Speakers

Aaron Billesberger

Alycia Garcia

Amanda Cutting

Casey Chan

Claire Mocock

Dagan Nish

Dale Alcock

Trina joined the Actsafe team in April of 2022 in her “dream job” as CEO of an industry Health & Safety Association. Trina brings a unique combination of business, regulatory, and not-for-profit management knowledge to Actsafe and is a self-proclaimed “governance nerd.”

As Actsafe’s CEO, she is committed to prioritizing transparency, collaboration, and efficiency to enable us to work together as true partners to tackle the changing landscape before us. She is passionate about Actsafe’s mission and proud to work alongside team members she respects and values. She is committed to realizing our plans, delivering high-quality initiatives, and sharing the successes we achieve together for this organization, our team, and our industry.

Elisa Kilbourne lives in London Ontario and works as an Administration Coordinator for the Department of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario. She is a wife and proud mom, who has developed an appetite to travel during her free time from numerous volunteering capacities and spoiling her grandson and grand-puppies.

In 2013 Elisa’s life, and the life of her family, were profoundly changed by a workplace tragedy. Today, Elisa is here as a volunteer of Threads of Life – the Association for Workplace Tragedy Family Support - and its Speakers Bureau.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Tanya Steele is a speaker, trainer, safety advisor and Podcast Host of Safety Debris. Utilizing her 28 years of experience in multiple industries including, stage, film and supplying safety personnel to concert set-ups and city festivals. She helps business and production leaders implement safety in the workplace. Additionally, she has held several board positions such as; Regional VP of the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering, President of H&S Week and currently is the President Elect for the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers BC.  

Maria is a skilled and enthusiastic leader, educator and facilitator with over a decade of experience in the mental and community health fields. Her journey is marked by a profound dedication to enhancing crisis care reform, training diverse groups on de-escalation, uplifting the voices of those who have experienced challenges in mental health systems, championing mental health promotion, and leading critical work in suicide prevention and life promotion. Maria works for the Canadian Mental Health Association, BC Division as the Associate Director, Suicide Prevention and Life Promotion.

Simon Hunt is an emergency management practitioner with 30+ years of experience. He has held various positions, such as a search and rescue leader, city emergency program coordinator and forest fire specialist. Simon also held a senior role in emergency coordination during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. He is currently the public safety coordinator for the Shambhala Music Festival while pursuing a Master's in Disaster & Emergency Management at Royal Roads University. Simon enjoys skiing, mountain biking, and being a proud father to his two daughters in Revelstoke, BC.

Jordan is the City of Vancouver’s Film & Special Events Public Safety Project Manager. He is also a project management consultant for a number of events in the US and Canada, and a senior consultant for Odyssey Medical. He has 18+ years as an event professional, with a diverse track-record of producing and supporting large & small scale events, multi-agency deployments, clinical teams, field hospitals and community/ art based projects, in his local, domestically and internationally.  Before moving to Canada, Jordan was a teacher in Australia & South Korea. Prior to that, he worked as a Wilderness Ranger/Firefighter with the US Forest Service (based in Oregon) across the Rockies/ Western States. He currently lives with his wife and daughter in Vancouver, BC. 

Paul Bergin is a seasoned health and safety professional with over 35 years of experience. Paul joined WorkSafeBC as an occupational safety officer in 2008. Prior to joining WorkSafeBC, Paul worked as a health and safety specialist for a number of employers including post-secondary education and a multinational manufacturer.

In his current role, Paul is a key member of the WorkSafeBC motion picture and television production team specializing in engaging industry stakeholders in focus on managing risk in the workplace.

Paul has completed the University of Victoria, Environmental & Occupational Health Program.

Kelly Mean is a Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP) and the Manager of Prevention Field Services at WorkSafeBC. She oversees the film industry portfolio, which involves ensuring compliance with occupational health and safety regulations and providing guidance and support to employers and workers in the film sector.

Kelly has been with WorkSafeBC for over five years and has a wealth of experience and knowledge in health and safety. She is passionate about promoting a culture of safety and prevention in the workplace, and helping employers and workers prevent injuries and illnesses.

