Dr. Katharine Smart has worked in pediatrics for more than 20 years. She moved to Whitehorse (Yukon) to implement a new collaborative model of pediatric care to serve marginalized children. She works primarily with children who have experienced trauma and adverse childhood events.

Prior to moving Canada’s North, Dr. Smart was a pediatric emergency medicine physician at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary and the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. She currently serves as CMA president, the 10th woman to access the role in 154 years.

The executive director at Black Creek Community Health Centre in Toronto, Cheryl strives to ensure equitable access to health services for vulnerable populations. A dedicated community leader for over 25 years, she is a coalition builder, bringing together diverse stakeholders in community development initiatives that reflect the needs of the population. She facilitates Community-Academic partnerships in research that builds evidence to inform policy and innovative approaches to complex problems in marginalized communities. Current leadership roles include co-chair of the Northwestern Toronto Ontario Health Team, advisory member of the York University Community Engagement Centre and the SeroMark Immunity Project, and member of the board of directors of the Canadian Mental Health Association (Toronto).
During the course of the pandemic, Cheryl and the Black Creek CHC team played an integral role in advocating for equitable healthcare supports, including accessible testing and vaccinations, for residents of Northwest Toronto. As a key partner in the Black Community Vaccine Initiative, her team worked tirelessly with community partners to decrease barriers to testing and vaccine access for members of the Black community in NW Toronto and across the GTA. For these efforts, Cheryl was recognized by the Jamaican Canadian Association with a Community Service Award and by the Dalla Lana School of Public Health as a Pillar of the Pandemic.
Cheryl has an academic background in Biochemistry, with graduate degrees from the Universities of Ottawa and Toronto. She also obtained certificates in healthcare and non-profit management from the Rotman School of Management, Schulich School of Business and Harvard Business School. In her spare time, she enjoys travel and time spent with family and friends to maintain an optimal work-life balance.

Dr. Dante Morra is a transformational leader who serves as the Chief of Staff and President of Trillium Health Solutions at Trillium Health Partners, one of Canada’s largest academically affiliated hospitals serving Mississauga, West Toronto and the surrounding communities. Dr. Morra is a specialist in internal medicine and also holds a Master of Business Administration. He is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and an Adjunct Professor at the Rotman School of Management. Dr. Morra is an internationally recognized leader in hospital process improvement, healthcare innovation and effective allocation of resources. His work in system transformation has been recognized with numerous individual and team awards including the 3M National Quality Award and the Goldie Award for Leadership. Dr. Morra is the founder and lead of the Canhealth Network which is a national platform focused on scaling Canadian Health technology companies. He is an award winning teacher and has a passion for teaching clinical medicine and health system transformation.

Photo credit: Yuri Markarov

Danyaal Raza is a family physician with Unity Health Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital, and Assistant Professor with the University of Toronto’s Department of Family & Community Medicine. His work as a health reformer and advocate focuses on public-private health care, access to medications, and work & wealth.

Dr. Raza serves as the Social Accountability Faculty Lead for the Department of Family & Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, is a Fellow of the Broadbent Institute, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Atkinson Foundation. He is a past Chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare, and founding physician lead of the Sumac Creek Health Centre in Toronto’s Regent Park.

Danyaal is a recipient of the Western University School of Medicine & Dentistry’s Dean's Distinguished Lecture, and in 2021 was named to The Medical Post’s ‘Power List’ as an influential physician voice in Canadian health policy. In addition to his academic publications, his writing and analysis appear in print and broadcast media.

When I was a child, I dreamed of working at The Globe and Mail. So it's pretty special to have recently celebrated 10 years with the paper. I arrived here from Ottawa, where I was a Parliamentary reporter specializing in consumer issues for the now-defunct CanWest News Service. In that role, I naturally gravitated toward the health side of consumer issues: product safety, food recalls, new Health Canada rulings on medications. When I started working at the Globe, I sharpened my focus on health and love that I get to spend my time writing about issues that touch the lives of all Canadians. I'm originally from Sault Ste. Marie, or "The Soo." I even got my first byline at age 15 in the Sault Star as a teen writer! These days, when I'm not writing stories, I'm busy having fun with my husband and one-year-old son.

Nadeem Esmail is a Senior Fellow of the Fraser Institute. He first joined the Fraser Institute in 2001, served as Director of Health System Performance Studies from 2006 to 2009, and has been a Senior Fellow since 2010. Mr. Esmail has spearheaded critical Fraser Institute research including the annual Waiting Your Turn survey of surgical wait times across Canada and How Good Is Canadian Health Care?, an international comparison of health care systems. In addition, Mr. Esmail has authored or co-authored more than 30 comprehensive studies and more than 150 articles on a wide range of topics including the cost of public health care insurance, international comparisons of health care systems, hospital performance, medical technology, and physician shortages. A frequent commentator on radio and TV, Mr. Esmail's articles have appeared in newspapers across North America. Mr. Esmail completed his B.A. (Honours) in Economics at the University of Calgary and received an M.A. in Economics from the University of British Columbia.

Craig Conoley is a Millennial, media arts educator and video producer in Ottawa. When the COVID-19 pandemic first emerged, he had to balance his business while caring full-time for his mother, battling stage 4 glioblastoma, and his father, dying of liver failure. During that period, Craig successfully donated a portion of his liver to his father but ended up losing his mother to the cancer. He now advocates for compassionate care, quality of death, and patient and family rights in Canada’s health care system.