Biographies
Biographies
Dr. Rueben Devlin
Special Advisor and Chair of the Premier’s Council on Improving Healthcare and Ending Hallway Medicine
An orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Devlin completed his medical school and residency training at the University of Toronto. During Dr. Devlin’s 17 years practicing in Newmarket, he held senior hospital positions, including Chief of Surgery and Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee.
Subsequently Dr. Devlin served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Humber River Hospital in Toronto from 1999 to 2016. Humber River Hospital is one of Canada’s largest regional acute care hospitals, serving a catchment area of more than 850,000 people in the northwest GTA. As the CEO of Humber River Hospital he not only led the operational transformation of the hospital, Dr. Devlin was also responsible for the vision and implementation of North America’s first fully digital hospital
Dr. Devlin has a record of successfully developing and implementing corporate strategic plans at the highest levels of health care and taking bold steps to use innovation and technology to directly impact patient access care, and satisfaction.
Dr. Devlin was appointed as Special Advisor and Chair of the Premier’s Council on Improving Health Care and Ending Hallway Medicine in June 2018.
Adalsteinn Brown
Adalsteinn (Steini) Brown is the Dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Previous experience includes senior leadership in policy and strategy in the Ontario government, founding roles in start-up companies, and global work on how to measure performance in health care. He studied government at Harvard University and Public Health at the University of Oxford.
Connie Clerici
Connie Clerici is a seasoned executive with a long history of leading large teams through Canada’s complex and highly regulated health care environment. She is the founder and the Executive Chair of Closing the Gap Healthcare, an organization that focuses resources on the advancement of innovations and on building and supporting a high-quality, publicly-funded health care system that is sustainable for Canadians.
Ms. Clerici’s passion is to help those most in need in society, and to accept full accountability for doing so. Her requirement that ethics and compassion accompany sound business practices was founded on her early career experiences, including being responsible for moving severely disabled children out of institutional care at the Christopher Robin Home for Children in Ajax and into the community in the 1980s, and her work with Rose Cherry’s Home for Kids (now the Darling Home for Kids).
Ms. Clerici is a life-long learner, participating in extensive training in leadership and business at a variety of business schools and universities. She is currently a board member or advisor for numerous public and private organizations, an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, a leader in the Ivey Business School supporting entrepreneurism and the co-chair of Health Quality Ontario’s Quality Standards Committee.
Barb Collins
Barb Collins was appointed the President and Chief Executive Officer of Humber River Hospital on July 1, 2016. Ms. Collins is a Registered Nurse, with an MBA from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. She has more than 40 years’ experience in acute care hospitals, including nursing in Intensive Care, Operating Room and the Emergency Department, and has managed Support and Facilities Services.
Prior to assuming her current responsibilities as President and CEO, Ms. Collins served as the Humber River Hospital’s Chief Operating Officer. As COO, she was the senior Executive Lead for Humber River Hospital’s redevelopment project, overseeing the design, construction and activation of the new Humber River Hospital. This 656 bed, 1.8M square-foot acute care facility provided Humber with a unique opportunity to optimize design, incorporate technology and reinvent processes to deliver more effective and efficient patient-centered care, supported by some of the world’s finest medical technology.
Humber River Hospital that opened in October 2015 has been recognized as North America’s first fully digital hospital. That journey continues with the opening of the first Hospital Command Centre in the world focused on both patient flow and high reliability patient care. Most recently Humber River introduced a Humanoid Robot, yet another step in transformational care.
Michael Decter
Michael B. Decter is the President and Chief Executive Officer of LDIC Inc. Currently he is also Chair of Medavie Blue Cross, Board Member of Blue Cross Life and Auto Sector Retiree Health Care Trust and Chancellor of Brandon University.
Previously, Mr. Decter served as Deputy Minister of Health for Ontario, Cabinet Secretary in the Government of Manitoba and Chair of the Health Council of Canada.
Mr. Decter is a graduate of Harvard University with a major in economics. He is also the author of three health books, Healing Medicare, Four Strong Winds and Navigating Canada’s Health Care, co-authored with Francesca Grosso.
Dr. Suzanne Filion
Dr. Filion is an experienced clinical psychologist and change leader with an ardent commitment to public and community service. She obtained her PhD in Psychology from the Université de Montréal and her master’s degree in Education from the University of Ottawa. She also holds a Mental Health Law certificate from the Osgoode Hall Law School at York University.
As past director of the Mental Health and Addictions (MHA) program at the Hawkesbury and District General Hospital (HGH), Dr. Filion deployed over 15 innovative community programs in MHA to improve access to services and increase efficiency. She is currently Vice-President of Development and Integration at HGH and President and CEO of her own private practice in Eastern Ontario. Dr. Filion has taught at the University of Ottawa and Saint Paul University.
Nationally, she is known for her work in psychological trauma and with minority groups. In recognition of her outstanding achievements in the fields of mental health and addictions during more than 25 years, Dr. Filion recently received the Canadian Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contributions to Public or Community Service.
Dr. Lisa Habermehl
Dr. Habermehl is a rural family physician living in Northwestern Ontario. She is currently practicing in Red Lake where, over the better part of two decades, she has provided care in a variety of settings, including long-term care, clinic, hospital and the emergency room.
Dr. Habermehl has been a faculty member of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine since early in its inception and is currently an Assistant Professor, mentoring medical students and residents as they expand their knowledge of medicine while immersed in rural communities.
