Ontario Genetic Advisory Committee Members Biographies

Wendy Ungar (Chair)

Senior Scientist, Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Hospital for Sick Children
Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto

Biography

Dr. Wendy Ungar is a senior scientist in Child Health Evaluative Sciences at the Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, and affiliate scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. Dr. Ungar has a master’s degree in pharmacology and therapeutics from McGill University and a PhD in health policy, management and evaluation from the University of Toronto. Dr. Ungar holds the Canada Research Chair in Economic Evaluation and Technology Assessment in Child Health and is the director of Technology Assessment at SickKids (TASK), where she leads a program of research applying health economic methods to the pediatric population with a focus on genomics and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Kara Bellai-Dussault

Biography

Kara Bellai-Dussault has been a genetic counsellor at Prenatal Screening Ontario/ Better Outcomes Registry & Network (BORN) Ontario for 5 years and is also a doctoral candidate in epidemiology at the University of Ottawa. Kara brings in methodological expertise (clinical epidemiology and genetic epidemiology), experience in genetics and genomic health care, and providing care for patients. She also brings in health care policy experience, including making recommendations on funding of prenatal genetic screening tests. Kara has participated on several working groups for Prenatal Screening Ontario, including the Genetics Working Group (formerly the Clinical Standards Task Force) the Data and Quality Task Force, the Cytogenetic Data Working Group, and is a member of BORN committees such as the Maternal Neonatal Outcomes Committee. Kara is also a board member of the Canadian Board of Genetic Counselling, where decisions are made on the process for certification, recertification, as well as continued education for genetic counsellors in Canada.

Yvonne Bombard

Scientist, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital
Assistant Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto

Biography

Dr. Bombard is a genomics health services researcher and Scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto in the Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation. Her research focuses on evaluating the adoption of new genomic technologies in clinical practice. She also conducts public and patient engagement research to advance health technology assessment and health service delivery. Dr. Bombard is active in numerous international policy advisory committees, and her research informs policy development in this area. In 2014, Dr. Bombard was the inaugural recipient of the Maurice McGregor Award for Demonstrated Excellence and Leadership Potential from the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH), and in 2011, she received a “Rising Star” award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Health Services and Policy Research. Recently, she was awarded a CIHR Foundation grant as an Early Career Investigator, and she also holds a CIHR New Investigator Award.

Dr. June Carroll

Sydney G. Frankfort Chair in Family Medicine
Professor, Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto

Biography

Dr. June Carroll holds the Sydney G. Frankfort Chair in Family Medicine and is a Professor and Clinician Scientist in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. She practises family medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. Dr. Carroll’s academic focus is the development, evaluation, and implementation of practice tools and knowledge translation strategies to enable primary care providers and their patients to make appropriate use of genomic medicine. She is the Co-founding Director of Genetics Education Canada–Knowledge Organization (GEC-KO), the mandate of which is to enhance the genomics literacy of health care providers across Canada through the development, collection, dissemination, and evaluation of educational materials on genomics.

Ronald Carter

Biography

With degrees in Biology and Parasitology from Toronto, Dr. Ronald Carter pursued an interest in comparative medical training. After graduating from Guelph as a veterinarian with a PhD in clinical pathology, Dr. Carter did a clinical (CCMG) fellowship in diagnostic laboratory genetics and a research fellowship in models of autologous marrow transplantation at the U. of Toronto/Hospital for Sick Children. Appointed at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences between 1990 and 2014, Dr. Carter reached full professorship and filled a succession of leadership roles in both laboratory and clinical genetic services, including President of the Canadian College of Medical Geneticists. Dr. Carter became the founding director for LifeLabs Genetics in 2014, and now have additional roles at LifeLabs. Dr. Carter have constantly advocated for better genetic services in numerous academic, professional, provincial, and federal advisory capacities, and have had a career-long interest in ensuring optimal use of resources for patient care.

