Byron
Wood
Byron (he/him) co-founded WESUP after being fired for refusing to comply with a medical monitoring program that targets workers diagnosed with addiction. Since then, he has supported other workers and organized against systems that surveil and punish workers who use drugs. He believes that building a mass movement of workers is essential to achieving liberation for people who use drugs. Byron lives on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəýəm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations (Vancouver, Canada).
Candy
Dawn
(she/her)
I completed a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree (UVIC, with distinction) and the BCIT Perioperative Nursing Specialty (with distinction) in 2004. My nursing career began in the Operating Room at BC Children’s Hospital. I have always been drawn to challenging, dynamic, fast-paced and team based work environments. I began working with the BC Transplant Society in 2006, which sparked an interest and passion in organ retrieval and organ transplant medicine. In the years that followed, I felt I was naturally drawn to trauma care, and organ transplant medicine. Caring for the patient from the emergency room, to the operating room, to the intensive care unit fascinates me. Career highlights include practicing on the Orthopedic Trauma Team at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH), being a member of the Lung and Liver Transplant teams in the OR at VGH, and independent post-mortem tissue retrieval for the Eye Bank of British Columbia. To increase my knowledge and scope on trauma and transplant medicine, I completed the BCIT Intensive Care Nursing Specialty (with distinction) in 2016 and began working in the ICU at Vancouver General Hospital. I’ve enjoyed and completed several physician trauma courses including the Definitive Surgical Trauma Care Course (VGH), the Advanced Trauma Life Support Course (VGH), and the nursing course EPICC in Trauma. My interest in WESUP and the values therein, arose from many varied life experiences. My particular focus is harm reduction through ethical substance use policy for the healthcare worker, peer support, and health promotion. Current health care worker’s struggle to navigate an old and archaic treatment system for which we seek change. Healthcare workers are exemplary in caring for patients, but sometimes fail in caring for themselves, and caring for each other. Stigma, fear of discipline, and discrimination often keep their voices quiet, and this contributes to barriers to fair healthcare access as a result. I am very excited to collaborate and fight for change, and to have the opportunity to collaborate and co-found "Workers for Ethical Substance Use Policy". I acknowledge with respect that I am living on the traditional, ancestral & unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaɬ people.
Katrina Stephenson
I am the founder and CEO of Nurse 2 Nurse Peer Support. Over the last 15 years, I have focused my nursing career in the harm reduction field and caring for individuals challenged by Concurrent Disorders. I also have lived experiences, which support my ways of knowing. I have compassionately cared for both my patients' traumas and my own work related PTSD. In order for nurses to provide safe and holistic care, we need adequate supports from the government, insurance agencies, employers, regulatory bodies, unions and peers in order to create psychologically safe workplaces. As a Harm Reduction Nurse, I believe it is essential for us all to understand and care for people with mental health and substance use challenges in such a way to reduces stigma and discrimination. Storytelling is powerful in changing the negative climate surrounding many health conditions and disabilities.
Andrzej
Celinski
Residing in Toronto Ontario, Andrzej is a Drug Culture Specialist and cofounder of the Reclaim Collective. He has been active in harm reduction projects, advisory panels, research and working groups. He is a long-time member of the National Safer Supply Community of Practice
(NSS-CoP), has worked for the Dr. Peter Centre in Knowledge Translation and as an Editor for The Drug Hub. As well, Andrzej worked as Executive Administrator, Contract Manager and Stimulus Connect Liaison with the Canadian Association of People who Use Drugs (CAPUD). Andrzej has written chapters, articles, and op-eds for publications such as Filter, and presented on topics including Safe Supply, Peer Work, and Substance Use in the Trades, among other drug policy and harm reduction-related topics. He feels strongly about the need to end drug prohibition, establish greater access to safer supply, modernize education about “street” drugs and advocate for the implementation of decriminalization and legalization models globally. His York University Master’s in Environmental Studies (MES with Urban Planning Certification) graduate research is focused on drug use and the housing crisis. Andrzej’s passions include travelling, movies, reading, art, music, and a good conversation.
