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Speakers.

Stephanie Nixon

Workshop Session: Who me? A workshop on how awareness of power, privilege and inclusion can contribute to health systems strengthening

 

Stephanie is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Director of the International Centre for Disability and Rehabilitation.  She is cross-appointed in the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at University of Toronto. Stephanie is a physiotherapist who has been an HIV activist and researcher for 20 years.  She completed her PhD in Public Health and Bioethics in 2006 exploring Canada’s international response to HIV.  Stephanie conducted her post-doc at the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa from 2006-2008. Her current research uses critical social science to explore (1) links between HIV, disability and global health in Canada and in Southern Africa, and (2) anti-oppression, anti-racism and anti-colonialism in the context of health professions education.

Alexis Davis

Workshop Session: Who me? A workshop on how awareness of power, privilege and inclusion can contribute to health systems strengthening

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Alexis is a pediatric Occupational Therapist at BC Children’s Hospital who completed her MSc in Global Health & Development in 2011. She is the project manager for a disability & rehabilitation training partnership project in Ladakh, India and is the co-founder of the Canadian Himalayan Association for Innovation (CHAI), a Vancouver-based NGO.  Alexis is a clinical faculty assistant professor at the UBC Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy. Her research interests are primarily focused on disability attitudes/beliefs in India and on appropriate models of cross-cultural health care training.

Muriel Mac-Seing

Workshop Session: Who me? A workshop on how awareness of power, privilege and inclusion can contribute to health systems strengthening

 

Muriel Mac-Seing is currently pursing doctoral studies in Public Health (Global Health Option) at the Université de Montréal. She is a current member of the Global Fund Human Rights Reference Group.

Prince A. Adu

Skill-building Session: Global Health Research Ethics
 

Prince was born and raised in Ghana. He went on to receive his Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Ghana and two Masters degrees from Ohio University, one in Public Health and the other in International Development. Prince is currently pursuing a PhD at the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He is particularly interested in understanding the structural determinants of health in populations using statistical modelling techniques. He is a research coordinator with the Global Health Research Program at UBC and also projects coordinator with the Ustawi Health Research Association.

Rohit Ramchandani

Session: Innovation Bootcamp

 

Dr. Ramchandani is Founder & CEO @Antara Global Health Advisors, a Canadian consultancy that provides technical expertise & evidence-based public health & management advise to organizations around the world. He is Public Health Advisor & Principal Investigator @ColaLife, a globally renowned initiative focused on improving access to essential medicines like ORS & Zinc for childhood diarrhea by leveraging the Coca-Cola supply chain. His work has been highlighted on the CBC, BBC, Business Week, Development Asia Magazine, TED, & recently with a Transformational Business Award in Health from the Financial Times & IFC. He is a member of the UN Innovation Working Group, serves on the global Diarrhea & Pneumonia Working Group, sits on the Board of Directors @Jane Goodall Institute and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor @University of Waterloo SPH & Health Systems. 

 

After completing an internship with the WHO in India, he started his career in management consulting with Accenture’s Healthcare practice and then served as Sr. Health Advisor at the Canadian International Development Agency (now Global Affairs Canada) where he advised on investments in areas including tuberculosis, malaria, as well as Canada’s G8 Maternal & Child Health Initiative (Muskoka Initiative).
 

Rohit’s current interests lie in the areas of global health delivery, health systems, multi-sectoral partnerships, innovation, & child health. He holds a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) from Johns Hopkins SPH, a Masters of Public Health (MPH) from Boston University and a BSc in Health Studies & Gerontology from the University of Waterloo. He was recently selected as a Kickass Canadian and a full profile can be seen here: http://kickasscanadians.ca/dr-rohit-ramchandani/

Jenna van Draanen 

Concurrent Session: The Role of a Universal Basic Income in Securing the Health of Populations around the World

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Jenna is a Director of the Basic Income Canada Network and a member of the Executive Committee for the Basic Income Earth Network. She is a public health practitioner, researcher and evaluator committed to working toward health equity and social justice. She received her BSc from the University of Waterloo, her MPH from the University from Toronto, and is currently completing her PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research looks at the role of poverty and childhood adversity in co-occurring disorders mental illness and substance use disorder. Jenna’s previous experience includes conducting program and policy evaluations with both community-based organizations and large NGOs and doing participatory research with homeless individuals.

Shawna O'Hearn

Workshop Session: Who me? A workshop on how awareness of power, privilege and inclusion can contribute to health systems strengthening

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Shawna O’Hearn has extensive experience in the areas of community engagement through the lens of social accountability, health policy, and global health. She is the Director for Global Health at Dalhousie University where she oversees the design and implementation of local and international programs related to health equity as well as the integration of social accountability into the medical school.  Shawna has worked as an Occupational Therapist and held leadership positions in government, university and non-government organizations in Canada and abroad. She has worked and lived in the West Indies, India, West and East Africa as well as Nunavut.   Shawna is an active member of the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research; co-chair for the Canadian Conference on Global Health and leads national collaborations on global health and social accountability. 