Prior to joining WorkSafeBC, Kelly had a successful career as a professional winemaker. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Oenology and Viticulture from University of Adelaide,and has worked at several wineries in Canada and abroad. She enjoys applying her scientific and creative skills to both wine making and health and safety.

Casey is passionate about safety for all workers with a keen interest in young workers’ ability to spark change.

Casey has been a Rigging Grip, onset Grip/ Electric, Key Grip for the past 10 years. Before film Casey worked for Music festivals such as the Vancouver International Jazz and Folk Music Festival. Casey discovered a passion for workplace safety when they became a facilitator for the BCFED educating young, new, and foreign workers on worker rights & responsibilities and safety. Casey recently achieved designation of Canadian Registered Safety Technicians after completing BCIT’s OH&S certificate and 2 years of Safety Coordination.

Marett holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, and is currently working towards an Occupational Health & Safety Diploma from the University for New Brunswick. In 1998, Marett began her foray into film in Toronto, working as a make-up artist and Production Manager. She has since taken on numerous production roles, serving as the head of health and safety departments for films and series from Netflix, Paramount, Apple, and, most recently, Legendary Pictures. As someone with a deep passion for safety, Marett loves keeping the cast and crew safe. As a lifelong learner, Maretthas also taken several training courses including BCIT’s CSO, is an Occupational First Aid Level 3, fall protection, WHMIS, has her firearms license, and is working towards getting her Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP) designation.

Claire Mocock, MBA, CRSP is an accomplished health and safety professional with an extensive background spanning over 15 years across diverse industries, including research and education, property management, gaming and casinos, transportation, construction, and live events encompassing professional sports, concerts, and festivals. With a solid educational foundation in safety, science, and business, combined with a proven track record of success, Claire is widely recognized for her ability to implement effective systems and processes that align with both the organization and its people.

Through assessment, adept change management strategies, and an unwavering passion for health and safety, Claire excels in driving culture change and securing organizational buy-in to proactively manage and mitigate risks within the workplace.

Dale Alcock CRSP has been a safety officer with WorkSafeBC for the past 15 years. He is currently a Supervisor Field Prevention Services working out of the Kelowna office. Dale has been involved in the development and training of WorkSafeBC officers pertaining to traffic control for the past 10 years. In addition, Dale sat on the review committee for the proposed Traffic Management Manual when it was introduced in 2015 and on the internal committee responsible for the writing of the new Part 18 traffic control regulation that came into effect on December 1, 2021.

Having joined the St John Ambulance in Ireland at age 10, Tom began his career providing medical coverage in various roles as a first aider, paramedic and dispatcher. Later qualifying as a live sound engineer, he saw events from a different lens. Since moving to Canada in the summer of 2016, Tom joined Odyssey Medical as both a Paramedic and dispatcher and is now the lead dispatcher for Canada West Operations. With over 15 years of experience dispatching large mass gathering events in both Ireland and Canada , Tom is looking forward to sharing his experience and knowledge in the area.

Kevin calls himself an “unexpected business owner”. In 2009 he never imagined becoming the founding partner of what would later become a successful organization in the mass gathering Event Medical space. Prior to his time at Odyssey, Kevin worked in various capacities in risk services management, emergency communication and event operations. His experience ranges from remote wilderness expeditions to large-scale, multi-day urban sporting events, outdoor music festivals, and his 20 year tenure as a faculty member at Georgian College, Ontario. “Working at Odyssey is a natural culmination of everything that I love to do – working with the public, working outdoors, and bringing calm to chaos.”

An award-nominated actor and director, Amanda Liz Cutting has been active in professional and semi-professional theatre, film, and television for over twenty years.  Amanda has been an actors’ advocate and Intimacy Coordinator/Director for the last eight years. She is a certified Intimacy Coordinator with Intimacy Directors International (IDI). She is on the National Society of Intimacy Professionals (NSIP) board of directors. She leads Principal Intimacy Professionals (PIP), a team who serves Vancouver’s Hollywood North and other Canadian film/television/theatre centres. In 2019, she was the first Intimacy Coordinator to be hired by Bollywood for the web series Mastram (MX Player), which has become the highest-viewed series in the world with 616 million views.

