Featured Speakers

There is a general agreement that the profession of psychology should work toward becoming more diverse to be more reflective of the constituents we serve. But how can that be achieved? We propose that an important first step to make sure that students facing barriers at the undergraduate level receive the support they need to continue in their education at the graduate level, and ultimately into the profession. In this session we will outline how creating inclusive climates at the undergraduate level can increase students' sense of belonging and success, and how this can be extrapolated to graduate training, and the profession of psychology at large. We will briefly cover the research we have done to support first year undergraduate students, and how this helps stem the loss of students as they progress through their education. We will also provide recommendations for how graduate programs, and the profession, can support retention, persistence, and success.

Dr. Smith is a Professor of Psychology at Saint Mary’s University (SMU), where he has held a series of progressively senior positions, including the Associate Dean, and subsequently Dean, of Science at SMU. He then served as Associate Vice President Enrolment Management and Acting University Registrar, where he implemented programs focused on student retention and student success. He has significant experience with various boards, and is accustomed to dealing with issues of policy and governance. Dr. Smith is an active researcher, pursuing projects in the areas of health promotion, student success, and forensic psychology.

Tom Brophy has been working in Student Affairs and Services for over twenty-five years. Tom was also the Manager of Recruitment for the Provincial Public Service Commission and a Special Policy Advisor to the Minister of Health and Community Service in Newfoundland.  Tom is currently the Associate Vice-President, Student Affairs and Services at Saint Mary’s University and the President for the Atlantic Association of College and University Student Services (AACUSS  He has been an active research practitioner in doing provincial, national and international themed research which has resulted in numerous peer-reviewed journals and the recent publication of the monograph titled “The Evolving Landscape of Post-secondary Student Transitions in Canada: Striving for Best Practices”.  Tom has a Bachelor of Education and a Master of Education Degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Dr. Katelynn Carter-Rogers is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Business in the Gerald Schwartz School of Business at St. Francis Xavier University. A Michif scholar, she brings over a decade of experience as a social science researcher and consultant specializing in advanced statistics, research design, attitudes measurement, and student success. Her research program focuses on identifying and dismantling barriers to inclusion across organizations and institutions, with the goal of empowering vulnerable populations. By integrating Indigenous methodologies with social sciences, she bridges lived experience and academic research to design and evaluate interventions that support successful transitions and foster inclusive organizational practices.

As global efforts toward sustainability accelerates, the sociotechnical transition underway is often framed as a challenge of innovation and engineering. But, in this keynote, I will make the substantiated argument that our greatest challenge—and opportunity—is to understand and influence human behavior, including its antecedent cognitive, emotional, and social processes. It will be evidentially argued that overreliance on technological fixes—without commensurate coordinated efforts to understand and shift human behavior—has and will continue to slow, if not undermine, sustainability. Moreover, neglect of how people think, feel and act invites a cascade of unintended consequences, including resistance to relevant policies, inequitable distributions of benefits and burdens, and other “side effects” that are and will continue to delay or derail transition to sustainability. So, I will make it self-evident—the reality that the underappreciated psychological science and practice are not peripheral but central to the sociotechnical transition to sustainability. I will examine the essential role of psychology in ensuring that sustainability transitions succeed not only technically but socially. Psychology, as a science of practice, offers evidence-based tools for fostering mindset shifts, collective efficacy, and behavioral adaptation at individual, organizational, and cultural levels. By integrating psychological insights into the design of technologies, sustainable policies, and communities, we can facilitate deeper engagement, adaptive resilience, and long-term cultural change. The talk concludes by envisioning a future where psychology serves as a bridge discipline to deepen, accelerate, and stabilize the sociotechnical transition to a sustainable future and the roles that we—psychologists of all subdisciplines and practices—must play in achieving that future.

Dr. Stanley Asah's research focuses on the social dimensions of clean technologies, emphasizing the role of human behavior in the adoption, diffusion, and social acceptance of these technologies.

His work includes:

- Exploring the adoption, retention, and diffusion of cleaner technologies.
- Investigating the social impacts, justice, and acceptability of these technologies.
- Developing behavioral change strategies and management practices to facilitate the adoption and diffusion of cleaner technologies.
- Conducting experiments to address clean technology-induced counter-productive behaviors.
- Contributing to the development of transformational pathways to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in Canada.

Dr. Asah's research has been recognized with the Canada Research Chair position, reflecting his significant contributions to the field. His work is aimed at improving the understanding and influence of human behaviors in human- environment interactions, ultimately leading to better strategies for encouraging the acceptance and use of clean technologies.

TBA

Dr. Rebecca Pillai Riddell has made significant contributions to the field of psychology, particularly in the areas of pain and mental health. Her research has been pivotal in understanding the caregiver-child relationship and the impact of parental and child factors on early childhood pain reactivity and regulation. She has led research on the influence of these factors during routine vaccinations and has been involved in a collaborative health research project that utilizes artificial intelligence for infant pain assessment. Dr. Pillai Riddell's work has been funded by major Canadian research councils and has been recognized with several awards, including the President's Emerging Research Leadership Award from York University and the Canadian Pain Society’s Outstanding Mentorship Award. Her research has also been published extensively, contributing to the body of knowledge on the socio-behavioral dimensions of young children's pain.

The wellness industry is currently valued at over $5.6 trillion dollars globally. A sizeable portion of the industry consists of alternative medicine products and services. But is the wellness industry really healing what ails us? Why do people turn to alternative medicine? What is the nature of mental-health related pseudoscience and misinformation? In this presentation, Dr. Jonathan N. Stea will shine a light on how mental health-related pseudoscience and misinformation have infiltrated popular culture, social media, and our healthcare systems themselves. For anyone who has had patients, clients or family members who have been touched by mental illness in any way, please join him for “Mind the Science: Saving your Mental Health from the Wellness Industry.” Dr. Stea will discuss the history and harm of the anti-psychiatry movement, and he’ll pull back the curtain on the history of the wellness industry and the devastating consequences of allowing pseudoscience promoters to target the vulnerable in our society. Finally, he’ll talk about making better informed decisions with a view toward improved science and mental health literacy.

Dr. Jonathan N. Stea is a full-time practicing clinical psychologist and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Calgary. He’s a two-time winner of the University of Calgary’s Award for Excellence in Clinical Supervision and co-editor of the book Investigating Clinical Psychology: Pseudoscience, Fringe Science, and Controversies. Dr. Stea has published extensively as a science communicator, with regular contributions to Scientific American and Psychology Today, among other outlets, and has appeared on numerous mainstream television and radio shows, as well as podcasts. He was the 2022 recipient of the John G. Paterson Award from the Psychologists’ Association of Alberta, an annual award presented for the exceptional contribution to portraying psychological knowledge to the public.

His new book, MIND THE SCIENCE: SAVING YOUR MENTAL HEALTH FROM THE WELLNESS INDUSTRY, received the 2024 Science Writers and Communicators of Canada Book Award. It aims to educate and embolden those who wish to make informed decisions about their mental health, to improve science and mental health literacy, and to pull back the curtain on the devastating consequences of allowing pseudoscience promoters to target the vulnerable within our society. It’s a must-have for readers of popular science who are curious to understand what mental health really means, or who have been touched by mental illness in some way. It provides readers with a science-backed takedown of pseudoscience, as well as an understanding of its evolution, seduction, and solution. In part, this involves exposing the mental health misinformation that pervades healthcare, pop culture, social media, and the wellness industry.