Board of Directors
Dr. Brendan Adams
Medical Director
Addiction Physician
Civil Aviation Medical Examiner (Ret’d)
Dr. Adams is a Civil Aviation Medical Examiner with over forty years of experience. After graduate school at University of Toronto where he researched the human eye movement system, Dr. Adams completed his medical training at the University of Calgary Medical School and his residency at the Calgary General Hospital. Early in his practice he obtained further training in addiction medicine, becoming American Board Certified, and is currently a lifetime diplomat of the American Board of Addiction Medicine, as well as having a Certificate of Added Competency in addiction medicine from the Canadian College of Family Practice.
He currently serves as the Medical Director for Aircrew Recovery Canada and ALPA Canada PRP, as well as an addictions consultant for a wide variety of airline and non-airline corporations. He serves on the Aviation Medical Review Board as a subject matter expert in addiction. He has taught or guest lectured at this course in various iterations for the past twenty years.
He is a licensed pilot and Mooney owner.
Doug McKibbon
Psychologist
Doug has worked in Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) for over 38 years in internal and external EAP companies in Western Canada and the United States. As a registered psychologist (Alberta) since 1993, he has worked with individual employees and workplaces to resolve personal mental/behavioral health issues and the organization’s need to manage employee health/safety. Much of my work focuses on individuals and companies regarding substance abuse and policy development/implementation concerning alcohol and drug abuse/fitness for duty protocols.
From 2001 to September 2017, he worked as a Workplace Consultant/EAP Sr. Manager for United Airlines to provide mental health and substance abuse services to all employee workgroups and their families. While working with pilots with substance use issues, he regularly partnered with treatment centers, aviation/forensic psychiatrists, neuropsychologists, aviation medical examiners, union peer agents, and company departments in the initial evaluation, treatment management, and monitoring for special medical issuance/certifications. During his 16+ year tenure with this organization, he provided direct services to more than 50 pilots. In addition, he supervised other EAP managers’ management of an additional 25 pilots in the monitoring process dictated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). While working at United Airlines, he also participated in company arbitrations as a Subject Matter Expert concerning substance abuse and mental health issues in the workplace.
He is listed on the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) HIMS Psychiatrist, Neuropsychologist, and Psychologist (PNP) roster.
Returning to Alberta in October 2017, Doug established Blue Side Up Consulting & Counselling. He provides clinical counselling with specialized skills for substance abuse issues, independent evaluations concerning substance use and fitness/return to work, and workplace consulting/support for several commercial aviation companies and a local law enforcement organization in their ongoing efforts to support substance abuse recovery programs among their employee groups.
Ian Gracie
Chair, Aircrew Recovery Canada (ARC)
Ian is a B737 Captain for WestJet, based in Calgary, Alberta. Licensed in 1988, that summer was spent flying a C-185 on floats out his hometown of La Ronge, Saskatchewan. Following many years flying Northern Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Canadian Arctic on numerous aircraft in a variety of configurations, he was hired by WestJet in 2002 to fly the B737-200.
A recovering alcoholic – sobriety date March 1, 1999 – he is one of the original architects of the WestJet Pilot Recovery Program (PRP) established in 2003 for which he served as program chair until 2013 and 2017-2024. He now focuses his time on evolving both ARC and ALPA Canada PRP. He lives in the mountains of Canmore, Alberta.
