Beyond Survival Networking Event - Toronto

Jennifer Griffiths brings over three decades of expertise in vocational rehabilitation, with an emphasis on vocational evaluation. She holds a master’s degree in counselling from Canisius College, Buffalo, New York, and is credentialed with the RVP, RRP, CVRP, and CCVE/ICVE designations—demonstrating her specialized knowledge in vocational rehabilitation and evaluation.

Ms. Griffiths currently focuses her practice on forensic vocational evaluation and possesses significant experience working with sexual abuse survivors within this domain. Throughout her career, she has provided supervision, training, and leadership to emerging professionals in vocational evaluation. She is a past President and current Board member of CAVEWAS (Canadian Vocational Evaluation and Work Adjustment Society) and has presented extensively on vocational evaluation and transferable skills both nationally and internationally.

In addition, she instructs courses in assessment and ethics in vocational rehabilitation at Simon Fraser University. Ms. Griffiths has also been recognized as an Expert Witness by the Ontario Supreme Court of Justice and has participated in arbitration proceedings on multiple occasions.

Dr. Carlos Nuñez is a US-trained, university-affiliated psychiatrist practicing in Vancouver, BC, since 2012. He is board-certified in the US and Canada, and has additionally completed certification in Occupational Medicine through the Canadian Board of Occupational Medicine. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Nutritional Science. He has been a clinical staff member at St. Paul’s Hospital since 2012, and has worked in the emergency department, the
inpatient wards, consult-liaison and outpatient psychiatry. His current clinical roles include being the primary psychiatric consultant for a division of the Respiratory Department and the
Physician Representative for the Occupational Health Department’s Violence Prevention Curriculum for physicians.

Dr. Nuñez has maintained an independent consulting practice since 2016 that includes conducting independent medical exams (IMEs), chairing claims review committees, being an independent health provider (IHP) for the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal (WCAT), providing final appeals claims decisions to crown corporations, providing occupational medical consultation directly to industry, and expert testimony.

Over the years,  Dr. Nuñez has provided consulting to various clients, including law firms, insurers, employers across multiple industries, municipalities, departments of federal and provincial governments, and professional regulatory bodies.

Dr. Nuñez has worked with trauma survivors since 2009. This has included clinically treating  undocumented immigrants and human trafficking survivors through community clinic services in Chicago, treating the unhoused and underserved community of Vancouver’s downtown eastside, and independent medical cases involving first responders, police and border services  agents, safety-sensitive workers in the natural resources sector, pilots, decision-critical professionals, and cases involving historical abuse. His professional interests include treating  complex psychiatric cases, trauma disorders, researching the interplay between work and mental health, preventive psychiatry and executive health and wellness.

Dr. Z. Waisman is a psychiatrist who has been practicing for 25 years at various settings including hospitals, courts, Corrections Services Canada, and private psychotherapy practice. He has been designated by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada as a sub-specialist in both Forensic Psychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry.

Dr. Waisman has been designated by the Ontario, British Columbia, and Nova Scotia superior courts as an expert in forensic psychiatry and risk assessment. He has an in depth experience and knowledge of understanding the underlying behaviours that perpetrators of sexual abuse inflict on their victims. He has been designated a court appointed expert in dangerous offender and long term offender cases and risk assessment of sexual violence.

Dr. Waisman has also maintained a psychotherapy practice where he has provided psychotherapy for victims of sexual abuse.  He has been retained as an expert in class action law suits involving historical sexual abuse cases.  He has expertise in using trauma  informed assessment methods in a medicolegal context. Dr. Waisman is on faculty at McMaster University, Queen University, and the University of Toronto where he teaches medical students, residents, and clinical fellows.