Our Current Presenters

David Loh

BScOT, CPed(c)

David is a University of Alberta graduate and continued to earn his Canadian Pedorthist certification in 2002. David has extensive experience working at the University of Alberta Hospital in many areas including psychiatry, pediatrics, orthopedics and plastics.

Along with his many responsibilities, David is the owner of Orthotic Abilities Inc. in Edmonton specializing in custom made foot orthotics and orthopedic footwear, shoe modifications and specialty footwear. David’s expertise have been instrumental working with Dr. Bowering at the Royal Alexandra Hospital’s Diabetic Foot Clinic. Throughout the years David’s solid understanding of foot assessment and treatment has earned him frequent invitations to guest lecture and teach modules for the University of Alberta Rehabilitation Medicine program. David is also currently active with the Edmonton Sport Institute and the Glenrose amputee program.

Don Simoneau

BScOT, OT(c)

Don graduated from the University of Alberta with BScOT in 1991. He has been employed on various services at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital for over 20 years. His areas of practice have been extensively with neurology. Don has worked on the Spinal Cord Injury/General Neurology team for over 10 years and the Traumatic Brain Injury service for more than 12 years.  During his career, Don has been involved with the University of Alberta as a guest lecturer and course coordinator for several courses offered via the Occupational Therapy Department.

Don has also worked on several specialty services at the Glenrose Rehab Hospital including most recently the Spasticity Program – Adults. He has recently been involved in a guest lecturing tour of Australia for "Excellence in Spasticity Management" which included Sydney, Melbourne, New Castle and Brisbane. In the fall of 2012 he will be presenting at the "Canadian Excellence in Spasticity Management" workshop for Physiatrists, OTs, PTs and nursing staff of spasticity clinics across Canada.

Glyn Murgatroyd

BPE, BScOT

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Graduate of the University of Alberta with both a Bachelor of Physical Education in 2002 and Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy in 2005. Working primarily in a tertiary setting, Glyn has fourteen years of clinical experience working with pediatric, adult and geriatric clients with a variety of lower extremity conditions including chronic wounds, lymphedema, post-surgical edema, chronic venous insufficiency and arterial ischemia. Extensive clinical experience managing the edema of in-patient and out-patient within the Geriatric, MSK, Stroke, SCI and TBI patient populations. Glyn has been the primary lower extremity assessor for the high risk foot clinic at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital for the last 12 years.  

Glyn has been a clinical educator at the University of Alberta with both the Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy departments for the last nine years. Other presentation credits include multiple 1 hour presentations at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital and a 45 min presentation at the U of A OT PDC Conference in 2013, 45 breakout session at U of A OT PDC conference in 2015 and a podium presentation at MEC '17. Glyn most recently presented at 2020 Wounds Canada Virtual Conference on the topic of management of venous leg ulcers and developed a 1 hour narrated presentation on Lower Extremity Edema Management for staff orientation at GRH.  

Current focus is working with outpatient amputee, orthopaedic, peripheral nerve injury and general neurology patient populations. Occupational Therapist consultant at the University of Alberta research projects which includes the development of functional tasks evaluations to aid in determining the impact of sensory re-innervation for myoelectric prosthetic users and development of new myoelectric training devices for both clinical settings and take-home devices for the BLINC lab. In 2019, he received a Glenrose Research Grant to conduct research on the development of a Dynamic Shoulder Brace for peripheral nerve injury patients. 

Mary Wood

BScPT

Mary graduated from University of Alberta in Physical Therapy and is as passionate about her practice now as when she began. While her initial practice was in orthopedics conditions, almost 20 years ago she added pelvic health physical therapy to it. She finds the knowledge and skills in orthopedic and pelvic health compliment each other and improve her ability to meet the needs of patients. Mary’s appetite for continuing education is fulfilled by taking courses and attending national and international conferences in areas that enhance her treatment of orthopedic and pelvic health conditions.

