Daring to travel

We have enjoyed many fine trips and hate to see anyone deprived of such opportunities.

Our team aims to work with travel industry stakeholders to ensure that older adults and persons living with disabilities can confidently embrace the challenge of "Daring to travel."

If you are interested in the work of this group please contact Michael Mulvey or Linda Garcia.

LIFE Research Team

Michael S. Mulvey, Ph.D., Co-Lead of Daring to Travel

Michael (Ph.D. Penn State) is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management and a member of the LIFE Research Institute. Previously, he held faculty positions at Rutgers Business School and the Bucharest School of Management. Michael’s research aims to understand heterogeneity in consumer value perceptions and enhance service brand experiences. He is an expert in using qualitative research methods to uncover how customers think, especially the impact of meaning on decision-making. His academic interests include perceived value, brand positioning strategy, visual rhetoric and reader-response theory, customer journey mapping, cross-border shopping, and advice-giving and advice-taking in online forums. His current research focuses on developing age-friendly business practices in the retail and travel sectors. On the industry side, Michael consults with companies and law firms, is an active keynote speaker, and is a go-to media expert on branding, consumer trends, and marketing strategy.

Linda Garcia, Ph.D., Co-Lead of Daring to Travel

Linda (Ph.D. University of Montreal) is a Professor Emeritus in the Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences and Founding Director of the LIFE Research Institute (LRI) at the University of Ottawa. Her research interests focus on the impact of physical, social, technological, and clinical environments on the quality of life of individuals with neurological disorders, especially dementia. She is interested in developing interventions that include approaches based on human interactions that facilitate the integration of individuals living with dementia and their partners. Before joining the University of Ottawa in 1993, she worked as a Speech-Language Pathologist for over ten years in a large teaching hospital. After completing her PhD and helping found the Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Program, she created the Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences and became its first Director in 2010 before becoming Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences from 2014 to 2017.

Annie Robitaille, Ph.D., Co-investigator

Annie is an Assistant Professor in the Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa and holds the Research Chair in Frailty-Informed Care at Perley Health. Annie completed her PhD at the University of Ottawa’s School of Psychology in 2010. She is an expert in longitudinal data analysis, having worked with the National Population Health Survey, the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, administrative data from the Canadian Institute of Health Information, and other international tools through her collaboration with the Integrative Analysis of Longitudinal Studies on Aging and Dementia (IALSA) research network. She focuses on answering questions about between-person and within-person change in aging-related processes. Her current research also includes mixed method approaches as a lead in several provincially and federally funded studies designed to improve the experience of older adults over time, especially those living with dementia.

Valentina Primossi, Ph.D. candidate, Trainee

Valentina is an Italian, born and raised. She moved to Canada in 2013, driven by her curiosity and interest in new experiences, and accepted a basketball scholarship at Cape Breton University. She achieved her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and her Master of Business Administration in Community Economic Development while maintaining an “Academic All Canadian” status. She started her career in Innovation at Atlantic Lottery Corporation, where she began as a concept designer and moved on to Innovation Associate after six months. Her passion for understanding consumer perception and needs led her to become a consumer experience expert and pursue her Ph.D. in Digital Transformation and Innovation at the University of Ottawa. She joined the program and the LIFE Research Institute in the Fall of 2021, focusing her research on creating the best air travel experience for persons living with dementia and invisible disabilities.

Alexandra (Ali) Chiarelli, Ph.D. student, Trainee

Ali completed her Master of Science in Aging & Health through Queen’s University in 2020. She has recently been accepted as a doctoral student in the Population Health program at the University of Ottawa. Her research interests include creating age-friendly communities and awareness for older adults, focusing on people living with dementia and their care partners. Throughout her master’s degree studies, Ali gained experience working with older adults in both retirement homes and community settings. She is involved with several community agencies, including the Council on Aging of Ottawa, The Dementia Society of Ottawa and Renfrew County, and Rural Ottawa South Support Services. Her desire to continue supporting older adults in the community led her to pursue completing her doctorate and joining the team at the LIFE Research Institute, working towards enhancing knowledge and awareness surrounding the air travel experience of people living with dementia and their travel companions.

Research Collaborators

Conversations with passengers, travel companions, disability advocacy groups, airports, airlines, industry experts, and various regulatory agencies have contributed to our ideas. We are grateful for these conversations. However, we assume sole responsibility for our ideas. Our list of collaborating organizations does not constitute an endorsement!

Members of our pioneering stakeholder group

Our invaluable academic guides steered our ideas and generously shared insights, which propelled our research to a successful takeoff.

Paulette Guitard, Ph.D.

Health Sciences, Occupational Therapy
University of Ottawa (former)

Burak Kantarci, Ph.D.

Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa

Ravi Malhotra, S.J.D.

Law, Common Law
University of Ottawa

Kiran Rabheru, MD

Medicine, Psychiatry
University of Ottawa

Mark Salter, Ph.D.

