The nine members of the panel brought diverse perspectives and provided their unique insights to inform our deliberations based upon their own life and career experiences and professional qualifications. All members contributed to the interpretation of the data, to the interactions and learning from our delegations and to the conceptual frameworks that shaped this report. However, the report as it is expressed should be regarded as a collective synthesis of those individual contributions.

Norman E. Taylor, M.Ed (D)

Mr. Norm Taylor, M.Ed (D), is the Panel Moderator and Lead Writer for the Report from the Ontario Chief Coroner’s Expert Panel on Deaths in Custody. Mr. Taylor has served Canada’s policing and criminal justice community for almost 30 years in his combined roles as an independent policy advisor, educator, researcher and author. Since 2014, he has organized and executed three national conferences on mental health issues in partnership with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) and the Mental Health Commission of Canada. In his capacity as co-founder and Program Director of the CACP Executive Global Studies Program, he has led global research studies on criminal justice interfaces with the mental health system.

Mr. Taylor also provides strategic advisory and educational services to many police services, communities and at all government levels across Canada and in the USA, and since 2016 he has served as the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being.

Mr. Taylor is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal on nomination by the CACP, the Premier of Saskatchewan’s Award for Excellence in Public Service: Innovation, and in 2018 he was proud to be named an Honourary Commissioned Officer in the Ontario Provincial Police.

Jane Albright, M.P.A., CHRE

Jane Albright, M.P.A., CHRE, is a leader with more than 30 years of experience in corporate and senior human resources roles. Having worked in both the public and private sector, Jane has been a trusted advisor to leaders and public officials in both provincial and municipal government. In addition, she has held interim roles in the manufacturing sector and client service roles in the Insurance industry.

Jane has an extensive recruitment background across all levels of the organization from C-Suite leaders in various industries to Executive Directors in the non-profit sector and for associations. She provides strategic, practical and thoughtful advice to ensure that risk and action are balanced for results and has an extensive network of contacts across a variety of sectors including rural and urban municipalities, ministries, charitable and professional organizations.

Jane has a Master of Public Administration from Queen’s University, a Certified Human Resource Executive designation from the Human Resources Professional Association, a Lean Six Sigma Greenbelt in process improvement, a Certificate in Indigenous Studies from the University of Alberta, an Honours Arts degree from Western University, and she studied at Harvard Law School in their Certificate program in Leadership and Negotiation.

Jane has been President and Member-at-large of a number of organizations including the Ontario Municipal Human Resources Association, the Emergency Services Steering Committee and United Way Waterloo Region Communities.

Tricia Brunk, R.N.

Tricia Brunk, R.N., is a Nurse Supervisor at a provincial correctional facility. Since 2016, she has worked as a Health Care Assistant Manager, a Health Care Manager and a Health Care Supervisor. Over the past 14 years, Tricia has experience working in several small, large and mega institutions including Brantford Jail, Stratford Jail, Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre and Central North Correctional Centre.

Tricia studied nursing at Conestoga College, where she was also a clinical instructor in the Nursing and Personal Support Workers programs. She obtained her nursing licence in 1994. Prior to corrections, Tricia’s previous experience includes working in Urgent Care Clinics, doctor’s offices and industrial settings. Tricia also holds a post-secondary diploma in Occupational Health and Safety.

Her current study interests are focused on concurrent disorders within primary care.

Stephen Ellis

Stephen Ellis is a person with lived experience of the provincial and federal correctional systems. After a troubled early start in life led him to spending much of his lifetime involved with the criminal justice system, Steve now takes considerable pride in his work as an AIDS Committee worker, helping persons with addictions in the North Bay community.

Following his own recovery, Steve started a program for people post-incarceration to help increase their perceptions of their self-worth. He enjoys helping people who were in jail to discover that they can stay out and stay safe. Steve credits his own spiritual and cultural connections as important steps on his path to success.

Lindsay Jennings

Lindsay Jennings is a person who survived the correctional system. She is the current Co-Chair of the Transition from Custody Network, led by SOLGEN and Provincial HSJCC, working to address gaps in discharge planning and to increase continuity of care for people moving in and out of the correctional system.

Lindsay also chairs the Expert Advisory Committee for the Fresh Start Coalition, which is advocating for an automatic record suspension regime. Lindsay is a passionate and professional advocate for the Human and Health Care Rights of currently incarcerated individuals. Over the past seven years she has been dedicated to addressing the preventable deaths in custody, and a more ethical, supportive and compassionate process for the families of the loved ones who have died.

