Plenary and Thematic Panels
Plenary: Rebuilding Confidence in Expertise:
Addressing Mis- and Disinformation
Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser
CEO, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) & Regius Professor of Botany, University of Cambridge
Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser is the Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Regius Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge. UKRI brings together the UK’s Research Councils, Innovate UK and Research England, operating with a combined budget of more than £9bn per year. Prior to this Ottoline Leyser was Director of the Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, an interdisciplinary institute which combines computational modelling with molecular genetics and cell biology in the control of plant growth and development.
Ottoline has a long-term interest in research culture and chaired the Nuffield Council on Bioethics project examining these issues. She has been actively engaged in work aimed at generating a more inclusive, creative and connected culture. She has also worked extensively in science policy, for example serving as Chair of the Royal Society’s Science Policy Expert Advisory Committee, Chair of the Management Committee of the University of Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy, and as a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Member of the Leopoldina and EMBO, and an International Member of the US National Academy of Sciences. In 2017 she was appointed DBE for services to plant science, science in society and equality and diversity in science.
Associate Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
Professor Robert Steiner, MBA
Robert Steiner is Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto and Director of the Dalla Lana Fellowship in Journalism and Health Impact. The fellowship is the first journalism program designed specifically to teach journalism to outstanding subject-matter specialists. He also teaches political advocacy and communications to graduate students in public health and is affiliated with the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Bioethics, where he leads a project to trial new trust-building strategies in WHO member states. Professor Steiner began his career as a global finance correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, before receiving his MBA from the Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania) and working as a management consultant and business strategy executive in the media sector. From 2006 to 2010, he served as Assistant Vice President of the University of Toronto in charge of Strategic Communications.
Professor Steiner has also held senior health policy positions in Canada. In 2021-22, he served as communications director for the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, an independent body that advised Ontario’s Cabinet during the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. In 2010 he ran communications for Public Health Ontario. In 2003-4, he advised the Prime Minister’s Office and the federal Cabinet on the creation of the Public Health Agency of Canada, after serving as health policy advisor and principal speechwriter for Hon. Paul Martin during his successful campaign to be Prime Minister. During the 2000 federal election, Mr. Steiner managed the Liberal Party of Canada’s digital campaign, working for Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.
Megan Ogilvie
Megan Ogilvie is a health reporter for the Toronto Star. She has a graduate degree in science writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has spent much of her 15-year journalism career writing about science, health and medicine. Megan was a key member of the Star team that covered the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on the health-care system. In the past year, Megan’s reporting has covered a wide range of issues, including: the public health response to Canada’s concerning rise in measles, health system backlogs and the primary care crisis, a Canadian print exclusive interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci and an investigative series highlighting Ontario's failure to care for children with complex health needs.
Writer and journalist, Toronto Star
Moderator: Paul Roumeliotis, MD
Medical Officer of Health and CEO, Eastern Ontario Health Unit
Dr. Paul Roumeliotis has been the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) and Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) since 2007. Certified by the Royal College of Physicians of Canada, he received a First Class Honours Bachelors of Science degree in Microbiology and Immunology in 1979 and a medical degree (MDCM) in 1983 at McGill University. He is the founder and former director of the Montreal Children’s Hospital Asthma and Pediatric Consultation Centres and Multi-Format Health Communications at McGill’s Faculty of Medicine. He also holds a Master of Public Health degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where he is an Associate faculty member, and an Advanced Management Program Diploma from the Harvard Business School. He is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa and former Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at McGill University in Montreal. Over the last 15 years he has served twice a Chair of the Council of Ontario Medical Officers of Health(COMOH) and twice as president of the Association of Public Health Agencies(alPHa). As MOH/CEO of the (EOHU) he is responsible for regional public health program delivery and administration and innovative public health communications messaging and programs. He appears regularly on local and national media as a COVID19/public health and pediatric expert. Believing in the importance of community and stakeholder relationships, he has sat or continues to sit on many local and provincial committees, tables and boards focused on a variety of public health issues.
Thematic Panel: Inter-sectoral Action on Under –
Housed Peoples & Homelessness
CEO, UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) & Regius Professor of Botany, University of Cambridge
James Dunn, PhD
Housing, income security and societal income inequality are among the most pressing concerns in our society, and Jim Dunn’s research investigates the health and social impacts of policies and programs in these areas. His research can be described as population health intervention research, as it involves examining the effect of interventions in housing, neighbourhoods and social policies and their impact on population health. He is also the Director, Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative (CHEC) and a Senator William McMaster Chair in Urban Health Equity.
