Founders & Governance
GOVERNANCE
Partners In Health Canada is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors that oversees the organization’s operations.
Chris Dendys has extensive experience working in support of social justice and social impact domestically and internationally. She is a seasoned executive with a background in advocacy, government relations, strategic partnerships, and supporting grassroots movements. As Executive Director of Results Canada, Chris oversees all aspects of Results Canada’s organizational strengthening efforts, campaign strategy, and grassroots support and growth. Chris has also worked as a consultant, supporting a number of non-government organizations, and has held a variety of positions in government, in Parliament, and in political offices. In addition to serving on the Board of Partners in Health Canada, Chris is also a Director on the Board of the Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health (Can-WaCH), and is on the leadership group of ACTION, an international partnership of global health advocates. Chris has four children and lives in Ottawa.
Artists have always been at the forefront of social change, and for violinist and violist Marika Anthony-Shaw, the opportunity to drive engagement has always remained at the core of her musical endeavour. While initially gaining recognition in the acclaimed Grammy-winning Montreal-based band Arcade Fire, Marika also saw an opportunity to harness and direct the energy of a passionate fan base and created Plus One – a platform to drive social change. Plus One partners performing artists with high impact non-profits, leveraging dollars and collective support to benefit underserved and vulnerable populations. Marika strongly embraces PIH’s model of accompaniment, which she believes is the most effective, compassionate, and dignified way of delivering care to those most in need. She is thrilled that PIH Canada is a reality, and feels honoured to do whatever it takes to help build the Canadian global health equity movement to ensure that people everywhere can access high quality health care.
Dr. Andrew Boozary is a primary care physician and is the Executive Director, Health and Social Policy at the University Health Network. He also holds academic appointments as an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) at the University of Toronto and adjunct faculty member at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Prior to joining UHN, Andrew served in senior advisory roles at the provincial and federal level on public policy issues ranging from primary care reform to the implementation of pharmacare. Andrew completed his medical training in family medicine at the University of Toronto and earned his health policy training at Princeton University (Master in Public Policy) and Harvard University (Master of Science). He has maintained active research as a Visiting Scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health since 2014 and is currently a Senior Fellow at the Wellesley Institute.
Dr. Adrienne Chan is an Infectious Diseases physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Canada. Dr. Chan’s areas of interest include differentiated models of HIV care and treatment delivery in low resource settings, optimizing management of opportunistic infections in low resource settings, and the health systems effects of emerging infectious diseases (Ebola, COVID-19, MPX). She holds a cross-appointment to the Clinical Public Health Division at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, where she has taught on Health Systems Management in International Settings. Over the last 16 years, Dr. Chan has worked in southern Africa with clinical experience in Malawi, Lesotho, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe, and multiple research collaborations with regional and international networks. In 2007, Dr. Chan joined Dignitas International as the organization’s HIV Clinic Coordinator in Zomba, Malawi, and later became Medical Coordinator for the Malawi country program. She previously worked at the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights under Dr. Jim Yong Kim, on policy research on increasing access to PMTCT and early childhood development interventions in resource-limited settings.
Michael Ghobros is an experienced executive who has led various global organizations in different capacities. He currently works as Director, Technology Regulation of a large government agency. Michael is a seasoned leader with a strong technical and IT background and has accumulated extensive experience as a senior technical executive in large complex environments in both the private and public sectors. He has over 15 years of strategic and operational IT leadership experience. During these years, he has built a track record of delivering leading-edge digital solutions and executing technology transformational strategies. Michael holds a Master of Engineering in Technology Innovation Management (TIM) from Carleton University, is a Project Management Professional (PMP) as well as a Professional Engineer of Ontario (P.Eng). Michael has also served, in various roles, on the Board of Directors for the Project Management Institute Lakeshore Ontario Chapter (PMILOC) including Board Chairman and is actively involved in various community oriented not-for-profit activities.
Dr. Jia Hu is a public health physician and family doctor. He is the CEO of 19 To Zero, a not-for-profit aimed at promoting vaccine uptake and other important health behaviours. Additionally, he is a Corporate Medical Director with Cleveland Clinic Canada where he supports large employers on health and wellness topics and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Calgary. He was previously a Medical Officer of Health with Alberta Health Services where he helped lead and coordinate any aspects of the COVID-19 response and a management consultant with McKinsey & Co.
Rosemary McCarney is an award-winning humanitarian, business leader, author, and a recognized public speaker and media commentator. Her extensive career in law, business, academia, the not for profit sector and diplomacy has taken her to over 100 countries. She has served on the Boards of numerous organizations. She was the first Executive Director of the Canada United States Law Institute, has practised law in the US and Canada, and has held executive positions in the technology sector and in civil society. In 2005, she became the CEO of Plan Canada International, one of the oldest and largest charities in Canada. In 2015 she was appointed as Canada’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. On her return to Canada, she joined Trinity College as the inaugural Pearson Sabia Visiting Scholar in International Relations and was named the Graham Massey Senior Distinguished Fellow in Foreign and Defense Policy. She lectures in the IR Faculty at Trinity College in Multilateral Diplomacy and Global Governance. She is a passionate multilateralist, a committed advocate for human rights and human rights defenders and for the power of diplomacy, consensus building and interdisciplinary perspectives to address the challenges of our time. Her award-winning series of children’s books, intended to make social justice and human rights issues accessible to young readers, have been translated and published around the world.
