Originally from Northern Ontario, Janet Irvine has combined teaching and learning all of her adult life. She holds degrees/ diplomas from five universities; her teaching career spanned thirty years. Prized among her many achievements is the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation Award for Distinguished Service to Education and Community. Her credentials include an undergraduate degree in English and Psychology, postgraduate work in both of those fields and a long list of specialist diplomas. They also include Secondary School Principal’s qualifications, leadership training, professional writing and a Masters of Education. She has spearheaded several research projects including a two-year study on designing and initiating change, on supporting the process of change in the workplace and on measuring institutional and personal responses to change.

In 1998 Janet was poised to begin a Doctorate and expand her career. She and her husband had raised four children. They had traveled extensively and were planning new adventures together. Instead, Janet was rushed to Sunnybrook Health Science Centre suffering from a stroke. In a moment, she lost her health, her mobility, her independence and her active lifestyle. She lost her career, her earning potential, her plans and her stability. For the next six years, events beyond her control challenged her ability to cope and threatened her ability to survive. There were more personal health issues. She lost her mother, her father, two close friends and, in most ways, her husband to Alzheimer’s disease. Her world revolved around illness and health care, disability and home care, palliative care and bereavement. She did cope and she did survive but her experiences irreversibly changed the landscape of her life.

Today, Janet is turning negative events into positive forces. She is speaking to audiences on a large variety of topics. She is using her insights to challenge people to live life to the fullest and offering suggestions on how to do just that. She has founded a company to provide services and products to families and care providers and she is working with LHINs to facilitate caregiver recognition, subsidy and support. Janet is passionate about personal independence and self-worth, passionate about education and our responsibilities to children, passionate about caregiving issues, and passionate about every person’s ability to adjust, adapt, achieve and thrive. Most of all, she is passionate about life.

Speaking from her experiences with strength, wisdom and humour, she delivers a powerful message about personal journeys, the lessons to be learned and the incredible power of the human spirit in the face of challenge, change and choice.