Intersections: Towards a New Frontier in Medical Education

Steven N. Liss is Toronto Metropolitan University’s Vice-President, Research and Innovation, and a professor of Chemistry and Biology in the Faculty of Science. He is an experienced academic leader who has played a significant leadership role in the advancement of university education at the undergraduate and graduate levels at several universities. His recent return to Toronto Metropolitan University in April 2017 follows a decade of distinguished service at the University of Guelph and at Queen’s University, where he served as Vice-Principal (Research) and a professor of Environmental Studies and Chemical Engineering since 2010.

Steven is an internationally recognized researcher in the areas of environmental biotechnology and engineering, as well as wastewater and water management. He is also well known for his work in applied microbiology, which focuses on bioflocculation, microbial structures, and the fate of contaminants in engineered and natural environmental systems. Steven has an impressive funding track record, including industry and international support. He is an elected member of the Management Committee of the International Water Association Specialist Group, and Microbial Ecology in Water Engineering (MEWE), and he has served as an elected researcher representative on the board of the Canadian Water Network.

His recent honours include a Visiting Professorship at the Advanced Environmental Biotechnology Centre affiliated with the Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (2016); a Visiting Professorship with the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at Tongji University in Shanghai (2015-2018); and the position of High-end Foreign Expert of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs for China.

Josephine Pui-Hing Wong has extensive experience in critical public health and urban health, including the development of public health access and equity policy and practice frameworks, and large-scale health communication campaigns. She collaborates with marginalized communities to develop, implement and evaluate capacity-building health promotion and collective empowerment programs. Josephine sees students as active learners with lived experiences that inform their personal- professional-political perspectives and practices. Her teaching focuses on community health nursing and people-centered urban health promotion, with an emphasis on making visible historical and current structural violence, systemic racism, and other oppressions that result in preventable social and health disparities. In addition to her assigned teaching, she collaborates with community partners to establish community-campus critical learning circles that bring together community members, service providers, and students to engage in critical dialogue, knowledge exchange and collaborative writing. She also supervises and mentors research trainees at the master, doctoral and post-doctoral levels. 

Josephine’s program of research is underpinned by the principles of social justice and equity. Her areas of research include: social identities and health practices; HIV, sexual health, and mental health in diasporic and transnational communities. She has led and is leading numerous intervention studies on stigma reduction and mental health promotion in the Asian, Black and Latino communities in Canada as well as among university students in China. Currently, she is leading a rapid response research to mitigate the negative impacts of the COVID19 pandemic. Her research is supported by the Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN), the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR), the Movember Foundation, Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD), New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF), Funds For Innovation and Transformation (FIT), and Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).

Born and raised in Toronto, Dr. Adam Kassam is passionate about improving his patients’ quality of life by helping them functionally recover from injuries affecting muscles, bones and nerves. Dr. Kassam is a board-certified physician in physical medicine and rehabilitation and a clinical associate at Sinai Health and Runnymede Healthcare Centre. Dr. Kassam has an undergraduate degree in biology from Cornell University, an MD from Dartmouth Medical School, and a Master’s in Public Health from Columbia University.

Dr. Adam Kassam is president of the OMA and is dedicated to sharing his knowledge about public health, diversity and equity, and research and education with the medical community and the public. Dr. Kassam has written for CNN, The Atlantic, CBC and The Globe and Mail and has appeared on CTV, TVO, CPAC and Global News.

Dr. Kassam lives in Toronto with his wife, family physician Dr. Naila Kassam, and their blind rescue dog Freddy. He also enjoys playing golf and spending time with family.

Follow Dr. Kassam on Twitter @AdamKassamMD (external link) .