Jennifer Johannesen

Principal - Low to the Ground Consulting

Low to the Ground Consulting provides low cost, high value marketing, website and social media solutions for small businesses, entrepreneurs and services professionals.

Author

Twelve-year-old Owen Turney died on October 24th, 2010, of unknown causes. No Ordinary Boy: The Life and Death of Owen Turney is Jennifer Johannesen’s extraordinary story of her profoundly disabled son, his family, his caregivers and his doctors. It is a sharply evocative, sometimes humorous, never sentimental chronicle—not only of perpetual crisis management, crushing disappointments and dashed hopes, but also one of love, spiritual growth, self-understanding, acceptance and maturity.

Ryerson University

Bachelor of Applied Arts

Administration and Information Management

1994

On-camera reporter, CTV News

"...found it moving and inspirational. It may offer support and a new perspective for parents and doctors dealing with these especially vulnerable children. It was penned by a courageous and yet forthright mother who wants to help others learn the lessons that Owen’s short life, offered."

TV Host, Saturday Night at the Movies

"...a balanced, sometimes difficult, often amusing account of a real young man told, with an almost unbiased honesty, by the one woman who knew him best. Jennifer avoids the kind of finger-waving judgment calls writers with less skill tend to saddle on the ignorant, the curious and the well-meaning. Her observations are that of a young woman who lives in a world of contradictions, complications and revelations, including her own."

Vice-President Medicine and Academic Affairs, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of Toronto

"No Ordinary Boy is a must read for all health professionals. It reminds us why we do what we do—and inspires us to do better."

Ethics in Healthcare Decision-making

Grand Rounds  Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital

2012-04-11

Redefine success: Decide for yourself what really matters

Holland Bloorview Bloom Speaker Series  Toronto, Ontario

2012-02-15

Author Appearance and Conversation

Silver Creek Preschool Professional Development Day  Toronto, Ontario

2012-02-09

Redefine success: Decide for yourself what really matters

No Ordinary Boy author Jennifer Johannesen talks about society’s expectations for constant improvement, how this plays into therapy for children with disabilities, and how families can be left shouldering more burden than they want or can handle. Jennifer explores how institutions, clinicians and parents alike contribute to the increasing pressures placed on families and shares her experiences as she leads a discussion on ways to redefine ‘success.’

Ethics in Healthcare Decision-making

Ethics are often seen as an instrument to remedy conflict, but are in fact at play in every healthcare decision made in the pediatric healthcare setting. Jennifer discusses how all decision-makers and advisors, parents and clinicians alike, ought to consider more than just the clinical outcomes when making decisions - they should also identify personal motivations, family and cultural influences and other environmental factors--all lenses through which we filter and distort information.

'Fake Work'

The over-administration of the lives of families with children with special needs not only threatens to completely snow them under with paperwork, but also creates an unnecessarily stressful environment of constant monitoring, surveillance, reporting, and goal-setting. Jennifer presents theories as to why these conditions exist and shares how she opted for an alternate route for her family.