Bottom Up and Top Down: Strategies for making pain a national priority

Maria joined Pain BC in June 2010 as the inaugural Executive Director. With two decades of experience in community development and systems change, Maria has worked to bring Pain BC from concept to reality. Her work has involved mobilizing communities, engaging patients in organizational decision making, and advancing progressive agendas through policy change and program development. She is one of 15 Principal Investigators in the CIHR-funded Chronic Pain Network, the first national pain research network in Canada, and is the co-lead for patient engagement in the Network.

Maria is also the co-chair of the Canadian Pain Task Force, which was formed by the Government of Canada in March 2019 to assess the current state of pain in Canada and to recommend an improved approach to addressing pain in our country.

Jean-François is the Manager of the Chronic Pain Policy Team within the Controlled Substances and Cannabis Branch at Health Canada. In his role, Jean-François oversees the coordination of the federal response to the Canadian Pain Task Force recommendations. Prior to joining the Team in October 2021, Jean-François held many policy positions within the federal government, including in the Department of Finance Canada, Health Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Jennifer Novak is the Executive Director of the Opioid Response Team within the Controlled Substances and Cannabis Branch of Health Canada. Jen has been in this position since November 2018, where in that time she has coordinated and worked closely with over 15 federal departments and agencies, provinces and territories, substance use experts, service providers and people with lived and living experience on the response to the unprecedented public health threat of the opioid overdose crisis.