Dr. Fiona Kouyoumdjian, M.D., MPH, PhD., FCFP, FRCPC

Dr. Fiona Kouyoumdjian, M.D., MPH, PhD., FCFP, FRCPC, is a Public Health and Preventive Medicine Physician, Family Physician, Epidemiologist and an Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health in the Ontario Ministry of Health. She completed residencies in Family Medicine and in Public Health and Preventive Medicine at the University of Toronto, a Master of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a PhD. in Epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Kouyoumdjian has expertise in prison health and in health equity. She worked part-time for more than a decade as a Family Physician in a provincial correctional facility in Ontario, and she has conducted research focused on the health and health care of people who experience incarceration.

Dr. Derek Pallandi, MSc, M.D., FRCPC

Dr. Derek Pallandi, MSc, M.D., FRCPC, is currently employed as a contract psychiatrist at the Ontario Correctional Institute (OCI) in Brampton and the Riverdale (Toronto), Keswick and Newmarket Probation and Parole offices, as well as serving as a staff psychiatrist at the Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences in Whitby. Additionally, he maintains a private practice in psychiatry in civil, regulatory and criminal (forensic) matters. Between 2008 and 2020, he was an Investigating Coroner in the City of Toronto. He holds the rank of Lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Pallandi has been licensed to practice medicine in Ontario as a psychiatrist since 2000 after he completed his Doctor of Medicine at McMaster University in 1995 and completed psychiatry residency training at the University of Toronto in 2000.

His interests are in serious and persistent mental illness and the recovery from it; correctional mental health; addictions, trauma and the evaluation and management of sexual and violent offenders.

Cory Roslyn, M.A.

Cory Roslyn, M.A., is the Executive Director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Northeastern Ontario. She has held this position for the last six years. Cory has worked with criminalized women and gender diverse people for most of her career.

Cory completed her Master’s degree in Criminology at the University of Ottawa, focusing in forensic mental health and the criminalization of individuals with mental illnesses. In 2009, she accepted a position working for the Elizabeth Fry Society of Ottawa in a women’s Community Residential Facility and quickly recognized her inclination to advocate for the women who were residing there.

Cory’s areas of focus have included the Bail Verification and Supervision Program, the development and facilitation of life skills and restorative justice programming, and release planning and advocacy for women incarcerated and in the community. Cory shares her insights in her capacity as President of the Council of Elizabeth Fry Societies of Ontario (CEFSO), with CEFSO's mandate to conduct annual provincial advocacy visits in every Ontario institution that incarcerates women. Cory served two years as a Regional Advocate for women at Grand Valley Institution for Women through the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies and also currently volunteers her time in the role of Treasurer for the Ontario Association of Bail Verification and Supervision Services, as well as the role of Secretary for the board of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies.

Reverend Neil Stewart, M.A., D.Min.

Reverend Neil Stewart, M.A., D.Min., serves as Chaplain at Hamilton Wentworth Detention Centre. He has served in Christian ministry for 30 years both in the United Kingdom (UK) and Canada, teaching for many years in Eastern Europe, running National Youth Camps, serving on Nation Committees and a National Trust Board. During the 1990s, Rev. Stewart worked within the UK criminal justice system as a member of a Youth Offending Team — a multi-agency team working to reduce remands into custody, piloting the use of GPS monitoring, and addressing social, educational, health and employment needs of young people in the justice system. During this time Rev. Stewart worked closely with Magistrates in the Youth Courts to establish confidence in community-based programmes as alternatives to custodial remands for young people.

Both life experience and work experience has brought him into contact with people working within and caught up in the criminal justice system and their families.

Dr. Rachelle Larocque, PhD.

Dr. Rachelle Larocque, PhD., is the Manager of the Correctional Services Death Review (CSDR). Since joining the Ontario Public Service (OPS) in 2017, Dr. Larocque has worked in various roles across several ministries leading and supporting justice and corrections transformation. Prior to the OPS, Dr. Larocque lent her expertise to the Independent Review of Ontario Corrections (IROC), writing a literature review on segregation, which helped build the foundation of the Segregation in Ontario Report.

Dr. Larocque’s research has always been interdisciplinary in nature. Prior to studying penology, she focused primarily on serial murder, and its interpretation and intersection with culture and media. Dr. Larocque obtained her Doctorate from the University of Cambridge through a prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship where she explored the prison culture and prison experience in Ontario prisons. Dr. Larocque’s doctoral dissertation continues to be leveraged in several IROC reports.

Dr. Larocque cares deeply about people and enjoys volunteering with community organizations focused on community reintegration, homelessness, poverty, and food insecurity. She is proud to have led the Correctional Services Death Review.