Social Sciences, Political Science
University of Ottawa

Individuals with lived experience, care partners, and advocates reveal blindspots in current practices and bring empathy and humanity to everyday travel experiences.

Heather Cowie, MA

Manager, Community Engagement Alzheimer Society of British Columbia

Pat Danforth

Chair, Victoria Disability Resource Centre

Gweneth Gowanlock

Care partner and advocate for persons living with dementia and care partners

Mario Gregorio

Advocate living with cognitive impairment

Jim Mann

Advocate living with cognitive impairment

Industry players and regulators brought real-world reality checks, business acumen, and valuable systems thinking to complex challenges.*

Louise Alberelli

General Manager, Operational Programs, CATSA (Canadian Air Transport Security Authority)

Erin Aubé

Director, Travellers Branch
CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency)

Jim Chung, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer
Air Canada

* Titles are at the time of consultation as some have moved on to new roles.

Danny Coveney

Director, Strategies & Regulatory Affairs
Aéroports de Montréal

Tammy McKnight, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer
WestJet

Robyn McVicker

Vice President, Passenger Journey Vancouver Airport

Kurush Minocher

Director of Passenger Programs and Marketing Communications at the Greater Toronto Airports Authority

Cathy Nyfors

Manager, Passenger Programs
Vancouver Airport Authority

Linda Ristagno

Assistant Director External Affairs
IATA (International Air Transport Association)

Theodor Stratulat

Security Specialist in the Strategies & Regulatory Affairs department
Aéroports de Montréal

Attila Ulku

Manager, Industry Relationships
Canada & Bermuda at IATA

Steven Winters

Policy Advisor, Strategic Policy and Innovation (ACKI), Transport Canada - Government of Canada

International Dementia Air Travel working group (I-DAir)

Loft generates force essential for takeoff. These kindred spirits elevate our ideas and ambitions.

Sara Barsel, Ph.D.

Dementia-Friendly Airports Working Group
Minnesota, USA

Deb & Ron

Dementia-Friendly Kansas City
USA

Maria O'Reilly, Ph.D.

Senior Lecturer
CQUniversity Australia

Ruth Rabet

Hidden Disability Advocate
United Kingdom

Ian Sheriff, BEM

Academic Partnership for Dementia
University of Plymouth, UK

Kate Turner, Ph.D.

Lecturer in Occupational Therapy
University of Plymouth, UK

Alison Warren, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy
University of Plymouth, UK

Experts, analysts, and muses

Research collaborators enhance and amplify the impact of our research in the wider academic community.

Christopher Belanger, Ph.D.

Data Scientist
Belanger Analytics

Kimberly Campbell, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow
Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Ottawa

Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, PhD

Full Professor
Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Ottawa

Michael Lever, PhD

Assistant Professor
Fairleigh Dickinson University

Shelley Roberts, Ph.D.

Senior Research Officer
Flight Research Laboratory | Aerospace | National Research Council Canada

Chantal Trudel, MSc

Associate Professor
School of Industrial Design
Carleton University

Community partners engage us with practical, real-world problems and connect us with people of interest.

Dean Henderson

The Dementia Society (former)

Catharina van Es, MBA

Director of Strategy
Champlain Dementia Network

Graduate student trainees

Graduate students contribute to the academic environment and drive the progress of our research initiatives.

Dmitri Bakker, MSc

Telfer School of Management
University of Ottawa (former)

Manal Chakra

Ph.D. student in Organizational Behaviour
Telfer School of Management
University of Ottawa

George Kweku Danful

Ph.D. student in Health Science
School of Rehabilitation Sciences
University of Ottawa

Priyank Hajela

MSc student in Digital Innovation
University of Ottawa (former)

Gayatri Nanda, MBA

Telfer School of Management
University of Ottawa (former)

Hanbyoul (Agatha) Park

Honours Bachelor of Science in Translational and Molecular Medicine
University of Ottawa (former)

Xin (Judy) Ye, MSc

Telfer School of Management
University of Ottawa (former)

Mentors to our students

Professors have offered immeasurable value to our emerging scholars at conferences and doctoral colloquia.

Stefanie Beninger, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Marketing
Nyenrode Business University

Susan Dobscha, Ph.D.

Professor of Marketing
Bentley University

Stacey Finkelstein, Ph.D.

Professor of Marketing
Stony Brook University

Xavier Font, Ph.D.

Professor of Sustainability Marketing
University of Surrey

Ulrike Gretzel, Ph.D.

Senior Research Fellow
University of Southern California

Robert Kozinets, Ph.D.

Professor of Marketing
University of Southern California

Mike Peters, Ph.D.

Professor of Marketing
University of Innsbruck

Mark Peterson, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Marketing
University of Wyoming

Clifford Schultz, Ph.D.

Professor of Marketing
Loyola University, Chicago

Air France's Concorde F-BVFF (1978-2000), is on display at Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris (Photo by M. Mulvey, June 2025)

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