Dr. Amit Arya is a palliative care physician who works in long-term care facilities. Working as the Palliative Care Lead for Kensington Health, a not-for-profit centre of specialized health services, Dr. Arya has developed a unique model of consultative “generalist-plus-specialist” palliative care, which provides support to long-term care facilities, working together with primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses and administrators. In January 2020, he co-founded Doctors for Justice in Long-Term Care, a large coalition of over 1000 physicians and researchers advocating for an overhaul of the long-term care system in Ontario. Dr. Arya holds joint faculty appointments in the Division of Palliative Care at McMaster University and the University of Toronto.

Dr. Arya is well known as an advocate of culturally safe palliative care for racialized communities. He regularly presents workshops on cultural safety and antiracism, and their impacts on palliative care. Dr. Arya regularly presents accredited workshops at conferences including Hospice and Palliative Care Ontario, the Ontario Long-Term Care Clinicians Conference, Advanced Learning in Palliative Medicine, and the Ontario College of Family Physicians Annual Scientific Assembly.

Dr. Arya serves in leadership roles at the national, provincial and local level. He is a director-at-large for the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians, serving as the Research Lead and Chair of the Choosing Wisely Committee for Palliative Care. He is also the Chair of the Member Interest Group in Palliative Care at the College of Family Physicians. His advocacy for public health care and improved quality of life for long-term care residents has led him to serve on the board of the Ontario Health Coalition.

Kathleen Baba Willison, RN, MSc, CHPCN(c),
Assistant Clinical Professor, School of Nursing,
Associate Member and Continuing Education Lead,
Division of Palliative Care, Department of Family Medicine,
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario

Anne is interested in palliative care education, research and advocacy. She in involved in initiatives to advance access to palliative care, the palliative approach to care in LTC, post graduate and undergraduate palliative care education and research related to palliative care education, palliative care staffing and HR, decisions re dialysis, and the 3 wishes project.

His academic interests include the Integration of Primary Care/Cancer Care, Primary Care/Palliative Care and the Social Accountability of Family Medicine and Palliative Care.

Dr. Martin Chasen, born in Pretoria, South Africa completed his undergraduate training at the University of Pretoria in 1983, later obtaining a specialist degree in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology and Master of Philosophy (Palliative Medicine) at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.He is currently the Medical Director of Palliative Care, at William Osler Health System in Brampton. He was previously the Medical Director, Palliative Care, at The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre and the Palliative Rehabilitation Program at Élisabeth Bruyère Ottawa. In Montreal, Dr Chasen established the Cancer Nutrition and Rehabilitation program at McGill University.Dr Chasen is/was the Medical lead for both Ottawa and Brampton when these sites received ESMO accreditation as a designated site for Integrated Oncology and Palliative care.He currently holds professorships at the Universities of Toronto, McMaster, Ottawa and McGill. He received the Elizabeth J Latimer Prize in Palliative Care from Mc Master University and Kay Blair Community Service Award, William Osler Health System

He was recently the recipient of the 2020 Eduardo Bruera Award in Palliative Medicine awarded jointly by the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians and the Division of Palliative Care Medicine at the University of Alberta.His team has recently received $1.4M in funding from the Health Canada – Health Care Policy and Strategies Program for the RELIEF (Remote Self-Reporting of Symptoms by Patients with Palliative Care Needs) study. He has in excess of 100 peer reviewed publications, abstracts and book chapters. He is the principle investigator of Canadian Institutes of Health Research. MENAC (The Multimodal Exercise/Nutrition/Anti-inflammatory treatment for Cachexia), trial Survivorship of patients after a cancer diagnosis is a passion of his and he has initiated a fully operational clinic for patients in Brampton.

Dr. Chasen has lectured internationally and nationally – and appeared on media including as invited Speaker “Palliative Care”, House of Commons, Parliament of Canada.Dr Chasen is presently the Medical co-lead for the Palliative Care Network in the Central West LHIN. Under his leadership there is now a comprehensive palliative program in Central West with an inpatient acute unit, a consult service, an outpatient clinic and robust home care service as well as a virtual palliative care service.

Dr. Conen is an experienced medical oncologist with a specialization in palliative care. She completed her MD in 2003 at the University of Würzburg in Germany. She underwent a number of fellowships including research and clinical fellowships in Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care at the Massachusetts General Hospital Endocrine Unit in Boston, MA, USA, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland and University Hospital Frankfurt, Germany. Dr. Conen is board certified in both Internal Medicine (2010) and Medical Oncology (2014) (Switzerland) and officially licensed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (since 2017). She practices at the Walker Family Cancer Centre in St. Catharines where she runs a palliative outpatient program. She is assistant clinical professor at Department of Medicine, McMaster and associated to the Division of Palliative Care in the Department of Family Medicine. Dr. Conen has been appointed as Palliative Care Division Education Lead for postgraduate Specialty Programs at McMaster (2021). This is a new lead role related to spreading palliative care education in postgraduate specialty and sub-specialty residency training. Dr. Conen`s main interests are palliative care education, quality-based research and neurooncology.

