In this episode Donna Thomson shares her experience with caregiving and how her journey has shaped her views on leadership. She speaks to the power of imagination, bravery and asking for what you need when leading a life as a caregiver. She references the need to have both power and love for self, for change and for the emergence of leadership.

Donna Thomson is a caregiver, author and advocate.  Her experience was shaped by caring for her son who has cerebral palsy and for her mother who died at age 96 after living the last part of her life with dementia. Donna is the co-author (with Dr. Zachary White) of The Unexpected Journey of Caring: The Transformation of Loved One to Caregiver (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) and author of The Four Walls of My Freedom: Lessons I’ve Learned From a Life of Caregiving (The House of Anansi Press, 2014). Donna is a co-designer and co-instructor of The Family Engagement in Research Course and the facilitator of the Caregiving Essentials Course both at McMaster University. Donna is a co-author of Time to be counted: COVID-19 and intellectual and developmental disabilities—an RSC Policy Briefing  and for the Ontario Ministry of Health, Donna sat on The Expert Group on Home and Community Care and on the Working Group on Complex Care for Adults with Developmental Disabilities. Follow her on LinkedIn and Twitter.