About Robyn Priest LIVE YOUR TRUTH

The Ambassador Of Advocacy & Parent Support

Kirsten is known for having a calm and gentle demeanor but don't let this fool you, she is a powerful mental health advocate for Canadian adolescents. 

It is through her personal journey that she has created significant change in government policy regarding mental health and adolescents, allowing young people who need help, to obtain the funds necessary to get the treatment they so desperately need.

 Kirsten spent 20 years as a successful career as a Fitness Coach/Instructor. Perhaps the skills she honed as a leader and mentor have prepared her for this current role. Kirsten believes that we all must "own our story'" and that shame should never follow a mental health struggle. Through her experience raising two beautiful daughters, alongside her husband Keith, she has earned a wealth of knowledge to share with other parents.

Kirsten loves spending time entertaining friends and family in her heritage home that she and Keith have passionate renovated over the last few years.

The Reality Bender

Tyrone Gamble is a member of the RPLYT posse. He facilitates peer support worker training sessions and is a veteran peer support worker in the Ottawa area in peer run services and in clinical settings. One of his passions is supporting people who experience and live with hearing voices and parallel realities. Tyrone has been able to forge a new path to making sense of these experiences and turning them to gifts and opportunities.

Through a combination of his Metis heritage, Orthodox Christian faith and peer support Tyrone has enhanced and enriched his experiences. With the help of Elders and spiritual leaders, Tyrone is growing in how he lives with and experiences parallel realities and hearing voices. He is pioneering and innovating new approaches of perceiving these experiences and ways of healing and relating to these experiences. He is currently writing a book on the topic.

The Director Of Common Sense

Jacob is our Director of Common Sense. His common sense approach to work and life adds to our belief that everyone can be supported to have the life of their dreams. Jacob's strengths are in educating the public about homelessness as well as addictions.

The Executive Workplace Thought Provoker

James Hill is an English born Electrician, who is changing the way workplaces address mental health. After his own personal lived experience with mental illness, he set about understanding the issues faced in the workplace when tackling the stigma that surrounds mental health problems and changing them. 

James now fulfills the role of workplace mental health advocate, and was recognized as a finalist in the 2018 LIFE suicide prevention awards. His passion is to break down the stigma and issues often faced by males in the workplace. By sharing his own personal insight and experience he is able to provide education, skills and tools to help identify and deal with mental health problems.

James is a qualified mental health first aid instructor and currently studying a bachelor of counselling. He is a sought after public speaker because of his natural ability to engage and 'keep it real'.

The Principal Of Curiosity & Encouragement

Leslie is a true optimist, who believes that we all have potential to lead successful lives. She is a committed educator and learner who is passionately curious about the world and the people she meets.

She has recently changed course from being a teacher and principal, for 25 years and is now working in the field of Peer Support.

Leslie has extensive experience working with children, their families, teachers and school administrators to support mental health. Her experience as an educator has made her an advocate for healthy workplaces, with a special focus on education systems. She has worked extensively to help children and their families navigate “the system” as they work through significant mental health challenges. She is an advocate for creating and sustaining healthy work place environments in order to provide opportunities for all members of working communities to achieve their potential.

Her strengths are her ability to connect with people, curiosity and the capacity for making learning fun, and her strong held belief that change is possible.

Leslie lives with her husband and they share a love of travel, reading and learning. Her favourite time of the year is summer when they spend weeks at their cottage immersed in family and friend time. There they also get to indulge their love of golf, tennis and being on the water. 

The Peer Support Captain

Serge's roots started in Sherbrooke, Quebec as a French speaking teenager with a dream of becoming a pilot.

​He realized his dream and has had an exciting aviation career.

He started flying gliders at the age of sixteen with the Air Cadets and recently retired from an International airline as a Boeing 787 captain with over 22,000 flying hours. These were logged over thirteen years in the Air Force, five seasons of forest spray and cargo operation on large radial multi-engine aircrafts in addition to airline operation.

He became a glider pilot instructor at the age of 18 and continued giving back to his peers as a military operational squadron instructor and line pilot instructor.

Shortly after joining Air Canada he volunteered on various union committees.

His involvement in pilot health and peer support started in March 2009 after having spent 32 days in a Beijing hospital following two surgeries over major complications from a ruptured appendix.

This experience motivated him to change their pilots’ support system and improve on the solid foundation they already had. He became chair of the Aeromedical Committee and, then, took over the chair of the Pilot Health Division for the last five years of his union tenure.

Under his mentorship the committee built one of the most comprehensive support network in the aviation industry for pilots and their families, which incorporated specific workshops dealing with relationships and personal stress.

He is proud to join Robyn’s team and looks forward to sharing his lived experience in shaping industry adaptable peer support programs.

High Priestess Of Justice, Compassion And Love 

Amy is a believer that everyone is worthy of love, should be loved, and feel loved regardless of age, colour, or gender. She is the Founder of I AM LOVE PROJECT, a social enterprise inspiring organizations to empower women facing adversity, financially and creatively through economic opportunities. She leads with an infinite mindset, to solve problems and not to compete. 

Her love for the community does not go unnoticed in Manitoba. Amy has been recognized as CBC Manitoba Future 40, Manitoba Honour 150, Future Leaders Manitoba Recipient, and the 2019 Blue Bombers Community Hero. She's someone who leads with grace, compassion, and conviction. 

Her strength is her ability to connect with people in crisis, those who are stuck in the corner and unable to find a way out. Her wealth of lived experiences enables her to make heart-to-heart connections and discover their superpowers. She's known as "you're the one that can talk me out of this right now."

She's a solo-mom, entrepreneur, peer support worker, board member at Epic Opportunities, yoga instructor, member of The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, and a mental health advocate.

Master Builder

Aaron Wells is a highly talented professional whose passion is to contribute his gifts, skills, education and lived experience to strengthen the wellness, recovery, and healing in communities of marginalized people.

For over 20 plus years Aaron Wells has been adept at building intentional smart collaborations that connect needed resources in partnership for the greater good within communities. Programs and initiatives

conceptualized by Aaron Wells have been recognized as best practices and duplicated on many levels.

Aaron Wells has served and worked with at-risk populations in the mental health, substance use, youth and seniors. His exposure to diversity, equity, inclusion intertwined with Peer Support has created a record of success efforts impacting targeted communities.

Aaron’s work has helped people of multiple ethnicities, gender, social economic and educational backgrounds. Aaron Wells has a diverse background in championing for exploited people through a collective and communal perspective.

Aaron Wells is a proven solution focused leader. He processes the ability to concisely interpret, gather, maintain, and disseminate information to achieve objectives and goals toward social investments.

Aaron Wells uses integrity and experience to help foster a positive and effective atmosphere that promotes self-help, system equity and change, and individual advocacy within a recovery model for individuals and communities desiring sustained wellness.

Curator of Silver Lining Mining

Tim is an amazing artist, both visually and comedically. He has been in recovery from multiple substances for over 30 years and has dealt with a number of traumatic events, including the death by suicide of family members and friends. Tim loves to bring humour, in an artful way, to his interactions. He is a wizard in supporting families to gain greater understanding of different substance use and mental health experiences. Tim is always looking for growth points and sees these as silver linings in his journey. He is absolute in his belief that individuals find their own way through their challenges and discover the right path for themselves. That they Live Their Truth.