Board of Directors
Dr. Kaleigh Alkenbrack
Director/Incoming Vice-Chair
Kaleigh Alkenbrack, MA, MD, CCFP, is a family physician with a focused practice in seniors’ mental health. She has a decade of clinical leadership in dementia care, cognitive health, and medical psychotherapy across hospital and community settings. As an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, she teaches medical trainees and holds a research grant exploring dementia prevention in primary care.
Dr. Alkenbrack completed a Fellowship in Global Journalism at the University of Toronto in 2021, and her writing highlights the challenges marginalized populations face when navigating healthcare and justice systems, particularly in the context of neurological injury. She is passionate about addressing systemic gaps in care for justice-involved seniors living with neurodegenerative disease.
Director/Incoming Vice-Chair
Kaleigh Alkenbrack, MA, MD, CCFP, is a family physician with a focused practice in seniors’ mental health. She has a decade of clinical leadership in dementia care, cognitive health, and medical psychotherapy across hospital and community settings. As an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, she teaches medical trainees and holds a research grant exploring dementia prevention in primary care.
Dr. Alkenbrack completed a Fellowship in Global Journalism at the University of Toronto in 2021, and her writing highlights the challenges marginalized populations face when navigating healthcare and justice systems, particularly in the context of neurological injury. She is passionate about addressing systemic gaps in care for justice-involved seniors living with neurodegenerative disease.
Heather Campbell Pope
Director/Founder
Heather Campbell Pope is a B.C. lawyer and a seniors advocate based in Ottawa, Canada. Over the last 15 years, she has worked and studied in the fields of elder law and aged care policy, with a specific passion for researching and writing about criminal law and dementia. She founded Dementia Justice Canada in 2017. After a pause to stay home with her three young children, Heather began rebuilding the organization in 2024. She returned to the practice of law in 2025.
Born in downtown Toronto and raised in Etobicoke, Heather completed her undergraduate studies at Queen’s University. Her law degree and master of laws are from the University of Saskatchewan. She started her law and ageing career at the Canadian Centre for Elder Law in Vancouver, British Columbia.
You can find her opinion essays on Substack.
Director/Founder
Heather Campbell Pope is a B.C. lawyer and a seniors advocate based in Ottawa, Canada. Over the last 15 years, she has worked and studied in the fields of elder law and aged care policy, with a specific passion for researching and writing about criminal law and dementia. She founded Dementia Justice Canada in 2017. After a pause to stay home with her three young children, Heather began rebuilding the organization in 2024. She returned to the practice of law in 2025.
Born in downtown Toronto and raised in Etobicoke, Heather completed her undergraduate studies at Queen’s University. Her law degree and master of laws are from the University of Saskatchewan. She started her law and ageing career at the Canadian Centre for Elder Law in Vancouver, British Columbia.
You can find her opinion essays on Substack.
Eddy Elmer
Director/Incoming Chair
Eddy Elmer is a gerontologist and research consultant in aging and mental health. He focuses on mental health among older and marginalized populations, including aging prisoners and parolees. He holds bachelor’s degrees in psychology and general studies, and a master’s degree in gerontology from Simon Fraser University. He is completing his PhD in sociology and social gerontology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, studying the impact of minority stress on loneliness among sexual and gender minorities across the life course.
Eddy is dedicated to public service and community engagement. From 2012-18, he served three terms as Secretary of the City of Vancouver Seniors Advisory Committee. Since 2019, he has served three terms on the 2SLGBTQ+ Advisory Committee, most recently as Co-chair. He also worked with the Vancouver Police Department to form the Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity Liaison Committee, which he currently co-chairs.
Since 2018, Eddy has been Vice-chair of the Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) for Metro Vancouver West Community Corrections, a division of Correctional Service Canada (CSC). In 2023, he was elected CAC Pacific Regional Chair, and is the incoming Chair of the National Executive Committee. For his commitment to engaging stakeholders, raising the profile of CACs, and promoting education about corrections through global webinars and other channels, Eddy received the 2022 James A. Murphy Award for Excellence.
Most recently, Eddy was appointed to the Board of Governors of the Justice Institute of British Columbia, Canada’s leading post-secondary institution for training professionals in the justice, public safety, and social service fields.