Megan is a Certified Intimacy Professional and program instructor with Principal Intimacy Professionals and regularly works on productions in Vancouver, BC Canada. She is also the Chair of The National Society of Intimacy Professionals, an organization which aims to advocate for the intimacy professional role in the Canadian entertainment industries. Megan is also a certified comprehensive sexual health and sexuality educator and has years of experience in theatre costume design, acting, directing, film and TV costuming, and youth facilitation.

Selected Intimacy Coordination credits include: Golden Delicious (multi-award winning indie feature), The Night Agent (Netflix), Fakes (CBCGem/Netflix) and Surface (Apple+).

About the session

Mona provides occupational and environmental health services to clients wanting to reduce occupational and environmental health risks in their populations. She is a certified industrial hygienist with 25 years of experience in exposure assessment, indoor air quality investigations, chemical review, and environmental public health. Mona has been involved in wildfire fighter intervention studies led by the University of Alberta and has helped develop strategies for the film and television industry to deal with wildfire smoke and heat stress. She currently is the Principal Industrial Hygienist at Aura Health and Safety and an adjunct professor with the University of British Columbia.

A multi-award-winning creative force David C. Jones is an Audience Engagement Specialist. Whether he is producing, presenting, or performing he has traveled the world and worked in such exotic locations as Israel, Bosnia, Italy, Australia, and Switzerland. As demand for his teaching grew, he created the Audience Engagement Academy.

David have been called "one of the funniest minds in Vancouver" by The Vancouver Sun but he adds “but not all the time”. His Get Inspired Talk video on YouTube has over 13,000 views and he was a contributor to the 2nd Volume of the Amazon #1 Bestseller Get Inspired book.

Todd McDonald is Head of Prevention Services with WorkSafeBC. His team is focused on protecting workers from occupational health and safety risks through education, consultation, and enforcement of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations; and believes that to enable strong health and safety cultures workers need to be heard, respected, and engaged at the workplace. 

Todd has worked with WorkSafeBC for more than 20 years holding senior and executive positions in Claims, Assessments, Corporate Operations, and Prevention. In his various roles, he has remained committed to building, maintaining, and strengthening relationships and partnerships with key stakeholders. 

Aaron Billesberger is the Director of Special Projects & Training for Guardteck Security Co., a visionary leader in providing security services with a focus on customer service, client experience, harm reduction, teambuilding and partnerships, safety, and service excellence.

Over the past 26 ½ years, he has mentored, trained, supported, and managed safety and security teams within the public and private security industry with the Correctional Service of Canada as well as for over 1200 special events ranging in size from 200 people to an estimated 450,000 people throughout western Canada. He is currently contracted as the Live Nation Canada Director of Security & Crowd Safety for FVDED in the Park Festival, Contact Festival, Chasing Summer Festival and Badlands Music Festival.

Jodi founded Helga Wear because I struggled to find Proper-fitting PPE, and what was on the market didn't meet my body's basic hygiene needs. She has a degree in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in computer integrated manufacturing, and a law minor. I now use that knowledge to inform both my safety clothing design practice and my advocacy work. 

Jodi educates and challenges Canadian stakeholders across industrial sectors to champion a new standard for best practice when it comes to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and fit. 

Laurie brings a wealth of experience to the conference. He has been involved in workplace safety and security for over 40 years. Laurie is past President of the Retail Loss Prevention and Retail Safety Societies, a Criminal Justice Instructor, Mental Heath Instructor and a First Aid instructor. In addition, he is the recipient of several awards including the Governor General Lifetime Achievement award, Langara Outstanding Alumni, Order of Saint John Ambulance Priory award , CSSE Special Project and Leaders of Tomorrow Mentor of the Year award.

Kristian Martens is a film & television industry safety leader committed to facilitating a positive and pro-active safety culture throughout all phases of production. He earned his Certified Safety Professional designation (BCSP) with a focus on risk assessment and mitigation. In 2023, he founded Salish Safety, a risk and safety consultancy supporting Vancouver’s entertainment industry. Kristian’s background in construction safety, backcountry guiding, education, social services, mental health and business administration inform his well-rounded approach to the safety challenges of our industries. 

