EVENING FLOW
05:30 PM - 06:30 PM
VIP Reception
06:30 PM - 07:15 PM
General Admission and Networking
07:15 PM - 09:00 PM
Main Event
VIP ticket holders are invited to an intimate pre-event canapé reception at the Granville Island Arts Theatre, overlooking False Creek. This gathering offers a meaningful opportunity to connect in a smaller, more personal setting with all evening’s speakers, including Dr. Maryam Zeineddin and Dr. Gabor Maté, prior to the main program. VIP ticket holders will also have reserved seating for the main event. Designed for thoughtful conversation and connection, the VIP experience creates space to engage, reflect, and arrive grounded before the evening unfolds.
General Admission ticket holders are welcome to arrive between 6:30–7:00 PM to check in and settle in and network before the evening begins. Seating is first come, first served. The main program will start at 7:15 PM, followed by time to linger, connect, and mingle with fellow attendees after the event as well.
Welcome by Sonia Sunger and opening speech by Dr. Brittany Bingham, bringing the lens of Indigenous and matriarchy in the collective understanding of health and wellbeing.
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Health Champions Panel: Real People, Real Work. A curated panel conversation highlighting diverse approaches to health and healing across individual, community, and systems levels. Panelists include: Dr. Renee Fernandes, Dr. Mark Sherman, Dr. Melissa Lem, and Sonja Foley.
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Guided Energy Reset led by Claudia Cirico, offering a collective reset and moment of integration before the main conversation.
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Featured Conversation: An intimate, thoughtful conversation between Dr. Maryam Zeineddin and Dr. Gabor Mate and time for Q&A.
SPEAKERS
Dr. Gabor Maté
Gabor Maté (pronounced GAH-bor MAH-tay) is a retired physician who, after 20 years of family practice and palliative care experience, worked for over a decade in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side with patients challenged by drug addiction and mental illness. The bestselling author of five books published in 43 languages, including the award-winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction, Gabor is an internationally renowned speaker highly sought after for his expertise on addiction, trauma, childhood development, and the relationship of stress and illness. For his ground-breaking medical work and writing he has been awarded the Order of Canada, his country’s highest civilian distinction, and the Civic Merit Award from his hometown, Vancouver.
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His most recent book, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture is a New York Times and international bestseller. His next book, co-written with his son Daniel, will be Hello Again: A Fresh Start for Parents and their Adult Children, based on their popular workshop.
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Dr. Maryam Zeineddin
Founder, Zili CARE
Dr. Maryam Zeineddin is a remarkable figure in healthcare with over 20 years of experience as a family doctor and health leader. A UBC physiology honours graduate and UBC Medical School alumna, she has been passionately redefining health and wellbeing for communities. Dr. Zeineddin currently serves as a clinical instructor for the UBC residency program, where she is deeply committed to educating the next generation of healthcare professionals. Her leadership is reflected in past roles as President of the BC Family Doctors and as a negotiator for all doctors in the province via Doctors of BC, where she championed systemic change and enhanced equity in care. She was recently named “Woman of the Year” and “Change Maker” by BC Business Magazine for her preventative health platform, Zili CARE — bringing tools, insights, and a sense of community to how we care for ourselves so we can care for our communities.
Sonia Sunger
Co-Anchor of Global News Morning
Sonia Sunger is the Co-Anchor of Global News Morning.
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Born and raised in Victoria, B.C., Sonia is a proud second-generation Canadian and speaks Punjabi. Sonia studied journalism at Concordia University in Montreal before graduating with honours from the Radio and Television Arts program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. With two decades of experience as a broadcast journalist, she is passionate about delivering breaking news and believes in journalism’s overall power and ability to create positive change in the world.  A self-described humanitarian, Sonia gives her time to numerous charitable causes including Canuck Place, Kidsplay Foundation, Surrey Hospital Foundation and Women’s Brain Health Initiative. In 2017, she spearheaded the successful charity event Haircuts for a Cause, joined by dozens of viewers who cut and donated their hair live on television. Over the course of the event’s four-year history, hundreds of ponytails have been donated to both the Canadian Cancer Society and Wigs for Kids BC.
When she is not on air, Sonia enjoys spending time with her husband Chris and their two children Hugo and Sohana.
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She is a strong believer in the power of intention, healthy eating, meditation, and building an active lifestyle with her family.
Dr. Brittany Bingham
Founder/Lead, Indigenous Equity Lab, WHRI
Dr. Brittany Bingham (she/her/hers) is a proud member of the shíshálh (Sechelt) Nation and a leading voice in Indigenous women’s health, wellness, and systems transformation. She holds an MPH and PhD in Health Sciences from Simon Fraser University and is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, as well as a Health Research BC Scholar.
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Dr. Bingham is the founder and lead of the Indigenous Equity Lab, where her work is grounded in matriarchal wisdom, Indigenous leadership and mentoring the next generation of Indigenous scholars. Her research centers Indigenous women’s health, gender equity, climate and planetary health, and transforming health systems to better serve Indigenous communities. For more than 20 years, she has worked alongside Indigenous communities, health systems, and policy leaders to advance community-driven research that improves Indigenous experiences in healthcare.