Program Manager, Supportive Healthy Environments, Ottawa Public Health, Ottawa, Ontario
Gillian Connelly, M.Sc, CMO
Gillian Connelly is a seasoned public health professional, who has worked for Ottawa Public Health for almost 20 years in expanding leadership positions. She currently leads a multi-disciplinary team focused on affecting the scale of change needed to have a sustained impact on emerging and “wicked” population health and equity challenges, including housing, climate change, built environment. Gillian is a champion for inter-sectoral public health and municipal action, advancing healthy public policy, system innovation and influencing system changes to make our communities healthier now and into the future. Gillian holds a Master of Science degree in Health Promotion, a Master’s Certificate in Municipal Leadership from the Schulich School of Business, is a Certified Municipal Officer (CMO), and has completed the Municipal Administration Program (with the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO)).
Steven Gaetz, PhD
Professor York University, Toronto, Ontario
Dr. Gaetz has published extensively on the subject of homelessness and his research on youth homelessness, prevention and models of intervention have contributed to significant change in how we respond to homelessness in Canada. In 2015, he was appointed to the Province of Ontario’s Expert Advisory Panel on Homelessness, and in 2017 he played a leading role as a member of the Government of Canada’s Advisory Panel on Homelessness. He is also the Director, of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (Homeless Hub) and Research Director, Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab.
Moderator: Dr. Alexander Summers, MD
Medical Officer of Health, Middlesex-London Health Unit
Thematic Panel: Holistic Approaches for Climate Preparedness –
From One Health to Children’s Environmental Health
Cate Dewey, PhD
Professor, School of Population Medicine, University of Guelph
Cate Dewey is the Director of the One Health Institute at the University of Guelph, an Assistant Dean of Special Projects at the Ontario Veterinary College, and Professor of epidemiology and swine health medicine in the Department of Population Medicine. She has published over 250 peer reviewed manuscripts and supervised 32 PhD students. Her current research uses a One Health approach to prevent zoonotic diseases in vulnerable populations. She has taught one health concepts to undergraduates, graduates, and government personnel, policy makers, and community health and animal health workers. She developing an Executive Masters in One Health Leadership and currently hosting the first online One Health micro-credential for professionals.
Samira Mubareka, MD, FRCPC
Scientist, Medical Microbiologist and Infectious Disease Consultant
Dr. Mubareka has the following aappointments and affiliations as Clinician scientist, Integrated Community Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute; Microbiologist, Microbiology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; Infectious Diseases Consultant, Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; Assistant Professor, Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Mubareka and colleagues isolated the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a Level 3 containment facility, which she shared with many academic CL3 laboratories across the country.
Dr. Mubareka serves on the Chief Science Advisor of Canada’s COVID-19 Expert Panel, the Implementation Committee of the Canadian COVID-19 Genomics Network (CanCOGeN) Viral Sequencing Project (Genome Canada) and the Ontario COVID-19 Science Table. She also chairs the Royal Society of Canada's One Health Working Group.
Erica Phipps, MPH, PhD
Executive Director, Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment (CPCHE)
Erica Phipps serves as Executive Director of the Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health & Environment (CPCHE), a national collaboration of organizations that work together to advance children’s environmental health protection. Erica has worked on environmental health and toxics issues for nearly three decades, with much of her work focused on promoting intersectoral and multi-disciplinary approaches to knowledge mobilization, policy advocacy, and health equity. Prior to joining CPCHE in 2008, she held positions with the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, the United Nations, and the US Environmental Protection Agency. She has a master’s degree in public health, a doctorate in health promotion, and co-leads the Prenatal Environmental Health Education (PEHE) Collaboration in her role as adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa.
Charles Gardner, MD, FRCPC
MoH, Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit
Dr. Gardner has been the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit since 2005, after having served as MOH with the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit for seven years. Prior to that, he worked in general medical practice in Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Zimbabwe. Dr. Gardner is the Past Chair of the Association of Local Public Health Agencies (alPHa), and an Ex Officio Member of the Executive for the Council of Ontario Medical Officers of Health (COMOH). In June 2023 he received alPHa’s Distinguished Service Award and in 2020 he received the Faculty Educator Award for the Public Health and Preventive Medicine Residency, University of Toronto. Dr. Gardner is also a board member of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada. Dr. Gardner is active personally and professionally in the promotion of health through green, compact, complete, walkable and cyclable communities.
