Speaker

Keiko Shikako-Thomas

Keiko Shikako-Thomas, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Occupational Therapy program at the McGill University School of Physical and Occupational Therapy in Montreal, Canada, and an associate member of the McGill Institute of Health and Social Policy, and the CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research. She has focused her post-doctoral training in Knowledge Translation in policymaking for children with disabilities at McMaster University. Her research focuses on the promotion of healthy living and participation for children with disabilities. Her research program adopts a participatory methodology to engage different stakeholders, including policymakers, children and their families, in finding solutions to change the environment, inform policymaking and promote participation of children with disabilities in different life roles and activities. A constant challenge of hers is to keep engaging stakeholders after the excitement of stakeholder meetings pass, and keep people interested and meaningfully involved in research. In an attempt to keep the conversation going through different groups, she co-leads and participates in a series of knowledge translation initiatives, including CHILD LeisureNET, a network of over 200 stakeholders in Canada developing solutions and strategies to promote leisure participation for children with disabilities, the childhooddisability.ca website, aimed at disseminating research information in an accessible format for users, the Knowledge Translation strategic planning for physical rehabilitation in Québec, and the NeuroDevNet Knowledge Translation core.