Wednesday, August 13 & Thursday, August 14, 2025

Location: Virtual Conference

The Collaborations for Change Conference: Connecting Research and Practice in Post-Secondary Mental Health brings together difference makers from across Canada to collaborate on advancing knowledge, practice, and research in post-secondary student mental health. The 2025 virtual conference will bring post-secondary students, service professionals, mental health providers, and researchers together to have meaningful conversations on how to best move forward to integrate research and practice in post-secondary mental health. Students, whether working towards careers in academia or in professional practice, are vital for informing and sustaining collaborations as we move forward.

Registration:

Registration for the 2025 conference is now open.

Register here!

The conference will 30 concurrent sessions across the following five conference streams: 

  1. Transforming Post-Secondary Culture Through Strategy and Action
  2. Post-Secondary Student Mental Health Research: Engaging the Next Generation of Student Researchers
  3. Supporting Students Amidst Global Events
  4. Integrating Well-Being into Teaching Practices: Promoting a Healthy Classroom Environment
  5. Shifting to a Health Promotion Approach to Address Post-Secondary Mental Health and Well-being

In addition to these sessions, we’ll also keynote presentations, a student mental health researcher panel, rapid-fire presentations, and hot topic discussions. We will also have breaks in the day for attendees to focus on their own well-being through a guided meditation session and chair yoga class.

Keynote Speaker:

Dr. Jean Twenge sits at her home in San Diego, CA on Monday, July 15, 2013. l the narcissism debate into the mainstream. By comparing 30-plus years of college personality test results, Dr. Twenge has concluded, over and over again, that younger generations are increasingly entitled, self-obsessed and unprepared for the realities of adult life.Point the finger, she says, at America's culture of self-esteem, in which parents praise every child as "special" and feelings of self-worth are considered a prerequisite to, rather than a result of, success.(Photo by Sandy Huffaker for The New York Times)

Jean Twenge, San Diego State University

We are excited to announce Jean M. Twenge as our keynote speaker. Jean is a Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University and the author of more than 190 scientific publications and seven books, including Generations: The Real Differences between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers and Silents—and What They Mean for America’s Future and the upcoming Ten Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World (available September 2, 2025). She holds a BA and MA from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. She writes the Generation Tech Substack.

 

Visit our conference website here

 

Collaborations for Change logo

Hosted by: The University of Calgary Campus Mental Health Strategy (www.ucalgary.ca/mentalhealth) and the Best Practices Network (www.bp-net.ca). With support from the Canadian Association of College and University Student Services (CACUSS).