Guest: Chantal Vallerand (director of a anti-drug organization)
The margin of error of drug abuse is narrowing, according to Chantal Vallerand. And that is how she remains passionate about her role as leader of Drug Free Kids Canada. It drives her forward every day, allowing her to seek out potential funders and supporters, explaining to them the importance of the mission to keep dangerous drugs away from youth.
As far as Andy Day is concerned, he has the luckiest job in the world – it brings him to the most beautiful places to meet all sorts of “beautiful people.” This can include anyone who works in jobs that connect people to the land. As the CEO of the BC Parks Foundation, that is his mission – to bring people to nature. The roots of this journey go back to his decision to pursue law or go a more adventurous route; by choosing the latter, it opened him up to the diversity of life and, in turn, the planet.
Thomas O’Shaughnessy’s days don’t start in the morning – they start the night before, when he takes care of himself in order to feel refreshed in the morning. After all, you can’t embark on a career path when you don’t feel well. That is the core of his role as the CEO of Onco Innovations, a company that embarks on cancer research and innovations – and bringing patients hope.
What does Maureen Palmer do? Having many roles, it was hard to answer that question, until her daughter came up with an apt description – “knowledge translation.” And as a creator of documentaries which take time to make, that knowledge translation has to anticipate what the public wants to talk about months from now. To her, this is key to being successful and a big reason to keep her eyes and ears open.
Dr. Sam Aparicio of BC Cancer, studying medicine was always the plan, but research became his passion. Unbeknownst to him, research also involves many skills that didn’t expect, such as grant-writing, which he had to learn along the way. This led him down other side pathways, such as starting a biotech company to commercialize some of the findings in the genomics field.
