June 28, 2017 – Yesterday, three members of the Rick Hansen Institute (RHI) Board of Directors came to the end of their tenure: Bernard Bressler, Graham Creasey and Kevin Lamarque. All three members have served on RHI’s Board since 2011.
On behalf of the entire organization, we would like to thank these individuals for their passion, dedication and leadership in helping RHI accelerate progress in spinal cord injury research, care and innovation. It is the result of their leadership, talent and dedication that enabled RHI to remain focused on providing solutions to people with spinal cord injury.
Dr. Bressler is passionate about the development of new knowledge and its translation into use to improve the lives of others. As Chair of the Board of Directors (2011-17), he played an instrumental role in guiding RHI’s goal of bringing the SCI community together, especially in regards to expanding RHI’s international reach which includes partnerships with organizations in Israel, China and New Zealand. Under Dr. Bressler's tenure, RHI received accreditation through Imagine Canada’s rigourous charity and non-profit Standards Program in 2016, which became one of only 177 organizations at the time to receive that status.
Dr. Creasey is a trained surgeon and international expert in the development of neural prosthetics. He is currently the Paralyzed Veterans of America Professor of Spinal Cord Injury Medicine at Stanford University. He served on multiple RHI committees and was most recently Chair of RHI’s Praxis 2016 Conference, a landmark conference that assembled leaders and stakeholders in the field of spinal cord injury to develop practical solutions for overcoming challenges in SCI research and care.
Mr. Lamarque is a respected voice in his local community having served as the Chair of the Canadian Paraplegic Association (Nova Scotia) and was formerly the Director of the Department of Canadian Heritage in Nova Scotia. He is also a Rick Hansen Difference Maker. At RHI, he led the Board’s Governance Committee and contributed to a series of e-learning videos which provided incoming board members with a deeper understanding about the governance of Canadian charities and non-profits.
We are grateful for the outstanding service these individuals provided.