Speaker - Denise De Pape

In the Fall of 2008, Denise De Pape was recruited from Ontario to join the BC Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport to work within a team that is developing a 10-year plan to address mental health and substance use for the province. This work involves leadership on alcohol policy issues and the fostering of a "whole-of-government" approach to reduce alcohol-related harms and costs at a population level.

Denise is the Director of Alcohol Harm Reduction in the Communicable Disease, Mental Health and Substance Use Branch of the Ministry. She currently sits on the Advisory Committee for the National Alcohol Strategy. Prior to her work in BC, Denise spent 25+ years working in public health at both provincial and municipal levels in Ontario. Most recently she worked for the City of Toronto managing the injury prevention and substance abuse prevention programs for Toronto Public Health. She has led a number of provincial initiatives and has provided leadership on numerous committees and panels related to substance use prevention, particularly with respect to alcohol.