CALS 2025 Speakers

I began my communications career in Toronto at a mid-size PR firm. Returning to Nova Scotia, I went on to cultivate a specialty in government and stakeholder relations while employed as a senior policy advisor for the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Heritage and the Minister of Community Services. That experience translated well for my clients during my time as an account supervisor at an internationally recognized marketing communications agency based in Halifax and Toronto.

As owner of Allison Garber Communications, I am a communications generalist offering a wide variety of communications services including media, government and stakeholder relations, issues and crisis management, event planning, and social media strategy development.

In recent years, much of my work has focused on supporting various mental health initiatives and strategies  – both in my personal and professional capacities.

I’ve served as a vocal advocate on issues pertaining to mental health and addiction, appearing on CTV’s primetime special for Bell Let’s Talk day and sharing my story with CBC’s Now or Never radio program and Silken Laumann’s Unsinkable project.

I am a graduate of the University of King’s College, and received NSCC’s Advanced Diploma in Public Relations.

In my off-hours, I’m the communications representative on the Board of Directors for Autism Nova Scotia.

Tom is an advocate for acceptance of people on the autism spectrum. He has been invited to speak and do presentations at many national conferences, including the Geneva Centre for Autism conference in Toronto, the pre-eminent international conference on autism. Tom is featured in the film Autism Grows Up, a Kelly Brothers/Ability Hub production, which takes a look at the employment challenges of young adults living on the spectrum. He is also featured in the book “Autism: The Gift That Needs to Be Opened”; a resource aimed at improving the lives of parents, educators, and of those on the autism spectrum.

In 2013, Tom received a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal to recognize his volunteer work with the Autism Society of Newfoundland and Labrador.  In 2023, Tom received the second annual Jim and Ginette Munson Autism Leadership Award from the Autism Alliance of Canada, in recognition of his demonstrated leadership and commitment to autism awareness and acceptance.

Tom was recently a part of a team of Autistic adults and family members that assembled a Mental Health Literacy Guide for adults on the spectrum.  The Autism Mental Literacy Project (AM-Help) is available online, and is a project of York University, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the Center for Addiction and Mental Health.

Tom is currently a Board Member at Autism Canada, and has previously served on the board of the Autism Society of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Tom lives in St. John’s Newfoundland and Labrador.

https://www.disabilitywithoutpoverty.ca/en/about/team/tom-jackman

For the last 17 years, McCarry has been navigating health systems, involved in research, policy consultations, inclusive education, employment and housing projects for the Autism and the disability community provincially and nationally. For the last 4 years, she was a member of and recent Co-Chair of the Disability Advisory Committee appointed by the Minister of Revenue and the CRA, and has contributed to 4 reports. She has been an invited panelist at many national conferences and has consulted on various topics from economic inclusion to accessibility of benefits, administrative justice and much more.   She is left her part-time role as Director of Engagement at the Child-Bright Research Network, but has remained associated with the Network as an Advisor on a research project. She is also an advisor, a McBain mentor and co-applicant on research projects studying neurodevelopmental disorders for Canadians 0-25.  She is the Founder and the Executive Director of La Fondation Place Coco and the Little Red Playhouse since its inception in 2008.

Before the creation of her charitable foundation serving Autistic children and young adults, McCarry was an accomplished business professional working with numerous Fortune 500 companies. She has worked with major brand-name companies such as Reebok, BMW Canada, Rollerblade Inc., Benetton, L’Oreal, Seagram’s and Mega Bloks doing marketing strategy and brand management. 

McCarry holds a BA from McGill University and lives in Montreal, Quebec, with her two proudly neuro-diverse young adults and two dogs, Bear and Teddy.

Sean Wiltshire is an international award-winning diversity advocate. Many folks know Sean by his large laugh, his deep voice, and his unbridled passion and commitment for helping bring change to organizations businesses and communities around the world. 

If you have heard Sean speak you know that woven into all of Sean’s presentations is his ability to tell a story to share and educate. 

Be it of finding jobs in the garment factories of Bangladesh or working with crown corporations to build a diversity plan that really works. He is known to tell it like it is, but always with a belief that we can, and should do better. 

From St. John’s to Bombay, from Vancouver to Kathmandu Sean has been helping audiences see diversity as part of a business solution. 

Professionally, for the last 32 years Sean has been the Chief Executive Officer of Avalon Employment Inc (AEI)-an employment agency for individuals with disabilities and autism that also has built a large social enterprise that has done over $154 Million Dollars in payroll for other not for profits and local businesses. 

Sean is a past President of the Provincial Regional Economic Development Association and was a member of the Ministerial Committee on Regional Renewal for the Government of Newfoundland & Labrador has also been a member of two Federal Ministerial Advisory Committees; is an Alumnus of The Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference (2000), and currently is a member of the National Executive Board. 

In 2017 Sean was at the United Nations in Vienna; Austria to accept the “Zero Project Award” as part of the team From York University working on employment and diversity issues in South East Asia. 

Once again, in February 2021 Sean and his organization won the prestigious Zero Project Award for their Autism Employment Inclusion Pilot, as one of the top 75 Diversity and Inclusionary Practices in the World. This award was presented virtually at the United Nations in February 2021.

Since 2021 Sean has been leading an Autism Employment Program Across the province of Newfoundland and Labrador that saw over 207 individuals find employment. 

Dr. Amanda Evans is a community pediatrician in Calgary. She trained in London, England and then completed a year of residency in Calgary prior to starting work in a busy community practice. She is engaged in teaching students at all levels of their training and enjoys sharing her love of the job with anyone who is interested. In her spare time she enjoys building Lego and completing jigsaw puzzles with the help of her cats (Zoe and Winston Wiggles).