat lover with 3 of her own and more foster kittens than she can count. She also enjoys crafts, podcasts, and any other hobbies that she can participate in without leaving her house.