Summit 2025
Save the date! Summit 2025 will be hosted as a one-day, online event: Thursday, November 20th.
As planning progresses, more details will be shared on this page.
If you have questions about Summit 2025, please contact radar.summit@usask.ca
2025 Keynote Presenter
Kristen Jacklin, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Biobehavioral Health and the Director of the Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team – Health Equity (MK-MDT) at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth Campus. Dr. Jacklin is a medical anthropologist with over 25 years of experience conducting community-based participatory research (CBPR) with Indigenous and rural communities.
Her research pursues scientific questions that support health equity and employ methods that disrupt traditional power relations. Her work in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias has incorporated translational aspects such as cultural adaptations of clinical tools for use with Indigenous populations and translating ethnographic data into culturally appropriate health promotion materials. Her methodological expertise includes CBPR, Indigenous methodologies, two-eyed seeing, qualitative and ethnographic methods, and working with highly integrative research designs.
Dr. Jacklin currently leads three large multi-site studies on dementia in Indigenous and rural populations: The American Indigenous Cognitive Assessment Project (NIA R01AG074231), which seeks to create the first cognitive assessment designed for Indigenous populations in the US; Indigenous Cultural Understandings of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias-Research and Engagement (NIH-NIA R01AG062307) a multi-site community-based ethnographic research concerning Indigenous experiences and knowledge of dementia; and Community Engaged Rural Dementia Research (UMN AIRP) to develop a robust program of dementia research with rural populations in Minnesota.
Dr. Jacklin is the founder and current co-chair of the International Indigenous Dementia Research Network (IIDRN).
Explore a complete list of her publications.
Preliminary Program Content
This year’s presenters and sessions will include those listed below, and additional sessions. Note that session content may change between now and November 20.
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Presenter(s) |
Session Title/Description |
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numerous |
Poster Session – join us and explore the poster session with submissions from researchers, students, and community partners. Poster presenters will be available for Q&A via chat panels on the online platform. You will have an opportunity to cast your vote for the People's Choice Poster Award from among all the poster submissions. |
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Kaleta Strain - CEO, Alzheimer Society of Saskatchewan Joanne Michael - Director of Programs and Services, Alzheimer Society of Saskatchewan |
Journey from Funding to Impact: How the Alzheimer Society supports Dementia Research Take a behind-the-scenes look at how the Alzheimer Society of Saskatchewan funds groundbreaking dementia research, the impact of those investments, and how they are transformed into evidence-informed programs and services that support families across Saskatchewan. The Alzheimer Society of Saskatchewan believes research is the key to unlocking transformative change and helping provide the best possible life for people living with dementia and their care partners. This session will showcase the journey from funding to impact, highlighting the innovation, collaboration, and generosity that drives research forward. |
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Sarah Oosman – Associate Professor, School of Rehabilitation Science, University of Saskatchewan |
Sakitawak Elders Group Inc (SEG) and community members from Île-à-la-Crosse SK implemented the intervention "Addressing Dementia in the Community of Île-à-la-Crosse" in partnership with researchers from SPHERU, funded by the Government of Canada New Horizons for Seniors program. The aim of the intervention is to enhance the quality of life of Métis people aging with dementia, and their families/caregivers, through social inclusion in the Métis community of Île-à-la-Crosse. Foundations of community-driven and intergenerational pathways, grounded in Métis culture, language, gatherings, and activities, are essential in optimally supporting Métis people aging with dementia. This presentation will highlight community member's stories of project inception, experiences engaging in the project, and essential learning during intervention implementation. We hope to inspire other Indigenous communities and health care providers to consider meaningful, culturally-driven ways to support healthy aging, meet community priorities, and respond to unique dementia care needs. |
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Elaine Wiersma – Associate Professor, Director of the Centre for Education and Research on Aging & Health, Lakehead University |
This presentation will address how community is created among people with dementia and their families, with a particular focus on how humour and laughter are used to create a sense of community. |
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Rebekah Churchyard – Founder and CEO, Green Care Farms Inc. |
Expanding care farming for people with dementia in Canada, teaching the model to others and hearing from Jess and John, owners of Meaford Green Care Farms, the second care farm for people with dementia in Canada. |
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Natasha Gallant – Assistant Professor, Canada Research Chair in Aging and Long-Term Care, University of Regina |
The clock is ticking: Time perception as a predictive marker for early dementia Brain changes leading to dementia begin decades before diagnosis. My research explores one of these brain changes as a new approach to early diagnosis: our ability to judge and estimate time. Our scoping review findings suggest that people living with dementia exhibit significant deficits in various time perception tasks and emerging evidence indicates that these deficits are also present in people who are likely in the early phases of dementia. From this scoping review, I plan to determine if time perception tests can accurately detect early dementia-related brain changes and predict who will go on to develop dementia. |
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Merle W. - Care Partner Carolee Zorn – First Link Coordinator, Alzheimer Society of Saskatchewan |
*LIVE* Lived Experience Panel Join us live as Carolee and Merle speak about Merle's experiences as a care partner to her husband Dean who lived with dementia. Merle initiated the Care and Share program in Yorkton, and she and Dean also were part of Belong Where You Find Yourself, Cognitive Kitchen, and Dementia Friendly Life Enrichment Program for four years. Following their presentation, there will be a Q&A session, moderated by Julie Kosteniuk. |
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Kristen Jacklin – Professor, University of Minnesota Medical School, and Director, Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team |
*LIVE* - Keynote - Shifting the lens: structural support for diverse CBPR studies in rural communities. This keynote presentation will focus on the development of the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team, which is designed to enable a team science approach to respond to dementia needs in rural Minnesota. The talk will share the Memory Keepers community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to building sustainable research partnerships to support diverse rural dementia research projects in northern rural Minnesota. Our values-based CBPR model, challenges, lessons we are learning, and findings from select rural dementia research projects will be shared. |
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RaDAR Co-Leads Megan O’Connell – Professor, University of Saskatchewan Allison Cammer – Associate Professor, University of Saskatchewan Julie Kosteniuk – Assistant Professor, University of Saskatchewan |
*LIVE* The Rural Dementia Action Research Program: Updates on Research and Initiatives RaDAR Co-Leads Drs. Megan O’Connell, Allison Cammer, and Julie Kosteniuk will highlight key findings from their current research, share updates on main initiatives, and preview upcoming studies. Following their presentations and a Q&A session with attendees, Julie Kosteniuk will announce the poster session prize winners, and close the 2025 Summit. |
"The summit is an interdisciplinary get-together of clinicians and researchers devoted to improving care of people with dementia and their families in Saskatchewan. It’s an excellent opportunity for physicians who see patients with dementia to learn more about dementia care and to share their knowledge with colleagues." -- Dr. Andrew Kirk, Neurologist and RaDAR Team member.
"RaDAR has been important to me as rural based research on issues which matter to us all but don’t need big Pharma otherwise would not happen. I hope we all grow old, a healthy old if possible but a comfortable old at least. It may be the secrets of ageing this way are in Fife, Dorset or Mount Isa but, perhaps, in our own waiting rooms or, horrible thought, waiting lists." -- Dr. John Rye, retired Sasktachewan family physician and attendee of Summit meetings.