Six years, six cohorts, and one unforgettable send-off. On June 9th, the CAnD3 community gathered one final time at the 91丝瓜视频 Faculty Club for the 2026 Keynote Address, the last chapter of a program that has been, since 2020, training the next generation of population data scientists. If the goal was to end on a high note, this was it: a full day of sharp ideas, friendly competition, and warm goodbyes that gave the 2020鈥�2026 Training Program the send-off it deserved.
From the moment the doors opened at 10:00 AM for registration and coffee, there was a different energy in the room, equal parts celebration and reflection. Six cohorts' worth of Fellows, alumni, partners, and friends of the program filled the Faculty Club (with just as many joining online), all there to mark the close of a journey that began in 2020 and, over six years, built a genuine national community around population analytics.
Dr. Deborah Carr answering questions during the 2026 Keynote Address Q&A.
A Keynote Fit for a Finale
"End of life is not a solitary experience. Older adults rely on their spouses not just to make decisions, but to fight for them." - Dr. Deborah Carr
Fittingly, this year's keynote lecture came from Dr. Deborah Carr of Boston University, who brought her research to the CAnD3 stage to close out the program's six-year run. Professor Carr, Director of the Center for Innovation in Social Science and A&S Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Boston University, spoke on "Older Adults' Complex Family Lives in the 21st Century: Implications for End-of-Life Preparations and Well-Being." Drawing on the Health and Retirement Study and the National Health and Aging Trends Study, her talk examined how marital history and parenthood shape advance care planning and end-of-life outcomes, a sobering, deeply human reminder of why the work CAnD3 Fellows do actually matters. As always, her lecture was followed by a lively Q&A, with Fellows and partners alike pressing her on the policy implications of her findings.
Dragons' Den: The Final Pitches
No CAnD3 Keynote would be complete without the Dragons' Den Finals, and this year's edition carried extra weight as the very last one the program will see. Fellows brought their sharpest data visualizations and clearest storytelling to the stage, fielding tough questions from a judging panel that brought together voices from journalism, gerontology research, and public policy: Andr茅 Picard (The Globe and Mail), Janice Keefe (Mount Saint Vincent University), and Miles Taylor (Florida State University's Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy). Between them, the Dragons brought decades of experience translating research into real-world impact, and it showed in the depth of their feedback.
We extend our warmest congratulations to the competition winners:
- 1st place: Intersectional Disparities in Workforce Aging for Racialized Women in Canada鈥� - Goodnews Oshiogbele鈥� (Western University)
- 2nd place:听Caregivers Don鈥檛 Clock Out: Sleep Disruption Among Working Caregivers in Canada - Fabio Robibaro (University of Toronto), Leah Houseman (University of Saskatchewan), Ruth Lue (University of New Brunswick), Rosario Aronica (University of Oxford)
- 3rd place:听Disability & The Immigrant Experience: Sociodemographic Differences Among Immigrants by Disability Status听- Athena Owirodu (University of North Carolina), Aimy Croner (91丝瓜视频)
- Fan Favourite Award:听Caregivers Don鈥檛 Clock Out: Sleep Disruption Among Working Caregivers in Canada - Fabio Robibaro (University of Toronto), Leah Houseman (University of Saskatchewan), Ruth Lue (University of New Brunswick), Rosario Aronica (University of Oxford)
CAnD3 Director Dr. Am茅lie Quesnel-Vall茅e presents certificates to the CAnD3 Dragon's Den winners. From left to right, Ruth Lue, Leah Houseman, Goodnews Oshiogbele, Fabio Robibaro, Aimy Croner, and Athena Owirodu. Rosario Aronica is not pictured since he joined us virtually.
Posters That Told a Story
Between pitches, the poster sessions gave Fellows a chance to showcase their independent research one more time, spanning the breadth of topics CAnD3 has championed over six years, aging, health, inequality, and the policies that shape them.听
- Dying with a Plan: Cross-National听Patterns in Will-Making听- Camila Iciaszczyk鈥�, CAnD3 Fellow 2024/2025
- Manitoba and the 2025 Canada - U.S. Trade War听- Daniel Tingskou, CAnD3 Fellow 2020/2021
- The gender wage gap in the Canadian pharmacy workforce in the wake of COVID-19听 - Samuel Nemeroff, CAnD3 Fellow 2024-2025
- Longevity between Major League Baseball (MLB) Players and Population, Cuba and United States (1950-2020)听- Mathieu Marcotte, CAnD3 Fellow 2024/2025
- The COVID-19 Sociological听Loci of Mental Health Symptomps among Young Canadians - Ogochukwu Onyeso, CAnD3 Fellow 2024/2025
- Faculty Racial and Gender Diversity in a Turbulent Era: The role of state partisan control and higher education funding - Trinity Lakin, CAnD3 Fellow 2022/2023
- Telehealth Maternity Care Program Using Data to Improve Lives听- Tim Arthur, CAnD3 Fellow 2022/2023
Top Left: 2024-25 Fellow Mathieu Marcotte, Bottom Left: 2022-23 Fellow Tim Arthur, Top Right: 2024-25 Fellow Samuel Nemeroff, Bottom Right: 2020-21 Fellow听Daniel Tingskou
Left: 2024-25 Fellow Ogochukwu Onyeso, Top Right: 2022-23 Fellow Trinity Lakin, Bottom Right: 2024-25 Fellow Camila Iciaszczyk
Closing Remarks and Acknowledgements
A program like this doesn't run for six years, train over a hundred Fellows, and close out with a day like this one without an extraordinary amount of support. As we close this final chapter, CAnD3 wants to take a moment to thank all of our partners 鈥� the organizations and individuals who, across six years, offered their time, expertise, funding, and belief in this program.
Since its inception in 2020, CAnD3 has trained 118 Fellows and received $2.6 million in cash and in-kind contributions from 39 partners, made possible by a $2.5 million SSHRC Partnership Grant. Those numbers tell only part of the story, but they speak to the scale of what a pan-Canadian and global initiative in population analytics for aging-related decision-making can achieve when a community commits to it fully. Through a training program built on three pillars 鈥� substantive introductions to cutting-edge population research, hands-on skills training in diverse methods and tools, and essential professional development 鈥� CAnD3 prepared Fellows at the Master's, PhD, and postdoctoral levels to become interdisciplinary experts and future leaders in population research.
This final Keynote Address was not simply a successful event; it was the culmination of everything CAnD3 set out to prove, gathered in one room, one last time. We could not have asked for a more fitting way to close this remarkable chapter.
To every Fellow who presented, every partner who believed in this work, and every speaker and judge who lent their time and expertise over the years: thank you for six extraordinary years. It has been an honour to build this with you.
The CAnD3 Team sincerely thanks Dr. Deborah Carr, partner representatives, the judges (Dragons), the Fellows, all in-person and online participants, and the staff at the Faculty Club for making our 2026 Keynote Address a success. All photos by Kyle Jones.听
听
