“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
~Margaret Mead
We are a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals with the common purpose of making the health system work better for the people it is designed to serve, with a foundation in primary care. Though we all have multiple circles of influence that include professional associations and affiliations, our goal in coming together is to take responsibility as leaders to initiate and inspire improvements from the front line to the policy level. We are looking to inspire a movement of people to lead change toward realizing our shared vision and co-designing a sustainable, patient-centred integrated health and social care system. We are seeking diverse perspectives on how to achieve it. Please connect with us through the survey link in the white paper.
Dr. Rob Annis
Rob Annis has been a general practitioner in Listowel, Ontario for the last 26 years, working in association with the North Perth Family Health Team. He is currently on the Section of General and Family Practice Executive, and the Association of Family Health Teams Board. He has held a number of leadership positions, including: Board Member for the Ontario Telemedicine Network, the SW LHIN Clinical Quality Lead, SW LHIN Primary Care Lead, the, the Primary Care Lead for the SW Regional Cancer Program, and the Chief of Staff of the Listowel Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Mira Backo-Shannon
Mira Backo-Shannon has been a practising family physician for 20 years. She has held numerous leadership positions in hospitals, primary care, and provincial work. She is currently the VP, Clinical, Health System Strategy, Planning and Integration for Ontario Health Central Region. She also supports the Mississauga OHT as Executive Lead. Mira also holds teaching positions with the University of Toronto and McMaster University. She is committed to furthering healthcare system design and policy development for improved health and wellness delivery for all.
Dr. Jocelyn Charles
Jocelyn Charles is a family physician in the Sunnybrook Academic Family Health Team, the Primary Care Clinical Co-Lead for North Toronto and the Medical Director of the Veterans Program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. She helped to establish and currently leads the Provincial Primary Care Council, a community of practice for Ontario Health Team Primary Care Leads. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. Her clinical and academic work has been focused developing patient-centred models of care to meet the needs of patients with complex needs both in the community and in long term care. She was recently recognized by the College of Family Physicians of Canada as the Family Physician of the Year for Ontario.
Leanne Clarke
Leanne is the Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP). She joined the organization in 2013 to lead the OCFP’s 2014-2018 Strategic Plan, oversaw the OCFP’s policy portfolio, and became CEO in 2017. Prior to this she launched a pan-Canadian roadmap for a palliative approach to care, The Way Forward, supported by one-time funding from the Government of Canada. From 2007-2012, she was inaugural Vice President, Strategy, Performance Measures and Communications at the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC). She was responsible for measuring the impact of the cancer control strategy and for the portfolios of person-centred care, adolescents and young adults, First Nations, Inuit and Métis cancer control, and patient and public engagement. Leanne has worked in the non-profit, charitable and private sectors over the past 30 years.
Beth Cowper-Fung
Beth Cowper-Fung is a Primary Healthcare NP and Clinic Director at the Georgina Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic in Sutton Ontario. She has over 10 years experience providing full scope, primary healthcare to residents of all ages. Beth has also spent 9 years managing the clinical team as well as providing strategic and operational oversight and at the clinic. She is currently the Past President of the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario and is a past President of the Nurse Practitioners’ Association of Ontario (NPAO). She has served on multiple provincial committees including the Clinician Digital Health Council, Primary Care Sub-Committee informing the Premier’s Council on Improving Healthcare and is a member of the Primary Care Quality Advisory Committee.
Dr. Geordie Fallis
Geordie’s first leadership position was President of the Junior Red Cross of his Grade V class in 1960. Since then, it has been pretty much downhill. He has been a practicing Family Physician since 1977; a former Chief of Family Medicine at Michael Garron Hospital; and a former Clinical Lead for the Subregion of East Toronto in the Toronto Central LHIN. He believes that lasting healthcare transformation will occur when Primary Care is truly the focal point for change.
Dr. David M. Kaplan
David M. Kaplan is the Chief, Clinical Quality at Ontario Health (Quality). Additionally, he chairs the Primary Care Quality Advisory Committee, a group of leaders in Ontario that advises on the direction of Ontario Health’s primary care strategy. This includes establishing a comprehensive approach to supporting and motivating quality improvement in primary care, leveraging existing networks and key foundations already established within the sector.
David is a family physician who practices comprehensive family medicine at the North York Family Health Team.
He is the Vice-Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee at North York General and an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Tara Kiran
Tara Kiran has been practicing family medicine for over 15 years. She has held numerous leadership roles including Primary Care Physician Advisor for the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network, Provincial Clinical Lead for the Ontario Diabetes Strategy, and Board Chair for the St. Michael’s Hospital Academic Family Health Team where she has practiced for the last ten years. She is a clinician scientist and leads a program of research to improve quality in primary care. She is currently the Fidani Chair of Improvement and Innovation at the University of Toronto and Vice Chair for Quality and Innovation in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto.
Claudia Mariano
Claudia Mariano is a Primary Healthcare NP with 20+ years experience working with patients across the lifespan. She is a past President of the Nurse Practitioners’ Association of Ontario (NPAO), past Board member of the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario, and Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Toronto Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing. She is currently the Manager of Practice and Policy at the NPAO.
Kavita Mehta
Kavita Mehta is the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO). Prior to AFHTO, she was the Executive Director of the South East Toronto Family Health Team (SETFHT) for 9 years, a leading academic FHT that was awarded the Ontario College of Family Physicians Family Practice of the Year in 2012 and a recipient of a 20 Faces of Change in 2015. She started her work in primary care as a Senior Program Consultant at the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care Primary Healthcare Team where she participated in the policy and program development work for family health teams and primary care renewal. Kavita also served on the Change Foundation Board of Directors for the last five years and has been proud of the work they continue to do in pushing the patient co-designed integrated healthcare system needed in each local community.
Dr. Sarah Newbery
Sarah Newbery has been a rural physician in comprehensive community practice in Marathon since 1996 and is currently Chief of Staff of the North of Superior Healthcare Group She is a past President of the OCFP, past VP clinical of the Northwest LHIN and is currently Assistant Dean of Physician Workforce Strategy for the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. She has been involved in several provincial primary care related committees and is passionate about equitable access to primary care as the foundation of an integrated healthcare system.
Dr. Harry O’Halloran
Harry O’Halloran has been in General/Family Practice in Collingwood since 1986, and on staff at the Collingwood General and Marine Hospital throughout that time. He has held numerous leadership roles in Primary care including Chief of Family Practice at Collingwood General and Marine Hospital, Lead Physician of the Georgian Bay Family Health Organization, and Primary Care Physician LHIN Lead for NSM LHIN. He has been involved in multiple regional and provincial primary care initiatives and currently sits on the executive of the Section of General and Family Practice of the Ontario Medical Association.
Penny Paucha
Penny Paucha is the founder and principal of Instincts at Work, a neuroscience based leadership coaching and consulting firm transforming healthcare by evolving people’s thinking to meet the demands of complex systems. Penny facilitates the integration of primary care by engaging providers to create seamless systems of caring for patients. She is a trained mental health counsellor, an accredited coach with the Neuroleadership Institute and a faculty member with the Ontario College of Family Physicians and the Dorothy Wylie Health Leaders Institute.
Dr. Tia Pham
Thuy-Nga (Tia) Pham is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, teaches on Physician Leadership at the medical school and is strongly involved in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety within the residency program. She is a passionate advocate for frail older adults and has published on the need for a system’s approach to providing integrated homebased primary care. Dr Pham has been an invited lecturer internationally, promoting team-based primary care. She is heavily involved presently in driving forward her East Toronto Family Practice Network and the important role of family physicians in designing effective integrated health systems within the Ontario Health Teams.
Dr. David Price
David Price is a Family Physician who over the last 30 years, has practiced in both rural and urban settings. He has a particular interest in models of Primary Care and has advised Governments both in Canada and Internationally. He chairs Ontario’s Primary Care Advisory Table and is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University.
Dr. David Schieck
David Schieck has practiced comprehensive general family practice and long term care in Guelph since 2003. He has held various roles in primary care including Chief of the Department of Family Medicine at Guelph General Hospital and Guelph-Puslinch Subregion Clinical Lead Waterloo Wellington LHIN. He currently serves on the executive of the OMA Section on General and Family Practice.
Dr. Rebecca Van Iersel
Rebecca Van Iersel has worked as a family physician in the Orillia area since 2007. She is currently the Chief of Family Medicine at Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital (OSMH). She has previously served as the North Simcoe Muskoka (NSM) LHIN Vice-President Clinical, NSM HQO Regional Clinical Quality Lead, NSM Primary Care Lead, NSM Emergency Lead and a member of the Ontario Quality Standards Council.
Dr. Meredith Vanstone
Meredith Vanstone is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and a member of the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Her research addresses policy implications of health professional education and primary care practice.
Dr. Jennifer Young
Jennifer Young practices comprehensive family medicine in Collingwood since 1999 that includes part time Emergency Medicine, low risk obstetrics and hospitalist care. She has been in local leadership roles including Chief of Family Practice, Chief of Emergency and Quality Improvement Lead for our FHT. Jennifer has practiced in the developing world and in the Netherlands. She is the current President of the Ontario College of Family Physicians having been on its Board since 2011.