Elizabeth is a Social Worker and Educator with extensive experience supporting children, youth and adults facing serious illness, uncertainty and grief. After specializing in Palliative Care at the largest cancer treatment centre in Canada, she started a community-based private practice supporting individuals, families and groups of all ages facing complex illness, loss and grief across Ontario. Elizabeth collaborates on multiple initiatives advocating for greater access to high quality Palliative and end-of-life care, while also teaching courses, seminars and workshops across disciplines, settings and sectors. Elizabeth is honoured to be a Partner with the Children and Youth Grief Network and an Assistant Clinical Professor (Adjunct) with the Department of Family Medicine, Division of Palliative Care at McMaster University.

Dr. Erin Gallagher is a graduate of McMaster University’s Family Medicine residency program (2015), PGY3 Enhanced Skills Training in Palliative Care program (2016) and Master of Public Health program (2018). In 2017 she completed her Clinical Scholar training through McMaster Family Practice, followed by starting her own general practice in 2017 at Stonechurch Family Health Centre where she trained as a resident.

Through her undergraduate training, Dr. Gallagher discovered her love for medical education and leadership development of medical trainees, the latter being an area of research interest and publication. She became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine in 2017 and is a clinical supervisor and lecturer at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the areas of general Family Medicine and Palliative Care.Dr. Gallagher’s most recent pursuit was the completion of her Master of Public Health, recognizing the importance of community engagement and development in promoting effective palliative approaches to care.

Clinically, Dr. Gallagher divides her time between providing comprehensive family medicine care to her patients and working as a palliative care consultant for McMaster’s Hamilton teaching sites and Hamilton Health Sciences hospitals. She is the Ontario Representative on the College of Family Physicians of Canada’s Palliative Care Committee.

I graduated from the Family Medicine residency program at McMaster University, Waterloo campus, in 2015. I work primarily in palliative care doing inpatient consultations at St Mary’s General Hospital and Grand River Hospital. I also follow patients upon discharge to continue managing their palliative care needs at home. I thoroughly enjoy providing continuity of care and supporting patients through their illness journey. I also locum as a family physician occasionally to continue those skills as well.

Michelle Howard is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine. Her research focuses on understanding the role of primary care for people with serious and life-limiting illness, by examining the influences of practice models, patterns and policies using health administrative and clinical data. She has also studied how patients and health care professionals in primary care talk about serious illness and preparing for future decision-making and has evaluated several tools for advance care planning in family practice.

Michelle has an MSc in Epidemiology from the University of Toronto and a PhD in Health Research Methodology from McMaster University. She primarily uses quantitative approaches including observational studies with population-based data (e.g. www.ices.on.ca www.cpcssn.ca), survey research and development of measures.

Michelle is an instructor for the Program Evaluation course in the McMaster Health Science Education (HSED) program and supervises graduate students with relevant research interests in McMaster’s Health Research Methodology Program.

Joanna is a pediatric palliative care physician with the Quality of Life and Advanced Care Team at McMaster Children’s Hospital. Joanna’s interests include physician wellness, advanced care planning and childhood grief

Dr. Kaasalainen is a Professor and holds the inaugural Gladys Sharpe Chair in Nursing at McMaster University. She is an Associate member of the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster and an Honorary Adjunct Professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Technology Sydney. She is a co-lead of the Strengthening a Palliative Approach in Long-Term Care (SPA-LTC) program which aims to improve the quality of living and dying for residents and their family/friends in LTC.

Sarah is the nurse clinician, a full-time role, on the Niagara West Palliative Care Team based out of the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital site of Hamilton Health Sciences. This population-based shared care model provides comprehensive palliative care to patients with a life-limiting illness. The NWPCT model is integrated within other health-care models delivered at West Lincoln Memorial Hospital, which focuses on primary care capacity building. This role also includes opportunity to integrate principles of advance practice nursing through innovation, education and facilitate systems level advocacy and support.

Her interests include continuous quality improvement and integrating a palliative approach to care in the emergency department and emergency services.

Dr. Kazem has significant interest in Health Policy as it pertains to Palliative Care. He is currently the Clinical Lead for the Palliative Care Program at Halton Healthcare and Co-Lead of the newly formed Palliative Care Ontario Health Team serving Halton Region. Clinical interests include complex cancer pain management, management of immunotherapy and chemotherapy side effects, and integrating technology into healthcare to improve patient and family experiences.

