Maureen Smith, M.Ed. (Psychopédagogie) has over 30 years of experience as an educator. Her interest in patient advocacy stems from numerous years as a patient, subsequent to being diagnosed with a rare disorder at the age of 8. Ms. Smith has a long history of active collaboration with the medical research community. She was the first layperson on the Canadian government’s Inter-Agency Advisory Panel for Research Ethics and was

the citizen member on the National Placebo Committee. In 2012-2013, Ms. Smith was featured in a print and television media awareness campaign to promote medical research and development. For the past 7 years, Ms. Smith has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Organization for Rare Disorders (CORD) and has been Secretary for four years. She is co-chair of the Rare/Orphan Disease program track for the Drug Information Association’s annual meeting (2014-2016). She is a member of the CIHR-Institute of Genetics’ Health Services, Policy and Ethical, Legal and Social Issues Research Priority & Planning Committee. Ms. Smith was appointed to Ontario’s Committee to Evaluate Drugs as a patient member in 2014. Ms. Smith is a passionate patient advocate who firmly believes that the key to patient empowerment is education and multi-faceted collaboration with all stakeholders – patient advocacy groups, government, researchers, industry and health care professionals.