Contributors

The Parkinson’s Education Program (PEP) for Community Caregivers would not exist if it were not for so many wonderful peoples hard work, dedication, and compassion. The online Parkinson’s Education Program (PEP) for Community Caregivers was successfully completed by the following contributors:

Dr. Mary Jenkins

Dr. Mary Jenkins is a Movement Disorders Neurologist and Associate Professor at Western University, Ontario. Prior to medicine she worked as a physiotherapist, working with individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Her research interests include motor control in Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Jenkins was heavily involved in providing feedback, formatting, and revising the Parkinson’s Education Program(PEP) for Community Caregivers content.

Dr. Angela Roberts

Dr. Angela Roberts is a speech-language pathologist and an Assistant Professor in the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She has a research faculty appointment with the Western University, Ontario. She has worked with individuals living with Parkinson’s disease and their families for over 20 years. Her research interests include language, cognition, and communication difficulties in Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s dementia, and related disorders. Dr. Roberts was involved in providing feedback, formatting, and revising the Parkinson’s Education Program (PEP) for Community Caregivers content.

Dr. Mike Ravenek

Dr. Michael Ravenek is an Assistant Professor in the School of Occupational Therapy at Western University, and a current board member of the Parkinson Society Southwestern Ontario. He completed his HBA at Wilfrid Laurier University and his MSc (OT) at Western University, before completing his PhD at Western in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. His doctoral work focused on the experiences of those living with Young-Onset Parkinson’s disease. He has published a number of papers on topics related to Parkinson’s disease, and has presented at numerous international, national and regional conferences on topics related to Parkinson’s disease. For the revision of the Parkinson’s Education Program (PEP), Dr. Ravenek was involved in providing feedback on revisions and completed the audio recordings of each of the revised chapters.

Western University Student Volunteers

Jamie Fritz

Jamie is a graduate student in the London Regional Cancer Program at Victoria Hospital. As an undergraduate student at Western University, Jamie worked in collaboration with Dr. Mary Jenkins, Dr. Angela Roberts, and a fellow classmate in updating the modules for the Parkinson Education Program(PEP) for Community Caregivers. She continued to assist making the program online-accessible by helping to create the PowerPoints, writing scripts for the voice-overs, and working with her team members in making revisions along the way. Jamie hopes that the Parkinson Education Program(PEP) for Community Caregivers will help increase knowledge and awareness needed to best care for people with Parkinson’s disease.

Trevor Jairam

Trevor Jairam has a BMSc from Western University and was an active member of the Students Fight Parkinson’s club throughout his undergraduate years. As a grandson of a patient with Parkinson’s disease, Trevor has learned about the challenges that come with living with Parkinson’s disease and is committed to helping others find the information needed to address these challenges. During his time working on the Parkinson’s Education Program(PEP) for Community Caregivers, Trevor helped create the PowerPoint slides and was actively involved in writing the voice-over scripts.

Funding

The online Parkinson Education Program(PEP) for Community Caregivers was also supported by a generous education grant from Dr. Keith Dill.
For future funding opportunities towards the Parkinson Education Program(PEP) for Community Caregivers, please contact Shelley Rivard, CEO of Parkinson Society Southwestern Ontario. [email protected]