NACI Membership/Representation

Chairperson
Dr. Joanne Langley
IWK Health Centre and Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia

Joanne Langley is on the Faculty of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at Dalhousie University. She is Associate Centre Director of the Clinical Trials Research Centre - Infectious Diseases, a consultant in pediatric infectious diseases at the IWK Health Centre and medical director of Infection Control Services. She obtained a BA at Queen's University at Kingston and graduated from Dalhousie Medical School. Her pediatric training was done at the IWK Children's Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. She completed a Masters of Science in Clinical Epidemiology (Design, Measurement and Evaluation) at McMaster University and postgraduate training in pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children. Dr. Langley's research interests include various aspects of pediatric infectious diseases with a focus on respiratory infections, vaccine preventable diseases and infection control. She currently serves on the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), the Canadian Pediatric Infectious Disease Society Infectious Diseases and Immunization Committee and the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care.

Vice-Chair
Dr. Bryna Warshawsky
Middlesex-London Health Unit
London, Ontario

Bryna Warshawsky is the Associate Medical Officer of Health and Director, Communicable Disease and Sexual Health Services for the Middlesex-London Health Unit. She graduated from McGill University in Medicine in 1986. After working as a family practitioner for three years, she returned to the University of Toronto and obtained a Master's of Health Science Degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and a fellowship from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Community Medicine. She joined the Middlesex-London Health Unit in September 1994 where her main areas of responsibilities are the prevention and control of communicable diseases and development of sexual health programming. Her areas of interest include vaccine preventable diseases and outbreak management. She is cross-appointed in both the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Family Medicine at the University of Western Ontario.

MEMBERS

Dr. Curtis Cooper
The Ottawa Hospital
Ottawa, Ontario

Curtis Cooper trained at the University of Saskatchewan (MD 1994), the University of Manitoba (Internal Medicine 1997 and Infectious Diseases 1999), and the University of Ottawa (Canadian HIV Trials Network Research Fellowship 2002, He aquired his Masters of Epidemiology in 2002). He is currently an Associate Professor with the University of Ottawa, also working as an Infectious Diseases Consultant with the Ottawa Hospital Division of Infectious Diseases, and a Clinical Researcher with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. As a clinical researcher, his research activities encompass HIV, viral hepatitis, and vaccine / vaccine adjuvant development with a focus on influenza and hepatitis B. His work focuses on the development of new therapeutic agents and the delivery of treatment that maximizes safety, adherence and safety. A particular interest of his is in the evaluation of immunization in immune compromised populations and the development of new HCV therapeutics. He currently serves as Secretary of the Canadian Association of HIV Researchers in addition to numerous other research groups and committees.

Dr. Natasha Crowcroft
Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion
Toronto, Ontario

Natasha Crowcroft has an MA and MD (PhD) from the University of Cambridge, a medical degree (MB BS) and MSc from the University of London, and post graduate specialist qualifications in internal medicine and public health (MRCP, FFPH).

Natasha Crowcroft has worked internationally in several European programmes and as adviser to the World Health Organization on methods of estimating global burden of pertussis and neonatal tetanus. She was the first person selected to represent the UK in the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET) and is the founding President of the EPIET Alumni Network (EAN) which links public health epidemiologists across Europe. While working in Belgium 1995-1997 she undertook one of the first cross border projects completed between Belgium and France, a study of hantavirus infections. After this she worked for a decade in the Immunisation Department of the Health Protection Agency’s Centre for Infections as a national expert in vaccines, leading on surveillance of a number of diseases including diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis as well as vaccination coverage.

Natasha Crowcroft has also led incident responses to Lassa Fever, pioneered immunization training initiatives and has research interests in encephalitis and vaccine programme evaluation. Natasha came to Canada in 2007 and took up the position of Director, Surveillance and Epidemiology at the newly established Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion in 2008. She is a member of the Canadian National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) and Ontario’s Provincial Infectious Disease Advisory Committee Subgroup on Immunization.

Ms. Anita Hanrahan
Alberta Health Services
Edmonton, Alberta

Anita Hanrahan is a public health nurse and Director of Communicable Disease Control in the Capital Health Region of Alberta, an integrated health region providing services to approximately one million persons. She completed her Master of Nursing degree from the University of Alberta and is currently an Associate Faculty Member. Under the direction of the Medical Officer of Health, she is responsible for setting the strategic direction of, and standards for, the immunization program in the region, as well as assessing the immunization coverage rates achieved. In addition, she is responsible for the Sexually Transmitted Disease Centre, the Tuberculosis Clinic, Travellers Health Services and the Immunization Business Unit, Regional Infection Control, and the Communicable Disease Nurse Specialists. Anita is also a Facilitator for Health Canada's Skills Enhancement for Health Surveillance initiative.