Besides an active treatment practice she is Clinic Director of CURA Physical Therapies in Edmonton. The clinic has 8 therapists and is considered the leading community clinic for treating orthopedic conditions but has an equally large practice in musculoskeletal conditions. She teaches the pelvic health elective for physiotherapy students at the University of Alberta. Her enthusiasm for sharing knowledge has led her to do a number of presentations to professional groups and public sessions on core control, pelvic health and sexual health issues.

Prevention of pelvic health conditions has been of increasing interest to her as many patients report problems began in pregnancy or with the first delivery. Hence, this introductory course on Protecting the Pelvic floor and Pelvis during Pregnancy and Delivery.

Neil Pearson

MSc, BScPT, BA-BPHE, CertMDT, CYT

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Neil works as a registered physiotherapist and a certified yoga therapist in Penticton, BC. Neil is also an international educator, member of clinical faculty of UBC, a researcher and the Chair of the Pain Science Division of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association.

In 1985, Neil completed both his physical therapy degree and his degrees in physical and health education at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada. After 6 years of working in hospitals and private practice, he returned to Queen's to complete a research Master's degree in Rehabilitation Science. Since completing his master's his professional experience have aided in developing his philosophy of pain management and his private practice Life Is Now (www.lifeisnow.ca). In 2003, Neil completed the requirement for a certificate in Yoga Therapy.

Neil's passion for teaching and pain science also led him to develop courses to assist health care practitioners in providing treatment for people with persistent pain. Following the work of Lorimer Moseley and David Butler (acclaimed Australian physiotherapists/researcher/authors in the study of treatment of people with chronic pain), the first focus of these courses is to provide practitioners with a new model for understanding pain and people in pain. Neil has extensive experience working with people with complex pain problems, including 6 years in a multidisciplinary pain management program. Neil is a consultant to a number of pain management programs and travels throughout Canada and the United States to provide workshops to health care providers, the public, insurance agencies and yoga therapists.

Neil has developed and authored pain management resources for people in pain and for health care professionals. These include audio CDs, a DVD, multimedia patient education product and a patient education book for clinicians.

For more information on Neil and to access free online patient education webcasts check out www.lifeisnow.ca.

Nicole Thompson

BScOT, MClSc Wound Healing

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Nicole has a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy from the University of Alberta (2006) and a Masters of Clinical Sciences in Wound Healing from the University of Western Ontario (2010). She has worked as a wound care consultant for the University of Alberta Hospital/Mazankowski Heart Institute/Stollery Children’s Hospital in the plastic surgery department and as an occupational therapist in long term care, home care and, most recently, spinal cord injury rehab at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital. 

Nicole has been a member of many local and regional wound care committees and has developed and presented educational programming in the areas of lower limb assessment and pressure ulcer management to health care groups across Canada. She has presented at the following conferences: Shoppers Innovations (Calgary), Canadian Association of Wound Care (Calgary), Canadian Obesity Network (Montreal), International Lymphedema Framework (Toronto) and the Canadian Advisory Board Meeting (Manchester, UK). 

Nicole is also a sessional instructor for the University of Alberta Occupational Therapy program where she lectures on skin, wound and edema management and developing therapeutic rapport. She has also developed a course for the post professional occupational therapy masters called “Knowledge Translation to Enhance Clinical Practice and Client Decisions”. 

Nicole is a passionate and energetic speaker, receiving “exceptional high ratings” from the U of A students as well as past Theraskills workshop attendees. She strives to empower health care professionals to develop confidence in their clinical reasoning surrounding wound management.

Rashid Kashani

BA, BSc, BScOT, MScOT (C)(R)

Rashid has been an Occupational Therapist for 16 years and has worked in chronic pain, vocational rehabilitation, acute care, home care and private practice. He also worked as an academic at the University of Alberta for 5 years and has received 3 teaching awards in his career so far between the clinical and academic setting.

Presently working part-time on a PhD at the University of Plymouth (UK), part-time as a Professional Practice Leader in Occupational Therapy for the University of Alberta Hospital, Stollery Children’s Hospital and Mazankowski Alberta Heart and operates a thriving private practice.