Lauren Cipriano

Biography

Dr. Lauren Cipriano is an Associate Professor at the Ivey Business School and in the Department of Medicine and Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at Western University. Lauren is the Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Healthcare Analytics, Management, and Policy. She earned her MS in Statistics and PhD in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. Lauren’s research interests focus on the application of statistics, decision analysis, operations research, and systems analysis to health policy problems. Lauren has consulted for the World Health Organization, US Veterans Health Administration, the US Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, and the Canada’s Drug Agency (formerly CADTH). Previously, Lauren worked at the Institute for Technology Assessment at Massachusetts General Hospital. Lauren was the 2018 winner of the Dr. Maurice McGregor Award for Health Technology Assessment, and she is the Deputy Editor of Medical Decision Making and MDM Policy & Practice.

Susan Crocker

Biography

Dr. Susan Crocker, Ph.D, FCCMG, FACMG is the Director of Cytogenetics at Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) and Associate Professor in the Queen’s Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine. She is a certified cytogeneticist (FCCMG), with broad expertise in genomics, constitutional and acquired genetic disorders. She has served on many committees contributing to the advancement of best practices in clinical laboratory genomics in lymphoma, sarcoma and neurogenomics. Her research program, as Principal Investigator, is in the study of neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Crocker is actively involved in improving diagnostic and prognostic testing in both acquired and constitutional abnormalities. With expertise in human genetics, genomic technologies and neuroscience her unique background is applied to study large scale to single base variation, and its influence on germline and acquired genomic changes in humans.

Natalie Del Signore

Biography

Natalie Del Signore is a former registered nurse who worked in acute care and research, for both adult care and pediatrics. She is a strong advocate for marginalized people who face serious challenges when accessing health care, including newcomers to Canada who experience language barriers. She is also a parent advocate, with a focus on the very under-represented pediatric voice, especially in the areas of mental health and complex care. She has past volunteer experience at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, various women’s shelters, and Hope’s Garden Eating Disorder Support. Currently she volunteers with many organizations, including Pediatric Parents Consultation Network; Evidence in Child Health to Enhance Outcomes Research with the University of Alberta; and SickKids Family Advisory Network. She enjoys yoga and meditation and offers classes to women and children in shelters in and around Ottawa.

Jordan Lerner Ellis

Assistant Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto

Biography

Dr. Lerner Ellis is an Assistant Professor in the University of Toronto’s Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, a Clinician Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, and an Associate at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. Dr. Lerner-Ellis completed his PhD in human genetics at McGill University and completed training in Clinical Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School. He currently serves as Head of Advanced Molecular Diagnostics at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Lerner-Ellis’s core research interests are in molecular diagnostics as applied to breast and colon cancer, with the aim of evaluating the extent to which genomic information can be used in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease. He is focused on improving genetic testing through greater reliance on new sequencing technologies.

Geoffrey Feldman

Patient and Public Representative

Biography

Mr. Feldman is a retired, single parent of a 20-year-old child with complex medical issues, including Takenouchi-Kosaki Syndrome (TKS). Mr. Feldman currently focuses his time on fully caring for his daughter and participating in volunteer activities at the Ministry of Health, the Holland Bloorview Family Research Engagement Committee, and the Toronto Catholic District School Board Special Education Advisory Committee.

Elaine Goh

Medical Geneticist, Trillium Health Partners

Biography

Dr. Goh is the division head and medical services director for clinical genetics at Trillium Health Partners. She has a general genetics practice with a focus on cardiac and prenatal genetics. She has completed a master’s degree in health services research with an emphasis on health policy. Dr. Goh is a clinical executive member of the Ontario Genetics Secretariat and is currently the chair of the Education, Ethics, and Public Policy Committee for the Canadian College of Medical Geneticists.

Robin Hayeems

Scientist, Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Hospital for Sick Children
Associate Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto

Biography

Dr. Hayeems is a Scientist in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences (CHES) Program at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and an Associate Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. She is trained in genetic counselling, public health, bioethics, and health services and policy research. Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Genome Canada, her research focuses on the delivery, evaluation, and governance of genomic screening and diagnostic tools for the maternal-child health context. Most recently, Dr. Hayeems received an Early Researcher Award (Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade) and a PhRMA Foundation Value Assessment Challenge Award. As a Chair or Member of policy advisory committees in the areas of prenatal, newborn, and pediatric genomics, her work informs and is informed by policy development in this area.

