Board of Directors

Michelle Bridge (she/her) is an Advanced Clinician Practitioner in Arthritis Care (ACPAC)-trained Occupational Therapist, dedicated to advancing arthritis healthcare delivery.  With a passionate commitment to improving patient outcomes, Michelle strives to provide best-practice arthritis care while enhancing access for both pediatric and adult patients, strengthening healthcare capacity, and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.

In her role as President of the Arthritis Health Professions Association (AHPA), Michelle oversees the engagement portfolio, focusing on membership communications, and cultivating partnerships with professional and patient organizations.  She also serves as an adhoc member of the AHPA ACPAC Special Interest Group Committee, contributing to initiatives aimed at elevating ACPAC advocacy, education, and research.

Employed by Arthritis Society Canada, Michelle works within the Arthritis Rehabilitation and Education Program, covering Windsor-Essex county in Ontario. Her involvement spans across multiple models of care, where she applies her expertise to provide comprehensive support to her patients.

Michelle is a member, in good standing, of the College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario and the Ontario Society of Occupational Therapists.  Internationally, she is affiliated with the Association of Rheumatology Professionals, further enriching her knowledge base and professional network.  Michelle takes immense pride in her role as a leader in arthritis care.

Samantha lives in Northwestern Ontario, in the small town of Atikokan. She grew up in Northern Manitoba, graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a Bachelors of Science in Nutrition in 2013, and moved south to Northwestern Ontario. After 8 years as a general practice dietitian and having a child, she is now a nutrition and lifestyle coach for people with inflammatory arthritis. 

In addition to being an arthritis professional, Samantha is an arthritis patient. In 2014, she had her first flare and was subsequently diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. She is excited to bring both of these experiences to the role of President Elect.

Mary Ellen Marcon became a professional grandmother of 2 boys after retiring as a Physiotherapist, Advanced Clinician Practitioner in Arthritis Care with The Arthritis Society—Ontario Division in 2019.  Who knew that all that experience would lead to looking after other treasures?

    In the Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma area, Mary Ellen was able to deliver client centred primary care to residents with arthritis and to present group education sessions for self management of arthritis. She also worked alongside a rheumatologist, where she provided comprehensive rheumatology assessments to enhance timely treatment for people with inflammatory arthritis.  Follow-up assessments via Ontario Telemedicine Network helped support patients of a visiting rheumatologist. In the Timmins area, Mary Ellen collaborated with 2 visiting rheumatologists at the Timmins and District Hospital to provide a quarterly innovative Inflammatory Arthritis Clinic. These undertakings spanned 37 years of change in arthritis care and delivery.  

   Mary Ellen considers AHPA to be an important networking opportunity for arthritis health professionals across Canada.  She looks forward to being a support that  helps maintain those network bridges.

Claire Jacek is an occupational therapist with Arthritis Society Canada’s Arthritis Rehabilitation and Education Program (AREP) where she enjoys supporting her clients with taking action towards managing their arthritis and its impacts on their daily lives.

She completed both her Bachelor of Health Sciences (Honours) and Master of Science in Occupational Therapy at McMaster University, where she valued the inquiry-driven, problem-based approach for clinical education. Claire has continued to stay involved with the McMaster community through a research project that examined the knowledge gaps of occupational therapists related to Indigenous health, which resulted in 3 publications in the Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy.

Claire is a lifelong learner who approaches her work with curiosity and meticulous attention to detail. She considers AHPA to be an excellent resource for ongoing professional development.

Dr. Karine Toupin April is an Associate Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Ottawa. She is cross-appointed with the Department of Pediatrics and is affiliated with the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute and the Institut du savoir Montfort. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy and undertook graduate and post-graduate training in public health and epidemiology.

She has research expertise in chronic disease management, patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), shared decision making, patient engagement in research and knowledge translation. Her work has included research in pediatric and adult rheumatology, with experience in conducting systematic reviews and developing PROMs, clinical practice guidelines, patient decision support interventions and self-management tools. Her main research project aims to develop, evaluate and implement a web-based decision support intervention called the JIA Option Map to help youth with juvenile arthritis choose among pain management options with their families and health care providers. She is an editor of the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group and the chair of the OMERACT (Outcome Measures in Rheumatology) shared decision making working group. She has been teaching occupational therapy and medical students at the University of Ottawa since 2008.

Karen Gordon PT

Karen Gordon is a bilingual registered physiotherapist with the Arthritis Rehabilitation and Education Program (AREP) at Arthritis Society Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. She enjoys helping clients learn to manage their arthritis by providing client-centered primary care and self-management education as well as teaching clinical skills to health care providers. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Physiotherapy from McGill University.

In her spare time Karen enjoys birding, biking, hiking, cross-country skiing and exploring new places.

Karen is a long-standing Arthritis Health Professions Association member and former communications chair and is happy to support AHPA again in her role as membership chair.

Sue graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1980 with a BScPT and worked at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener as staff physiotherapist until 1988 when she started working with the Arthritis Society’s Arthritis Rehabilitation and Education Program (AREP) in Kitchener, ON. 

She has been active in the assessment and management of people living with arthritis and has developed and presented education programs for people with different types of arthritis and for healthcare professionals who wish to enhance their competency in arthritis care. 

In 2009, she completed the Advanced Clinician Practitioner in Arthritis Care program through the University of Toronto and St Michael’s Hospital.  She provided ACPAC support in the Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic at Children’s Hospital in London ON and for local physicians and rheumatologists in Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo from 2009 - 2021. Her passion has been the development of models of care that improve timely and appropriate access to care for people living with arthritis.

Sue has been a member of the Arthritis Health Professions Association for over 33 years and served as President of the organization 2018-2020 during which time she was focussed on the development of a Strategic Plan and promoting collaboration with CRA, ORA and ARP. She was awarded the AHPA Extraordinary Service Award in 2021 and the AHPA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.

In 2022, Sue was awarded the Leadership and Advocacy Award from the Ontario Physiotherapy Association, a Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest Woman of the Year Award for her Professional activities and the Association of Rheumatology Professionals Ann Kunkel Advocacy Award.

Sue recently retired from the Arthritis Rehabilitation and Education Program of the Arthritis Society and is enjoying her new role as proud Grandma to 3 wonderful granddaughters.

Coming Soon.

Ahava Lipetz, OT Reg. (Ont.) is an Occupational Therapist with over 20 years of clinical experience. She graduated with Honours in 1999 from the University of Toronto’s Occupational Therapy program. Throughout her career, Ahava has primarily worked in hospital settings, providing care to patients in acute care, complex medical rehabilitation, and restorative rehabilitation programs.

Since 2022, Ahava has been working as an Interprofessional Health Provider at the Centre of Arthritis Excellence (CArE), a transdisciplinary Early Arthritis Clinic in Newmarket, Ontario. In this role, she triages patients with suspected inflammatory arthritis and collaborates closely with rheumatologists to ensure timely access to appropriate care. Her approach to patient-centered care emphasizes self-advocacy and self-management, empowering patients to work toward their personal health goals. Ahava completed the Advanced Clinician Practitioner in Arthritis Care (ACPAC) program in 2024.

Now in her second year as a member of the Arthritis Health Professions Association (AHPA), Ahava is committed to strengthening the connection between AHPA and ACPAC clinicians. She hopes to serve as a meaningful liaison between the two groups and to help ensure AHPA membership continues to be valuable for ACPAC-trained professionals.

Coming Soon.

Coming Soon.