Dr. Hugh Scully, BA, MD, MSc, FRCSC, FACS was educated at Queen’s, Toronto and Harvard Universities. He is Professor of Surgery and Health Policy, University of Toronto, and is Consultant Cardiac Surgeon at UHN Toronto General Hospital. In 2010, Dr. Scully received one of the Canadian Medical Association’s top awards, the Medal of Service, and the {Lifetime} Annual Achievement Award from the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. He has received the Medal of Merit from the International Society for Heart Research, and the Gold and Diamond Queen’s Jubilee Medals. Among provincial and national positions, Dr. Scully served as a Board member and President of the Ontario Medical Association, the Canadian Medical Association., the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the Council {Board} of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Internationally he has represented Canada on the Council of the World Medical Association, the Board of Governors of the American College of Surgeons {ACS} and is the only non-American to be appointed to the ACS Health Policy and Advocacy Committee. Dr. Scully has been involved in international motorsport medicine and safety for more than four decades. In 2000 he was elected to Membership, and in 2011 as Chairman of the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame. He has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed articles, abstracts, book chapters and invited presentations.
Dr. Suzanne Shoush is an Indigenous primary care physician working with the St. Michael’s Hospital Academic Family Health Team and long-term member of the Inner City Health Associates. Dr. Shoush is also the Indigenous Health Faculty Lead for the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. Born and raised in Alberta, her mother’s family comes from the Douglas First Nation, one of the Stl’atl’imx communities (Coast Salish) in South West British Columbia, while her father is from North Africa. Prior to studying medicine, Dr. Shoush completed a bachelor’s of Engineering (Electrical) at the University of Alberta. She completed her MD degree at the University of Alberta, followed by her residency in Family Medicine at the University of Toronto in 2010. She then went on to travel throughout northern, remote and rural Ontario for 9 years as a rural family physician.
FOUNDERS
Partners In Health was founded in 1987 by Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, Jim Yong Kim, Todd McCormack and Tom White. On the occasion of PIH’s 25th anniversary in 2012, four founders shared their reflections and remembered their friend and fellow Co-founder, Thomas J. White, who passed away in 2011.
When I look back down the long road I see a small crowd pointing to a clinic. Built from scratch, that tiny clinic in Cange marked the first of many transformations. Building became a theme: next a lab and operating rooms; then a local workforce, partnerships, a teaching hospital, new sites in Africa, a movement for equity in health care. Our master builder, by vocation and avocation, was Tom White, the embodiment of the generosity and commitment to the poor on which we’ve based our work. Throughout, lifelong friendships—first with Paul, Todd, Jim, Tom, and the Lafontants— have sustained me. Cange today is not recognizable as the barren place of our origin. In that transformation lies the heart of what we do at PIH. Our work now stretches from the Navajo Nation to Rwanda and beyond, fueled by the conviction that everyone deserves access to high-quality care. Through decades of growth and change, as we’ve taken on tuberculosis and AIDS, maternal mortality and the plagues that stalk the poor, we’ve been accompanied by the many who support PIH. The road ahead—broadened by a quarter-century’s experience, new partnerships, and the ever-growing family that has joined us along the way—offers the chance to deliver on the promise of global health.
The turning points in my life are all linked to PIH and to changes small and seismic within it, just as the steadiness in my life has come most reliably from friendships made here. At the outset, some of us were pursuing studies from clinical medicine to English literature; others, like Tom White, were established. But each of us chose social justice as our true north. Those we sought to serve shared that commitment, attacking the forces that damaged and shortened their lives. Together we made tackling ill health the focus, and partnerships the strategy. The persistent pathologies of poverty—whether cholera, tuberculosis, and AIDS, or the crucible of Haiti’s earthquake—must be addressed through partnerships. No group can do it alone; alliances forged to confront global threats cannot just be local. Now, our great challenge is finding partners to help us respond effectively to the persistent and pernicious epidemic of poverty. True partnership is tough. But it’s the way towards true north, as the past 25 years have taught us—all of us; PIHers around the world; our patients, our teachers, our students; and especially my partners in health Ophelia, Todd, Jim, and Tom, whom we miss so much.
Historic transformations come when organizations and social movements unite the thirst for justice with implementation skills. To me, PIH embodies what can be achieved when these two qualities are brought together. When PIH started out, we developed the concept of “pragmatic solidarity” to describe our approach. Solidarity means a passionate moral commitment to others’ wellbeing, based on awareness of humanity’s deep interdependence. Pragmatism, in this context, means the strategic thinking and implementation skills needed to build effective delivery systems for social goals. PIH has succeeded because we’ve found partners in communities who have turned solidarity into a tangible reality for poor people, by building systems to deliver health care, clean water, improved housing, education, and economic opportunity. To work alongside these colleagues, and see what they’ve accomplished, has humbled and inspired me for 25 years. Taking our first steps in pragmatic solidarity a quarter-century ago, we couldn’t have predicted where the path would lead. Today, we’re bringing PIH solutions to a global scale. We’re seeing that passionate pragmatism has relevance across all regions and development contexts. In other words, our work has just begun.
At Tom White’s wake, Ophelia handed me a note I wrote to Paul when he asked me to help him set up PIH. In that note I wrote: “I can assure you nothing makes me happier than knowing I have an opportunity to help expand and secure what you’ve developed in Cange.” Twenty-five years later, I can confidently say that, outside of my family, nothing has. If accompaniment is the root that feeds PIH, I surely was the first who needed to be accompanied. Unlike Paul, Ophelia, and Jim, who crafted multiple day jobs to build partnerships in health, I was committed to other professional pursuits. I remain forever indebted to my co-founders, and the ever-growing PIH community, for helping ensure that, as I live ensconced in circles of excessive consumption, I remain connected to our generation’s most vexing issue: the stark realities of the world’s poor. And, 25 years on, I still feel privileged to do what I can to help “expand and secure” our programs, which now span continents and involve dozens of partners. I remain heartened and humbled by so many who have joined our effort to work for a more preferential option for the poor.
PIH Canada is grateful for the efforts of Alain Paul Martin and colleagues at Harvard University Club of Ottawa for their role in helping to establish PIH Canada.