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One day volunteer event

Connecting and Inspiring OPA Leaders

Get ready to join your colleagues for a day of connection, learning and visioning, exclusively for OPA member volunteers! This event is by invite only.

Saturday, October 3, 2026, 8am – 3pm 
 Location Change to: Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel & Conference Centre, 801 Dixon Rd. Toronto, ON M9W 1J5

 The day will include two keynote sessions, a continental breakfast, a buffet lunch, and a networking reception.

keynote speaker

Laura Desveaux, PhD, PCC

Dr. Laura Desveaux is a physiotherapist by training and a scientist by design. She serves as Director of the Learning Health System Leadership Centre at the Institute for Better Health at Trillium Health Partners, is a Senior Fellow with AMS Healthcare, and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. She was named a 2023–24 Leadership Fellow with the International Women’s Forum. 

Her work is shaped by her experience in private practice, navigating system constraints, and working alongside interprofessional teams. Her research focuses on learning health systems, the future of leadership, and what enables high-performing teams in complex environments. Drawing on behavioural science, she studies what drives high performer behaviour, how change unfolds in real-world settings, and how context shapes performance. 

Dr. Desveaux is an international keynote speaker and coach to senior leaders across industries. She works with executives to strengthen strategic clarity, adaptive leadership, and innovation capacity in complex systems. Her work has received national and international recognition for advancing leadership and system transformation. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of Women Who Lead, a not-for-profit dedicated to accelerating the advancement of women in the health sector. www.lauradesveaux.com 

keynote speaker

Zayna Khayat

Dr. Zayna Khayat is Chief Program Officer with Canadian healthcare foundation, AMS Healthcare. She is adjunct faculty and Executive in Residence with the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. She instructs in various programs including the health sector strategy MBA stream, the global executive MBA in healthcare and life sciences, and executive education programs on AI, partnerships, strategy and foresight. She is also a member of the School’s Healthcare & Life Sciences Advisory Board. Zayna is health futurist in residence with the healthcare and life sciences practice of Deloitte in Canada where she guides individuals, companies, organizations, and governments in the sector on key trends and shifts that are reshaping healthcare, and how they can make smarter bets today to be resilient to whatever futures unfold in healthcare and life sciences.

Dr. Khayat advises a range of tech companies and organizations including Teladoc Health Canada.  Zayna is the chair of the board of Nourish, a food + medicine national Canadian non profit, and chairs a local queer positive dance collective, Sara Porter Productions. As board member with community non profit services provider West Neighbourhood House, Dr. Khayat chairs the property committee that is providing oversight to the redevelopment of vital land in downtown Toronto to expand access to affordable housing in the community. Zayna was previously the Future Strategist with SE Health, a national social enterprise in home care and aging, where she lead the Futures team. With her colleagues at SE Health Zayna co-authored the book Future of Aging.