A cross-disciplinary creative visionary with groundbreaking insights on the environment, innovation, discovery and leadership, Dr. Roberta Bondar is one of North America's most sought-after and respected presenters.
Dr. Bondar draws on her remarkable depth of expertise as an astronaut, physician, scientific researcher, photographer, author, environmental interpreter and team leader to stimulate, motivate, educate and inspire.
Each customized audio-visual presentation reflects her maturity, wisdom gained from life experiences, broad educational background and depth of personality. She is a valued partner in planning and delivering special presentations that consistently move audiences to the next level, thereby ensuring that the event is an extraordinary experience.
for a new idea or sudden immersion in a novel environment can be disorienting and distressful. One of Dr. Bondar’s tasks on her space mission, was to examine how the human nervous system adapts to the sudden exposure to the low gravity of spaceflight, experienced while floating around the Earth. One can think differently with the benefits that it will generate, such as creativity and better physical and mental health. Dr. Bondar, a neurologist, integrates her perspective gleaned from space with her Earth exploration, through her still and video imagery, to stimulate others to think differently, to embrace any evolving context and a new way forward.
both needed to imagine a future gained through wisdom. The power within an individual to envision a future is nascent, untapped in many individuals, with lives that may feel unfulfilled without adequate support systems. Through five pearls of wisdom, Dr. Bondar shares valuable insights into her ongoing life of exceptional achievement, focusing on her leadership, volunteerism and environmental outreach through the lenses of scientist, neurologist, astronaut, photographer, explorer, educator and writer. She polishes each pearl with humour and imagery, through visual storytelling.
As risk is individually defined, communicating the story around the risk is what many find is most interesting: context, the idea, the emotion, what is at stake in that moment, and what we can learn from either taking a risk or what the risk might be of walking away from it. It is also a moment of self-discovery. For Dr. Bondar, passion and resilience underly her decisions around how she processes the risks that she faces. From her childhood, the excitement of sharing translates into creative communication, complete with the risks entailed in pivoting from one passion to another when the future suddenly shifts.
The good news is that for most of us, we are still evolving, still capable of taking our life to another level. Dr. Bondar’s basic seven-point plan is a logical life-long approach to personal and professional growth that allows us to lead through change. From Earth to space and back to the natural world of our planet, she embodies what it means to revise and rethink, to change and to grow, to make a difference, to face the dark and to find the light. The path forward is not a straight line and the more the curves, the greater the resilience. Through her talk, we will gain insight into how diversity of knowledge, skill and experience can change the direction of our own history and ultimately who we can become.
peace and learning, one where we can focus on another lifeform that can draw us outside of our stress into a world of curiosity and creativity. For example, birds give us the opportunity to sharpen our skills of observation and patience. They give us a direction to explore, as we follow their travel across habitats and into ecosystems, and to make new discoveries within nature to improve the quality of human life. Dr. Bondar also discusses what can negatively affect life in the natural world, such as climate change and human activity, and their potential and real impacts on human health.
It’s one thing to know that people expect a leader to appear in challenging business and political times, sports, educational, social, and other day-to-day activities.
Or is it? In this talk, Dr. Bondar explores three dimensions of leadership from her life experiences: taking leadership from the invisible to visible – one’s passion and innate capacity to lead; the leadership within the individual that is evident by doing – being the first at, being observed by others, exhibiting leadership as a role model; and leadership that brings others along – often described through leadership style. Dr. Bondar discusses leadership qualities that have stood the test of time for her, whether as physician, scientist, environmental educator or researcher, and examines the qualities in a leader whom others would trust enough to follow. Through a customized A-V presentation, Dr. Bondar discusses what inspired her to a vision of shared leadership.
The world's first neurologist in space, Dr. Roberta Bondar is globally recognized for her pioneering contributions to space medicine research, fine art photography and environment education. Aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-42 in 1992, she conducted experiments for 18 countries in the first International Microgravity Laboratory, a precursor to the International Space Station.
For over a decade after her spaceflight, she headed an international research team working with NASA on neurological symptoms seen after spaceflight, and their connections to neurological diseases on Earth.
Trained as a member of NASA's Earth Observation Team, Dr. Bondar expanded her professional photographic expertise as an honors student in Professional Nature Photography. Her fine art photographic works are held in private, corporate and institutional collections in Canada, the U.S. and England. She is the author of four best selling books featuring her writing and photography.
Dr. Bondar continues to use fine art photography to explore and reveal Earth's natural environment from the surface, seeing the world through the creative lenses of medical doctor, scientist, photographer, astronaut and writer. In her current project Protecting Space for Birds, Dr. Bondar is integrating three views of migratory bird corridors in the Americas and Asia-Europe-Africa—space, surface and aerial— to give us insight into the habitats needed by and to protect endangered and threatened birds.
Dr. Bondar's distinctions are diverse and include: Companion of the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, the NASA Space Medal, induction into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame and into the International Women's Forum's Hall of Fame, 28 honorary doctorates from Canadian and American Universities, Chancellor of Trent University 2003-2009, six Canadian schools in her name, a Specially Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, an Honorary Fellow and Honorary Vice-president of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and her own star on Canada's Walk of Fame.
"Fascinating, innovative, creative and pushing forward with new directions requiring leadership."
"She drew upon that rare combination of intelligence, creativity, and humour to keep us thinking and laughing throughout her address."
Cath KenneySchool of Media and Design, Algonquin College"“My thanks to Dr. Roberta Bondar for her contribution to IAGLR 2008 (International Conference on Great Lakes Research). I had several people comment to me that she gave the best conference dinner presentation that they have ever heard. It struck just the right chord in terms of the content and of course, the images were spectacular.”"
Chris MetcalfeTrent University"Dr. Bondar's moving keynote was a bright point in the evening. Looking around the room at all the faces who were riveted by her talk, we know all youth in attendance were captivated by her words."
Jon-Erik LappanoEcoMentors Program Manager, Earth Day Canada"Thank you to Dr. Bondar for a wonderful experience. I believe she 'hit the nail on the head' with her talk on change and there were many present who walked away feeling more empowered because of her words."
Tracy CunliffeRTV President, Ontario Association of Veterinary Techinicians"Her warmth, passion, knowledge and experiences certainly made an impact on me and our audience."
Michele ParkerCoordinator, Student Engagement, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology