PRE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of the Clinical Ethics Service / Provincial Health Service Authority
- Director of the Clinical Ethics Service for the Provincial Health Service Authority of British Columbia
Alice Virani is the Director of the Clinical Ethics Service for the Provincial Health Service Authority of British Columbia and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Through her daily work, she engages with clinical and organizational issues in multiple settings including transplant, pediatrics, forensic psychiatry, women's health, and the public health realm. She enjoys teaching Bioethics in a number of graduate, clinical, and public settings, and is developing ethics capacity for healthcare providers and researchers through online learning modules and podcasts. She spent nine years serving as the Ethicist on a number of different Research Ethics Boards in BC and recently served on the Panel of Research Ethics material incidental findings sub-committee. Her research interests relate to pediatric and adolescent bioethics, public health ethics, and the many ethical issues inherent within clinical practice and research in genetic and genomic medicine including gene editing, biobanking, and direct to consumer genetic testing.
Before moving into Ethics, Alice was a genetic counselor in the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York. She has a Masters in Human Sciences from Oxford University, a Masters in Genetic Counseling from Sarah Lawrence College, a Masters in Public Health from Columbia University, and a PhD in Genetics and Ethics from UBC. Alice has done consulting work for clients such as the Canadian Institute of Health Research, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Health Canada.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Barreau
- Senior Research Ethics Advisor for the Centre
Anik Nolet has been a Senior Research Ethics Advisor for the Centre intégré en santé et services sociaux du Centre-Sud-de-l'Île-de-Montréal since February 2016. Between 2002 and 2018, Anik was a Research Ethics Coordinator for institutions affiliated with the Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire en réadaptation du Montréal métropolitain (CRIR).
Anik Nolet is a graduate of McGill University in political science (1995), of the Université de Montréal in law (L.L.B, 1998), and of the University of Geneva, Switzerland (continuing education in clinical ethics, 2003). Anik also has an MA in Health law from the Université de Sherbrooke (2004), and a graduate diploma in biomedical ethics from the Paris VI University (2005).
Ms. Nolet has been a member of the Barreau du Québec since 2000. She has also been, for many years, a board member of the Canadian Association of Research Ethics Boards (CAREB), and a member of several other research ethics committees such as l'Institut Philippe Pinel and the central ethics committee of the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec. In December 2017, Ms. Nolet was appointed by the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec as the ethicist on Quebec‘s Biovigilance committee.
Job Titles:
- Professor and Professor of Law at the University of Windsor
W.A. Bogart is a Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law at the University of Windsor (retired). He has lectured and delivered papers throughout North America and Europe, including at Duke University at the Law School and at the Center for Canadian Studies, the University of Uppsala, Sweden, the Legal Studies Institute, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Oxford University, and the Institute for Socio-Legal Studies, Onati, Spain. He has held several SSHRC and other research grants to support his research, has been a Virtual Scholar in Residence for the Law Commission of Canada, and has been a frequent consultant to government and other public bodies regarding legal and related policies.
He is the author/editor of eight books. His latest three have focused on various aspects of the regulation of consumption: Permit But Discourage: Regulating Excessive Consumption (OUP/NY, 2011), Regulating Obesity: Government, Society, and Questions of Health (OUP/NY, 2013) and Off the Street: Legalizing Drugs (Dundurn, 2016). He is a frequent media commentator on the regulation of consumption and his op-eds have appeared in many publications including The Conversation, Policy Options, Healthy Debate, Rabble, and iPolitics.
Bill is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Law and Society Association, Pro Bono Law Ontario, and the Policy Research Committee of the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre. He is a member of: Advisory Board, The National Self-Represented Litigants Project; Research Ethics Board, Unity Health Toronto; and The Panel on Research Ethics. He and his wife, Linda Bertoldi, are Patrons of the Alzheimer Society of Toronto.
Job Titles:
- Distinguished University Professor
Daphne Maurer is a Distinguished University Professor from McMaster University. Although officially retired, she continues both scientific studies of the development of perception and responsibilities focused on the ethics of research with humans. The research has led to over 200 publications and several honours, including the Donald O. Hebb award of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour, and Cognitive Science and Fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada.
Job Titles:
- Professor at the Centre for Policy Research
Dr. Bruce Clayman is Professor at the Centre for Policy Research in Science and Technology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. Previously, he was SFU's Dean of Graduate studies (1985-2000) and Vice-President, Research (1993-2004). He then served as the first President and CEO of the Great Northern Way Campus (2004-2006). He has served as President of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies, of the Western Association of Graduate Schools, and of the Canadian Association of Research Administrators (CAURA). He is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. Dr. Clayman completed the requirements for his doctorate in condensed matter physics from Cornell in 1968 and was appointed to the SFU Physics Department in September of that year. He was promoted to full Professor in 1980. His research has attracted over $1M in funding and has resulted in over 100 publications in refereed journals, on physics and on the commercialization of university research.
Dr. Clayman chaired the SFU Research Ethics Review Committee for several years. He participated actively in the development of the successive drafts of what became the Tri-Council Policy Statement and represented CAURA on the Tri-Council Advisory Group (1999-2001). Dr. Clayman served as Chair of the Panel.
Dr. Carol Sawka is a medical oncologist with a special interest in breast cancer research. Dr. Sawka has conducted and participated in a number of clinical trials in which informed consent has been a major challenge. She has also conducted a number of retrospective and prospective cohort studies where resolving issues around individual patient consent requirements has been problematic.
