Co-Founder, Partner
Darius Dinshaw
B.Sc. Kin, C.Ped(C), CAT(C), CSCS
Darius co-founded Align inspired by his unique perspectives on body alignment. Applying this mindset to improving the way people think about movement, he aims to empower everyone's ability to walk and move in their best body alignment. Darius challenges the status quo to discover new and innovative ways to enhance patient compliance of common healthcare solutions. As a result, he careful and creatively designed his patent pending Pitch Perfects for high heels and his proprietary custom Align Orthotics. With a drive to do healthcare ever better, Darius developed the Align Clinician program to broaden this reach, helping more health care providers overcome traditional barriers and evolve their assessment tools and treatment techniques.
His focus on footwear is to educate the public that first and foremost it is an important medical device effecting your body alignment –don’t underestimate its influence. Secondly, the footwear industry is wasteful and we must shift its priorities to sustainability.
His Board Director position with thePedorthic Association of Canada allows him to drive this work with an inspired team to improve foot health modalities on a national and global scale.
His most coveted leisure activity is his need for speed asan Autosport enthusiast. A snowboarder, soccer player, mountain biker, camper,strategic functional movement training enthusiast, he also is a homebody who loves spending time with his rambunctious sons.
Co-Founder, Partner
Teressa Dinshaw
Bachelor of Arts
A humble, Mississaugan business mogul with 20 years in marketing management for corporations with various philanthropic health causes, this Political Science major with post graduate marketing specialization, is focused on driving social change through business.
Her most recent healthcare development is as Co-Founder of Align. Teressa uses critical thinking and innovation to merge and disrupt the footcare, fashion and beauty industries to empower Align clients with knowledge, a medically sound approach, fashion and beauty that inspires to look and feel healthier than ever before.
She's determined to bring together the moving pieces to improve the way you do footcare. It is what inspired her to patent the Align Pitch Perfect orthotic for high heels. Always flashing forward to the next innovation in foot health, Teressa is ahead of industry trends, such as advances in 3D printing, slow fashion, sourcing sustainable footwear and taking cues from paleo footwear concepts. She uses her dynamic public speaking skills to create awareness around these and broader social change topics.
A dedicated Mompreneur and a lover of people, health and art, Teressa's favourite pastimes are cooking Italian and West Indian favourites for her young sons, playing soccer, reading through an ever-growing pile of books and always making some time getting to know her equally inspiring clientele.
Align Clinician
Catherine Duong
H.Bsc., D.Ch
Catherine has received an abundance of podiatric clinical training. She has interned at the Wound Care Centre at Women’s College Hospital, LAMP Community Health Centre, and the Michener Chiropody Clinic. These internships helped her gain invaluable expertise on dermatological, biomechanical, surgical, musculoskeletal, and geriatric care. Refining both her theoretical aptitude and practical skillset, she also received a scholarship by the College of Chiropodists of Ontario during her rotations. She holds an assistant professorship and works as a clinical instructor under the University Health Network at the Michener Institute.
Catherine aspires to become a dedicated activist in promoting foot health and hopes to expand access to podiatric care across Ontario. With a strong work ethic and desire to treat patients beyond their expectations, Catherine is excited to grow the momentum at Align - of making footcare a necessary health check for everyone. Paving the way, her contributions in evolving the preventative footcare model are helping to redefine and evolve foot health modalities.
Align Clinician
Brandon Nethercott
B.A.(Kin), R. Kin, C. Ped (C)
Brandon is a Certified Pedorthist and Registered Kinesiologist. He attained his undergraduate degree in kinesiology and post-graduate pedorthic education at The University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. Since then he has continuously pursued continued education to broaden his scope of practice and expand his holistic understanding of human movement. Brandon intends to break down barriers in the footwear industry to help achieve unimaginable treatment outcomes in footwear that is fashionable and fits peoples lifestyles.
Brandon enjoys working with challenging biomechanical cases. This was fostered by his past experience working alongside various medical specialists and physicians. This breadth of experience enabled him to curate more comprehensive treatment protocols that go beyond conventional pedorthics, which generally focuses only on the foot. As an Align Clinician he understands that simply improving foot function with a foot orthotic is not sufficient for effective long-term treatment. Establishing the root cause of injury and misalignment is fundamental to the long-term success of treatment. Exercise prescription is often incorporated into his treatment plans. Brandon encourages his patients to participate in learning about their body movement and teaches them how to move more efficiently and regain function of neglected joints and muscles. He takes time to listen to client’s expectations, thoroughly educates them on their condition, and outlines realistic treatment plans that fit their lifestyle.
Brandon has an athletic background playing and coaching many sports. He is an avid world traveller, has an itch for adrenaline. When he's not in Toronto, he's likely headed up to cottage country to enjoy nature.
Align Clinician
Tavish Argenti
HBSc(Kin), C. Ped (C)
Tavish’s interest in Pedorthics started in her Kinesiology undergraduate career at the University of Waterloo. During this time she was involved in gait retraining for children with cerebral palsy, and used her knowledge in biomechanics, gait and functional anatomy to find creative solutions in this population. From this she learned the impact she can make in a individuals daily life by addressing biomechanical inefficiencies to help them lead a more active and fulfilling life.
Upon her completion of her Kinesiology degree she pursued and graduated with a Diploma in Pedorthics from Western University. She has always been passionate about education. During her career she has been a practicum supervisor and mentor to students in the Western Pedorthics program, and has had the pleasure of being an interim instructor for the Western Pedorthics program in the Functional Lower Limb Anatomy and Gait Mechanics course. Tavish uses this love of education to learn all things “foot health”, whether it is new treatment options or stretches and exercises that can be shared with clients to optimize foot and lower limb function.
In the time she’s not at Align, she serves on the Board of Directors for the Pedorthic Association of Canada, with a role in promoting the Pedorthic profession to students. In her leisure time you'll find her cycling, boxing and running after her very active toddler.
Head of Client Relations
Jonida Cecaj
Bachelor of Arts
Holding a degree in International Relations, Jonida worked in a parliamentary career in Albania, as well as volunteering with the philanthropic @georgesoros foundation. She avidly travelled, explored and eventually adventured into Canada many years ago. She established a prosperous career in medical aesthetics and business management where as a practitioner, she developed a love of client care and success.
Her worldly experience is evident through her perspectives, skills, humbleness and compassion. She loves any opportunity to communicate with clients in Italian, her second language.
She passionately cares about the health, enjoyment and well-being of her clients.
Jonida's pride and joy is her artistic and musically talented son, Tristan.
Client Relations Associate
Laura Toro
Specialized Honours Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, 2022
Laura is currently in her 3rd year at York University working hard towards her BSc. In Computer Science. She has an ever growing passion for all things tech., modern and innovative. She enjoys creating art and sharing it with the world on @lauratoro.art in the hopes to inspire others - an inspiration which motivates her in her day to day life. With almost a decade of many different customer service roles under her belt, Laura is honoured and excited to be part of the Client Relations team. She looks forward to hosting all the great and wonderful people who walk into Align!
All of us at Align look forward to connecting with you soon!