Vice President of Production Safety, Paramount Pictures

Alycia Garcia started her career in film and television in employment law and now manages all aspects of health and safety for Paramount Pictures. Alycia has managed safety on productions like Top Gun: Maverick, Sonic, Lost City, and GI JOE: Snake Eyes. Additionally, she provided COVID support throughout the pandemic and was tapped to work with the Motion Picture Association, Government Relations, and local officials to create COVID protocols to help get the industry back in production. Most recently, Alycia was selected as an Influential Latina in Media for the Imagen Foundation.

MBA, CRSP

Claire Mocock, MBA, CRSP is an accomplished health and safety professional with an extensive background spanning over 15 years across diverse industries, including research and education, property management, gaming and casinos, transportation, construction, and live events encompassing professional sports, concerts, and festivals. With a solid educational foundation in safety, science, and business, combined with a proven track record of success, Claire is widely recognized for her ability to implement effective systems and processes that align with both the organization and its people.

Chair, Event Safety Alliance Canada

Janet Sellery CRSP, CHSC, is one of Canada’s leading experts in health and safety and the arts, entertainment, and live events. She started in stage management and, after a critical injury involving an actor, she pioneered the health and safety program at the Stratford Festival, Canada’s largest repertory theatre. Janet is an active volunteer with Event Safety Alliance Canada (Board Chair), Event Safety Alliance U.S. (Director), the Ontario Ministry of Labour Live Performance Health & Safety Advisory Committee and the Event Safety Working Group. As a consultant (Sellery Health + Safety), Janet focuses on customizing programs, training, and resources to reflect the constantly evolving and unique demands of the live performance environment.

Film & Special Events Public Safety Project Manager, City of Vancouver

Jordan is the City of Vancouver’s Film & Special Events Public Safety Project Manager. He is also a project management consultant for a number of events in the US and Canada, and a senior consultant for Odyssey Medical. He has 18+ years as an event professional, with a diverse track-record of producing and supporting large & small scale events, multi-agency deployments, clinical teams, field hospitals and community/ art based projects, in his local, domestically and internationally.  Before moving to Canada, Jordan was a teacher in Australia & South Korea. Prior to that, he worked as a Wilderness Ranger/Firefighter with the US Forest Service (based in Oregon) across the Rockies/ Western States. He currently lives with his wife and daughter in Vancouver, BC. 

Sr. production Safety Manager, The Walt Disney Company

Scott Parsons is an experienced safety professional with over 15 years of expertise in the field. He possesses exceptional analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills, honed through his work with Correctional Institutions, Camps, Film and Television, and Junior Mining Camps. Scott has received rigorous education and training in Organizational Behaviours and Personnel Management, which are integral to his success in the industry. As a graduate of the British Columbia Institute of Technology's Industry Safety Officers program, he confidently approaches health and risk management with a calm, patient, yet assertive demeanor. His excellent communication, negotiation, and interpersonal skills make him stand out in the field. 

Director, Production Safety, Warner Bros. Entertainment 

Shane Rogers oversees Canadian and International Productions for Warner Bros. Discovery and is responsible for directing the management of production safety for stunts, stunt rigging, special effects, and the proximity of action to actors, employees, or the public.

As the person in charge of production safety, Shane is responsible for ensuring that all aspects of safety are considered and that all potential risks are identified and addressed. He has a critical role in minimizing the risk of harm to employees, the public, and property. Shane is an expert in assessing hazards and ensuring that proper measures are taken to mitigate any potential dangers.

Actsafe Panel Moderator

Dagan was involved in community theatre throughout his childhood and has 14 years of professional experience in the motion picture industry.  With a background in acting and teaching, he holds a BA in emergency and security management and is certified as a workplace psychological health and safety advisor.  He has worked as an OHS consultant managing health and safety departments for several episodic series and an award-winning independent feature film.  He has since completed his first year as a safety advisor for Actsafe.  Dagan is a member of Event Safety Alliance Canada, Event Safety Alliance U.S., Health and Safety Professionals Canada, the emergency management program advisory committee of the Justice Institute of British Columbia, and the Calltime Mental Health Champions campaign.

About the session