Board of Directors

Trina Budd

Trina is a graduate of the University of Ottawa, with an Honours Degree in Psychology and Linguistics and a Masters of Health Science Degree in Speech-Language Pathology. Trina began her career in Ottawa as a Speech-Language Pathologist consulting in all 4 publicly funded school boards. She was then hired as a consultant to the 2 Public English School Boards in the 5 Counties East of Ottawa. During her time with this employer, she continued to provide therapy, consultation, programming and training to students, staff and parents in the area of special education. She was asked to sit on the Advisory Committee for St.Lawrence College, Cornwall Campus, for the Communication Disorders Assistant Program, a position she continues to hold today. Trina is now a consultant for the Upper Canada District School Board whereby she continues to actively support the work of students, staff, and parents through assessment, programming, consultation, and training. Her strength is in helping teachers and other educational staff meet the needs of students through accommodations, modifications, and differentiated instruction strategies as needed. She is currently part of a team that is leading the nation in applying cutting-edge technology within the classroom as a tool for differentiated instruction and inclusion for all students. She is a strong believer in ‘active and ‘collaborative learning techniques because research indicates that this type of teaching lends itself well to differentiation and individualization of instruction. For Trina, differentiated instruction is well explained by the words of Tomlinson (1995) “Meeting the needs of each student’s learning style and intellectual level by ‘shaking up what goes on in the classroom so that students have multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they learn.

Trina is excited to be part of such an elite team with The Peak Centre Academy in her role as consultant.

Dr. Natalie Durand-Bush

Natalie Durand-Bush, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa. Her research aims to understand the self-regulatory processes and skills underlying the development of optimal performance and well-being in different contexts including sport, medicine, the performing arts, and academia. Professor Durand-Bush also investigates mental training interventions designed to help individuals not only achieve performance excellence but also manage stress and reduce burnout. Her 17 years of consulting work with high performance and developmental level athletes and coaches are an asset to her scholarly work and teaching. Dr. Durand-Bush is the co-author of the Ottawa Mental Skills Assessment Tool (OMSAT-3*©), an instrument developed to evaluate several mental skills necessary for consistent high-quality performance. She was the Chair for the Canadian Sport Psychology Association and the Vice-President of the International Society of Sport Psychology from 2005-2009. She has presented over 125 research and applied papers at national and international conferences. She has also published 24 peer-reviewed articles, 4 book chapters, as well as her own life skills workbook. Aside from teaching and conducting research at the University of Ottawa, Dr. Durand-Bush has been working for the past 17 years as a mental performance consultant with hundreds of athletes aged between 8 and 60 years and competing at different levels in various sports (ex. hockey, gymnastics, alpine and cross country skiing, taekwondo, badminton, water polo, basketball, volleyball, tennis, figure skating, ringette, cycling, rowing, etc.), including athletes from five Canadian national teams, a men’s major junior hockey team, two University varsity teams, and professional / amateur athletes from the Peak Centre for Human Performance in Ottawa, Ontario and Physio Outaouais in Gatineau, Québec.