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Her work champions wellness, cultural safety and humility, and Indigenous-led approaches to learning health systems, sexual and reproductive health, and equity-focused system change. Most recently, her project called IMPACT (Investing in Matriarchal Access, Care and Traditional Wellness) received five-year funding to explore and elevate understanding of Indigenous women’s experiences of menopause and midlife wellness. Dr. Bingham is passionate about uplifting Indigenous leadership and matriarchal knowledge to shape a healthier and more just future for communities.
Dr. Renee Fernandes
Chief Medical Officer, BC Family Doctors
Dr. Fernandez is a family physician and inspiring leader. She has been an indefatigable force for primary care reform in British Columbia, where one fifth of the population lacks a family doctor.
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In 2018, Dr. Fernandez took the helm of BC Family Doctors as Executive Director. In 2022, amid an escalating crisis in family medicine, Dr. Fernandez harnessed the power of an organization representing thousands of family physicians to transform the BC healthcare system. Her leadership, strategic thinking, and skillful negotiation with government led to the development of the new Longitudinal Family Physician Payment Model.
Dr. Fernandez is a thoughtful, courageous, and purpose-driven leader. She believes in the power of relationships and community to achieve meaningful change. She is committed to cultivating a community that fosters radical change beyond the boundaries of the healthcare system.
Dr. Mark Sherman
Founder, BC Association for Living Mindfully (BCALM)
Dr. Mark Sherman is a proud father and husband who lives in Saanichton, BC on the traditional, unceded territory of the Tsartlip First Nation. He is a Family Physician, clinical instructor at UBC, co-chair of the South Island Division of Family Practice, and a meditation teacher. He is a founder, and current senior facilitator, of the BC Association for Living Mindfully (BCALM), and the current Executive Director of Living This Moment.
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Mark has been facilitating workshops, courses and retreats on mindfulness, meaning and joy, for health care professionals, educators, parents and community for over 15 years throughout Canada, and is currently working on his first book on Mindfulness in Medicine. Mark believes that mindfulness and meditation offer powerful tools in healing our minds and bodies, and are necessary human skills in fully living our potential to engage in healthy loving relationship with ourselves, each other and with the land upon which we depend.
Dr. Melissa Lem
Co-Founder, PaRx
Dr. Melissa Lem is a Vancouver family physician who also works in rural and northern communities within Canada. Co-Founder of PaRx, Canada’s national nature prescription program, and Past President of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, she is an internationally recognized leader in the field of nature, biodiversity and health. As a widely published writer, in-house medical columnist for CBC TV Vancouver, climate change panellist on CBC Radio’s Early Edition and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia, one of her major priorities is knowledge translation. She is a co-investigator and advisor on two international nature and health research projects (PANDA and RESONATE) with total funding of $10M+, and holds multiple advisory and editorial board positions, including with the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Journal of Mental Health and Climate Change. Dr. Lem was named to Vancouver Magazine’s Power 50 List in 2025, and was the recipient of a 2026 Clean50 Award, YWCA Women of Distinction Award and King Charles III Coronation Medal for her dedicated work to advance planetary health and nature prescribing.
Sonja Foley
Co-Founder, Maturn
Sonja brings two decades of experience across non-profit, public, and private sectors, with a career grounded in advancing equity, inclusion, and meaningful systems change. Born to Iranian refugee-status parents in Sweden, her lived experience fuels her commitment to justice and belonging.
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Prior to co-founding Maturn, Sonja led Intergovernmental Relations and Strategic Partnerships for the City of Vancouver. She has held governance board roles with organizations including the YWCA Canada (as Vice-Chair) and the West Vancouver Police Board (as a provincial appointee). Sonja is a mother of two and a certified leadership coach.
Claudia Chirico
Founder, Bloom Energy Therapy
Claudia Chirico was first introduced to Bio-Energy Healing in 2006 during a period of profound physical and emotional challenges. Through receiving deep healing, guidance, and support, she not only restored her health but also awakened to her own innate healing abilities. What began as a personal journey of recovery became a calling — and ultimately, a life devoted to service.
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Certified as a Bio-Energy Healing Practitioner in 2010, Claudia has since supported countless individuals in reconnecting with their body, mind, and spirit. Her work is rooted in the belief that healing is not something given from the outside, but something remembered and reclaimed from within.
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Over the years, Claudia has developed a distinctive and integrative approach that blends Talk Therapy with Energy Therapy — creating a space where emotional insight and energetic alignment work hand in hand. Through this work, she has helped clients move through grief, trauma, anxiety, depression, chronic stress, low self-worth, lack of clarity, and physical pain — guiding them toward renewed strength, purpose, and vitality.
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Claudia is known for her ability to help individuals recognize their inherent strengths and step into their personal power. She gently challenges her clients to take ownership of their healing journey, while providing the steady support needed to create meaningful and lasting transformation.
Her work is not simply about relief — it is about awakening.