More recently, Dr. Sawka has conducted research in two newer areas where ethical concerns and individual informed consent issues have been predominant. The first is that of health services research where patient profiles are developed by linking administrative data, sometimes supplemented with individual chart reviews. The second relates to studies of clinical pathological correlations where diagnostic tissue specimens are being retrieved for the purpose of conducting assays of novel biologic markers, which may be predictive or prognostic. In all of these newer study designs, issues of ethics and informed consent procedures have been hotly debated. Dr. Sawka's main interest in participating in the Panel on Research Ethics was to ensure that the Tri-Council Policy Statement on ethics is implemented in a manner consistent with the advancement of knowledge from an oncologic perspective, both with respect to understanding biologic mechanisms disease and evaluating novel treatments.
Dr. Deborah Fels earned a PhD (1994) in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto, and an MHSc (1987) in Clinical Engineering from the University of Toronto. She is a professor in the Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management, and director of the Centre for Learning Technologies at Ryerson University.
Her research interests include access to multi-media computer applications and interfaces for people with disabilities, inclusive media, web-based applications, entertainment and religious interfaces. Current research projects include: emotive captioning and music visualization including software application, EnACT for adding animation to text; descriptive audio (live and post production) including software tool, LiveDescribe, and associated description wiki for amateur describers; SignLink Studio co-creator for creating online sign language web pages (see www.signlinkstudio.ca); and sensory substitution techniques for access to sound and visual information contained in film and television content for people with disabilities - including creation of a vibrotactile system called the Emoti-chair. She received one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40 awards for the year 2001. She is also a professional engineer.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Research Ethics Office at the U of S
Dr. Diane Martz serves on the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) Behavioral Research Ethics Board and recently retired as Director of International Research and Partnerships at the U of S. She has extensive experience working on large research teams and in community-based research focused on the social, economic and cultural dimensions of rural health.
Diane has a long-standing interest in research ethics and responsible conduct of research from the perspective of international and rural research. She has also experienced research ethics through an administrative lens as Director of the Research Ethics Office at the U of S from 2007 to 2014 and a Vice-President with the Canadian Association of Research Ethics Boards from 2011 to 2014.
While Director of the Research Ethics Office at the U of S, Diane worked on initiatives on harmonization of the behavioral and biomedical research ethics processes provincially and nationally. She received the CAREB President's Award in 2012 for that work. She has been extensively involved in education and policy development for research ethics and responsible conduct of research, and developed a mandatory online course for all U of S graduate students on Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR). In 2013, she spent three months in Tanzania, developing Human Ethics Policy and RCR Policy with the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology in Arusha, Tanzania.
Job Titles:
- Community Representative, Research Ethics Board / University of Waterloo
Dr. Edwin Laryea is a long-time resident of Kitchener-Waterloo and a former Lecturer at University of Toronto, a former Department Head of Languages at Bluevale Collegiate, former Vice-Principal and Assistant Supervisor/Principal of International Languages for the Waterloo Region District School Board. He holds a PhD in Educational Studies from Brock University, Ontario, Canada.
He is an anti-racist researcher with an extensive background in community research, and a strong belief in social justice and equitable outcomes for all. As former Federal Program Director for the National African Canadian Initiative on Capacity Building and Full Participation of all African Canadians in our Canadian society, under the auspices of the African Canadian Legal Clinic in Toronto, Edwin worked extensively with various African Canadian communities across Canada to promote good policy responses for marginalized groups.
Edwin is a community advocate with several years of community leadership and service. He was a Board member of the Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Center, the Social Planning Council, the Literacy Group, Waterloo Region Museum Board of Governors, the Kitchener-Waterloo Record's Community Editorial Board, the Mayor's Advisory, and the Kitchener-Waterloo United Way. He also served as President of the Twin Cities Kiwanis Club, and President of the African Canadian Association of Waterloo Region and Area. Presently, he is a Community Representative on the University of Waterloo Ethics Research Board.
He has participated in four elections at the municipal and at the Federal levels. He is fluent in four different languages, English, French, Spanish and Ga. He has three lovely daughters.
Dr. Robinson is a member on the Oncology REB at Princess Margaret Hospital. As a cancer survivor, he is currently successfully enrolled in a study and has also been a participant in more than ten others, some of a business or social science nature. He has presented the position of the Study Participant at national and regional conferences and will be particularly interested in that viewpoint with PRE.
Dr. Robinson received an engineering degree from Queen's University and also became a naval officer. His Cornell doctorate in organic chemistry was followed by work in molecular biology with a Nobel Laureate in medicine. His further studies centred on business, law, finance and security regulations and, he was a commercial panelist with the American Arbitration Association. He worked at Chalk River with the Canadian Atomic Energy in isotope production operations and then at Mobil Oil's think-tank specializing on catalysis before moving to Mobil's Corporate Development office in New York City to work on research commercialization and acquisitions. Subsequently, he joined a new merchant bank focused on emerging technologies.
His move to Houston, Texas, was the beginning of a 20-year term as a principal in developing and promoting start-ups and working with troubled companies -- troubles often of a financial nature, but also environmental, management or ownership succession concerns. He continued this aspect of his career after relocating to Toronto.
Dr. Robinson has served on a number of municipal and not-for-profit boards and is a founder of the US-SW UNICEF Board. Married for over 40 years, he is the father of three and grandfather of five. He has been active in many sports and continues a lifelong interest in wood working.
Dr. Howard Brunt is Vice-President (Academic) and Provost at the University of Northern British Columbia. Previously he was Associate Vice President, Research and a Professor of Nursing at the University of Victoria. He holds graduate degrees in cardiovascular nursing (MScN Yale) and epidemiology and community health sciences (PhD Calgary). He has been engaged in administering research ethics for a number of years and has chaired and served on research ethics boards (REBs) both within the university and the regional health authority. In his administrative role at UNBC, he provides leadership for implementing the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS) and is responsible for administering all regulatory aspects of research.
