Patient and Community Advisory Committee (PAC)

Darren Lauscher

Darren Lauscher brings a long history of community activism, advocacy, and experience from the HIV realm. He brings to the table his experiences from past board participation at local, provincial, and national level. He continues his involvement in HIV research whether it be academic, or community based. At UBC he is a mentor, a Public Patient Voice at the UBC Health table, co-chair of the Patient Advisory Committee, Public Patient Voice at the UBC Health Systems table, guest classroom speaker, a researcher in patient engagement in academic curriculum to name just a few things he is involved with.

Larry Dawe

Larry Dawe is the past president of the Myalgic Encephalomelitis & Fibromyalgia (MEFM) Society of BC and has prior experience as a board member for a number of organizations including the Alzheimers Society of Canada. He has experience as a caregiver for his wife (a long term breast cancer patient) and his daughter (myalgic encephalomyelitis).

Jay Lambert

Jay Lambert (ICF ACC, MSc Health Information Science) is a Métis/Cree and French Canadian resilience and transformation coach deeply committed to empowering community leaders and teams through culturally informed, trauma-informed coaching. With over 20 years of experience in healthcare transformation and leadership development, Jay has personally navigated significant health challenges both individually and within his family. This lived experience—including managing anxiety, depression, and burnout—deeply informs his compassionate approach to resilience building.

Drawing upon his Métis heritage and extensive experience supporting Indigenous health systems transformation, Jay brings a unique and invaluable perspective to the UBC Health Patient and Community Advisory Committee (PAC). His commitment to amplifying patient voices is enriched by his firsthand understanding of navigating complex healthcare systems and overcoming adversity. Jay is dedicated to fostering meaningful patient and community engagement across collaborative health education, interdisciplinary health research, and systemic improvements.

Anja Lanz

Anja Lanz brings her many years of lived experience to topics such as patient-centred care and navigating the healthcare system and is a strong advocate for better healthcare in BC and beyond.  Her knowledge, perspectives, and insights are helping to shape the healthcare ecosystem, and she aims to empower healthcare professionals and others to be strong advocates for change. Her work since 2012 with the UBC Health Mentors program earned her the 2021 R. Paul Kerston Community Educator Award.

Anja loves to travel in search of museums and UNESCO World Heritage Sites to learn more about the world’s ancient history, especially early human art such as cave paintings or rock carvings. She is fascinated by early civilizations and archeology.

Kent Cadogan Loftsgard

Early childhood treatment for congenital cerebral palsy and pediatric asthma taught Kent more by demonstration than by declaration about the positive principles of patient-centered practice that then inspired him to put healthcare at the center of much of his professional life.  Trained in paramedicine as a teenager, and later in health specialty broadcast/print journalism, communications production, and publishing, Kent has supported UBC Health’s continuing clinical team-based care education efforts in multiple capacities ever since the inception of the Health Mentors Program in the Fall of 2011.

Daryl Luster

Daryl Luster is an advocate and peer mentor/advisor. He has experience as a presenter, peer navigator, blogger and brings a broad understanding of issues faced by people living with chronic disease. His work as an advocate and educator is focused on viral hepatitis. His lived experience with hepatitis C and his community work is focused on raising awareness and understanding. Supporting improved quality of life for all patients is at the center of his work. He works as an advisor/contractor with the CIHR HIV/AIDS and STBBI Research Advisory Committee (CHASRAC), Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), and a member of community-based organizations, including CanHepC and others to include patients in clinical and research settings.

Sue Macdonald

Sue Macdonald coordinates Consumer Involvement and Initiatives for Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, in Vancouver. Sue’s work focuses on amplifying the voice of peers, persons with lived/living experience of mental health and substance use issues. A long time advocate of patient and family engagement in health care and health professional education, she is excited to share her experiences in this area as a part of the project team.

Patience Magagula

Patience Magagula is the current Executive Director of Afro-Canadian Positive Network Society (ACPNet). She has actively worked with refugees and immigrants from South of the Sahara, where she has successfully accepted, inspired, and involved, the racialized persons from Africa. She is a voice for the voiceless as she pursues their cause. As an advocate, peer navigator, activist, her sense of social justice with a knowledge of the sub-Saharan African women’s social terrain is combined with a sense of compassion and ambition that stimulates others to carry on the development work with her. Her passion is supporting and improving the lives of refugees and immigrants living with HIV/AIDS. She is a parent and has been long-time survivor of living with HIV. She serves on many other HIV organization boards/committees. 

Savanah Norman

Savanah Norman’s commitment to improving access to healthcare for teenage girls living in poverty has been shaped by her role as a community educator with UBC healthcare students while working with Justice for Girls. Starting at age 17, and with eight years of experience, she now serves as the Director of Communications and Engagement. Her advocacy is informed by her lived experiences, the girls she has worked with at Justice for Girls, and her passion for addressing the unique challenges faced by vulnerable populations, particularly in relation to violence, poverty, and systemic barriers in healthcare.

Samantha (Sammy) Pranteau

My name is Samantha (Sammy) Pranteau - Dancing Water. I'm from the Swampy Cree Misipawistik First Nations, Grand Rapids, MB. I identify as being 2-Spirited and go by the pronouns Them/They. I have been growing up on the Stolen Unceded Coast Salish Territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tesliwututh Peoples for over the last 3 decades and I currently live and work in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. I’m an Urban Indigenous Community Connector that holds space at many tables related to culture, harm reduction, health care, housing, food sovereignty and fosters and resources community collaborations and connections. I come as a Community Expert, a person with lived experience, someone who has used substances, who has been an excessive alcohol user, been unhoused and I live with Psoriatic Arthritis. I’m grateful and honoured to have this opportunity. All my relations.

Bruce Raber

Bruce Raber is a retired award winning architect who led a global healthcare design studio of over 800 architects, designers, nurses (and even some doctors), who everyday focused on the design of outstanding healthcare environments around the world. For close to 40 years, he drove the conversation of design around achieving better patient centered care, along with improved staff performance. Bruce was twice named as one of the top 25 most influential people in healthcare design in North America.
Now in his “rewirement” phase, Bruce uses his lived experiences as a designer, coach, mentor, and a patient; to champion the patient’s perspective, and to advocate for the improvement of   care delivery in BC.

Bruce is a participant in UBC Health’s Interprofessional Health Mentors Program, and is a past recipient of the Paul Kerston Community Educator Award. Bruce is an active member of Health Quality BC’s Patient Voice’s Network. He also sits on the Vancouver Division of Family Practice’s primary care networks (PCN) Steering Committee; and  is on PHSA’s Critical Care BC Steering Committee.

Sharon Tomlinson

Sharon Tomlinson has an MBA from the University of Phoenix and has 16 years experience working in Health Awareness, Education and Promotion. Sharon’s work experience includes Healthy Heart Society, Health & Stroke Foundation as the Health Information Coordinator and Muscular Dystrophy Canada as the Services Specialist for BC and Yukon, and ProBed Medical as the Manager, Client Relationships.  In her roles, Sharon was responsible for engaging and motivating clients, connecting them with local resources and helping members put into practice the use of various health related self-management tools, and giving individuals the tools and resources to make an informed decision regarding their health.