Dr. Bonnie Henry
Centre for Disease Control and University of British Columbia
Vancouver, British Colombia

Bonnie Henry is currently the Director of Public Health Emergency Management with the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and is Medical Director for the provincial Emerging and Vectorborne Diseases program as well as a provincial program for surveillance and control of healthcare associated infections; a position she started in February of 2005. Previously she was Associate Medical Officer of Health for Toronto Public Health, where she was responsible for the Emergency Services Unit and the Communicable Disease Liaison Unit. She is a specialist in Community Medicine and is Board Certified in Preventive Medicine in the US. She graduated from Dalhousie Medical School and completed a Masters in Public Health in San Diego, residency training in preventive medicine at University of California, San Diego and in community medicine at University of Toronto. More recently, Dr Henry worked with the WHO/UNICEF Polio eradication program in Pakistan in 2000 and with the World Health Organisation to control the Ebola outbreak in Uganda in 2001. She joined Toronto Public Health in September 2001 and in 2003 was one of the leads in the response to the SARS outbreak in Toronto. She was on the executive of the Ontario SARS Scientific Advisory Committee and is an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine. She is currently the Chair of the Canadian Coalition for Immunization Awareness and Promotion where she has led the development of programs for the promotion of immunization throughout life.

Dr. Deepali Kumar
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta

Deepali Kumar is an Assistant Professor, University of Alberta Hospital, Department of Medicine, and is a consultant in Transplant Infectious Diseases.

Deepali Kumar obtained her MD and BSc from the University of Ottawa, where she also completed her internal medicine residency. Dr. Kumar then did her infectious diseases training at both the University of California-San Diego and McMaster University. She further trained in transplant infectious diseases and infections in the immunocompromised host and received a MSc at the University of Toronto. She was Assistant Professor and Active Staff at the University Health Network in Toronto till 2007.

Deepali Kumar's clinical and research interests focus on infections in the immunocompromised host include vaccine-preventable diseases, fungal infections, and respiratory viral infections in solid organ and bone marrow transplantation. She is executive member of the Infectious Diseases community of practice (2008-2010) and Transplant Infectious Diseases Study Group (TIDSG) of the American Society of Transplantation (AST). She also is member of the Canadian Standards’ Association technical committee for Tissue and Organ transplantation.

Dr. Shelly McNeil
QEII Health Sciences Centre
Halifax, Nova Scotia

Shelly McNeil is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and an Infectious Diseases Consultant at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Dr. McNeil completed her medical education at Dalhousie University followed by a three-year residency in Internal Medicine at Dalhousie and a three-year fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Shelly McNeil returned to Dalhouise as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in 2000 and is currently cross-appointed with the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. McNeil is a Clinical Investigator at the Clinical Trials Research Center and the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology, Halifax where her research focuses on the evaluation of vaccine-preventable diseases in the elderly and in pregnant women and early-phase clinical trials of new vaccines targeted at adult populations. Dr. McNeil has recently been awarded the Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine Clinical Research Scholar Award for the period 2005-2010.

Dr. Caroline Quach
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec

Caroline Quach is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and an associate member of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McGill University. She is the co-director of the McGill University Health Center Vaccine Study Center and works as a pediatric infectious diseases consultant and a medical microbiologist at The Montreal Children’s Hospital. She also has a cross-appointment at the Quebec Institute of Public Health.

Caroline Quach graduated from the Université de Montréal Medical School, did her pediatric training at Sainte-Justine Hospital, and her post-graduate Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology training at McGill University where she also obtained a Masters of Sciences in Epidemiology. Her research interests are focused on the prevention of infections – both healthcare-associated infections and vaccine-preventable diseases. She currently also serves on the Quebec Immunization Committee (CIQ), the Quebec Nosocomial Infection Committee (CINQ), and chairs the Quebec Daycare Infection Prevention Committee (CPISGEQ).

Dr. Blair Seifert
Health Science Centre
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Blair Seifert is a Clinical Pharmacist at the Children's Hospital, Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg and is cross appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. He is a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan College of Pharmacy, and received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree with a specialty in Pediatric Clinical Pharmacy in 1981.

Blair Seifert is involved with several Provincial, National and International pharmacy and medical organizations. He has participated in National and International committees and forums related to medication use in children and expectant parents as well as participating in the planning and delivery of continuing, professional development programs for pharmacists, physicians, and nurses, and many education programs for families. The use of vaccines and other immunizing agents to prevent disease is an integral part of his practice.