Director/Incoming Chair
Eddy Elmer is a gerontologist and research consultant in aging and mental health. He focuses on mental health among older and marginalized populations, including aging prisoners and parolees. He holds bachelor’s degrees in psychology and general studies, and a master’s degree in gerontology from Simon Fraser University. He is completing his PhD in sociology and social gerontology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, studying the impact of minority stress on loneliness among sexual and gender minorities across the life course.
Eddy is dedicated to public service and community engagement. From 2012-18, he served three terms as Secretary of the City of Vancouver Seniors Advisory Committee. Since 2019, he has served three terms on the 2SLGBTQ+ Advisory Committee, most recently as Co-chair. He also worked with the Vancouver Police Department to form the Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity Liaison Committee, which he currently co-chairs.
Since 2018, Eddy has been Vice-chair of the Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) for Metro Vancouver West Community Corrections, a division of Correctional Service Canada (CSC). In 2023, he was elected CAC Pacific Regional Chair, and is the incoming Chair of the National Executive Committee. For his commitment to engaging stakeholders, raising the profile of CACs, and promoting education about corrections through global webinars and other channels, Eddy received the 2022 James A. Murphy Award for Excellence.
Most recently, Eddy was appointed to the Board of Governors of the Justice Institute of British Columbia, Canada’s leading post-secondary institution for training professionals in the justice, public safety, and social service fields.
Dr. Fay Martin
Director
Fay Martin, MSW, PhD, MFA, retired from a long career working with marginalized populations in various social work and community organizing roles in order to support her husband as he slid into dementia. Following his death in 2020 with, but not from, dementia, she wrote Dementia Widow: a memoir about love, death and surviving, launching March 2026. Dr. Martin brings an empowerment perspective to the complex work of managing the entwined and potentially conflictual roles of caregiver and person with dementia, with a particular focus on pre-diagnosis, spousal caregiving, and community-based care. More information is available on her website.
Director
Fay Martin, MSW, PhD, MFA, retired from a long career working with marginalized populations in various social work and community organizing roles in order to support her husband as he slid into dementia. Following his death in 2020 with, but not from, dementia, she wrote Dementia Widow: a memoir about love, death and surviving, launching March 2026. Dr. Martin brings an empowerment perspective to the complex work of managing the entwined and potentially conflictual roles of caregiver and person with dementia, with a particular focus on pre-diagnosis, spousal caregiving, and community-based care. More information is available on her website.
Dr. Bryce Stoliker
Director/Incoming Secretary
Bryce Stoliker, PhD, is a Research Associate at the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science and Justice Studies, as well as a Sessional Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, at the University of Saskatchewan. He holds a B.A. (Hons.) in Psychology and Criminology, an MA in Sociology, and a PhD in Criminology. His research focuses broadly on the correctional system and, specifically, on the mental and physical health and well-being of people in custody. He has over 10 years of experience in corrections research and has published extensively on the topic of suicide and self-harm among correctional populations, as well as the topic of older people in custody. His work involving older people in custody has focused primarily on the assessment/diagnosis of dementia and care pathways for people living with dementia within correctional settings. Dr. Stoliker has also been involved in various research and evaluation projects tasked with assessing criminal justice processes, as well as examining programs and services for justice-involved individuals, in Saskatchewan.
Director/Incoming Secretary
Bryce Stoliker, PhD, is a Research Associate at the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science and Justice Studies, as well as a Sessional Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, at the University of Saskatchewan. He holds a B.A. (Hons.) in Psychology and Criminology, an MA in Sociology, and a PhD in Criminology. His research focuses broadly on the correctional system and, specifically, on the mental and physical health and well-being of people in custody. He has over 10 years of experience in corrections research and has published extensively on the topic of suicide and self-harm among correctional populations, as well as the topic of older people in custody. His work involving older people in custody has focused primarily on the assessment/diagnosis of dementia and care pathways for people living with dementia within correctional settings. Dr. Stoliker has also been involved in various research and evaluation projects tasked with assessing criminal justice processes, as well as examining programs and services for justice-involved individuals, in Saskatchewan.
