Board of Directors

Dr. Robert Bell is an internationally recognized orthopaedic surgeon, health system executive, and clinician-scientist with more than 40 years of health care experience. Dr. Bell was Ontario’s Deputy Minister of Health from 2014 – 2018, prior to which he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the University Health Network for nine years. He was previously the Chief Operating Officer at Princess Margaret Hospital, the Chair of Cancer Care Ontario’s Clinical Council and the Cancer Quality Council of Ontario. Dr. Bell received his Doctor of Medicine from McGill University and a Master of Science from the University of Toronto. He achieved his Fellowship in Orthopaedic Surgery in 1983. He completed training in Orthopaedic Cancer Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University in 1985, and the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2005. Dr. Bell is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the American College of Surgeons and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Guy Bujold is a consulting retired senior executive. He served as Chair of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP from September 2017 to January 2019. Since retiring from CANARIE Inc., where he was President and CEO from October 2008 to February 2010, Mr. Bujold has provided strategic advice to private and public sector clients in the areas of policy, program development and uptake, and communications. Mr. Bujold held a number of senior positions in the federal public service including President of the Canadian Space Agency; Assistant Deputy Minister responsible for Special Projects in the Deputy Minister’s Office, Assistant Deputy Minister of the Science and Innovation Sector, and Assistant Deputy Minister of the Operations Sector at Industry Canada; Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy and Communications at Infrastructure Canada; Deputy Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard; and Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services for the Department of Finance and Treasury Board Secretariat.

Dr. Anne Martin-Matthews is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at The University of British Columbia, where she has held a variety of roles, including Associate Dean of Research and Dean pro tem in the Faculty of Arts, and the inaugural Associate Vice President – Health (2019 – 2022). She served the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) on secondment as Acting Vice-President of Research, Knowledge Translation and Ethics (2017 – 2018). Throughout her 45-year career, Dr. Martin-Matthews’ research has focused on aging and old age, social care and health, and home care. As Scientific Director of CIHR’s Institute of Aging from 2004 – 2011, she championed the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging, the Mobility in Aging strategic initiative, and established CIHR’s Summer Programme in Aging. She is the former Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal on Aging and President of the Research Committee on Aging, International Sociological Association. Dr. Martin-Matthews holds a PhD from McMaster University and honourary degrees from Newcastle University (UK) and her alma mater, Memorial University of Newfoundland. In 2018, she was inducted as an Officer of the Order of Canada, in recognition of her research contributions on aging.

A corporate director and Fellow Chartered Professional Accountant by training, Barbara Stymiest is a former member of the Group Executive for the Royal Bank of Canada, a former CEO of TMX Group Inc., Executive Vice-President and CFO at BMO Capital Markets and Partner of Ernst & Young LLP.

Ms. Stymiest is a member of the Boards of George Weston Limited, President’s Choice Bank and Sun Life Financial Inc. She is also a director of Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and a Director and Vice-Chair of AGE-WELL NCE Inc. since its inception.

Christina Weise is the Interim Executive Director of the National Alliance for Provincial Health Research Organizations. She is a public administrator with more than 20 years of experience developing and implementing public policy in the areas of research and innovation, and in managing funds and programs to support research. Previously, she was CEO of Research Manitoba, which promotes and provides support for research in health, natural and social sciences, engineering, and humanities in Manitoba. Prior to joining Research Manitoba, Christina was with the Manitoba Department of Innovation, Energy and Mines as Director of Research and Innovation Policy, where she oversaw the administration of over $20 million to support research in Manitoba. Christina serves on numerous boards, including as Vice Chair of the Institute Advisory Board with the Institute of Health Services and Policy Research, and as a member of the Dean’s External Advisory Committee for the Faculty of Science at the University of Manitoba; of the Health in Common Board of Directors; and of the Advisory Council for the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. Christina has a Master’s degree in public administration from the University of Manitoba.

Don MacDonald spent his younger years growing up in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia but has called Newfoundland and Labrador his home since 1974. He earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics/statistics, graduate diploma in clinical epidemiology, and his Masters and PhD in community health/epidemiology, all from Memorial University. Don’s graduate work focused primarily on the advancement of technology in the health care system, with a focus on Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) and community pharmacy networks. Before retiring in 2023, Don worked for 31 years in the health  data environment, and in his final role he was the Vice-President of Data and Information Services at the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information. In this role, Don oversaw the creation of the province’s health data lab and initiated work on the development of a health and social data governance model for the province. Don lives in the Goulds with his wife Susan and their two dogs, Harry and Luna.

Dr. Jeannie Shoveller is a Professor in the Dept. of Community Health & Epidemiology at Dalhousie University. In 2020 and 2021, she also served as the Vice-President Research, IWK Health. Prior to that, she was a Professor at UBC’s School of Population & Public Health. Dr. Shoveller is a leading researcher focusing on the social contexts of health inequities.

She has served in numerous science leadership roles, including as the: Chair of CHIR’s Governing Council; Director of Research at the BC Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU); Associate Director and Director of Research at the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity; Director of Epidemiology & Population Health and the Drug Treatment Program with the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

In January 2022, Dr. Shoveller stepped back from most of her full-time professional responsibilities to provide in-home healthcare for her mother.

Dr. Josette-Renée Landry is the President and CEO of Génome Québec, an adjunct professor with the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Health Sciences, and an adjunct professor with the University of Montreal’s Faculty of Medicine. She was previously the CEO of the Montfort Institute of Knowledge and Vice President, Research and Education at Montfort Hospital, as well as Vice-President, Business Development for Mitacs. She is also the founder of Streamline Genetics, a digital health company. Dr. Landry received her PhD in Genetics from the University of British Columbia, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Cambridge. She holds an MBA from HEC Montréal and has served on a diverse roster of academic, industry and research committees.

Dr. Mahadeo Sukhai is an adjunct faculty in the Department of Ophthalmology at Queens University’s School of Medicine and the world’s first congenitally blind biomedical research scientist. He is the Director of Research and Chief Inclusion and Accessibility Officer for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, where he leads a research program focused on social determinants of health and inclusion for people living with sight loss in Canada. There he is responsible for organizational employee culture-building strategy related to inclusion, accessibility and employee wellness. Dr. Sukhai is co-author of Creating a Culture of Accessibility in the Sciences, a book based on his groundbreaking work on access to science within higher education. He serves as the principal investigator for national projects to understand the student experience for persons with disabilities and to examine accessibility and inclusion within science education and health care. Dr. Sukhai co-founded IDEA-STEM, an organization dedicated to accessibility in science education, and NOVA, the International Network of Researchers with Visual Impairments and their Allies, a new professional society with the mission to improve accessibility and inclusion in the biomedical sciences for researchers with vision loss.

Dr. Rebecca Fuhrer is a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health at McGill University, where she served as Department Chair and inaugural Director of the Master of Science in Public Health program. She was awarded the Canada Research Chair in Psychosocial Epidemiology in 2004 and has held academic positions at University College London, INSERM (Paris) and the Harvard School of Public Health. She was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2012. Dr. Fuhrer’s research centres on social determinants of mental disorders, cognitive aging, and the population-level impact of mental health services. Throughout her career, she has focused on the importance of the integrity of health and medical data collected and used for evidence-informed clinical and public health decision-making, and how state-of-the-art technologies can be harnessed to ensure optimal quality and improved access. Dr. Fuhrer holds a PhD and MSc in Medical Information Science from the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Teresa Scassa’s research explores the intersection of law and technology, and she draws upon interdisciplinary approaches and networks in her work. She has written widely about intellectual property and privacy law issues in a broad range of contexts. Her ongoing research projects are on artificial intelligence and the law, data governance, data privacy, and legal dimensions of data scraping.

Dr. Scassa is a member of Canada’s Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence, a member of the Law Commission of Ontario’s Advisory Panel on the AI in Civil and Administrative Justice Project, and currently sits on two data policy-related working groups in Ontario. She is a past member of the Canadian Government Advisory Panel on Open Government and of the External Advisory Committee to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.