Dr. Danuta Skowronski
BC Centre for Disease Control
Vancouver, British Columbia

Danuta Skowronski is a physician epidemiologist at the BC Centre for Disease Control responsible for surveillance, policy, program planning and research activities related to respiratory-borne infections. She has been with the BCCDC for 7 years. Prior to this, Dr. Skowronski was a Medical Health Officer in the Lower Mainland of BC for five years. She is a Medical Doctor who subsequently completed a Master's in Epidemiology and Fellowship training in Community Medicine/Public Health.

Danuta Skowronski was responsible for human health recommendations during outbreaks of avian influenza among poultry in British Columbia in 2004 and was also instrumental in the public health response to SARS in BC in 2003.

Dr. Wendy Vaudry
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta

Dr. Wendy Vaudry is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Alberta and Director of Infectious Diseases at the Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton. Her research interests include the epidemiology of vaccine preventable diseases and vaccine adverse events; she is the current national co-PI of IMPACT (the Canadian Pediatric Society and Health Canada's Immunization monitoring program, active). Other research interests include congenital CMV infection and transplant infectious diseases. She is a graduate of Medical School at McGill University and trained in Pediatrics at the Montreal Children's Hospital, Infectious Diseases at the University of Alberta and Transplant Infectious Diseases at the University of Washington.

Dr. Richard Warrington
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Richard Warrington received his Medical degree from the Royal London Hospital, London, England in 1968, and moved to St John’s, Newfoundland in 1969 to help found the new Medical School at Memorial University. He received his PhD in Immunology from Memorial University, in 1973. He trained in Allergy & Clinical Immunology at the University of Manitoba until 1976, when he joined the Section of Allergy & Clinical Immunology in the Department of Medicine., which he has headed since 1982. From 1983 to 1996, Dr. Warrington directed the Rheumatic Disease Unit Research Laboratory at the University of Manitoba. His research has been on cytokines and autoantibodies and drug hypersensitivity. He is currently studying the effects of anti-cytokines antibodies in intravenous gammaglobulin.

Richard Warrington is Professor of Medicine & Immunology at the University of Manitoba, A Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada, past Chief Examiner for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, a Fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, President of the Canadian Society of Allergy & Clinical Immunology.

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

Dr. Shainoor Ismail

LIAISON REPRESENTATIVES

Canadian Association for Immunization Research and Evaluation
Dr. Jason Brophy
Ottawa, ON

Canadian Nursing Coalition for Immunization
Ms. Karen Pielak
Vancouver, British Columbia

Canadian Paediatric Society
Dr. Marina Salvadori
London, Ontario

Canadian Public Health Association
Dr. Nadine Sicard
Ottawa, Ontario

Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr. Alison Mawle
Atlanta, Georgia, USA

College of Family Physicians of Canada
Dr. Shelley Rechner
Hamilton, Ontario

Committee to Advise on Tropical Medicine & Travel
Dr. Pierre Plourde
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Community and Hospital Infection and Control Association
Ms. Suzanne Pelletier
Sudbury, Ontario

Council of Chief Medical Officers of Health
Dr. Paul Van Buynder
Fredericton, New Brunswick

New Brunswick Department of Health
Dr. Paul Van Buynder
Fredericton, New Brunswick

Society of Obstetrics and Gyneacologists
Dr. Vyta Senikas
Ottawa, Ontario

EX-OFFICIO REPRESENTATIVES

Canadian Forces Health Services Group Headquarters
LCol (Dr) James Anderson
Communicable Disease Control Program
Ottawa, Ontario

Centre for Evaluation of Radiopharmaceuticals and Biotherapeutics
Dr. Agnes Klein
Health Canada
Ottawa, Ontario

Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Infectious Diseases
Immunization and Program Development
Dr. Denise Elliott
Public Health Agency of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario

Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Infectious Diseases
Immunization and Program Development
Dr. Paul Varughese
Public Health Agency of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario

Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Infectious Diseases (CIRID) - Vaccine Safety
Dr. Barbara Law
Public Health Agency of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario

Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Infectious Diseases (CIRID) -
Canadian Immunization Committee
Ms. Mahnaz FarhangMehr
Public Health Agency of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario

First Nations and Inuit Health Branch
Dr. Ezzat Farzad
Health Canada
Ottawa, Ontario

ADMINISTRATION

Secretariat
Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Infectious Diseases (CIRID)
NACI@phac-aspc.gc.ca
Immunization and Respiratory Infections Division
Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control
Public Health Agency of Canada
Ottawa, Ontario