Steve Gaspar, a certified recovery coach and a passionate advocate for innovative health solu­tions, possesses an impressive 24-year journey of personal recovery. He is an alumnus of Simon Fraser University, where he completed his BSc in Kinesiology and MSc in Public Health. His pursuit of these degrees was not merely academ­ic but stemmed from a deeply personal commitment to furthering community health approaches to challenging issues.

During his time at SFU, Steve took on the role of a student research­er, contributing to the evaluation of the InSite project – North America's first med­ically supervised injection site. This pioneering initiative sparked his interest and set the traj­ectory for his sub­sequent contributions to public health. Following his graduation, Steve trans­itioned to Calgary, where he embarked on a trans­form­ative decade of leadership. Here, he devel­oped and championed 'housing-first' programs targeted at assisting those grappling with home­lessness, addiction, and severe, persistent mental health issues. His innovative work in Calgary has not only changed hun­dreds of lives, offering individuals the support they needed, but has also been recognized and lauded across Canada.

Today, Steve applies his wealth of experience and unwavering dedication to his role as a recovery coach, recovery coach trainer and mentor. He's leading the charge in making recovery coaching accessible to all who are navigating the turbulent waters of active addiction or any phase of recovery. As an expert in both short and long-term strategies, Steve focuses on equipping those on their recovery journey with tailored tools and resources to confront and overcome their unique challenges.

His professional path is not just a testament to his skills and commitment, but it also embodies his empathetic and solution-focused approach.

After working for over a decade as a family doctor and thirty-five years as an Addiction Medicine consultant and medical educator, Ray retired from clinical practice. Since 2016, he has focused on recovery management and the transformation of addiction ser­vices into an integrated recovery-oriented care system. Joined by some of his med­ical colleagues, they have termed this endeavor Recovery Medicine.

In 2018, Dr. Baker trained as a Recovery Coach and then as a Recovery Coach trainer with CCAR, the Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery. He served as an expert consultant to Alberta's Mental Health and Addiction Advisory Committee, assisting the province's transition to a Recovery Oriented System of Care. He de­signed this Cana­dian Recovery Coach training curriculum currently in use by several organizations in training over 250 recovery coaches.

Since 2005, Joanna has been working with individuals who are struggling with substance use disorders. As a woman in long-term recovery, Joanna has a particular passion for supporting women and a deep understanding of the unique challenges and barriers that many face on their road to recovery.

Joanna is a certified Addictions Counsellor and Clinical Supervisor and has sat on several working groups provincially and regionally, to improve the level and continuity of care provided to substance affected individuals and families. In addition, Joanna has extensive leadership training from the UBC Sauder School as well as non-profit manage­ment from Harvard University.

For over ten years, Joanna was the Director of a women's provin­cially licensed bed-based 1st stage treatment centre and is current­ly the Director of Programming for a non-profit recovery society. In addition, for over 15 years, Joanna has been train­ing frontline sup­port workers in bed-based reco­very services. She is a certified Recovery Coach and recently as a Recovery Coach Trainer.

Joanna has an insatiable passion for learning and growing personally as well as professionally. She is deeply committed to supporting others on their recovery journeys and her natural ability to find creative solutions to challenging problems means “I am always looking for new ways to meet people where they are at”.