2025 Interdisciplinary Symposium

Susan Christofferson, Dean, Rotman School of Management

Susan Christoffersen is the Dean at Rotman, and the William A. Downe BMO Chair, Professor of Finance. From 2015 to 2020, Professor Christoffersen served as the Vice-Dean, Undergraduate and Specialized programs. Her research focuses on mutual funds and the role of financial institutions in capital markets. She has published in top finance journals and is cited in The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Bloomberg News Service, and The Wall Street Journal. Susan has received grants from SSHRC, IFM2, and FQRSC and research awards from Q-Group, Bank of Canada, BSI Gamma Foundation, INQUIRE, and the Swiss Finance Institute.

Nelson Lee, Director, Institute for Pandemics

Professor Nelson Lee is an infectious diseases physician who has been deeply involved in the research on emerging infectious diseases, epidemics and pandemics for almost two decades. With an interdisciplinary approach, he has conducted a wide range of studies to understand the epidemiology, disease burden, health outcomes, transmission modes and prevention, as well as antiviral and vaccine effectiveness against viral respiratory infections. His research is referenced by international health authorities, contributing to the prevention and control of epidemic viral diseases including coronavirus and influenza. Professor Lee is dedicated to his goals in preventing, effectively responding, and mitigating the impacts of pandemics through research and education.

Before joining the Dalla Lana School of Public Health in 2021, he spent four years at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, where he served as professor and research chair in the Division of Infectious Diseases. He was an endowed professor in The Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he worked for 15 years, tracking and managing outbreaks of emerging infections (e.g., SARS, novel influenza).

Session Info

In this presentation and subsequent panel, we look back at the pandemic at its five-year anniversary, and consider critical learnings as we prepare for future health crises. The Federal Government commissioned Sir Mark Walport, the former UK Chief Scientist and CEO of UK Research and Innovation to review Canada's approach to science advisory and research coordination during the pandemic. We consider specific core recommendations from the Walport Report: standing science advisory capacity, health data availability and modelling capacity, robust research networks that can be harnessed during times of crisis, and a systematic approach to quantifying risk (also called a "risk register”) to support policymakers in proactive investment and preparedness. Panel members will include lead policy makers during the pandemic at the federal (Lucas), provincial (Angus), and municipal level (de Villa), along with a health system leader (Brown) who provided critical guidance and leadership to multiple advisory structures during the pandemic. The title of the Walport Report was “The Time to Act is Now” and we consider how well Canada is prepared for a future health crisis, ranging from a breakthrough mutation in avian influenza, to forest fires and climate change related catastrophe.

Keynote Speaker

Panel Discussion

Moderator: Dr. Fahad Razak, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Data-Informed Health Care Improvement, St. Michael’s Hospital

Panellists:

• Helen Angus, Chief Executive Officer, AMS; Former Ontario Deputy Minister of Health
• Adalsteinn Brown, Dean, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
• Dr. Eileen de Villa, Former City of Toronto Medical Officer of Health

Session Info

The intersection of health and the economy has never more inextricably linked than during the pandemic.  It is not if, but when, the next pandemic will hit us.  We must heed learnings from the recent COVID experience and actively work to address systemic gaps to not only be ready to respond;  but strengthen our economic armour to be resilient - so that decisions and policies are not caught in the cross hairs between health of the population and economic interests.

Session Speaker

Roselle Martino, Executive VP, Policy, Advocacy & Stakeholder Engagement, Toronto Region Board of Trade

Roselle is the Executive Vice President, Policy and Strategic Affairs with the Toronto Region Board of Trade, Canada’s largest Chamber of Commerce, where she provides executive leadership for the Board’s policy and advocacy agenda, and the Business Council of Toronto. Roselle brings more than twenty years of experience across diverse sectors - most recently as Assistant Deputy Minister with Ontario Government, providing executive leadership for policies, programs, legislation and regulations for politically contentious and complex issues. Roselle has a comprehensive understanding of municipal operations as a result of her tenure with the City of Toronto, and has worked internationally in the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit - Her Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom, where she provided leadership for the development and delivery of national policies and programs.

Panel Discussion

Moderator: András Tilcsik, Professor, Rotman School of Management

Panelists:

• Geoffrey Anderson, Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
• Paul Grootendorst, Associate Professor, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy
• Audrey Laporte, Director, Institute for Health Policy, Management & Evaluation

3-minute thesis presentation by the current cohort of IfP Graduate Studentship awardees.

Session Info

In this lecture, Dr. Adalja will explore the development of the concept of health security. He will discuss its origins in biosecurity and explore its many facets and its integration with pandemic preparedness, infectious disease emergency preparedness, and national security. He will identify recent trends and future priorities in the field.   Interspersed throughout the lecture will be examples of Dr. Adalja’s own projects.

Session Speaker

Dr. Amesh Adalja, Senior Scholar, Hopkins Center for Health Security

Dr. Amesh Adalja is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and an Affiliate of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health. His work is focused on emerging infectious disease, pandemic preparedness, and biosecurity.

Dr. Adalja has served on US government panels tasked with developing guidelines for the treatment of plague, botulism, and anthrax in mass casualty settings, the system of care for infectious disease emergencies, and a National Academies steering committee for diagnostic excellence. He also served as an external advisor to the New York City Health + Hospitals Emergency Management Highly Infectious Disease training program and on a US Federal Emergency Management Agency working group on nuclear disaster recovery. He is a spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Society of America; he previously served on their public health and diagnostics committees and their precision medicine working group. Dr. Adalja is a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians Pennsylvania Chapter’s EMS & Terrorism and Disaster Preparedness Committee as well as the Allegheny County Medical Reserve Corps. He was formerly a member of the National Quality Forum Infectious Disease Standing Committee; he currently serves on their Primary Care and Chronic Illness Standing Committee, and the US Department of Health and Human Services National Disaster Medical System, with which he was deployed to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and was also selected for their mobile acute care strike team. Dr. Adalja’s expertise is frequently sought by international and national media.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Adalja has served as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association coronavirus advisory group; a consultant to various businesses, schools, and organizations; and an informal advisor to the International Monetary Fund. He has also testified before the US House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Pennsylvania House Health Committee.

Dr. Adalja is an Associate Editor of the journal Health Security. He was a coeditor of the volume Global Catastrophic Biological Risks and a contributing author for the Handbook of Bioterrorism and Disaster Medicine, the Emergency Medicine CorePendium, Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple, UpToDate’s section on biological terrorism, and a North Atlantic Treaty Organization volume on bioterrorism. He has also published in such journals as the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Annals of Emergency Medicine, and Health Security.

Dr. Adalja is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American College of Physicians, and the American College of Emergency Physicians. He is a member of various medical societies, including the American Medical Association, the HIV Medicine Association, and the Society of Critical Care Medicine. He is a board-certified physician in internal medicine, emergency medicine, infectious diseases, and critical care medicine.

Dr. Adalja completed 2 fellowships at the University of Pittsburgh—one in infectious diseases, for which he served as chief fellow, and one in critical care medicine. Prior to that he completed a combined residency in internal medicine and emergency medicine at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he served as chief resident and as a member of the infection control committee. He was a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine from 2010 through 2017 and is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor there. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University.

Panel Discussion

Moderator: Nelson Lee, Director, Institute for Pandemics

Panelists:

• Dr. David Fisman, Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
• Dr. Michelle Murti, Ontario Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health
• Keith Pardee, Associate Professor, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Details coming soon