2026 Keynote Speakers
Dr. Matteo Cesari is a Scientist in Geriatrics and Gerontology at the World Health Organization (WHO, Geneva, Switzerland). He is also Professor of Geriatrics at the University of Milan (Italy; currently on leave), where he had been serving as Director of the Geriatric Fellowship program before joining the WHO. His research activities are strongly focused on the management of frailty and strategies aimed at preventing the onset of functional impairments in older people.
Dr. Cesari has published more than 650 articles in scientific peer-reviewed journals in the field of geriatrics and gerontology (h-index>100). He also played the role of Editor-in-Chief/Associate Editor in several peer-reviewed scientific journals and Coordinator of international task forces and working groups for scientific societies.
Matteo Cesari
Building Global Capacity for Healthy Ageing: Prioritizing Research, Workforce Development, and Strengthened Geriatric Care
Dawn Skelton (FRCP Edin, Hon FCSP, M.D.h.c) is an exercise physiologist and is currently Professor in Ageing and Health at Glasgow Caledonian University. She is an academic with a strong interest in exercise programme implementation (dose, fidelity, motivation, adherence, choice) and in the development of apps with older people.
She was a coauthor on the World Falls Guidelines and received the British Geriatrics Society Marjory Warren Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in translating falls prevention research into practice. She has chaired the Older Adults Panel of the Chief Medical Officers Physical Activity for Health Guidelines and the Royal Osteoporosis Society’s Consensus Statement on Exercise for Osteoporosis. She is also a Director of Later Life Training, a not-for profit training company.
Dawn Skelton
Mobility Domain: Assessment, Interventions and the Link With Falls
2026 Plenary Speakers
Dr. Andrew Frank is a cognitive/behavioural neurologist and researcher at Bruyère Health Memory Clinic at the Élisabeth Bruyère Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario.
After finishing his Bachelor’s degree in Honours Biochemistry at the University of Calgary, Dr. Frank completed his M.D. at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He completed his residency in Neurology at the University of Ottawa. Following this, Dr. Frank undertook a subspecialty fellowship in Cognitive and Behavioural Neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Dr. Frank’s clinical practice is focused on the diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. His clinical interest lies in the early detection of cognitive disorders, such as Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). As President of the C5R, a national cognitive research network, Dr. Frank’s research interest centers on investigating new pharmacologic treatments and technologies for Alzheimer’s disease.
Andrew R. Frank
Cognition Domain: Anti-Amyloid Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease – Arrival in Canada
Dr. Sophiya Benjamin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University and holds the Schlegel Chair for Mental Health in Aging. She is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of GeriMedRisk, a publicly funded, not-for-profit organization that optimizes medication use in older adults through clinical consultations across Ontario and the education of clinicians both nationally and internationally.
She completed her adult and geriatric psychiatry residency training at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina and obtained further training in research methods through the Duke - National Institute of Health Clinical Research Training Program.
Her research centers on the adaptation and implementation of behavioral sleep interventions for older adults, including individuals living with dementia and residents of long-term care homes, with an emphasis on translating evidence into real-world clinical practice. She has held provincial leadership roles in geriatric psychiatry, including as inaugural Co-Medical Director at Provincial Geriatrics Leadership Ontario, and served as Co-Chair of the Health Quality Ontario Quality Standard Advisory Committee on Insomnia.
Dr. Benjamin is the recipient of the 2026 PSI Mid-Career Knowledge Translation Fellowship for her work in insomnia in older adults. In addition to her clinical practice in the Waterloo region, she is actively involved in mentoring resident physicians in both clinical care and research.
Sophiya Benjamin
Mood Domain: Psychological Intrinsic Capacity in Older Adults: Rethinking Mood in Functional Aging
Dr Fuente, a trained audiologist, holds a Master of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and completed his PhD at the University of Hong Kong, where he investigated the effects of organic solvent exposure on the auditory system, with a special emphasis on the central auditory nervous system. In 2008, he obtained a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Queensland in Australia to investigate how age-related changes in the central auditory nervous system are associated with the benefits older adults obtain from hearing aids for daily communication activities. In 2012, he became an NHMRC Senior Research Officer at the same university, where he conducted research in hearing sciences. Dr Fuente moved to Montreal in September 2013 to join the School of Speech Pathology and Audiology at the Université de Montréal, where he is currently an Associate Professor. He is also a researcher at the Centre de recherche de l’Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal. Dr Fuente has a special interest in age-related hearing loss and its impact on oral communication in older adults.
Adrian Fuente
Sensory Domain: Effective Communication with Older Adults Living with Hearing Loss
Stéphanie Chevalier, RD, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the School of Human Nutrition and Associate Member in Medicine at McGill University, and Medical Scientist at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.
Her expertise is nutrition and metabolism, particularly the role of protein and other nutrients in muscle and function loss observed in aging and cancer.
She is the President of the Canadian Nutrition Society and a member of the Québec Longitudinal Study on Nutrition and Aging (NuAge) – Steering Committee, and the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging – Lifestyle Working Group.
Stéphanie Chevalier
Nutrition Domain: Assessing and Addressing the ICOPE Vitality