Dr. Duncan Hughes is the Chief Medical Officer at Virgin Galactic, where he collaborates with a team of experts to revolutionize access to space. With a comprehensive approach spanning spaceflight requirements, aeromedical standards, and human systems integration, Dr. Hughes draws on his experience in both the Armed Forces and the private sector to advance Virgin Galactic’s mission. Dr. Hughes spent 28 years as a physician and Chief Flight Surgeon in the United States Air Force supporting multiple aviation airframes and missions. He brings a unique mixture of experience and training (Aerospace, Occupational & Family Medicine) to bear on the novel challenges inherent in spaceflight provided by a publicly-traded, commercial start-up company where the astronauts more closely resemble the clientele in an Internal Medicine clinic waiting room than the graduates of a government-sponsored, professional astronaut selection process.

Jameel has had a blast living life in the fast lane for most of his career. As a fighter pilot and experimental test pilot on high-performance fighter aircraft in Canada, the UK, and the US, he’s penned some pretty unique journal entries, including most recently when he became the tenth Canadian professional astronaut and the first one to pilot a winged rocket ship. As a
commercial spaceline pilot in Virgin Galactic’s spaceship Unity, Jameel flew as part of a crew that reached an altitude of 287,011 feet (54.4 miles) and a maximum speed of Mach 2.96. Looking back on this planet was profound and Jameel loves to share his experience with others.

At 16 years old, he had already begun his flying career in a glider in a Southern Alberta field. It took hard work, dedicaWon to excellence and a lot of Wme in the air, but some 30 years later, he has now exceeded 5,300 hours of flying experience in more than 65 different aircraZ and a spaceship.

In addition to his career as a test pilot, Jameel has been the grateful recipient of numerous honors including the Liethen-Tittle Award as the top graduate at the USAF Test Pilot School. In 2019, he was invested as an Officer in the Order of Military Merit, the second highest order administered by the Governor General-in-Council in Canada, in recognition of a career of
outstanding meritorious service in duties of responsibility. Jameel holds an engineering degree from the Royal Military College of Canada and a Master’s in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently pursuing an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and serves as an officer on the Board of Directors of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.

Paul LeSage worked for 29 years as a Firefighter/Paramedic in Portland, Oregon, serving several years on the Technical Rescue and Dive Team and as a Helicopter Flight Paramedic with Life Flight Network. He retired from the fire department as the Assistant Chief of Operations in January 2010, has over 36 years of experience in emergency services as a provider and executive, and has received many awards and commendations, including the prestigious State of Oregon EMS Impact Award, several Lifesaving Awards, and the OFCA’s
Golden Trumpet Award. He spent two years as the Interim Director at Oregon’s second-largest 911 Center, implementing a unique Quality and Performance Program.

Paul currently works as a Founding Partner and Senior Analyst with SG-Collaborative Solutions, where his work centers on creating reliable and resilient systems with high consequence customers. His current clients are primarily centered in commercial aviation, healthcare, and EMS. He also leads teams charged with deconstructing and analyzing aviation and healthcare incidents, and conducts Probabilistic and Predictive Risk Analyses that are designed to improve performance, sustain quality, and better manage risk.

Paul and his teams at SG currently conduct this work across the United States, and in Canada, Central America, and Australia. He holds degrees in Organizational Communications, Human Factors Analysis, EMS, and Fire Science, and is an instructor at the Oregon Health Sciences/OIT School of Medicine.

Paul has authored a popular book on Crew Resource Management in Emergency Services, and was also the founder of Informed Publishing, which created Nursing, Medic, and Emergency Service mobile apps for frontline care providers.

Patrick Auger has worked as a Critical Care Paramedic in Ontario for the last 30 years. Throughout his career, he has held operational and clinical leadership positions. He has experience teaching initial education in Ontario's Advanced Care and Critical Care Paramedic Programs. He is currently working as the Ornge Special Operations Coordinator and is helping Ornge develop specialized capabilities in the area of surge capacity and advanced clinical practice.

He is the Incident Commander for Ontario's Emergency Medical Assistance Team, a specialized medical field unit with a 56-bed capacity and mandate to provide surge capacity to complex emergencies. He has been a team member since 2004, initially starting as the CBRNE Team leader and then transitioning to leading the team as the Incident Commander in 2008.

He is interested in disaster management and is actively involved in Provincial and National emergency preparedness initiatives. He has experience in training and deploying highly specialized teams and is actively involved in organizing functional and full-scale exercises.

His education includes a Bachelor of Health Science, Master of Emergency Management and a Master of Medical Education. He maintains instructor status in areas such as CBRNE and Incident Command Systems.

Professor in the Departments of Surgery and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Calgary and the former Director of Trauma Services.

Dr. Kirkpatrick graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Ottawa, with fellowships in Surgery and Critical Care at the University of Toronto and a Master’s degree in Epidemiology at the University of British Columbia.

He is past President of the Trauma Association of Canada and Abdominal Compartment Society. Dr. Kirkpatrick has more than 560 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, mainly concerning telemedicine, intra-abdominal hypertension, and aerospace medicine. He is a past-President of the Trauma Association of Canada and the Abdominal Compartment Society, as well as past executive member of the Canadian Emergency Ultrasound Society and the Canadian Association of General Surgeons Evidence Based Reviews in Surgery Committees. He has consulted for the Canadian Space Agency and the National Space and Aeronautical Agencies. He retains a reserve commission in the Canadian Forces and has served oversees in both Gulf War One and in Afghanistan. He is a former Paratrooper and Flight Surgeon and currently maintains a private pilots license. He has completed over 500 parabolas of parabolic flight research. He is also the Global Principal Investigator for the Closed or Open after Laparotomy for Source Control or COOL Trial (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03163095), and the Director of the TeleMentored Ultrasound Supported Medical Interventions (TMUSMI) Research Group.

Dr. George Kovacs is a full-time professor of Emergency Medicine and is cross-appointed in the Departments of Anesthesia, Medical Neurosciences and Continuing Professional Development and Medical Education at Dalhousie University. He works clinically as an Emergency Physician and Trauma Team Leader at Charles V. Keating Emergency and Trauma Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and is Medical Director of LifeFlight, the Provincial Critical Care Transport Program. Dr Kovacs is Medical Director of Dalhousie’s Human Body Donation Clinical Cadaver Program. He has made significant contributions as an author and editor of textbooks and peer reviewed publications including multidisciplinary National and International Guidelines related to his area of interest, airway management. He is an award-winning educator recognized by receiving the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) President’s Award and was a recipient of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal for his work during COVID. Dr Kovacs co-developed the internationally recognized airway education program, Airway Interventions & Management in Emergencies (AIME). He has four children and 2 grandchildren and in addition to his passion for airway management education he loves being at the cottage he built on the Medway River spending time with his two loves of his life, his family and his Massey Ferguson tractor.

Dr. Joan Saary is the Director of the Division of Occupational Medicine in the University of Toronto’s Department of Medicine. With unique expertise in aerospace and dive medicine she consultants to various organizations including the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Space Agency. She is spearheading Aerospace Medicine training initiatives.

Dr. Bruce Sawadsky is the Chief Medical Officer at Ornge and has over 20 years of experience within the Ontario provincial air ambulance program. His primary focus is clinical care provided in austere environments, such as transport and disaster medicine, as well as the measurement of quality of care and simulation-based training.