She was previously Chair of the Rural Expert Panel at the Ontario Medical Association, whose mandate is to advocate for an equitable health system for rural physicians and patients.
Dr. Habermehl completed her residency in family medicine at Family Medicine North in Thunder Bay, upon graduation from the University of Western Ontario. She has since received her Fellowship in Family Medicine from the College of Family Physicians of Canada.
Peter Harris
Peter Harris Q.C. has a varied legal background in tax matters and general corporate advice. His tax practice places some emphasis on tax litigation, cross border and international transactions and he has provided tax and business counsel to some of Canada's major industrial and financial institutions.
Mr. Harris has been a special advisor to the Canada Revenue and the federal Department of Finance and has acted as an advisor to the Ontario Government with respect to various financial matters. Mr. Harris is currently on the board of the Central West LHIN.
Apart from his income tax practice Mr. Harris has served on the boards of directors of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, the Ontario Sports Centre (Chair), Director of Toronto General & Headwaters Hospital (Chair). Mr. Harris is currently the Chair of the Chamber of Commerce Taxation and Economics Committee
Dr. Gillian Kernaghan
Dr. Kernaghan was appointed the President and Chief Executive Officer of St. Joseph's Health Care London (St. Joseph’s) in 2010. St. Joseph’s is a multi-sited, academic health care organization serving London and region.
Prior to assuming this role, Dr. Kernaghan served for 17 years as the Vice President, Medical for various hospitals in London and led the medical staff during complex restructuring in which four hospitals merged to form St. Joseph’s. Through this restructuring and various program transfers between organizations, the roles of the London hospitals dramatically changed. In 1984, Dr. Kernaghan joined the medical staff of St. Joseph's, Parkwood Hospital and London Health Sciences Centre as a family physician. She completed her residency at St. Joseph’s Hospital in 1984 upon graduation from Western University and was awarded her Fellowship in 2000.
Gillian currently serves on the Ontario Hospital Association Board, the Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario Executive and Council and is the Chair of the Board of the Catholic Health Association of Ontario. She served as the Co-Chair of CHLNet from 2014-2018 and as President of the Canadian Society of Physician Executives for 2010-2012.
Dr. Jack Kitts
Dr. Jack Kitts is President and Chief Executive Officer of The Ottawa Hospital. Dr. Kitts received his medical degree from the University of Ottawa in 1980 and completed specialty training in anesthesia in 1987. He spent one year as a research fellow at the University of California in San Francisco.
Dr. Kitts then joined the medical staff at the Ottawa Civic Hospital as an anesthesiologist and Research Director for the Department of Anesthesia. In 1995 he was appointed Chief of Anesthesia at the Ottawa Civic Hospital and Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa. In 1998, Dr. Kitts was appointed Vice-President of Medical Affairs and led the medical staff during a complex restructuring in which three hospitals and five large programs were merged into The Ottawa Hospital.
Kimberly Moran
Kimberly Moran is dedicated to improving the lives of children and youth with a focus on strengthening health care policy, systems and patient outcomes in Canada and internationally. Her passion for improving the delivery of child and youth mental health treatment runs deep and is rooted in her family’s lived experience with mental health as a mother of a daughter who became seriously ill.
Ms. Moran is currently Chief Executive Officer of Children’s Mental Health Ontario, representing the province’s largest provider of child and youth mental health services, supporting 120,000 children, youth and their families. She serves on the board of the Canadian Mental Health Association Toronto, and previously contributed to the North York General Hospital and SIM-one Simulation Healthcare Network boards.
Ms. Moran brings more than thirty years of senior leadership experience in the private and not-for-profit sectors. She is also a Chartered Professional Accountant which underlies her passion for developing effective and affordable health care systems.
Prior to CMHO, she held positions as Special Advisor to the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Acting CEO and Chief Operating Officer at UNICEF Canada, and senior finance positions with TD Bank and Ernst & Young.
David Murray
David Murray is Executive Director of Northwest Health Alliance (NWHA). Mr. Murray has had a long and distinguished career in health care administration spanning many years and multiple organizations and sectors.
Before joining the NWHA, Mr. Murray was the Chief Executive Officer of Sioux Lookout Meno-Ya-Win Health Centre for seven years. Mr. Murray has also served as the CEO of the Waterloo Wellington Community Care Access Centre (CCAC), the CEO of the North East LHIN, President and CEO of the nationally recognized Group Health Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, and CEO of the Kenora Rainy River CCAC.
Mr. Murray has an Honours Bachelor of Commerce, MBA and designations in CBNA, CHE.
Dr. Richard Reznick
Dr. Reznick is the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Queen's University and a professor in the Department of Surgery. He is also Chief Executive Officer of the Southeastern Ontario Academic Medical Organization.
Shirlee Sharkey
Shirlee Sharkey is the President and Chief Executive Officer of SE Health. Under Ms. Sharkey’s leadership, the social enterprise has enjoyed exponential growth and expansion, and facilitated transformative solutions in areas such as Indigenous health, end of life care, and caregiver wellness and support. Today, SE Health delivers 20,000 care exchanges daily through its team of 9,000 leaders and professionals.
Active in public service, Ms. Sharkey is the current Chair of Excellence Canada, and a board member of the C.D. Howe Institute and the Canadian Frailty Network.
Academically, she is cross-appointed to the University of Toronto’s Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation as an adjunct professor.
In 2017, Ms. Sharkey was presented with an honourary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology for her breakthrough leadership in community-based health care.