Allan is a public health and medical sociologist and is the founding advocate for the health promotion movement within international palliative care. This is sometimes known as the “public health approach” to palliative care or the “compassionate communities” movement. His research and practice interests are in the application of health promotion, community development, social ecology, civic policy development and public education principles to clinical palliative care. He also has a parallel research interest in the sociology, social history, and social psychology of the dying conduct and experiences.

Christopher A. Klinger, PhD is a Research Scientist with Pallium Canada and Assistant Professor (Part-Time) through the Dr. Joshua Shadd – Pallium Canada Research Hub within the Department of Family Medicine, Division of Palliative Care at McMaster University. As a health services researcher, his main interests are mixed-methods health systems and policy research alongside education and training, with a focus on hospice palliative care. He co-chairs the Quality End-of-Life Care Coalition of Canada’s (QELCCC) Research and Knowledge Translation Committee, a group of 35+ national stakeholder organizations dedicated to achieving quality end-of-life care for all residents of Canada.

I am a general internist in St Catharines and physician lead of palliative care at Niagara Health. My practice is split between general internal medicine and inpatient palliative care. Interests include non-cancer palliative care and non-operative management of acute hip fractures.

Denise is a McMaster Family Medicine trained, focused-practice Palliative Care Physician. She has a 30 year history as a faculty member in the Department of Family, was the inaugural Director of our Division of Palliative Care ( 2004) and became a full Professor in 2017. She has an ongoing interest in faculty development and served a term as Assistant Dean, Program for Faculty Development for the Faculty Health Sciences from 2007-2013.She lives and practices in Niagara West where she is currently medical director of the Niagara West Palliative Care Team and McNally House hospice both of which she established as shared-care palliative care initiatives with family physicians. These days, Dr Marshall has keen professional and academic interest in palliative care as a public health issue, and equity and palliative care.

Dr. Jeffrey McCarthy is a Palliative Care physician at Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington. He is Assistant Undergraduate Palliative Care Education Lead in the Division of Palliative Care at McMaster University. He is a Mac Med 2017 grad, who completed family medicine residency at the University of Calgary and Palliative Care enhanced skills residency at the University of Toronto. He attended teacher’s college at Queen’s University prior to medical school. He is a member of the McMaster Undergraduate Clinical Skills Committee. He is also a current Longitudinal Facilitator in Professional Competencies for the Class of 2023. His interests include clinical and academic teaching, curriculum development, and trainee wellness programming.

After graduating from McGill University’s medical school, Dr. Mino Mitri trained in the specialty of Internal Medicine at Queen’s University. Fueled by a passion in education and palliative care, he pursued a Master of Education while at Queen’s University. His thesis, Perceptions of Physicians on the Adoption of a Palliative Care Approach in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, birthed his advocacy for an earlier integration of a palliative care approach in the care of patients with any life-limiting illness. In 2019, he was the first to graduate at the University of British Columbia from the inaugural Royal College Subspecialty of Palliative Medicine. His clinical and academic interests include palliative care in non-malignant diseases, sexual medicine, palliative medicine education and improving the art of medical presentations.

Dr. Hun-Je Park joined the Division of Palliative Care in 2017. Since then, he has been involved in a number of education initiatives within the Division, including being the lead for Undergraduate Palliative Care Education. His areas of interests include palliative care capacity building, enhancing access to palliative care and advocating for vulnerable populations. He is passionate about palliative care education, both at the undergraduate and postgraduate level.

José Pereira is an Associate Clinical Professor, Division of Palliative Care in the Department of Family Medicine. He is of Portuguese background and complete his medical training in South Africa in 1987. He came to Canada in 1992 where he worked in a rural community in Manitoba for a few years. In 1995 he completed a clinical research fellowship in palliative care at the University of Alberta, followed by a family medicine residency at the University of Alberta. In University of Alberta and in 2000 co-founded Pallium Canada, a not-for-profit pan-Canada organization that advances primary-level palliative care across all settings of care through its interprofessional LEAP courseware.

Over the years he has worked in different settings, from home and community care to acute palliative care units, hospitals and hospices. He has racked up some “firsts”, including the first palliative care website (www.palliative.org)(1995), the first palliative care unit in Calgary (2001) and the first formal regional palliative care program in Ontario (2009). More recently he served as Director of Research of the College of Family Physicians of Canada from 2016 where he advanced primary care research and quality improvement.

José completed a Masters Degree in Medical Education at the University of Calgary in 2007. He retains his role as Scientific Officer of Pallium Canada, and leads the new Joshua Shadd McMaster-Pallium Research Hub. He has published extensively, with over 100 peer-reviewed publications, chapters and books, including the Pallium Palliative Pocketbook. José’s contributions to developing palliative care in Canada have been recognized by the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002 and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

Sarah Romeril is a Registered Nurse graduate from McMaster University’s nursing program and holds a Masters of Nursing graduate degree with a Leadership focus. She is certified through the Canadian Nurses Association specialty in palliative care as well as sits on regional, provincial and national palliative care nursing committees and advisory panels. Sarah an Assistant Clinical Professor with the School of Nursing at McMaster University and is an Associate Member of the Division of Palliative Care.

