The pace of societal change is accelerating. Pandemics, artificial intelligence, space exploration, climate change, political upheavals, anomalous sightings, and even the new ways in which we communicate with each other are all contributing to an ever more confusing and frantic world. As a global health epidemiologist and science communicator, Professor Deonandan sees his role as bringing measurement and critical appraisal to whatever evidence exists to help us navigate this thickening soup of competing influences. Much of his scholastic output involves the epidemiology of reproductive technologies and the ethics of global health interventions, as well digital technologies in health care and the creative use of administrative data to answer questions surrounding population health. A significant portion of Professor Deonandan’s global health work has been conducted in the interior of Guyana, where he has worked to both measure and mitigate the health challenges experienced by remote Indigenous peoples. During the COVID pandemic, Professor Deonandan focused solely on communicating infection risk and vaccine science to the general public, assessing the potency of mitigation strategies, charting the trajectory of the epidemic, and weighing the changing evidence to advise on pandemic response policies. Professor Deonandan is also examining how artificial intelligence can improve pedagogy, with specific focus on using large language models to improve writing skills among health science students. His larger vision is to reimagine the wider role of the university in society in the face of rapid technological change.

Patrick Fafard has enjoyed a lengthy career that spans both government and academe. While with the Government of Canada he served as a Director General in the Intergovernmental Affairs Secretariat of the Privy Council Office. Earlier, he served in multiple capacities with three provincial governments, including as Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Commission on Medicare (2000-2001), and Executive Director, Policy and Planning, Saskatchewan Department of Health. Patrick’s academic interests are wide-ranging, including health, trade, and environmental policies, federalism and intergovernmental relations in Canada, the role of senior public health leaders in Commonwealth countries, global health governance to address the challenge of antimicrobial resistance, the governance of organ donation and transplantation, and developing public health political science.

Dr. Monique Potvin Kent is a multi-disciplinary applied public health researcher who focuses on the prevention of obesity and other chronic diseases by examining food and nutrition policies and the commercial determinants of health. Dr. Potvin Kent is an expert in food and beverage marketing targeted at children and adolescents, the healthfulness of this marketing, and whether current policies are protecting children on various media channels such as on television and in digital media, and in child settings such as schools. She also has a clinical background in eating disorders and cognitive behavioural therapy.

Dr. Kumanan Wilson is a specialist in General Internal Medicine at The Ottawa Hospital; Chief Executive Officer/Chief Scientific Officer, Bruyère Research Institute; Vice President Research & Academic, Bruyère Continuing Care; Chief Scientific Officer, CANImmunize Inc.; and Faculty of Medicine Clinical Research Chair in Digital Health Innovation, University of Ottawa. He is the co-founder of CANImmunize Inc., a science-based technology company spun out from The Ottawa Hospital in 2019. To help Canadians keep track of their vaccinations, the team developed CANImmunize, a pan-Canadian digital immunization tracking system available as a mobile app and through a web portal. Dr. Wilson’s research focuses on digital health, immunization, pandemic preparedness and public health policy and innovation. His research on immunization has explored social media’s impact on vaccine hesitancy, evaluation of vaccine safety using health services data and vaccine policy, including advocating for vaccine injury compensation. Other research interests include blood safety and newborn screening, health ethics, law and policy.

Marco Zenone is an assistant professor of health science communication at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa. He completed his Ph.D. in public health and policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London. He then completed his postdoctoral training as a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia.

Marco's research group studies the spread, impact, and political economy of health misinformation and disinformation, examining how patients and the public are misled about treatments, disease causes, and health risks, and how health topics are portrayed across digital platforms. It focuses on the commercial determinants of health, including how profit-driven systems and platform structures amplify misleading or harmful content. It emphasizes moving away from blaming individuals and toward creating accountable systems that prevent, mitigate, and respond to disinformation.