Moderator: Helen Doyle, B.Sc., C.P.H.I.(C);
Environmental Health Workgroup Chair, Ontario Public Health Association
Helen Doyle is chair of the Ontario Public Health Association’s Environmental Health Workgroup, collaborating with public health partners to promote and advocate for action on environmental health issues including: climate change, air quality, water quality, housing, built and natural environments and children’s environmental health. Following a 30 year career with York Region Public Health, Helen now teaches part-time with Conestoga College’s School of Health & Life Sciences – Bachelor of Environmental Public Health Program.
Thematic Panel: Data Governance in the Digital Age –
Equity-Centred Priorities for Public Health
Ewan Affleck has worked and lived in northern Canada since 1992. He is currently serving as the Senior Medical Advisor - Health Informatics, College of Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta, Strategic Advisor - Clinical and Informatics at the Canadian Institute for Health Information, and Chair of the Alberta Virtual Care Working Group. He is the past Chief Medical Information Officer of the Northwest Territories, was co-chair of the national Virtual Care Task Force, served on the Expert Working Group of the pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy, and is the Executive Producer and co-writer of The Unforgotten (2021), an award-winning film about inequities in health service for Indigenous people living in Canada. In 2013, he was appointed to the Order of Canada for his contribution to northern health care.
Senior Medical Advisor, Health Informatics, CPSA (Alberta)
Ewan Affleck CM., BSc., MDCM., CCFP.
Kimberly McGrail, PhD
Kimberlyn McGrail is a Professor in the UBC School of Population and Public Health and Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, Scientific Director of Population Data BC and CEO of Health Data Research Network Canada. Her research interests are quantitative policy evaluation and all aspects of population data science. She conducts research in collaboration with patients and the public, as well as with policy and decision makers. In 2019-2020, Kim participated as a member of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Task Force on AI4Health and from 2020-2022 was a member of the Expert Advisory Group for the pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy. She is currently a member of the Global Partnership for AI Data Governance Working Group, which includes members from more than 20 countries, and a member of a number of Canadian advisory groups related to health data and research.
Professor, University of British Columbia
David Buckeridge, MD PhD
Professor, School of Population and Global Health, McGill University
David Buckeridge is a Professor in the School of Population and Global Health at McGill University in Montreal where he directs the Surveillance Lab, an interdisciplinary group that develops, implements, and evaluates novel computational methods for population health surveillance. His research and practice focus on the informatics of health surveillance and disease control and he holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Health Informatics and Data Science. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Buckeridge provides regular projections of health system demand for the Canadian province of Quebec, is the Scientific lead for Data Management and Analytics for the Canadian Immunity Task Force, and is funded by the World Health Organization (WHO) to monitor global immunity to SARS-CoV-2. He is also a technical advisor to the WHO Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources (EIOS) program on the application of artificial intelligence to global infectious disease surveillance.
Thematic Panel: Quality Improvement
& System Governance - Horizons for Public Health System
Dr. Mehdi Aloosh is the Medical Officer of Health for the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, where he oversees public health programs and services for a population of approximately half a million. He previously served as a public health physician at Public Health Ontario.
Dr. Aloosh brings extensive clinical and academic experience from his international work. In addition to his leadership roles in public health, he is a practicing family physician and is actively engaged in teaching and scholarly activities. He holds an Assistant Professor appointment with the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster University and has a special interest in quality improvement in public health practice.
His academic credentials include training in public health, preventive medicine, and family medicine at McMaster University, as well as a Master's in Epidemiology from McGill University.”
Dr. Mehdi Aloosh, MD, MSC, CCFP, FRCPC
Medical Officer of Health, Windsor-Essex County Health Unit
Madelyn Law, PhD, MA, BSM
Madelyn Law is an Associate Professor at Brock University in Health Sciences and the Director of Quality, Patient Safety and Risk at Niagara Health. Madelyn is an accomplished Implementation Scientist with numerous grants from CIHR including two current projects, one focused on leadership and governance competencies in public health and another project with collaborators from Public Health Ontario focused on using quality improvement to enhance emergency preparedness in public health. Madelyn is passionate about moving research to practice to improve health systems with an emphasis on system level change. Notably, Madelyn worked closely with public health units across Ontario on an LDCP project to help strengthen and advance continuous quality improvement in public health.
