Dr. Helgi Eyford has worked as a schoolteacher in Colombia, a community development worker in Canadian Indigenous communities, a university lecturer in Papua New Guinea, a program manager in Ukraine, a hospital inspector in Egypt, a training advisor in Yemen, a diversity educator with Alberta Health Services and a leadership development trainer in the jungles of corporate Calgary.  In between, he completed a PhD studying how international medical graduates acculturate to Canada.

For the past nine years Helgi has worked full-time as a clinical ethicist with Alberta Health Services.  In this capacity he works with clinicians and patients to resolve ethically challenging situations and address moral distress.  He covers the Peter Lougheed Hospital, Home Care and addiction and mental health in AHS’ Calgary zone.

Detective Scott Guterson has spent 21 years serving Calgarians and honing his investigative skills as a member of the Calgary Police Service. After 10 years working in patrol, district operations, the Missing Persons Unit and General Investigations Unit, he found a new home in the Homicide Unit. For the last 11 years, he has leveraged his investigative skillset and helped solve homicide cases from across the city.

Det. Guterson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from the University of Calgary. His educational backgrounds helps him better understand suspects in his pursuit for the truth.

Darren Balsom has been a threat assessment specialist with the Calgary Police Service (CPS) for the past 16 years and is currently assigned to the Behavioural Analysis Team. In 2017, Darren completed the RCMP threat evaluation and management understudy and has nearly completed the criminal investigative analysis (criminal profiling) understudy program with the RCMP and ICIAF.

Prior to working in the Behavioral Sciences Unit, Darren worked in the High-Risk Offender Program, Serious Habitual Offender Program and General Analysis Section. He held a contract with the Correctional Services of Canada for 17 years and remains on contract with various federal government associated agencies offering treatment and assessment for federal offenders.

Darren is a member of the Association of Treatment of Sexual Abusers, The Association of Threat Assessment Professionals and is the former president of the Canadian Association of Threat Assessment Professionals.

Darren has conducted threat and risk assessment training for various government and non-governmental agencies such as the Parole Board of Canada, the Correctional Services of Canada, Alberta Child and Family Services, the CPS Child Abuse Unit, Calgary Catholic School District, Calgary Board of Education, Calgary John Howard Society, University of Calgary, RCMP and more. Darren has lectured in Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States on offender profiling and threat assessment. In 2023 Darren was invited to join a Federal Bureau of Investigation international working group advancing the future of threat assessment for intelligence and law enforcement agencies throughout the “Five Eyes” countries.

Darren is a graduate of the psychology and criminology programs of Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Detective Lacey Murdock is a veteran investigator with the Calgary Police Service, spending the last 24 years solving some of our city’s most high-profile crimes, including sexual assaults and homicides. She has worked in various areas of CPS, including patrol, the Sexual Assault Investigations Unit, and undercover in the Priority Crimes Unit. She has spent the last seven years getting answers for those whose voices have been silenced in death as a member of the Homicide Unit.

A graduate of MRU’s Broadcasting program, Det. Murdock is an experienced communicator with an ability to connect with those seeking answers and justice.

Michael McComb is a senior project manager at Alberta Health Services (AHS) with a proven track record of driving innovation in addictions and mental health. With a wealth of experience spanning over three decades, Michael has led, and been part of, many transformative projects. His expertise in program development, evaluation and quality improvement has been helpful in streamlining processes and enhancing patient care across the healthcare system.

Michael is committed to knowledge dissemination and professional development. His multidisciplinary background in various support roles brings a unique perspective and holistic approach to addictions and mental health management, emphasizing patient-centered care and community engagement as core principles. With a passion for driving positive change in the healthcare landscape, Michael McComb continues to encourage others through his leadership, expertise and positive commitment to excellence.

Pete Wiesner was the supervising sergeant of the Crisis Response Unit with the Hamilton Police Service until he pursued a leave of absence to work with Street Smarts VR; a leading tech company providing a training platform in partnership with Wilfred Laurier University, to provide mandatory de-escalation training to Ontario’s frontline police officers.

Pete started his career in 1997 as a correctional officer and started policing in 2001. During his time policing, Pete worked in patrol, the Vice and Drugs Unit, the ACTION Team and the Social Navigation Program. He was seconded to the RCMP for an international drug project and now supervises the Crisis Outreach and Support Team (COAST), the Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team and the Social Navigation Program.

In 2021 Pete and his team were responsible for the inception of the Rapid Intervention and Support Team (RIST) and was a successful applicant for a solicitor general grant worth $8.3 million. The grant will see police pay for the salaries of seven key intensive case workers, proficient in the field of homelessness, addiction and mental health, who collaborate and work together daily to respond to those most acute and marginalized individuals.

Jeanelle has a wealth of experience in the area of mental health and addiction. She worked as a Registered Psychiatric Nurse for 23 years before moving into a leadership role in 2015. Jeanelle has been an integral part of expanding Community Crisis Services in Calgary in collaboration with partners at the Calgary Police Service. She is committed to providing advocacy and services to individuals in mental health, addiction and/or psychosocial crisis to ensure equitable service delivery and support through a trauma-informed, culturally sensitive and strength-based lens.

Jeanelle values relationships and collaboration which support the engagement and delivery of multi-faceted services to prevent gaps and ensure inclusivity with service delivery, limiting barriers and improving access.

Karuna Ramakrishnan has been a Crown Prosecutor since 2005. Prior to attending law school, she completed a bachelor of science in biology and psychology and a master of science in neuroscience and behavioural psychiatry. As a prosecutor, she has dealt extensively with mentally ill and high-risk offenders in court, particularly with respect to issues of fitness and criminal responsibility.

She has appeared before the Criminal Code Review Board (formerly the Alberta Review Board) as a representative of the Attorney General since 2011. She has taught and provided advice to police, prosecutors and other partners across Canada with respect to legal issues regarding the intersection of mental illness and the criminal justice system.

Brian Marriott, MSc, is currently the Manager of the Calgary zone Decision Support Team (DST) within Recovery Alberta (formerly Alberta Health Services). Brian has various peer-reviewed publications; recent publications have focused on implementation of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) survey across Recovery Alberta’s Calgary zone child and adolescent portfolio.

Brian’s passion for promoting trauma-informed approaches to care has him currently working on an initiative which aims to enhance the trauma competence of all Calgary zone Recovery Alberta staff. Brian has worked in the field of evaluation and research for over 20 years and is a strong believer of data-based decision making in health care. From this belief, Brian has worked on many initiatives over the years with the goal of putting quality data in the hands of decision makers. An example would be his work on implementing a common outcome measure across more than 160 clinical services. Brian’s work as an Adjunct Professor within the faculty of social work at the University of Calgary has focused on educating social work students on evaluation and research methods and on the power of data.

Brian was one of the original members of the Calgary Police Service – Alberta Health Services Form 10 working group, leading the data subgroup which was tasked with providing baseline data and then data for measuring and monitoring change as the quality improvement work unfolded.