Shaun Morris is a clinician-scientist in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and scientist and principal investigator, Child Health Evaluative Sciences, SickKids Research Institute and Centre for Global Child Health. Dr. Morris is an honourary scientist at the Centre for Global Health Research at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, ON, and Assistant Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto, cross appointed to the Division of Global Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. He completed his medical degree at Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, and his Master’s in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. Dr. Morris completed his clinical training in paediatrics and infectious diseases here at SickKids and further training in tropical medicine at the Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud (The Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies (GMI)), Panama, Republic of Panama, and Instituto de Medicina Tropical Alexander von Humboldt, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.
Sylvia Okonofua is the Founder and Executive Director of Black Donors Save Lives, a federal nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing racial disparities in blood, stem cell, organ, and tissue donations that impact African, Caribbean, and Black communities across Canada. For over seven years, she has worked to dismantle systemic barriers to donation, advocate for Black patients in need of lifesaving treatments, and promote equitable access to healthcare.
Sylvia holds a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and is pursuing a Master of Public Health in Black Health with a Collaborative Specialization in Global Health at the University of Toronto. Her work is rooted in a decolonizing approach to health equity, challenging Eurocentric healthcare frameworks and addressing the structural determinants of health. She is committed to advancing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and Goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities), through advocacy, education, and systemic change.
Her leadership has earned her recognition as a 2024 Novartis Scholar, an 1834 Global Fellow, and the recipient of the King Charles III Coronation Medal.
Brice Kuimi's research focuses on understanding the distribution and determinants of early mortality and morbidity, with a particular emphasis on injury prevention. Injuries are the leading cause of death, disability, and healthcare costs for people under 40, aligning with Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being.
His work explores the impact of urban infrastructure and road networks on active transportation and road safety. I strive to help create cities where residents can move safely and efficiently while minimizing the risk of injury, which ties closely to SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. I collaborate with key knowledge users to ensure that my findings contribute directly to policies that enhance urban safety and well-being.
He has published 41 peer-reviewed articles and received several awards, including the International Council on Alcohol, Drugs, and Traffic Safety Young Scientist Stipend, the Black Researchers Network Award, and the “Coup de Coeur” Award from the Réseau De Recherche en Sécurité Routière Du Québec. My work continues to foster healthier, more sustainable communities.
Diego Bassani is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Toronto. He is a Senior Scientist at the Research Institute at The Hospital for Sick Children, and the Director of the International Program Evaluation Unit at the Centre for Global Child Health. His research focuses on large-scale studies in the area of maternal and child health, including multi-country analyses of national surveys. Dr. Bassani has conducted important research on child growth and development, the causes and distribution of child deaths, coverage of health interventions, identification of risk factors for child mortality, program evaluation, and large-scale field trials in maternal and child health in multiple countries.
After gathering extensive experience in collecting and analyzing population health data in low- and middle-income countries, Dr. Bassani has decided to revisit the focus of his research program, to address major barriers in population health measurement, namely the timeliness and accuracy of data.
To achieve this, he plans to take an interdisciplinary approach that integrates knowledge and methods from network science and epidemiology, paving the way to a novel transdisciplinary network-based population health research program. Dr. Bassani is currently working with network scientists toward the development of novel methodological approaches to survey design, sampling, and data collection. These novel methods use a large set of multi-country standardized national surveys to expose the underlying complex network structure of populations, traditionally treated as unstructured collections of individuals in epidemiological studies.
By reconstructing unobserved networks of populations, Dr. Bassani aims to re-examine a broad range of health dynamics. He is particularly interested in using influential network nodes identified through these reconstructions to develop novel network-based sampling designs and inferential methods for large-scale surveys. These methods would allow for more frequent data collection, early detection of emerging diseases and risks, and timely response to changes in disease patterns, all critical to evidence-based decision-making.
Andrea Tricco holds a MSc in Epidemiology and PhD in Population Health. She is a Scientist and Director of the Knowledge Synthesis Team in the Knowledge Translation Program of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health & Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation. She currently holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Knowledge Synthesis for Knowledge Users.
Beverley Essue is an Associate Professor of Global Health Systems in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. She is a Faculty Research Fellow at the Rotman School of Management Institute of Gender and Economy. She holds a Visiting Scientist appointment at the Institute for the Advanced Study of the Americas, University of Miami and an Honorary Senior Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health, India.
She is a global health systems researcher leads transdisciplinary research focused on strengthening financial risk protection, supporting effective and equitable priority setting and advancing equity, including gender equity, across global health systems. Her research tackles some of the most pressing issues facing global health and is conducted with a network of collaborators and partnerships across low-, middle- and high-income countries. She has led work for key global health initiatives including the Disease Control Priorities series and the Lancet Taskforce on Non-Communicable Diseases. She co-chairs the Scientific Advisory committee for the Lancet Commission on Gender Based Violence and Maltreatment of Young People and co-leads the Economics working group for this Commission. She is also a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Cancer and Health Systems and the Commission on Cancer as a Human Crisis. In 2020 she was recognized on the list of Canadian Women in Global Health for her scholarship and contributions to the field.
Dr. Amaya Perez-Brumer is a leading Latinx critical global health scholar and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. She holds a CIHR Canada Research Chair in Global Health Intervention Justice and is affiliated with the Women & Gender Studies Institute. With a Ph.D. from Columbia University and an MSc from Harvard, her research focuses on using gender and queer theory to address HIV prevention, designing equitable interventions, and analyzing global health research through a science and technology studies lens. She integrates social science theory with innovative methods to improve HIV prevention among marginalized communities globally. Dr. Perez-Brumer has published extensively and leads projects in Peru supported by SSHRC. She also serves as an Associate Editor for Global Public Health and contributes to significant HIV research networks.
Sujata, a distinguished Health Economist and PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, specializes in Health Economics and Global Health. Her interdisciplinary approach focuses on structural determinants impacting vulnerability and health risks, with research spanning maternal and child health, non-communicable diseases, and gender-based violence. Her doctoral research explores the impact of community health workers on maternal and child health in resource-limited settings, advocating for fair wages and optimal working conditions. Committed to addressing health disparities, her work contributes to global health knowledge and Sustainable Development Goals.