Dr. Brunt's research uses a multi-disciplinary approach toward issues in cardiovascular health, health promotion and, more recently, palliative care. Augmenting his grounding in epidemiology and health promotion, Dr. Brunt received a Fellowship from the Center for Studies in Religion and Society to better understand the way religious beliefs and worldviews influence decisions about health. In his work with Hutterites, Dr. Brunt has collaborated with anthropologists, religious scholars, nutritionists, physicians and geneticists among others, reflecting his broad-based interest in understanding the wide array of factors influencing health.
Dr. Brunt's programs of research have been funded by a variety of granting agencies and organisations (e.g. CIHR, NHRDP). He has received a number of awards for his research and service to the professional community. He serves on national research policy and grant review committees and has served on a number of national boards and committees related to health (e.g. CHSRF, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada).
Job Titles:
- Professor at the Université De Montréal
Dr. Hubert Doucet has been a professor at the Université de Montréal since 1997, where he holds appointments in the Faculties of Medicine and Theology and is Director of the Programs in Bioethics. He also chairs the university's Research Ethics Board. From 1981 to 1997, Dr. Doucet was Professor of Bioethics at St Paul's University in Ottawa and has been a member of Research Ethics Boards at a number of hospitals affiliated with the University of Ottawa.
His research has focused on the history and foundations of bioethics, on issues related to death in the context of technological developments in health services, on the conditions for democratic debate in an environment marked by economic pressures, and on the challenges to research ethics created by an increasingly bureaucratic approach to the issues. In 2002, he published a guide on research ethics for health researchers, L'éthique de la recherche: Guide pour le chercheur en sciences de la santé.
Job Titles:
- Co - Principal Investigator of a Project Entitled Addressing Ethical
- Research Scientist at the Centre for Research
Dr. James Lavery is a research scientist at the Centre for Research on Inner City Health and Centre for Global Health Research, St. Michael's Hospital, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences and Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. Dr. Lavery earned his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the Institute of Medical Science and Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto and subsequently received a post-doctoral fellowship in applied ethics and health policy from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, during which he studied priority-setting in home care in Canada at the Queen's University Health Policy Research Unit.
Most recently, Dr. Lavery spent three years at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland where he worked on ethical and regulatory issues in international research. In addition to his membership on the Interagency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics, he serves on the Advisory Board of the CIHR Institute of Infection and Immunity, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Public Responsibility in Medicine in Research.
Dr. Lavery is currently the co-principal investigator of a project entitled Addressing Ethical, Social and Cultural Issues in the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative, and is developing a project entitled A Brokered Dialogue Between the Rich and Poor. He has completed the editing, with colleagues at the NIH, of a book of case studies in international research ethics published in 2006 by Oxford University Press.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Officer With the Software Engineering Group of the National Research Council Canada
Dr. Janice Singer is a Senior Research Officer with the Software Engineering Group of the National Research Council Canada (NRC). Dr. Singer's research interests include collaboration, learning, methodology and ethics. She has written extensively about research ethics from a software engineering perspective. Additionally, Dr. Singer served on the NRC's research ethics board for three years, and PRE's Subgroup on Procedural Issues for the TCPS for four years. Dr. Singer received her Ph.D. in Cognition and Learning from the Learning Research and Development Center of the University of Pittsburgh. Before coming to the NRC, she worked for Tektronix, IBM, and Xerox PARC.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Curriculum Specialist
Dr. Joyce Helmer (Anishinaabe) is an Associate Professor in the Division of Clinical Sciences at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM). She is the current Chair of the Indigenous Admissions committee, as well as a member of the NOSM Indigenous Reference Group. She has been the elected Indigenous representative on the Academic Council for over seven years.
In addition, Dr. Helmer is the Curriculum Specialist and lead for all of the teaching, learning and innovation initiatives at the First Nations Technical Institute in the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. For the last ten years, she has been a member of the Manitoulin Anishinabek Research Review Committee (MARRC), which is the ethics review board for the seven First Nations of Manitoulin Island in Ontario.
Her research activities are broad and varied including opportunities to participate in the review process of the CIHR ethics guidelines for Aboriginal Peoples'. Dr. Helmer was also part of the team of content experts for the development of the CORE tutorial module for Chapter Nine: Research Involving the First Nations, Inuit and Metis Peoples' of Canada.
Job Titles:
- Métis Physician, Researcher and Health Administrator
Dr. Judith Bartlett is a Métis physician, researcher and health administrator. She graduated from medicine in 1987 and completed her family medicine specialty training in 1989, both at the University of Manitoba. After completing her studies, she worked in two northern remote First Nation communities followed by six and a half years as director of Health Programs, Medical Services Branch of Health Canada (now named First Nation and Inuit Health). Dr. Bartlett then returned to the academic environment to complete an MSc in Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. She is a full time faculty in the Department of Community Health Science and holds the designations as associate professor and as adjunct scientist (Manitoba Centre for Health Policy). Dr. Bartlett has an active academic research program in the areas of indigenous health workforce and resilience (Maori, Métis and First Nations), knowledge translation and population health research.
In 2005, Dr. Bartlett developed the Manitoba Métis Federation - Health & Wellness Department (MMF-HWD) in Winnipeg. She has held the director role for the department, which now has 24 staff, since its inception. The MMF-HWD plays a leadership role in its vision of "A Well Métis Community" by ‘developing and using knowledge' that is holistic and culture-based, builds capacity, is based on excellence in research, and results in a Métis ‘health knowledge authority'. She also continues part-time clinical work.
Dr. Bartlett has always been an active participant in professional and community boards, councils and committees. Current roles include membership on the Manitoba Health Research Council, the Canada North West FASD Research Network Board and the United Way of Winnipeg Aboriginal Relations Council.
Dr. Bartlett was honored in 2003 as the recipient of the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Health.
Job Titles:
- Co - Director of the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance at the Centre for Global Studies
Dr. Kelly Bannister is Co-Director of the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance at the Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria, an Instructor with the Institute for Zen Leadership in Wisconsin, and an independent consultant. She is an ethnobiologist trained in both natural and social sciences with over 20 years of policy and practical experience in applied cross-cultural ethics. Her work encompasses collaborative approaches to biocultural diversity research and education, policy development, and biocultural ethics - an emerging intercultural area of praxis informed by Indigenous and other wisdom traditions.
Kelly is devoted to understanding how we can work respectfully across different worldviews and knowledge systems to respond to pressing social, cultural and ecological issues and inequities. She facilitates collaborative research, education and policy approaches to addressing long standing ethical and legal issues in research involving biodiversity and Indigenous cultural knowledge. She works with universities, non-profit, Indigenous, and community organizations, as well as federal and provincial governments. She has extensive experience in ethics policy analysis and development within Canada and internationally, including serving on the CIHR-Institute for Aboriginal Health's ethics working group (CIHR-AEWG) to develop the CIHR Guidelines for Health Research Involving Aboriginal People (2007-2010) and the PRE-Technical Advisory Committee on Aboriginal Research (PRE-TACAR) that advised on development of TCPS 2 Chapter 9.
Kelly holds undergraduate and master's degrees in Microbiology from the University of Victoria and a doctorate in Ethnobotany/Phytochemistry from the Botany Department, University of British Columbia. She took up post-doctoral positions in Applied Ethics and Ecological Governance at the UBC Center for Applied Ethics and the POLIS Project, before becoming the Co-Director of POLIS.
Job Titles:
- Dr. Donald Rix B.C. Leadership Chair
Dr. Laurie Hing Man Chan is the Dr. Donald Rix B.C. Leadership Chair in Aboriginal Environmental Health and is one of the six Northern Research Chairs established by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). He obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. at the University of Hong Kong and Ph.D. from the University of London.
Now with the Community Health Program at the University of Northern British Columbia, Dr. Chan's work involves both basic and applied research in environmental toxicology and nutrition toxicology. He has conducted extensive studies on the risk and benefits of the consumption of traditional food in the Arctic. Dr. Chan has also served as an advisor for numerous aboriginal communities on environmental health issues.
Dr. Lisa Given is a professor in the School of Library and Information Studies (Faculty of Education) and an Adjunct Professor in Humanities Computing (Faculty of Arts) at the University of Alberta. A former Director (and now a Distinguished Scholar) of the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology, Dr. Given holds research grants from CIHR, SSHRC, and other agencies. She has received numerous research awards and has published widely on topics related to individuals' information behaviours and qualitative inquiry. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Institute for Research in Computing and the Arts. Recent projects include the SSHRC-funded studies "Participatory design for a visually-based drug information interface: Web usability in the context of consumers' health information behaviours," and "Just what do they do? Studying the usage of online text analysis tools," as well as the CIHR-funded project "H1N1 knowledge translation for pregnant women and seniors." She has published more than 70 books, chapters and articles and is the editor of The Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods(2008).
Dr. Given received her Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Western Ontario in 2001. Her research interests are interdisciplinary in nature, exploring the social construction of knowledge, web usability, spatial analysis, information literacy, qualitative research practices and information issues in the context of higher education. Dr. Given has been very active in Canada's ethics community, serving on the Council of Canadian Academies' Expert Panel on Research Integrity (2009 to 2010) and on the Interagency Advisory Panel's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Ethics Special Working Committee (2003 to 2009). She also serves regularly as an expert witness examining the credibility of internet resources. Dr. Given teaches graduate-level courses on research methods and information literacy and also gives workshops on research ethics and research methods for faculty, students and practitioners across disciplines. Additional information on Dr. Given is available through the University of Alberta's website.
Job Titles:
- Professor and Director of the School of Population
Dr. Martin Schechter is professor and director of the School of Population and Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He combines his interest in clinical epidemiology and health services research with HIV/AIDS and addiction research. He is both a founder and national director of the CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network, a national network of investigators and clinical sites aimed at conducting trials of HIV therapies, preventions and vaccines, and was a founder of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. He currently serves as the chief scientific officer of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research.
Dr. Schechter is the author of more than 300 peer-reviewed publications. In 1994, he was invested into the Order of British Columbia for his contributions to research, and in 2001 received a tier I Canada Research Chair in HIV/AIDS and Urban Population Health. He was awarded the Science Council of British Columbia Gold Medal in 2002, fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada in 2004, and fellowship in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2005. He served as president of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences from 2007 to 2009.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean, Student Affairs
- Associate Dean, Student Affairs, Yeates School of Graduate Studies / Toronto Metropolitan University
Dr. Nancy Walton is the Associate Dean, Student Affairs in the Yeates School of Graduate Studies, and an Associate Professor in school of nursing at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). She previously served as Director of the School of Nursing, as Director of eLearning, and as the Chair of the TMU Research Ethics Board (REB) for nearly ten years.
Dr. Walton served for six years as the Chair of the Women's College Hospital REB and is currently Deputy Chair of the Health Canada and Public Health Agency of Canada's REB. She has also served as Special Advisor to the Deputy Minister in the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities in 2016-17.
She has a PhD in Nursing with completion of the Collaborative Program in Bioethics from the University of Toronto (2003). She has published and presented on priority setting and decision-making in cardiac surgery, research ethics board composition, ethical and legal considerations in research on children and adolescents as well as the ethical concerns in the use of new mobile technologies in health care. She is the Canadian author of the textbook, "Ethics and Issues in Contemporary Nursing" (3rd edition).
Dr. Walton was a longstanding member with expertise in ethics on the REB at the Hospital for Sick Children, a founding member of the Ontario College of Art and Design University REB, and remains an ad hoc member of the TMU University REB. In 2016, she as the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Canadian Association of Research Ethics Boards (CAREB).
Dr. Norman Frohlich was a Professor in the I.H. Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba and a Senior Researcher at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy. He was also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at the Université de Montréal. He had academic training in the natural and social sciences (an undergraduate honors degree in Mathematics and Physics and an MS in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Politics). He conducted research in a number of fields requiring him to deal with ethical issues associated with the use of human subjects and the use of data from large databases. He conducted experimental research (some of it international) in areas of interest to political scientists, economists, psychologists, philosophers and scholars of business. He also conducted studies in population health policy utilizing the extensive databases of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy.
He was the recipient of a long string of SSHRC Research Grants and, in addition to his three jointly authored books, his research was published in some of the leading journals in Political Science, Economics, Business and Public Health. One particularly germane research area was the co-authoring of a book on the use of experimental techniques in ethics. He served, for a number of years, as the Chair of the Faculty of Management's Research and Publications Committee and of the sub-committee dealing with experiments involving human participants. Prior to coming to the University of Manitoba, he served in a Treasury Board function in the Province of Manitoba.
Job Titles:
- Dr. Patrick O'Neill 's Principal Area
Dr. Patrick O'Neill's principal area of research and teaching is ethical decision-making, particularly in the context of psychological research and practice, and has authored Negotiating Consent in Psychotherapy, which is published by New York University Press. He has a special interest in qualitative research and community psychology, and the ethical issues specific to those and other related areas.
Dr. O'Neill served for nine years on the Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, including a term as Chair. He holds the title of Professor Emeritus at Acadia University where he taught until early retirement, and continues to teach Ethics in the Clinical Psychology Program at Dalhousie University. He has been Executive Director of the Council of Canadian Departments of Psychology and is a former President of the Canadian Psychological Association. Dr. O'Neill is cross appointed to two of the Interagency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics (PRE) committees: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Ethics Special Working Committee (SSHWC) of which he is chair, and the SubGroup on Procedural Issues for the TCPS (ProGroup).
Dr. Peter Chow-White is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University where he is Director of the Genomics and Networks Analysis Lab and Associate Director of the Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology. He is also an Associate Professor in the School of Computing Science at SFU, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, and a member of the Centre for Clinical Diagnostic Genomics at the Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre in Vancouver.
For over a decade, Dr. Chow-White has been examining and communicating developments in new information technologies such as the Internet, big data, data mining, and social media. His extensive research examines how big data, the Internet, social media, and genomic and biomedical technologies impact organizational and social change.
He consults and collaborates with government agencies, NGOs, educators, political campaigns, and commercial firms to improve the role of communication, information technologies, and social media in their organizations. He has worked with a diverse set of private and public organizations, such as the British Columbia Cancer Agency, the Terry Fox Foundation, Teck Mining, Stantec, the West Vancouver Fire Fighters Charitable Society, and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioners of British Columbia and Canada.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Research Ethics Review Committee of the College of Physicians of Alberta
Dr. Peter Venner is inaugural Chair of the Research Ethics Review Committee of the College of Physicians of Alberta. This committee provides ethical review for physicians in private practice not associated with the three major research ethics committees in the province. Prior to this role, he was a member of the ethics committees at the Alberta Cancer Board and the University of Alberta.
Dr. Venner brings a number of years of experience related to research ethics and in his present position deals with issues relating to clinical research in non-academic institutions. Some examples of these issues that need to be addressed are: issue of remuneration of researchers conducting clinical trials and research subjects participating in them, the role of placebo controlled trials. He also believes that the development of a nationally accepted informed consent form would lead to a much more efficient and acceptable process of ethics review.
Dr. Pierre Boulos currently serves as the University of Windsor's Special Advisor, Research Ethics Education and Internationalization. He also served as Chair of UWindsor's Research Ethics Board for many years. He is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Research on Reasoning, Argumentation, and Rhetoric at the University of Windsor as well as the President-Elect of the International History, Philosophy, and Science Teaching group. Dr. Boulos is working on articles on teaching for critical thinking, teaching and research ethics, and developing ethical standards in teaching from case studies. His book on research ethics and the scholarship of teaching and learning will be published in 2017.
Dr. Boulos teaches graduate courses in the University Teaching Certificate in the Centre for Teaching and Learning. He was also a faculty member in the School of Computer Science where he taught computer ethics, heuristics, and foundations of Computer Science. His book, Understanding Cyber Ethics in a Cyber World, was published in 2008.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Philosophy at L'Université De Moncton
Dr. Pierrette Fortin is Professor of Philosophy at l'Université de Moncton, Edmundston Campus, where she teaches ethics and applied ethics. She is an Associate Professor at l'Université de Sherbrooke and a tutor in ethics at the Centre de formation médicale du New Brunswick, located at the Moncton Campus and managed by l'Université de Sherbrooke. She has been Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Regional Health Authority in her region since 1995. She also serves on the ethics committee of the Catholic Health Association of New Brunswick. For a second year, she is Chair of the Association of Librarians and Professors, Edmundston Campus.
A graduate of l'Université de Moncton, Dre Fortin holds a Master's degree and a Doctorate in Philosophy from l'Université Laval. She has conducted research over the past ten years. She was responsible for the French components of two qualitative research projects, namely, Cancer pédiatrique : fardeau financier et impact psychosocial chez les familles du Nouveau-Brunswick et de Terre-Neuve et Labrador and Changeante dynamique des genres en médecine de famille et la satisfaction au travail des médecins de famille. She has also written several articles and presentations. In 2008, Fortin received the Conjoint Literary Award for the article entitled, "Disrespect, Harassment and Abuse: All in a Days Work for Physicians" at the Conjoint Scientific Assembly, Maritime Chapters of the College of Family Physicians of Canada. She is currently the principal investigator of a research project entitled, "Psychosocial and Family Consequences of Breast Cancer Among Young French-speaking Women of New Brunswick."
Dr. Samuel Ludwin went to medical school at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, and followed this with residency and fellowship training in Pathology and Neuropathology at Stanford University in California. Since 1975 he has been at Queen's University and Kingston General Hospital where he was a Professor of Pathology and Molecular Medicine until July 2010. He has specialized in research, teaching and the clinical practice of Neuropathology. At Queen's, Dr. Ludwin also served as Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Health Sciences, and as Vice-President (Research Development) Kingston General and Hotel Dieu Hospitals. His major investigative interest has been in the field of Multiple Sclerosis, in which he has carried out both basic experimental research and clinical studies. His research work has been on around mechanisms of remyelination and demyelination as well as oligodendrocyte and astrocyte behaviour in clinical Multiple Sclerosis and its models. In July 2010, he became Professor Emeritus at Queen's University.
Dr. Ludwin is Past-Chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada and has served on the Research Development Committee of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society of the United States. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, and on other related research foundations. He has served and continues to be on the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals. He is also a Past-President of the International Society of Neuropathology.
Dr. Ludwin has taught Medical Ethics to medical students and residents at Queen's and served on the Hospital ethics committees. He has written research ethics briefs for the Research Deans of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada. He was a member of the Interagency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics from 2005 to 2012.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor and York Research Chair in Indigenous Health Policy & One Health
- Registered Member of the Qalipu First Nation
Dr. Sean Hillier is a queer Mi'kmaw scholar and a registered member of the Qalipu First Nation. He is an associate professor and York Research Chair in Indigenous Health Policy & One Health at the Faculty of Health of York University. He is also the Interim Director of the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages and Special Advisor to the Dean of Health on Indigenous Resurgence. Additionally, Sean is a Board Member of the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto and the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT). His collaborative research program spans the topics of aging, living with HIV and other infectious diseases, and antimicrobial resistance, all with a concerted focus on policy affecting health care access for Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Dr. Hillier has been successful in receiving funding from each of the three federal granting agencies, with more than 10 external grants.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Office of Research Ethics
As Director of the Office of Research Ethics at the University of Waterloo, Dr. Sykes is responsible for oversight of all human and animal research conducted by University of Waterloo's researchers. She has extensive experience with the ethics review process for human research and in the development of related guidelines, procedures and educational programs for students and faculty at the University of Waterloo. She has presented similar workshops and sessions at other institutions and conferences.
Dr. Sykes believes that a Canadian system of guidelines and accountability in human research must include all sectors of the research community including humanities, social and behavioural sciences and biomedical areas. A member of the University of Waterloo's Human Research Ethics Committee and of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Association of Research Ethics Boards (CAREB) Interim Working Group, Dr. Sykes has great appreciation of the issues facing Canadian Research Ethics Boards, and provides an interface between CAREB and the Panel. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Health Studies and Gerontology at the University of Waterloo and currently teaches fourth year undergraduate courses in Psychology.
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- Vice President Academic and Provost / University of Northern British Columbia
Dr. Wendy Rodgers is the Vice President Academic and Provost at the University of Northern British Columbia and also a professor in the Faculty of Human and Health Sciences. She earned her PhD in Kinesiology from the University of Waterloo, with a master's degree from Western University and an undergraduate degree from York University. Dr. Rodgers has also been active in research ethics review and related administration since the beginning of her career.
Dr. Rodgers studies social cognitive theories as they relate to behavior change in varying contexts with a particular focus on exercise in rehabilitation settings. Her work concerns how individual motivational characteristics relate to intentions to increase exercise behavior in consideration of contextual influences that might impede or support behavioural adoption, change, and persistence. Dr. Rodgers has an extensive publication and funding record.
Dr. Rodgers has a long history of administrative and governance roles within the academy. She has led institutional initiatives in the areas of equity, diversity, and inclusion; in leadership development and support, issues management, faculty workload and evaluation, and oversight and leadership of the academic mission of the university.
Florence Piron earned a degree in Philosophy and History (Paris-Sorbonne) before going on to complete a master's degree and a doctorate in Anthropology (Université Laval, 1999). Her thesis examined the ethical relationship between researchers and research subjects (listening, response, responsibility, consequences), and the continuation of this relationship in scientific (anthropological) writing. During her postdoctoral studies at McGill University she became interested in public administration ethics, and later obtained a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for a project on the ethical and political issues of the New Public Management. After having worked with the Conseil de la santé et du bien être du Québec as a researcher, Ms. Piron was appointed associate professor with Université Laval's Department of Information and Communications. She is a member of Université Laval's research ethics board and serves on the executive committee of the Canadian Anthropological Society (CASCA).
Passionate about the links between ethics, science and politics, Ms. Piron is attempting to build an "ethics of fellow citizenship for public scientific research." The basis of this ethics is the refusal to separate the process of building scientific knowledge from the moral and political concern about the effects of this knowledge; this concern must be shared by researchers as citizens and their fellow citizens who are not researchers.
Job Titles:
- Director of the Office of Medical Bioethics
Ian Mitchell is Director of the Office of Medical Bioethics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary and a Professor of Pediatrics. His undergraduate medical training was in Edinburgh Scotland, with post-graduate training in Pediatrics and Pediatric Lung Disease in Edinburgh and at the University of Toronto (Hospital for Sick Children). He has completed graduate studies in Bioethics. He has been involved in many aspects of research ethics for a number of years. He has chaired the Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board (University of Calgary and Calgary Health Region), remains a member of this board and of the Conjoint Faculties Research Ethics Board, also University of Calgary. He has worked with REB Chairs in Alberta to minimize duplicate review of multicentre studies and is collaborating in a provincial study to identify appropriate and timely processes for review of quality assurance, quality improvement and program development.
His pediatric practice is in a team setting looking after children with chronic lung diseases, many with complex home care needs. His previous research and publications have mainly been in the field of childhood asthma, gender differences in asthma, bronchiolitis, child abuse and parental bereavement. His research continues in RSV infection and evaluation of RSV immunization, while his recent research has included an assessment of the need for clinical ethics services, and the role of moral distress in health care workers. He is extensively involved in ethics education in undergraduate and graduate levels. He is a past president of the Canadian Bioethics Society.
Julie Bull (NunatuKavut Inuk) is an award-wining interdisciplinary researcher, ethicist, educator, and poet from Happy-Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador. As a philosopher with a specialization in ethics and policy, Julie consults with communities, researchers, Research Ethics Boards (REBs), educators, and policy makers to identify and implement emerging, promising, and wise practices in research ethics and engagement with Indigenous Peoples. She is currently based on Prince Edward Island where she leads an Independent Consulting Business (projX) working with NGOs, universities, and research institutes. She is also an adjunct professor in the Division of Community Health and Humanities in the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Dr. Bull's research interests and activities are diverse, but she is most known for her research on research ethics. She has been leading community-based and academic-based research for more than 15 years and is highly sought for her pragmatic and collaborative approach to research ethics policy, research governance, and Indigenous data sovereignty. She has served on numerous boards such as the NunatuKavut Community Council Research Advisory Committee and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) REB. In 2007, Julie received the Scientific Director's Award of Excellence from the CIHR-Institute of Aboriginal (now Indigenous) Peoples' Health. She was named a Vanier Scholar in 2010 and received the Ontario Ministry of Education Emerging Scholar Change Maker Award in 2018 for her work on research/review with Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Her doctoral dissertation, "Relational and reflexive research: Peoples, policies, and priorities at play in ethically approving research with Indigenous Peoples" received the University of New Brunswick Dean's Medal of Merit in 2019.
Lawrence (Larry) Felt held a Phd from Northwestern University in Sociology with specialization in health, social policy and quantitative risk assessment. He taught at McGill University, the University of Toronto, and Memorial University. His research and teaching career included work in health policy, social epidemiology as well as wild food harvest, management and utilization, and collaboration of Labrador Inuit people in Labrador. Trained in a wide range of qualitative as well as quantitative research designs, he was the author of over 70 academic articles and chapters, numerous reports and opinion pieces and the editor or co-editor of five books. An appointee to Memorial University's original Research Ethics Board, and the Interdisciplinary Committee on Ethics in Human Research (ICEHR). He served as its Chair from April 2007 to July 2011. In July 2011 he was also appointed Chair of the Provincial Health Research Ethics Authority (HREA) that is mandated to provide ethical review for all health research undertaken in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Dr. Felt's latest work involved comparative investigation of aboriginal, particularly Inuit, and university research ethics review boards to better understand each group's construction of reality and knowledge -- and through this understanding ensure that objectives, expectations and cultural values of each are acknowledged and respected.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University / Research Director, Centre of Genomics and Policy
Job Titles:
- Professor, Department of Psychology and Western Institute for Neuroscience / Associate Dean Research, Faculty of Social Science
Marie-Pierre Bousquet is a full professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Université de Montréal and the director of the undergraduate Indigenous Studies Program, which she created. Passionate about indigenous issues in the world and especially in Canada, she has been working closely with Algonquin communities in Quebec for about 20 years. As a field researcher, her interests are varied: relationship with the land; religious landscape; empowerment of women; impacts of the residential school system; transmission of history; intergenerational relations; and ethics. In her research, publications and practice, she focuses on the ethical beliefs of the Amerindians with whom she collaborates, as well as on the relationships she builds with them, so that the research is conducted in a respectful and participatory manner.
She was a member and then vice-chair of a research ethics committee at the Université de Montréal. She also served as director of a committee on conflicts of interest.
Marlene Brant Castellano is a Mohawk of the Bay of Quinte Band and Professor Emeritus of Trent University. She held a faculty appointment in Trent's Native Studies Department from 1973 to 1996, providing leadership in the development of the Department and in the emerging discipline of Native Studies. From 1992 to1996 she served as Co-Director of Research with the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) with particular responsibility for drafting the integrated research plan, directing social-cultural, historical and community-based research, and editing and writing major portions of the final report under the direction of Commissioners. She facilitated the work of the Aboriginal subcommittee which drafted RCAP's Ethical Guidelines for Research now widely used as a reference for ethical research in Aboriginal contexts.
Professor Castellano's formal education is in social work (MSW 1959) and adult education (OISE/UofT 1980-81). Her teaching, research and publications are deliberately bicultural, promoting discourse between the worlds of Aboriginal knowledge and experience and the language and protocols of academics and policy makers. In recent years her writing has focussed on respectful treatment of Aboriginal knowledge in research. The inaugural issue of the Journal of Aboriginal Health published by the National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO) includes her paper on "Ethics of Aboriginal Research."
Professor Castellano serves on the Institute Advisory board of the CIHR Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health and the College of Reviewers for Canada Research Chairs. She has been honoured with LLDs from Queen's University, St. Thomas University and Carleton University, induction into the Order of Ontario and a National Aboriginal Achievement Award. Most recently, Dr. Castellano has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Maureen Smith has twenty years of experience as an elementary school teacher, specializing in French Immersion and education of the gifted and talented. She obtained a Masters of Education (Psychopedagogy) from the University of Ottawa. Her interest in research ethics stems from numerous years as a patient at the forefront of endocrine research in Montreal and Toronto, subsequent to being diagnosed with a rare condition in 1966. She was one of the first Canadian children to be treated with human growth hormone and has experienced both the benefits and risks of being a research subject. Ms. Smith has a long history of active collaboration with the Canadian research community, from mentoring younger patients to promoting awareness for her particular condition. In January 2001 she was invited to present her views at a Canadian Institutes of Health Research symposium attended by Canadian and international researchers, ethicists, and lawyers to address the specific issue of notifying human growth hormone recipients of possible exposure to Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease. Ms. Smith is the patient advocate representative on the National Placebo Working Committee.
