Lindsey works in the community safety and justice practice of PwC Canada, helping organizations across Canada to solve important problems, especially those related to police governance, as well as employee and organizational wellness. Before joining PwC in 2022, Lindsey spent close to 15 years in the Ontario Public Service, primarily with the Ministry of the Solicitor General. Lindsey has a Master’s in Public Policy, Administration and Law from York University and she brings her professional expertise where she worked with chiefs of police, police services boards and a range of community safety partners across Ontario, with a focus on strategic and operational policy development and governance.
Dr. Frank Trovato has taught in the University and College settings since 2003. Before joining the educational field, Dr. Trovato enjoyed a successful policing career for 31 years, retiring as a senior officer with the Toronto Police Service. From 2007 to 2010, Professor Trovato has served as Program Head for the Justice Studies Degree Program at the University of Guelph-Humber, Program Coordinator for the Police Foundations Program at Humber College, Program Coordinator for the Police Foundations Leadership Program at Humber College, and most recently since 2014, Dr. Trovato works at Centennial college as a professor in the Community and Justice Services Program.
Professor Trovato completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy, University of Toronto (2008), M.Sc. in Criminal Justice Administration from Niagara University (2000), a BA in Criminology and Sociology from the University of Toronto (1996), a Human Resource Management Certificate (2000) from University of Toronto, and a Law Enforcement Administration Certificate from the University of Toronto in (1987). Professor Trovato’s interests include social justice issues in diversity, equity, community projects, and educational projects. Examples include being a special advisor to the Association of Black Law Enforcers Association, The Ontario Chiefs of Police Organization, On the Board of Director for Canadian Critical Incident Inc. Centennial College Council, to name but a few.
Professor Trovato has been recognized fo
r his dedication to teaching as the recipient of the President’s Spirit Award (2017), Nominated for Teaching Excellence in the (Wicken Award) (2016), Dean’s Leadership and Community Award (2015), The Online Learning Award (2011), President’s Community Service Award in (2009), National Teaching and Leadership Excellence Award in (2007), Distinguish Faculty of the Year Award in (2006), and the Innovation of the Year Award in (2005).
Richa leads data and analytics initiatives for PwC’s federal government public safety practice helping high security clients through the different phases of their data value chain and leveraging a data-driven approach to solving complex technical and non-technical challenges at the organizations. She has 10+ years of experience in leading data programs, strategy, and implementation, in areas of Master Data Management, Data Governance, Data Quality, large transformation implementations, such as ERP (SAP, Oracle, Maximo), Data Lake, Data Migrations, Integrations, Data Warehouse, BI Analytics, Dashboards and Reporting.
Chris Ullah is BlackBerry’s Critical Event Management Evangelist, focused on consulting with customers and delivering true value from the BlackBerry AtHoc critical communications platform. His work focusses largely on ensuring organizations are prepared for major incidents and are able to communicate effectively both internally and externally to improve response times and outcomes. As a recently retired Police Superintendent from Greater Manchester Police, Chris has a wealth of knowledge at a strategic and tactical level of planning, leading some of the largest security operations in the history of the Force as well as dealing with countless major incidents and emergencies. In addition to his daily operational duties, he was a qualified National Security Coordinator providing security advice to target harden some of the major iconic sites in Greater Manchester. He has also worked at an international level with the FBI which involved visiting the USA for a significant security operation.
Dr. Scott Blandford is a retired (30 years) police officer. He held a variety of operational and administrative positions, including emergency response, criminal investigation, training, human resources, and research & planning where he was responsible for policy and procedure development, major planning and overseeing the development a competency-based performance management, career development, and promotional system for his organization. In addition, he has been an instructor and administrator for several college and university programs focused on policing & public safety for more than 30 years.
Dr. Blandford Scott completed his Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree at Columbia Southern University, with his dissertation, entitled Hired with Competence: An Examination of Police Hiring Standards in Canada, focusing on the nexus between performance management and competency-based hiring practices in Canadian police services. His research focus is on organizational development in public safety organizations, and competency-based recruiting and development of police officers, and he has presented nationally and internationally on these topics.
Dennis Matthews is President of Creative Currency, an advertising agency and content studio in Toronto. At Creative Currency, Dennis leads a team that works with major leaders, brands and causes to tell their story and move public opinion. He was an advertising advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a veteran of numerous political campaigns, and remains a frequent media commentator on advertising, digital and political issues. He was recently recognized as an Adweek Magazine Toronto Brand Star and is a member of the Board of Directors of Destination Ontario and the Marketing and Communications Committee of the Michael Garron Hospital. Dennis is also a partner at Enterprise Canada, a national strategic communication firm.
Nick Halmasy is a registered psychotherapist who spent a decade in the fire service. He is the founder of After the Call, a free to use online resource for mental-health information, as well as the clinical director for a CISM team. Nick writes regularly for various publications on the topics of mental health. Nick is also a research collaborator for FireWELL out of McMaster University and is involved in various research projects based on First Responder mental health. Nick maintains a small private therapy practice focused on first responders—and their family’s—mental health.
Brian Lass is currently Sergeant-Special Constable with the Toronto Community Housing – Community Safety Unit, and formerly Provincial Prosecutor with GO Transit/Metrolinx. In addition to 16+ years of experience in the field of law enforcement – coupled with still being a Licensed Paralegal with the Law Society of Ontario and graduate of the Osgoode Hall Law School Provincial Offences practitioner program – Brian has been regularly sought after as subject matter expert by numerous public sector agencies. Brian is a published author by both Blue Line Magazine and HQ Magazine (an OACP publication), further to facilitating a strong educational social media presence in his respective subject matter expertise. Brian will be commencing an Adjunct Professorship at Seneca College (Fall 2022), as Professor within the Police Foundations Diploma Program – in addition to becoming Principal POA Instructor with TNT Justice Consulting. Furthermore, Brian is perhaps most noted for bringing a very innovative, engaging, energetic and entertaining teaching style to his training sessions – with a passion for assisting persons to excel in their professional pursuits.
