Featured Speakers

An emergency physician who studied mathematics and engineering before embarking on his medical career, Dr. Ed Brown combined these skills in 1998 when he founded NORTH Network. NORTH Network evolved out of Dr. Brown’s examination of how telemedicine could alleviate the barriers to accessing health care posed by distance and a shortage of health professionals in Northern Ontario into a comprehensive telemedicine program connecting thousands of patients with health care providers. NORTH Network now has more than 115 Ontario members, including academic health sciences centres, community hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, clinics, nursing stations, long term care homes, community care access centres, public health units and educational facilities. By ensuring common practices and minimum standards, the quality of clinical and educational sessions is ensured for all NORTH member participants.

Dr. Brown sits on numerous boards and advisory committees, including Ontario's E-Physician Council. He is currently the CEO of the Ontario Telemedicine Network.

Craig Locatis, PhD Educational Research Specialist
Office of High Performance Computing and Communications
Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications
National Library of Medicine

Craig Locatis has been with the National Library of Medicine since 1979. While at NLM he has worked on a wide range of projects involving applications of technology to education and healthcare. In his current position, Dr. Locatis manages research contracts testing advanced high performance computing and communications technologies in healthcare as well as NLM’s internal collaboratory program. He was a principal in establishing NLM’s Collaboratory for High Performance Computing and Communications and its predecessor Learning Center for Interactive Technology. While at NLM he has developed courseware for the web and interactive computer based and videodisc programs, reviewed authoring systems, worked on the interface and online help for NLM’s first online catalog, and managed a project, funded by the State Department, to connect the National Medical Libraries of eight Newly Independent States to the Internet after the fall of the Soviet Union. He is a consulting editor for the journals Educational Technology Research and Development and Computers in Human Behavior. Dr. Locatis received his Ph.D. from Syracuse University.

Aaron B. Navarro, PhD
Assistant Director for Program Development
Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications
National Library of Medicine

Aaron Navarro has worked in the IT field for over thirty years. He’s been a principal contributor to several major programs for MITRE, NASA, FAA, USPTO, and NLM in such areas as database management, digital libraries, systems engineering, human-computer interaction, technology transfer, and strategic planning. In his current position at NLM, Dr. Navarro contributes to information technology research and development programs in the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications. He’s also a member of the Computer Science adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Navarro received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.

Michael J. Ackerman, PhD
Assistant Director, High Performance Computing and Communications
Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications
National Library of Medicine

Michael Ackerman has worked on the cutting edge of health and science communications his whole career. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in Biomedical Engineering. He is currently Assistant Director for High Performance Computing and Communications at the National Library of Medicine, responsible for programs in medical imaging, telemedicine and next generation networking. He holds academic appointments as an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Medicine at George Washington University and as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Informatics at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Dr. Ackerman is active in the field of medical informatics. He was elected a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI) in 1985 and a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) in 1992. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Telemedicine Association. He is a member of the editorial boards of the Telemedicine Journal and e-Health, Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, and IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine. He has published over 160 papers and book chapters. Dr. Ackerman's work in conceiving and developing the Visible Human Project has been recognized through numerous awards including the 1998 Johns Hopkins University Ranice W. Crosby Distinguished Achievement Award, the 1996 National Institutes of Health Director's Award, and the 1996 Satava Award for Medical Applications of Virtual Reality.

Richard (Rick) Grunberg has been searching for a happy mix in life of technology and artistry. For the past twenty five years he has amassed a wealth of knowledge through his studies in Engineering and Radio and Television Arts, his forays into still photography, such as his two years as former Prime Minister Trudeau’s Liberal Party photographer, and in television as a Technical Producer and Director of Photography for hundreds of broadcast programs. Later in his career he was instrumental in founding one of Canada’s most successful television facility and production companies of its time, where his role as Vice President also allowed him to expand his creative urges as that company’s D.O.P. and Technical Producer. With a need to be more involved in the Broadcast industry, he was hired as a Technical Director and D.O.P. at TV Ontario, and worked on such shows as Polka Dot Door and Polka Dot Shorts, Join In, and shows in the freelance market, such as Shining Time Station, Good Morning America, Entertainment Tonight…and many more. He has given numerous lectures on advanced camera and lighting techniques in Canada and the U.S., and was instrumental in the funding, design and construction of Canada’s first University based High Definition television training facility. He was also involved in some of the first High Definition tests and shoots almost 20 years ago. Rick had been lecturing at Ryerson University for the past 15 years on a part time basis and full time for the last five, while always maintaining a busy freelance shooting schedule.

Tom Green. Teacher. Author. Lecturer. Raconteur. Chief Cook and Bottle Washer. Professor, Interactive Multimedia through Humber College's School of Media Studies in Toronto. Tom Green is the author 7 books .The latest are Flash Professional 8: Training From the Source published by Macromedia Press, Foundation Flash 8 Video and From After Effects to Flash: poetry in motion graphics, both published by friendsofED. Tom is also a partner at CommunityMX, a regular columnist at Digital-Web magazine, a regular contributor to both the Adobe Design and Developer Centers and a member of the Adobe's international Community Experts group. Tom has also spoken at Web Conferences around the world including NAB, Adobe Max, FlashintheCan and SparkEurpoe.

As both a futurist and a science-fiction writer, Rob is very much in demand as a speaker. His specialty is extrapolating today's scientific, medical, and ethical concerns into the near future, and making the radical changes that are forthcoming understandable to any audience. Called "the dean of Canadian science fiction" by The Ottawa Citizen and a master of "bold scientific extrapolation" by The New York Times, Rob opens up people's minds about cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, stem-cell research, and nanotech, exploring the societal impact they are going to have.

Rob is one of only seven writers in history to win all three of the science-fiction field's top honors for best novel of the year, and is the only writer in history to win the top SF awards in the United States, Japan, France, and Spain. He has taught writing at the University of Toronto, Ryerson University, Humber College, the National University of Ireland, and the Banff Centre.

Rob is often seen on TV, including such program as Rivera Live with Geraldo Rivera, Canada A.M., and Saturday Night at the Movies, and he's a frequent science commentator for Discovery Channel Canada, CBC Newsworld, and CBC Radio. He has been the subject of an hour-long Canadian TV documentary ("In the Mind of Robert J. Sawyer"), profiled for an entire half-hour episode of "Credo," and twice been "in the hot seat" on Vision TV's "Test of Faith" with Valerie Pringle. He has given keynotes and talks all over the world, including at the Library of Congress in Washington and the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo.