Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman (she/her) is the Past President of the Ontario Medical Association and a practicing allergist and clinical immunologist in the Greater Toronto Area. She serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor of the School of Medicine at the Toronto Metropolitan University, and an adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor in Pediatrics at McMaster University. Dr. Abdurrahman earned her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Toronto and completed her pediatrics residency and subspecialty training in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at McMaster University. She also holds a Master’s degree in Statistics with a specialization in Biostatistics. Deeply committed to advancing health equity, she has been a key contributor to the Black Scientists Taskforce on COVID-19 Vaccination Equity and the Black Health & Vaccine Initiative, in partnership with the Black Physicians’ Association of Ontario (BPAO). Beyond equity work, Dr. Abdurrahman is passionate about the intersection of technology and medicine. She is dedicated to leveraging innovation to enhance patient care and is a strong advocate for advancing the medical profession through inclusive leadership and systemic change.

Dr. Amany Asfour is a distinguished physician, business leader, and international advocate with more than 30 years of experience advancing women’s empowerment, gender equality, and public health across Africa and beyond. A paediatrician by training, she has successfully bridged medicine, entrepreneurship, and policy advocacy to champion the social and economic advancement of women and girls.

Dr. Asfour graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, and earned her Master’s and MD degrees in Pediatrics from Egypt’s National Research Centre. While still a medical student, she entered the private sector and went on to establish a successful healthcare management and medical equipment company.

Guided by her belief that women’s financial independence is key to their power of choice and voice, Dr. Asfour has focused her work on women’s economic empowerment, capacity building, human resource development, and equal access to education and training. She is a strong proponent of STEM education for girls and the promotion of women in science and technology.

Her advocacy also spans the prevention of gender-based violence and the elimination of harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage. Through leadership at global, regional, and grassroots levels, she has mobilized institutions to integrate gender equality into health, business, and development agendas.

Dr. Asfour has held numerous leadership roles, including President of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women (2017–2021), Chair of the COMESA Business Council (2014–2018), President of the Egyptian Business Women Association, and Chair of FEMNET. She is the Founder of the African Paediatric Nephrology Association and the Hatshepsut Women Business Development Centre and Incubator.

Within the African Union framework, she is a Board Member of Africa CDC and has served as a member of the African Union Foundation, and as the President of the Africa Business Council.

Dr. Asfour has received numerous national, regional, and international honours in recognition of her contributions to health, women’s leadership, and sustainable development, including awards from the Egyptian Government, the African Union and other African institutions, the Arab League and Islamic organizations, as well as international women’s and business associations.

Eliza Chin, MD, MPH is Executive Director and Past President of the American Medical Women's Association and Treasurer of the Medical Women's International Association

Ruth Collins-Nakai, CM, MD, MBA, FRCPC, FCCS, MACC, ICD.D, DSc (Hon), Professor Emerita Pediatric and adult congenital cardiologist “Dr. Ruth” joined the faculty of the University of Alberta in 1977, serving in various academic positions, including Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Dean of Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine where she established the Heritage Pediatric Cardiology Program. The recipient of many awards, Dr. Collins-Nakai has worked at local, provincial, national and international levels in healthcare, education, research and philanthropy, and has served as a consultant, and as board director on such boards as Alberta Health Services and Genome Alberta, and in various leadership initiatives, often as the first woman. She served as Honorary Colonel for 1 Field Ambulance, Canadian Armed Forces until 2023. While she no longer does clinical work, she serves on several biotechnology and philanthropic boards and strives to serve her community well. She was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in December 2016.

Meseret Haileyesus is a Global executive, and economic security futurist, policy strategist and health equity advocate. She is the first Canadian bringing economic harm into public policy discourse. She is the CEO of the Canadian Centre for Women’s Empowerment and has also co-founded several organizations in digital health, maternal health, and AI inclusion for Black Community. With more than 24 years of experience, Meseret works at the intersection of global health, maternal and newborn health, infectious disease prevention, financial inclusion, economic security, GBV, and public policy. Her leadership focuses on advancing health equity, financial safety, and systemic reform through research, policy influence, regulation, technology, and community-based innovation to protect women. She has called for national and international policy responses to economic harm, financial exploitation including before Parliament, the Senate, and provincial legislatures. She also contributes to international working groups and policy spaces connected to organizations such as the WHO, UN-Habitat, and UNDP. Her work has helped shape key policy conversations, including Bill 41 and Canada’s emerging national response to economic abuse within financial systems. Over the past year, she has been a leading advocate for a Code of Conduct for financial institutions to prevent and respond to economic abuse. Meseret has contributed to Canada’s national gender-based violence strategy, financial literacy strategy, and Canada’s international advocacy at the United Nations for the recognition and inclusion of economic abuse in global policy discussions. In 2025, she was invited by the Minister of Finance to deliver keynote remarks in Parliament during the federal budget pre-announcement on Canada’s first national Code of Conduct addressing economic abuse and the development of stronger anti-fraud institutions. Meseret collaborates with governments, regulators, financial institutions, international organizations, health sectors and civil society to advance ethical banking, survivor-centred financial systems, fraud prevention, and inclusive economic policy. Her work connects economic security to public health, gender equality, digital safety, and long-term social protection. She has presented her work at the United Nations, the European Union, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, and her advocacy has helped expand awareness of economic harm across Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Meseret currently serves on several global, national, and policy advisory boards. Her leadership has been recognized with more than 25 awards, including the 2025 Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case, and her work has been featured in Forbes.

Dr. Brenda Hemmelgarn is Dean and Vice-Provost, College of Health Sciences, and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Alberta. Dr Hemmelgarn has a PhD in epidemiology and subspecialty training in nephrology. She continues to practise clinically to maintain front-line experience in health care and an in-depth perspective on health-care issues. For more than 35 years, Dr. Hemmelgarn has served in a variety of roles across health care, academics and administration. She is a strong advocate for patient engagement, patient-oriented research and integrated knowledge translation as well as social accountability. Among her many awards and honours, Dr. Hemmelgarn received the Alberta Science and Technology Leadership (ASTech) Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Health Innovation and is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Dr. Horn is Kanienkeha:ka. Her mother is from Kahnawake, Qué., and her father is from Akwesasne, which saddles the borders of Ontario, Québec and New York State. She works as a family physician taking care of her people through all stages of the lifecycle. Supervising medical students and family medicine residents during their rural rotations in Akwesasne, she emphasizes the complexities of providing primary care to Indigenous peoples and their communities. Drawing on both Western and traditional paradigms, working with like-minded physicians across the country, with a focus on the effects of the environment and pollution on health, Dr. Horn promotes the inclusion and support of traditional knowledge and “ways of being” in a framework for providing holistic and primary care to her people.

Dr. Sayra Khandekar is the Assistant Registrar for Registration at the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA). She graduated from Stanford University and Tulane University School of Medicine and completed post graduate training at the University of Tennessee and the University of Alberta. She has her MBA in Healthcare Leadership and Management from the University of Texas at Dallas. She is a cardiologist and practiced at the Misericordia Hospital and the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton. She has held previous leadership roles at Covenant Health, the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association and Alberta Health Services before joining CPSA full time in January 2025.

Dr. Ladha is Assistant Professor, the Director of EDI for Postgraduate Medical Education at the University of Alberta, and Co-Director of Research and Evaluation at the New Canadians Health Centre, Edmonton's refugee clinic. She is a specialist in pediatrics with a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and has expertise in health equity, anti-racism, and community engaged research. She was awarded the QEII Platinum Jubilee Medal in 2022 for her tireless advocacy during the pandemic which included media engagements at the local, national and international level. In 2024, she received the Women's Executive Network National EDI leader Award for championing EDI initiatives in medical education, research, and healthcare delivery.

Vision for Social Accountability
Dr. Ladha is passionate about policy change that addresses health and social inequities with a view towards social justice. She prioritizes co-creation of research and policy initiatives with impacted populations so that their voices are prioritized. She believes building connections within and outside the walls of academic institutions is integral to diminishing polarization and creating more unified and equitable communities.

Hobbies + Interests
Dr. Ladha loves to travel, explore new recipes and restaurants, and meet new people. When she's at home, you'll find her with her head in a book. She is inspired by the power of storytelling and would love to write her own stories one day.

Award-Winning Physician. National Health Leader.
System Disruptor and Fixer.
Named Maclean’s top Health Care Innovator of 2023, Dr. Alika Lafontaine is among the most influential voices in Canadian medicine today. A seasoned anesthesiologist and transformative leader, he made history as the first Indigenous and youngest physician to serve as President of the Canadian Medical Association—an institution more than 150 years old. His bold, visionary leadership continues to shape how Canadians think about healthcare, equity, and the future of our public systems.

Dr. Malhotra grew up in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and once she completed her residency at the University of Manitoba, she created and completed a third year family medicine residency program in women’s health. She moved to Vancouver to take on the role of Medical Director of Options for Sexual Health. She held this role for 5 years overseeing (at that time) over 60 clinics focusing one rural and remote access to care. She then took on the role of Chair at the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Foundation arm for 2 years, which resulted in her being awarded the Western Canadian SOGC Achievement award. In parallel, still working towards increased access for rural and remote communities, she co-created the UBC women’s health third year residency program for rural and remote Family Medicine residents, which moved an urban hospital program to an accredited provincial one. She was Program Director for 10 years, helping to fill care gaps province wide.
Dr. Malhotra was Medical Officer of Women’s Health at the First Nations Health Authority from 2017 – 2025. This has allowed her to focus heavily on access, equity and patient rights. In this position she contributed to introducing HPV self collection to First Nations Communities, she co-authored a joint statement and provincial standards with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC.

She has testified twice at the Canadian Senate on Consent and has created provider materials and a tool kit in collaboration with First Nations leaders. This work has led to her being awarded the National Reproductive Health Award (Federation of Medical Women), being named one of Canada’s most inspiring 50 under 50 Indo Canadians in 2023, and receiving the King Charles III Coronation Medal by the Honourable Senator Yvonne Boyer.

Dr. Seema Marwaha is a general internal medicine physician, educator, and journalist dedicated to bridging the worlds of medicine and media to advance health equity, empower patients, and transform the way health is communicated to both patients and the public. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Deputy Site Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Program at St. Michael’s Hospital, and Site Lead for the GIM Fellowship Program.

Born and raised in Edmonton, she completed her undergraduate and medical training at the University of Alberta before moving to Toronto for residency and fellowship. She later received the Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship to pursue a Master’s in Education at Harvard, specializing in technology and innovation, and completed a Fellowship in Global Journalism at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Since 2019, she has served as Editor-in-Chief of the national publication Healthy Debate, where she has built an innovative communication and advocacy training program for health professionals. She has also contributed regularly to CBC, Post Media, the Canadian Press and Maclean’s. Her academic work centers on healthcare storytelling, patient experience education, advocacy, anti-racism, and the innovative use of technology in health education.

Outside of medicine, she is a music lover, avid traveler, and proud mother of two boys.

Dr. Shazma Mithani is an Emergency Physician in Edmonton, Alberta, practicing both adult and pediatric emergency medicine. She completed medical school at Western University and her Emergency Medicine residency at the University of Alberta, where she has practiced since 2014. Dr. Mithani is widely recognized for her work in health education and advocacy through her roles with the Canadian Medical Association, Alberta Medical Association, and her large social media platform. She is also the co-host of The Doc Talk Podcast, where she breaks down complex health topics for the public. Her work has earned national recognition, including Edify Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40, the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal, and multiple national advocacy and media engagement awards.

Jennifer Ringrose is a General Internist practicing at the University of Alberta. She is the current Divisional Director for General Internal Medicine, the director of the Hypertension and Dyslipidemia Clinic at the University of Alberta, the president of the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine and the Canadian Hypertension Specialists Society. Her outpatient practice is focused on hypertension and optimizing cardiovascular risk factors.

Dr. Suzanne Shoush is a First Nations/Black physician, mother, and advocate who lives and works in Toronto’s downtown core where she has spent more than a decade working in the city’s shelter systems. She is also the inaugural Director of Indigenous Health Program for Inner City Health Associates (ICHA), and the Indigenous Health Faculty Lead for the Department of Family and Community Medicine with the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine.

As the inaugural Director of Indigenous Health Program for ICHA, Suzanne is the lead physician for community and culture-based, trauma informed, culturally safe, and low barrier comprehensive primary care clinics including Nameres, Auduzhe Mino Nesewinong, Ode’I min, the Call Auntie Clinic, and the Indigenous Health Organization Outreach Program (IHOOP). She is also the Indigenous Health Faculty Lead for the Department of Family and Community Medicine with the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine.

Dr. Shoush has degrees in both Engineering and Medicine. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Mathematical Modelling at the University of Toronto Institute for Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation.

Dr. Shoush grew up in Alberta, her mother is Li’wat Coast Salish, and her father is Sudanese. In addition to her work in Toronto’s shelter systems, she has also worked throughout Ontario in rural and remote communities as a rural family physician.

Dr. Modupe Tunde-Byass is the president of the Federation of Medical Women of Canada. She is the inaugural and Past President of Black Physicians of Canada. She is the Chair of the Governance Committee of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.

Dr. Tunde-Byass is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada and the UK. She completed her OBGYN training in the UK and Canada. She received special interest training in Maternal and Fetal Medicine at King’s College, London. UK. She has been an active staff at NYGH since 2004. She is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Toronto and a graduate of the New Evolving Academic Leadership (NEAL) program at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Tunde-Byass has held major administrative positions like Residency site coordinator and Interim Chief of OBGYN at NYGH. She is involved in key quality initiatives at the Local and Provincial levels. She was the Co-chair for the Quality Standard on Increasing access to Vaginal Birth After Cesarean section and an expert panel member for Early pregnancy complications and loss (Joint projects of PCMCH and HQO). She is the Co-Chair of Maternal Newborn Outcome Committee at Better Outcome Registry Network (BORN). She has received numerous teachings and innovation awards.

She is involved in medical education and passionate about EDI and Anti-Black Racism. She is passionate about maternal mortality, morbidity and birthing experiences in the Black population. She has made many media appearances including a CBC documentary series For the Culture with Amanda Parris exploring Black maternal deaths. She is the co-author of Achieving equity in reproductive care and birth outcomes for Black people. CMAJ 2024.

Her research interest is in Early pregnancy complications and Quality improvement and patient safety initiatives like decreasing CS rate by increasing access to trial of labour after Caesarean section. She has presented some of her research at international conferences and has publications in peer review journals. She was the recipient of the 2022 Postgraduate medical education, University of Toronto Social responsibility award. She is co-founder of Women Health Education Made Simple (WHEMS).

Dr. Malhotra grew up in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and once she completed her residency at the University of Manitoba, she created and completed a third year family medicine residency program in women’s health. She moved to Vancouver to take on the role of Medical Director of Options for Sexual Health. She held this role for 5 years overseeing (at that time) over 60 clinics focusing one rural and remote access to care. She then took on the role of Chair at the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Foundation arm for 2 years, which resulted in her being awarded the Western Canadian SOGC Achievement award. In parallel, still working towards increased access for rural and remote communities, she co-created the UBC women’s health third year residency program for rural and remote Family Medicine residents, which moved an urban hospital program to an accredited provincial one. She was Program Director for 10 years, helping to fill care gaps province wide.
Dr. Malhotra was Medical Officer of Women’s Health at the First Nations Health Authority from 2017 – 2025. This has allowed her to focus heavily on access, equity and patient rights. In this position she contributed to introducing HPV self collection to First Nations Communities, she co-authored a joint statement and provincial standards with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC.

She has testified twice at the Canadian Senate on Consent and has created provider materials and a tool kit in collaboration with First Nations leaders. This work has led to her being awarded the National Reproductive Health Award (Federation of Medical Women), being named one of Canada’s most inspiring 50 under 50 Indo Canadians in 2023, and receiving the King Charles III Coronation Medal by the Honourable Senator Yvonne Boyer.

Sabina Vohra-Miller has an MSc in clinical pharmacology and toxicology and is currently a Doctor of Public Health candidate at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. She is the founder of Unambiguous Science, an educational platform that aims to make science approachable, and the co-founder of the South Asian Health Network, a volunteer-based organization focusing on culturally appropriate health education content and advocacy. She is also the co-founder of the Vohra Miller Foundation, a philanthropic endeavor with the goal of making systemic, sustainable, and meaningful changes to healthcare in Canada. Sabina’s passions include science education, especially countering vaccine misinformation, and promoting and advocating for health equity and access to healthcare. In 2021 she was named as one of Canada’s 20 Vaccine Heroes by The Toronto Star and hailed as a ‘Misinformation Fighter’ with her science platform named as “a go-to resource for objective, dispassionate and easy-to-understand information on everything COVID, from vaccinations, testing and masks, to definitions, mythbusting and variants”. She also hosted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for a special social-media-based webinar on ‘Vaccines for Kids’. Sabina has given numerous talks on science communication on social media, ranging from doctoral level public health students to health researchers, clinical investigators and family health teams as well as Health Promotion Ontario, an arm of the Ontario Public Health Association. She sits on the steering committee for the Ontario Health System Awards where she takes lead on the ‘Excellence in Health Communications Award’. Sabina is also a prolific writer, having published over two dozen pieces in traditional news media as well as digital health publications such as the Conversation and Healthy Debate and is regularly interviewed for health-related media articles in a variety of print, radio and TV media outlets across Canada.

Dr. Verna Yiu is known as one of Canada’s most respected academic and healthcare leaders and has advised health care systems across the country as well as across the globe. Dr. Yiu is currently Provost and Vice President Academic at the University of Alberta. Her past leadership roles included being the first female dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta, Vice Dean in Faculty Affairs and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs. She then shifted leadership into the healthcare system in 2012 being appointed as the Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Quality in Alberta Health Services (AHS). In 2016, she took over the role of President and CEO of AHS, the largest integrated province wide healthcare system in Canada and remains as the longest serving leader in that role for over 6 years. Dr. Yiu has spent more than 2 decades in leadership, spanning academia to the healthcare system. In Dr. Yiu’s 6 year tenure as President/CEO, AHS was named as one of the Canada’s Top 100 Employers for 4 consecutive years along with other employer awards including Best Diversity Employer, Best Employer for Young People, and Alberta’s Top 70 Employer. Other accomplishments include optimizing integration of care within the province, so much so as to receive acknowledgement from the International Society of Integrated Care that AHS was in the top 5 most integrated systems in the world in 2018. Other included: improving efficiencies for a sustainable healthcare system, implementation of a province wide electronic medical record system and led AHS in 2019-2022 in its response to one of the worse public health crisis we will ever know in our lifetime, COVID19. As Provost and VPA for University of Alberta since 2022, she led the creation of the 10 year university strategic plan called SHAPE (launched in 2023) followed by 3 year action plans. She co-led the development of the People Strategy, institutional values and oversaw the creation of a new activity based budget model for the university. A professor of Pediatrics in the division of pediatric nephrology, Dr. Yiu is an alumni of both University of Alberta and Harvard University. Her research is focused on health systems and most recently, she is part of a team of researchers looking at creating smartwear for those requiring additional strength supports. She continues to work on the front lines, providing care to young patients and their families at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton. Dr. Yiu has won numerous awards including: Global Woman of Vision in 2019, second on the Medical Post’s 2021 Power list of physicians in Canada, the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal (in recognition of significant contributions to Alberta 2022), Physician of the Year award (from the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association 2022) and most recently the Graduate Student Association Citation Award in 2023. She has also received recognition through multiple lectureships including Convocation Speaker for the University of Calgary (2022), the Garner King Memorial Lecture (2023) and the Cy Frank Memorial Lecture (2025). She is currently the Board Chair for the Canadian Institute of Healthcare Information and Vice Board Chair for Health Workforce Canada, both national organizations that aims to improve health data for better health outcomes for Canadians. She is also sits as on the board of directors of EPCOR, an unique governance board where the unanimous shareholder is the City of Edmonton.

Dr. Samra Zafar is an award-winning speaker, bestselling author, and physician specializing in psychiatry. Her work explores the intersection of resilience, leadership, and human connection. Drawing from both her clinical practice and her own journey of overcoming extraordinary barriers after escaping an abusive child marriage, she offers a compelling perspective on navigating adversity, embracing change, and leading with authenticity. Her experiences taught her that our greatest growth often begins in life’s most difficult moments, and that resilience is built not through perfection, but through courage, compassion, and the willingness to take the next step. Today, she combines neuroscience, psychology, and powerful storytelling to help leaders build resilience, foster belonging, and create meaningful impact. Dr. Zafar has been recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women and Top 25 Most Inspirational Women. Her message inspires audiences to rethink what is possible, transform adversity into opportunity, and lead with confidence, empathy, and purpose.