Breaking Barriers 2026 - Keynote Speaker Biographies

Bonita Sawatzky is an Associate Professor of Orthopaedics at the University of British Columbia. She has worked in spinal cord injury research as a clinical biomechanist for over 25 years dedicated to spinal cord injury studying, primarily wheeled mobility in spinal cord injury for adults and children with over 100 publications. She has become the Director of READI (Respect, Equity, Accessibility, Diversity and Inclusion) for the Department of Orthopeadics at the University of British Columbia. She is a dedicated teacher in UBC’s Faculty of Medicine, working with medical students, residents and graduate students. She encourages the patient’s voice in her own research work, inviting patients to be collaborators, co-researchers and authors. She has recently been awarded the appointment of Dr. Bonita Sawatzky as the Canfield Distinguished Scholar in Patient Partnerships at UBC to support research, teaching and outreach initiatives in patient partnerships in health professional education.

Victoria Fast is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and the Academic Co-Lead for Cities + Societies in the Institute for Transdisciplinary Scholarship at the University of Calgary. She leads the Accessible Mapping Research Lab, where her work brings together mapping, data, and community knowledge to understand how places shape everyday life.

Dr. Fast collaborates with community partners to document lived experience and turn it into evidence that can guide real-world decisions. Her research asks practical questions: What makes a street, campus, building, or public space easier—or harder—to use? Who is included, and who is unintentionally left out? She is especially interested in how barriers show up across different bodies and minds, and how we can identify them in ways that support meaningful change.

Through this work, she helps cities and institutions move from good intentions to measurable improvements by developing clear indicators, accessible tools, and community-informed approaches that can be tracked over time and felt in everyday spaces.

Danielle Peers is a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Disability and Movement Cultures. They study how embodied practices and movement cultures (including art, recreation, and sport) can be used to transmit and transform a community’s values, practices, and inequities. Mobilizing embodied disability justice approaches, Peers prioritizes deep, intersectional collaborations, in order to co-create knowledges and practices that reduce harm and create more accessible, affirming, and transformative communities. Danielle is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta, and the University of Alberta’s Academic Lead, Disability, Cultures and Access.  Dr. Peers research draws from their experiences as a Paralympic athlete, coach, administrator, and artist.

Born in Calgary, Alberta, Matt Christison had a very public professional life. He served as a teacher and administrator in the Calgary Board of Education for 42 years. He is best known and recognized for the creation of inclusive learning environments, for all students and staff members. During his time as a high school principal, his invisible disability became increasingly visible. Thus, he has experience supporting those with disabilities while learning to be disabled himself. Matt Christison is also well known for his authorship of textbooks used in Canadian social studies courses. In addition, he is a former instructor in the Faculty of Education at both University of Calgary and Mount Royal University. Matt Christison is also a very private person. While his family status and relationships are extremely positive, he does not publicly share details.