Michel Bergeron is an ethicist to the University Research Ethics Board at the Université de Montréal since 2003. He is a resource for researchers, students, research ethics committees, and research administrators at the institution. For more than 15 years, he has served on research ethics committees, as a knowledgeable member in ethics or as chair, in the biomedical, health sciences, humanities, social sciences and engineering fields. He develops and participates in training offered at the local, national or international level. He is the designer and main author of on-line courses on research ethics involving humans. He is involved as a co-researcher in projects related to the implementation of research ethics in sub-Saharan Africa. He is the author or the co-author of several articles on research ethics.
Mr. Bergeron initiated the creation of the University Research Ethics Subcommittee of the Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities (SC-ÉRU/CRÉPUQ). He was the first chair of the subcommittee from 2004 to 2007 and is still a member to this day. He coordinated two working groups of the Programme de Valorisation des Innovations et du Capital Intellectuel (VINCI) at the Université de Montréal, one on databases and biobanks, and another on the ethical aspects of knowledge transfer.
Michel Bergeron worked as a chemist in the public and private sectors. He was Director of Research Services at Saint Paul University (1990-2001). He has an M.A. in theology with a specialization in ethics from Saint Paul University/University of Ottawa.
Job Titles:
- President and CEO of Precarn Incorporated
Mr. Paul Johnston is President and CEO of Precarn Incorporated. He is also President of the Canadian Federation for Robotics, and Secretary Treasurer to the Gordon M. MacNabb Scholarship Foundation. He has been involved in the management of research for over a decade and brings a wealth of experience in administering research and development programs. In his current position, he is responsible for the management of the PRECARN industry-based research program and the university-based Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems, one of the fourteen federal Networks of Centres of Excellence that brings communities supported by the three granting agencies to work together. Prior to joining PRECARN in 1990, Mr. Johnston was the Director of Planning and Coordination with the Canadian Space Agency.
Mr. Johnston contributes a balance reflected by his long experience in the management of multidisciplinary research, his training and education in Aerospace engineering (BASc, University of Toronto) and law (Called to the Bar in Ontario in 1985). Mr. Johnston also holds a Bachelor of Education and previously taught Mathematics and Science at the Secondary School level.
Pierre Deschamps graduated in Law from McGill University, after obtaining a degree in Religious Studies from the Université de Montréal. He is a member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and Associate Director of Research (Law and Health Section) at McGill University's Research Centre in Private and Comparative Law. He also holds an appointment as Assistant Professor in the university's Faculty of Law, where he teaches human rights.
Mr. Pierre Deschamps serves on Research Ethics Boards at the Institut de cardiologie de Montréal and in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. He is the principal author of the Report on Control Mechanisms in Clinical Research in Québec, also known as the Deschamps Report. In 2000, Mr. Deschamps was made a member of the Order of Canada for his voluntary work. He also received the Canadian Bar Association President's Award, Quebec section.
Now an independent consultant, Susan was a career academic administrator for more than 30 years at the University of Alberta in progressively senior positions. Her roles included: University governance, Faculty management, research grants administration and sessional teaching, management of two externally funded centres and research ethics leadership. Between 2006 and 2023, she built, developed and directed the Research Ethics Office which oversaw the University's Human Research Ethics Program and the Animal Care and Use Program. Her office supported all human participant research and animal use undertaken by University staff and trainees, as well as all human participant research conducted by staff from Covenant Health (throughout Alberta) and Alberta Health Services (greater Edmonton area and Northern Alberta). In addition, Susan was responsible for management of research ethics complaints and non-compliance issues. She has been a member of the CIHR Stem Cell Oversight Committee for the past five years and will serve as Chair in 2023. Her toolkit includes business skills (MBA), training in Chinese history (MA), a very high tolerance for ambiguity, a great fondness for policy work, sound common sense and a good sense of humour.
Job Titles:
- Research Director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta
Timothy Caulfield has been Research Director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta, since 1993. In 2002 he received a Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy. A professor in the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, his research has focused on two general areas: biotechnology, ethics and the law; and the legal implications of health care reform in Canada. Specific projects include the regulation of genomic technologies, as well as the exploration of the legal issues associated with the control of infectious disease. He has published well over 100 academic articles and book chapters, and often writes for the popular press.
A recipient of many awards and accolades, Professor Caulfield has been a visiting scholar at the Hasting Center for Bioethics in New York, the University of Houston's Health Law and Policy Institute, and Stanford University's Program in Genomics, Ethics and Society. He currently chairs the Canadian Blood Services Ethics Committee and is a member of Genome Canada's Science Advisory Committee. He has served on the Institute Advisory Board of the CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research, was part of the Royal Society of Canada's Expert Panel on the Future of Food Biotechnology (2001), and was a member of the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee (1998-2005). He is also an editor of the Health Law Journal and the Health Law Review, teaches Law and Medicine in the Faculty of Law, and provides health law lectures for other faculties.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Psychology at Saint Mary 's University
Veronica Stinson is a Professor of Psychology at Saint Mary's University in Halifax. She has been involved in research ethics since the mid-late 1990s, serving on the Saint Mary's University Research Ethics Board as a member, vice-chair, and chair for several years. Her efforts have been directed at working collaboratively with scholars on research ethics challenges, especially those involving some types of international development research projects and student research.
Job Titles:
- Professor and Professor of Law at the University of Windsor