Preet Gandhi

Skill-Building Session: Global Health Research Ethics
 

Preet firmly believes in an interdisciplinary approach to global health. A 4th year Kinesiology Student at UBC, he has had an unorthodox path to global health. Preet has been most interested in epidemiology and equitable partnerships in global health. As an Executive Board Member with the Ustawi Health Research Association, Preet has had the opportunity to learn from bright and talented colleagues, and engage in critical discussions on global health. Preet is also the Founder & President of the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research UBC chapter, which has been a tremendous opportunity to spread global health awareness on campus.

Deb Cameron

Workshop Session: Who me? A workshop on how awareness of power, privilege and inclusion can contribute to health systems strengthening

 

Deb Cameron is an Assistant Professor and International Fieldwork Coordinator in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of Toronto.  She is also on the executive and Education Lead of the International Centre for Disability and Rehabilitation.  Deb has done research on experiences of international fieldwork for both students and global partners using critical and qualitative approaches and has done global health work in Africa and the Caribbean. 

​Marie-Eve Couture Ménard

Concurrent Session: Legal Accountability in Global Philanthropies

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Marie-Eve Couture Ménard is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Law of the Université de Sherbrooke and a member of the Barreau du Québec. She has worked for many years at the Centre de recherche en droit public of the Université de Montréal, doing research in the fields of biomedical research ethics and public health law. She also did an internship at Ménard Martin avocats, a law firm specialised in medical liability. Mrs. Couture Ménard completed a Bachelor in Law and a Master in Law and Biotechnology at the Université de Montréal. She also completed a Doctorate in Civil Law at McGill University. Her thesis (2013) examined the public accountability of public-private collaborations occurring in the public health sector in Canada.

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Stephanie Parent

Skill-Building Session: Global Health Research Ethics

 

Stephanie has an ongoing dedication to improving health and human rights for marginalized populations, both locally and globally. She currently works on research investigating infectious diseases and the social and structural determinants of health in people who live in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside. She also has international research experience working on an intervention study to reduce the risk of occupational TB among healthcare workers in Cape Town, South Africa; a large mixed-method study investigating the health impacts of a national program for at-risk youth in Ecuador; and has been deployed to the WHO in Geneva to contribute to addressing the Ebola epidemic.

 

 

 

Maggie Woo Kinshella

Career Panelist

 

Maggie completed her Masters of Arts in Cultural Medical Anthropology at the University of British Colombia, which included two seasons of fieldwork living in rural Tanzania learning about local way of life and the gendered challenges to health, food security and development. Driven by a focus on community development, local voices and storytelling, Maggie specializes in examining the processes of inequality and underdevelopment that often manifest as health concerns. Locally in Vancouver, Maggie worked as a frontline mental health worker, providing a supportive and outreach role in a network of housing, mental health and addictions health services in the Downtown Eastside. At the same time, she worked as a freelance consultant for research, assessment and communications contracts with non-profits and health agencies in Vancouver. Internationally, she was the President of Community Alliance Network, a small NGO that worked mainly in Western Kenya with household health, gender empowerment and sex-and-gender-based violence prevention programs. For this organization, Maggie and her partner cycled all the way across the Americas from Vancouver to Buenos Aires in Argentina to raise money and awareness of global health and gender equality projects. Most recently, Maggie has just returned from a 6 month contract with Cuso International as a technical advisor in maternal and child health education and communications for the Benishangul-Gumuz Regional Health Bureau in Ethiopia. Follow her at www.maggiewookinshella.com. When she is not working, Maggie enjoys cooking, travelling, scuba diving and yoga.

Mark Ansermino

Workshop Session: Career Panel

 

Mark Ansermino is a researcher and clinician in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia. He is a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar and a Principal Investigator at the Research Institute at British Columbia’s Children’s Hospital. He is Interim Director of the Centre for International Child Health and Director of Pediatric Anesthesia Research. He co-leads the influential Electrical & Computer Engineering in Medicine (ECEM) research team of engineers and clinicians who are developing and evaluating novel mobile health applications to improve the health outcomes of women and children around the world. As a team, they combine science and engineering to create cutting edge technology that uses clinical data, automation and smart physical sensors to extract important data features. Their goal is to provide front line healthcare workers in low and middle income countries around the world with the key tools they need to make informed medical decisions for their patients.

Concurrent Sessions.

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  1. Legal Accountability in Global Philanthropies
    Speaker: Marie-Ève Couture-Ménard
     

  2. The Role of a Universal Basic Income in Securing the Health of Populations Around the World​
    Speaker: Jenna van Draanen

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Skill-Building Sessions.

  1. Global Health Research Ethics
    Speakers: Ustawi Health Research Association- Prince Adu, Stephanie Parent, Preet Gandhi
     

  2. Health Systems Strengthening
    Facilitator: Janet Hatcher-Roberts

 

 

 

Workshops.

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  1. Who me? A workshop on how awareness of power, privilege and inclusion can contribute to health systems strengthening
    Facilitator: Deb Cameron, Alexis Davis, Muriel Mac-Seing, Stephanie Nixon, Shawna O'Hearn
     

  2. Innovation Bootcamp
    Facilitator: Rohit Ramchandani

 

 

 

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