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.
Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
Professor Robert Steiner
Professor Robert Steiner is Project Director for the Global Application of Trust Evidence (GATE) Pilots, within the Joint Centre for Bioethics, where he leads an initiative on trust-building strategies for WHO member states. He is also the Director of the Dalla Lana Fellowship in Journalism and Health Impact, at the University of Toronto.
Megan Ogilvie
Megan Ogilvie is a Toronto-based writer and journalist for The Star, one of Canada’s largest daily newspapers and online news platforms. She holds a Masters in science writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and wields a 5-year track-record of health reporting at the intersection of science, health and medicine.
Writer and journalist, Toronto Star
Moderator: Paul Roumeliotis, MD
Medical Officer of Health and CEO, Eastern Ontario Health Unit
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
Professor Dewey is a passionate educator, and former Associate Vice-President (Academic) who chaired the University of Guelph, Department of Population Medicine for 11 years. She helped lead the redesign of the DVM program and led development of the master of public health program. Professor Dewey is also the Director of the One Health Institute where she works collaboratively with faculty and staff to create awareness and community, establish research teams, and build capacity for addressing complex problems at the intersection of environmental, animal, and human health.
Samira Mubareka, MD, FRCPC
Scientist, Medical Microbiologist and Infectious Disease Consultant
Clinician-Scientist, & Medical Microbiologist, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto.
Assistant Professor in Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology; University of Toronto, Ontario
Erica Phipps, MPH, PhD
Executive Director, Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment (CPCHE)
Dr. Phipps is the Executive Director for the Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment (CPCHE), a national collaboration of organizations that work together to advance children’s environmental health protection. Prior to joining CPCHE in 2008, she worked on environmental health and toxics issues for the Montreal-based North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, the United Nations, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and as a consultant for various clients including Health Canada and the World Health Organization. She is also a post-doctoral fellow, ECoHLab, Department of Geography, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
Charles Gardner, MD
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
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 relate.
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
Possible Horizons for Public Health
Third Panelist T.B.A.
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.
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: Tamara Wallington, MD FRCPCVice President and Chief, Healthy People, Environments and Quality Programs, Public Health Ontario