Sarah is Clinical Nurse Specalist, a full-time role, on the Niagara West Palliative Care Team based out of the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital site of Hamilton Health Sciences. This population-based, shared care model provides comprehensive palliative care to patients with a life-limiting illness. The NWPCT model is integrated within other health-care models delivered at West Lincoln Memorial Hospital, which focuses on primary care capacity building. This role also includes opportunity to integrate principles of advance practice nursing through innovation, education and facilitate systems level advocacy and support.

Dr. Saeed pursued her undergraduate medical training at McMaster University and her Family Medicine and Enhanced Skills Training at Queen’s University in Kingston. She has a passion for health equity and advocacy in medical education. She also has a special interest in systems based approaches to improving Palliative Care delivery. She serves on the Board of Directors of Frontline Connect Canada, a not-for-profit that improves connection between patients in hospitals and care facilities with their loved ones via mobile devices.

Dr. Stephen B. Singh is a family physician and palliative care specialist in Brantford, ON, in his first ten years of practice. Dr. Singh completed his family medicine residency at the University of Western Ontario, and pursued a year of added competency in palliative care at Queen’s University. Dr. Singh’s practice includes both comprehensive family medicine in a group practice, as well as primary and specialist-level palliative care in the home, residential hospice, and hospital settings.

At the national level, Dr. Singh has proudly represented the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians (CSPCP) as a Director-at-Large. Dr. Singh has represented Ontario on the College of Family Physicians (CFPC) Palliative Care Program Committee, and has served the CFPC’s Certificates of Added Competence (CAC) Peer Review Committee. Dr. Singh is an Assistant Clinical Professor with the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University. Dr. Singh firmly believes that palliative care is everyone’s responsibility, and works as a facilitator for Pallium Canada’s Learning Essential Approaches to Palliative Care (LEAP) course, aimed at educating all healthcare providers with the basics of palliative care.

Dr. Singh has involved himself in palliative care advocacy at the national, provincial, and local levels. In his spare time, Dr. Singh enjoys bonding with his wife and son, exploring hiking trails, barbecuing, and playing board games.

Valerie has been a social worker for over 30 years working in a variety of settings including health care (palliative care, chronic illness), child welfare, and intimate partner violence. She teaches in the Professional Competencies program at Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. Valerie is a trained meditation teacher and yoga instructor. In her private practice Choose Wellness, she provides counseling, presentations, workshops and retreats on a variety of topics such as compassion fatigue, mindfulness, and wellness, to assist others in living well in Body, Mind and Spirit. After experiencing compassion fatigue herself, Valerie committed to using her ‘re-found’ sense of humour to help others look at, and live their best life.

Her main interest areas are difficult cancer pain and delirium.

Following completion of a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, Patricia has served on international, national, provincial, and local initiatives to optimize meaningful communication for patients living with advanced illness and their families. A passionate innovative and educator, she teaches and supervises in the graduate and undergraduate nursing programs at McMaster. Her research and scholarship is grounded in qualitative methods and the integration of a palliative approach to life-limiting illness. In promoting faculty development, Patricia chairs the Canadian Association Schools of Nursing Palliative and End-of-Life Care Interest Group, is Co-Chair of the Healthcare Communication in Nursing Special Interest Group for the European Association for Communication in Healthcare and involved in Serious Illness Conversation training in Canada.

I enjoy working in a clinical role, seeing patients in our interdisciplinary outpatient palliative care clinic as well as on my own for pain and symptom management. I also see patients with our oncologist for symptom management while they are undergoing systemic treatment.

Ildy spend a fair amount of time on the telephone with her patients, families and their homecare nurses to provide supportive care with the goal of improving their quality of life and trying to keep them at home to die if that is their wish or as long as possible prior to transfer to the hospice.

Dr. Winemaker has a passion for working on a home-visiting palliative care outreach team. Her main area of research is focused on models of palliative care delivery and articulating a palliative approach. She advocates for upstream palliative care, open/honest communication about the illness trajectory and working in collaboration with patients and families to co-design their illness journey. She feels very strongly that all health care trainees should graduate feeling comfortable providing the ABCs of a palliative approach for all patients facing progressive life-limiting and that exposure to home-based care should be mandatory.

Gregorio Zúñiga is a Mexican pediatrician who currently works with the Quality of Life and Advanced Care (QoLA Care) team at McMaster Children’s Hospital. His studies include a Master’s Degree in End-of-Life Care from Spain, a clinical fellowship in Pediatric Palliative Care at The Hospital for Sick Children and a fellowship in Community Palliative Care at The Institute of Palliative Medicine in India. His research interests are on grief and bereavement, suffering and quality of life.