RegistrationIt is our pleasure to invite you to participate in an upcoming webinar of the Heat-health Community of Practice (HCoP): Latest information and research to prepare for the 2026 heat season
Health Canada’s HCoP is a forum for public health professionals across Canada to learn and share best practices in protecting the health of Canadians from extreme heat events. We host multiple webinars annually with speakers from varying disciplines presenting on topics relevant to the health risks and protective measures needed to keep Canadians safe during heat events.
- Date: October 2, 2025
- Time: 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM EDT
- Speakers and topics:
| Speakers | Topics |
| Nicola Epprecht – Manager, Policy Development, Climate Change & Health Office, Health Canada | Climate Change and Health Capacity Building Program: HeatADAPT |
| Dr. Heather Olsen – Executive Director, National Program for Play Area Safety (NPPAS) | Creating Cooler and Safer Spaces for Play: A project to guide all Canadians for planning climate-ready playgrounds |
| Dr. Glen Kenny – Director, Human and Environmental Physiology Research Unit, University of Ottawa; | Extreme heat events are becoming the new normal - How laboratory-based heatwave simulation trials are helping us understand how best to protect vulnerable individuals. |
| Dr. JinHee Kim – Physician Lead, Population Health, Public Health Ontario | Heat-related mortality in Ontario, 1996-2018 – when and in whom does risk vary? |
| Dr. Angela Yao – (Senior Scientist) Dr. Sarah Henderson – (Scientific Director) Environmental Health Services, British Columbia Centre for Disease Control |
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| Jessica Sutinen – Epidemiologist, Climate Change & Health Office, Health Canada | Quantifying Heat-Related Illnesses and Deaths in Canada using Health Administrative Data, 1981-2022 (Deaths), 2004-2023 (Illnesses) |
This event will be accessible in English and French. The presentations will be given in English with simultaneous translation available in French, and American and Quebec Sign Languages. There will also be closed captioning available in English and French.
We look forward to your participation in the HCoP webinars and encourage you to share this invitation with other health professionals. Please note that a recording of this session will be made available after the webinar.
Should you have questions or require further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at heatdivision-divisiondelachaleur@hc-sc.gc.ca.
Speaker Bios
Dr. Glen P. Kenny is a Full Professor of physiology at the University of Ottawa and Director of The Human and Environmental Physiology Research Unit (HEPRU) which is home for Operation Heat Shield Canada. Professor Kenny is a world authority who has conducted cutting-edge research on heat stress over the past 35 years. Defined by highly interconnected silos of research assessing human heat stress from a whole-body, end-organ, and cellular perspective, his work overviewed in over 560 peer-reviewed publications has reshaped our understanding of human heat resiliency. The high-resolution physiological data generated from his team’s research has been translated into evidence-based heat-protection solutions and technologies as well as heat-health action guidance and policies to help create heat-resilient communities and workforce.
Dr. Heather Olsen is a Full Professor at the University of Northern Iowa and is the Executive Director for the National Program for Play Area Safety (NPPAS). Dr. Olsen’s research has concentrated on playground safety research, safe play space advocacy, and curriculum and instructional delivery. Dr. Olsen spearheaded a team of leading researchers, scientists, and educators from Health Canada and the Standards Council of Canada to develop contextual knowledge on the issue of thermal comfort, as it relates to playgrounds. The Canada Playground Standard (CAN/CSA Z614) adopted the research in an informational annex on thermal comfort and playgrounds.
Dr. JinHee Kim is a Physician Lead at Public Health Ontario and an assistant professor in the Clinical Public Health Division, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. JinHee’s interests include assessment of environmental hazards, exposures, and health outcomes to enhance information for public health action, the relative impact of different environmental health issues on the health of the population, food safety and human health risk assessment for environmental hazards as it applies to public health.
Dr. Sarah Henderson is the Scientific Director of Environmental Health Services at the BC Centre for Disease Control and the National Collaboration Centre for Environmental Health. Dr. Henderson oversees a broad program of applied research, surveillance, and knowledge translation to support evidence-based environmental health policy and practice in BC and across Canada. Dr. Henderson is a leading national expert on the health effects of extreme climate events.
Dr. Angela Yao is a Senior Scientist at the Environmental Health Services at the BC Centre for Disease Control. Dr Yao leads the Climate Preparedness and Adaptation Program, supporting regional and provincial public health partners in climate adaptation with data and scientific evidence. Her research interest includes the population health impacts of extreme temperature, wildfire smoke and other climate-related hazards.
Nicola Epprecht manages the Climate Change and Health Capacity Building contribution program, which held an open call for proposals in July 2024. Nicola has 20-plus years of experience working with grant and contribution programs in the federal government, primarily with Public Safety Canada where she worked for 20 years. Nicola’s academic background at the undergraduate and masters level is in Sociology and Criminology respectively. Nicola is enjoying working in the new area of health and climate change with the many passionate and knowledgeable colleagues and partners within and external to government.
Jessica Sutinen is an epidemiologist in the Climate Change and Health Office at Health Canada. Since 2018, she has worked at Health Canada, primarily focusing on identifying heat-related illness and mortality using health administrative data. More recently, her work has shifted toward developing indicators to assess health system resiliency in the context of climate change.