Raymond Kim

Geneticist, University Health Network, University of Toronto

Biography

Dr. Kim is a medical geneticist with the University Health Network, Mount Sinai, and the Hospital for Sick Children. He received his MD and PhD from the University of Toronto and completed a residency in internal medicine. Dr. Kim continued his fellowship in medical genetics at the Hospital for Sick Children using genomic sequencing in rare diseases. He is interested in complex care for patients with hereditary disorders, transition of pediatric patients, and incorporating novel genetic technologies into clinical care.

Cheryl Shuman

Professor (retired), Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto

Biography

Cheryl Shuman received a Master of Science degree in genetic counselling from Sarah Lawrence College in 1979, after which she worked in the Genetics-Birth Defects Center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. In 1981 she joined the Division of Clinical and Metabolic Genetics at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). In 1998 she was appointed program director of the MSc program in genetic counselling at the University of Toronto and in 1999 was appointed director of the Department of Genetic Counselling at SickKids. Cheryl also held a project investigator appointment in the Research Institute at SickKids based on her involvement in clinical research and in research related to the provision and practice of genetic counselling. Cheryl retired from clinical and program administrative roles in 2020.

Tracy L. Stockley

Head, Department of Clinical Laboratory, University Health Network

Biography

Dr. Stockley is the Head of the Department of Clinical Laboratory Genetics at the University Health Network in Toronto. Dr. Stockley’s role includes oversight of genetic testing for oncology, including companion diagnostics, genomic test development for clinical laboratory use, and applications of next-generation sequencing to clinical care. Dr. Stockley has an interest in quality improvement related to high-complexity laboratory testing, and has participated in standard development for molecular diagnostics with multiple national and international organizations, including Health Canada, the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute, the European Molecular Quality Network, and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Dr. Stockley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto, and the current President of the Canadian College of Medical Geneticists.

Shawn Winsor

Bioethicist
Chair, Ethics Committee, TRIO Fertility and the Reproductive Care Centre

Biography

Shawn Winsor is a bioethicist working in clinical practice, public policy, research, and education. He is a Vanier Canada graduate scholar in the Health Policy PhD program at the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis at McMaster University. Mr. Winsor cofounded the ethics programs at TRIO Fertility and the Reproductive Care Centre. Mr. Winsor has served on OHTAC’s Decision Determinants Subcommittee and Ontario’s Taskforce on Fetal RhD Genotyping. He has been an advisor to the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health and the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care and currently chairs the Ethics-Law Special Interest Group of the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society. He is a member of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto.

Ex-Officio (MOH Representatives)

Chunmei Li

Biography

Chunmei Li is the Manager of Health Economic Evaluation at Ontario Health, where she leads a team of health economists in developing the economic evidence required for health technology assessments. With 14 years of experience in health economics, she specializes in economic evaluations, budget impact analyses, and economic literature reviews for a wide range of health technologies. Chunmei holds a Master’s degree in the Management of Innovation from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of British Columbia.

Ex-Officio (MOHLTC Representatives)

Suzanne Robson

Senior Program Consultant, Laboratories and Diagnostics Branch, Ministry of Health

Biography

Suzanne has been with the Ministry of Health since 2023 as a subject matter expert in Laboratory Medicine, working on policy and program development and on business improvement projects in several ministry areas with a focus on evidence-based strategies to improve services and patient care. Suzanne is currently a Senior Program Consultant in the Laboratories and Diagnostics Branch. Prior to that, Suzanne was in Laboratory management in the hospital sector and has vast experience in all pre-analytical, analytical and post analytical processes in all Lab disciplines. Suzanne has an honours BSc in Biology from McMaster University and is a registered Medical Laboratory Technologist (MLT) licensed with the College of Medical Laboratory Technologists of Ontario (CMLTO), as well as a Project Management Professional (PMP).

Evidence to Improve Care

Ontario Genetic Advisory Committee Members Biographies

Wendy Ungar (Chair)

Kara Bellai-Dussault

Yvonne Bombard

Dr. June Carroll

Ronald Carter

Lauren Cipriano

Susan Crocker

Natalie Del Signore

Jordan Lerner Ellis

Geoffrey Feldman

Elaine Goh

Robin Hayeems

Raymond Kim

Cheryl Shuman

Tracy L. Stockley

Shawn Winsor

Ex-Officio (MOH Representatives)

Chunmei Li

Ex-Officio (MOHLTC Representatives)

Suzanne Robson

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