Associate Professor, Brock University; Director of I-EQUIP, Director of Quality, Patient Safety and Risk, Niagara Health
Linda Rabeneck, CM, MD, MPH, FRCPC
Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto
Dr. Linda Rabeneck, a gastroenterologist, physician scientist, and health care executive, is former Vice President, Prevention and Cancer Control at Cancer Care Ontario (Ontario Health). She is Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Senior Scientist at IC/ES in Toronto.
Dr. Rabeneck received her medical degree from the University of British Columbia (UBC). She completed post-graduate training in internal medicine and gastroenterology at UBC and the University of Toronto. She received her Master’s degree in Public Health from Yale University, where she trained as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar.
Dr. Rabeneck is a leader in health services research and evidence-based health policy. She played a leadership role in launching ColonCancerCheck in Ontario, Canada’s first organized, province-wide colorectal cancer screening program. She is the author of over 300 peer reviewed publications and has made critical research findings that shaped our understanding of the quality and effectiveness of cancer screening.
Dr. Rabeneck is a past President of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS), recipient of the American College of Gastroenterology’s Berk/Fise Clinical Achievement Award, UBC’s Medical Alumni Association Wallace Wilson Leadership Award, the American Gastroenterological Association Clinical Practice Section Research Mentor Award, and the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology Visiting Research Professor Award. In 2024 Dr. Rabeneck was appointed Member of the Order of Canada.
Moderator: Tamara Wallington, MD FRCPC
Vice President and Chief, Healthy People, Environments and Quality Programs, Public Health Ontario
Moderator: Dr. Na-Koshie Lamptey
Acting Medical Officer of Health, City of Toronto
Dr. Na-Koshie Lamptey serves as Toronto’s Acting Medical Officer of Health. In her role, Dr. Lamptey will lead the largest local public health agency in Canada, which delivers public health services to meet community health needs, reduce health inequities and improve the health outcomes of individuals who live, work, study and play in Toronto. Dr. Lamptey obtained her medical degree at the University of Toronto and has a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology and Public Health Management from Yale University and a Bachelor of Liberal Arts from Princeton University.
She is a dedicated public health and preventive medicine physician, with a strong commitment to improving population health through clinical care, policy development, and system advocacy. Prior to her role as Deputy Medical Officer of Health in Toronto, Dr. Lamptey held several leadership positions including Regional Medical Officer of Health in New Brunswick, and Associate Medical Officer of Health at the Sudbury & District Health Unit. With more than 15 years of public health practice, she lends her extensive experience and expertise to champion Toronto Public Health’s work in protecting and promoting the health and well-being of our city through evidence-informed policy and actions. Dr. Lamptey has received several notable awards including the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal (New Brunswick) in 2022 to commemorate Her Majesty’s accession to the Throne and her lifelong service to Canada, as well as residents of New Brunswick who have been exemplary in their service to others.
SPECIAL EVENT: A Fireside Chat with Dr. Donald Berwick on Quality Improvement
Donald M. Berwick is one of the leading scholars, teachers, and advocates in the world for the continual improvement of health care systems. He is a pediatrician, and a longstanding member of the faculty of Harvard Medical School. He founded and led the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, now the leading global nonprofit organization in its field. He was appointed by President Obama as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where he served in 2010 and 2011. He has counseled governments, clinical leaders, and executives in dozens of nations. He is an elected Member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Philosophical Society. He has received numerous awards, including the Heinz Award for Public Policy, the Award of Honor of the American Hospital Association, and the Gustav Leinhard Award from the Institute of Medicine. For his work with the British National Health Service, in 2005 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II appointed him Honourary Knight Commander of the British Empire, the highest honor awarded by the UK to a non-British subject.
Moderated By: Ross Baker, Professor and Program Lead, University of Toronto
Dr. Ross Baker’s research focuses on quality improvement and patient safety. His current research interests include organizational and system strategies to improve performance, as well as governance and leadership in these areas. He is also working on research examining the development of effective integrated systems of care for patients with chronic disease and multi-morbidity, and the leadership and organizational issues in developing such systems.
Dr. Baker is Professor and Program Lead of the IHPME Master of Science degree concentration in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety. He is also the co-Lead for the Improving and Driving Excellence Across Sectors program funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long- Term Care. The program provides state of the art quality improvement education to teams of clinicians and managers engaged in improving care and care delivery in Ontario.