Dr. James Orbinski – President
Dr. James Orbinski is Research Scientist and Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine, at St. Michael’s Hospital, and the Centre for International Health at the University of Toronto. He also practices clinical medicine at Toronto’s St. Michaels’ Hospital Inner City Health Program. He is a Senior Fellow at Massey College, and the Munk Centre for International Studies, at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Orbinski is a former International President of the medical humanitarian organization, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and accepted the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to MSF in 1999 at the Nobel Ceremony in Oslo, Norway. As president of MSF, Dr. Orbinski launched its “Access to Essential Medicines Campaign” and has represented MSF in numerous settings and emergencies including at the UN Security Council, many national parliaments, the WHO, UNHCR, in the Sudan, Kosovo, Russia, Cambodia, South Africa, India and Thailand. He worked as MSF’s Head of Mission in Goma, Zaire in the fall of 1996 during the refugee crisis. He was MSF’s Head of Mission in Kigali during the Rwandan genocide of 1994, and medical coordinator in Jalalabad, Afghanistan in the winter of 1994. He was MSF's medical coordinator in Baidoa, Somalia during the civil war and famine of 1992-1993.
Dr. Orbinski received his MD degree from McMaster University in 1990, and held an IDRC research fellowship in 1989 to study pediatric HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa. He co-founded the McMaster University Health Reach Program, committed to investigating and promoting the health of children in war zones. He also completed a Masters degree in international relations at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Orbinski is currently a board member of the “Stephen Lewis Foundation”, the “Initiative on Pharmaceutical Technology Transfer to Africa”, and “Dignitas International” – all new Canadian or international NGOs focusing on improving the lives of people suffering from infectious diseases in the developing world. Dr. Orbinski is also an advisory board member to “Engineers without Borders”.
Carol Devine - Vice President
Ms. Devine is the Humanitarian Affairs Officer and Access to Essential Medicine Campaigner for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Canada. She has worked for MSF in Rwanda and the-then Zaire in 1996 while thousands of Rwandan refugees returned from Burundi and Zaire. She worked during the famine in South Sudan in 1998 lobbying for more international attention to the forgotten country. She returned to South Sudan in 1999 to help the volunteer teams with medical data collection and advocacy.
While living in Australia, Ms. Devine was on the Board of Directors of MSF Australia and, on behalf of the organization, visited East Timor in 2000 just after the violence when the results of the referendum for independence were announced. In Australia, Ms. Devine was a trainer with the Diplomacy Training Program (DTP), a human rights and international law training program for activists from Asia and the Pacific, including Indigenous Australia. The DTP was founded by Nobel laureate José Ramos-Horta of East Timor to share his knowledge of bringing people’s movements to the UN. Ms. Devine organized training courses for 30 Burmese refugees in Thailand, 25 Tibetan refugees in India, and 35 human rights defenders from 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific.
In 1995 Ms. Devine led the first Canadian-Russian civilian environmental expedition to Antartica with the Polish Academy of Sciences, and in 1996 led a second clean-up expedition to King George Island with the Russian Antarctic Expedition.
Ms. Devine has published a book, Determination, on the involvement of Tibetan women in Tibet and the diaspora in the independence movement for Tibet, and has contributed to several books including Human Rights: The Essential Reference by Oryx Press and Censorship: A World Encyclopedia by Fitzroy Dearbourn Publishers.
Ms. Devine has a Masters of Science from the Institute of Education, Faculty of Economics, University of London, England, and a Bachelor’s Degree in English from McGill University. She lives in Toronto with her family.
Mira Choi – Secretary
Mira Choi is a Business Analyst in Vancouver. She was the former National Knowledge Manager for the Consulting division of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Business Consulting Services division of IBM, developing and managing the implementation of Knowledge Management strategies for the Canadian Business Units. Ms. Choi was also Project Manager and Internet Strategist at Operex, a subsidiary of Hip Interactive Corporation, the largest distributor of PC and video games in North America and OVEN Digital, a Global digital interactive media strategy and design firm.
Her overseas experience extends to Asia where Ms. Choi oversaw the development and implementation of computer labs and the Interactive Media Library for a University Language Education Centre in Korea.
Ms. Choi holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree from the University of Toronto, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Interactive Multimedia from Humber College and is currently completing a Masters in Information Studies at the University of Toronto.
Lloyd G. Barbara
Mr. Lloyd Barbara joined Burgundy Asset Management, Ltd. in September 1994 as Senior Vice President with responsibilities primarily for new business development and client servicing. Mr. Barbara has over 30 years experience in the pension and investment management field. He joined William M. Mercer Limited in Montreal in 1964 as a pension plan consultant. During his latter years with Mercer he spent considerable time analyzing investment managers and conducting manager searches on behalf of plan sponsors.
Mr. Barbara joined Confederation Life in 1972 to market investment management services on behalf of Confed Investment Counseling Ltd. In 1980 he headed Confederation’s Atlantic Regional Office where he developed almost $1 billion of investment management business. In 1991 he moved to Toronto as Vice President Marketing, Pension and Investment Services and assumed responsibiliy for Confederation’s national marketing operation including five regional offices across Canada.
Over the years, Mr. Barbara has been active in numerous non-profit organizations. He is currently a member of the Foundation Board at St. Michael’s Hospital and sits on the Board of Directors of the Rotary Club of Toronto, and is a past member of the Board of the CNIB.
Mr. Barbara has successfully completed his Canadian Securities and Canadian Investment Finance courses.
David Fleck
David is the Executive Managing Director of the Institutional Equity Sales and Trading Group of BMO Nesbitt Burns globally. David is responsible for the delivery of sales, trading and research services to institutional clients.
David also works closely with the firm's Investment & Corporate Banking group to deliver new issue pricing and marketing. David joined the institutional equity sales team at Burns Fry in 1989 prior to its merger with Nesbitt Thomson in 1994. Previously, he was an Investment Banker at a competitor firm. David is a graduate of both the University of Western Ontario (BA) and INSEAD in France (MBA).
Dr. Mario Garcia
Dr. Mario Garcia is a Public Health Services Manager in the Connecticut Department of Public Health in Hartford (USA). Dr. Garcia has been directly involved in managing federal grants to prepare for man-made or natural Public Health emergencies. Dr. Garcia also coordinates several grants for chronic disease prevention and health promotion; and directs a program intended to bring primary care clinicians into medically underserved areas.
In 2003, Dr. Garcia was a Research Associate with the Emerging Infections Program at Yale University and in 2001, he received a Yale Presidential Public Service Fellowship to carry out research as part of grant writing for two major programs seeking to deliver services to pregnant teenagers, women, and children.
From 1995 to 2000, Dr. Garcia carried out consulting work for several health projects including; aiding in a diagnostic of El Salvador’s health system and participating in a study to reorganize the health sector in Belize; participating in research to assess the effects of decentralization of the health system in Bogotá for the Fedesarollo/InterAmerican Development Bank, Colombia; and developing planning for one of twenty city health districts including components for health education, vaccination, environmental services, disease screening, and women and children’s health for the Bogotá Department of Health, Colombia.
From 1989 until 1995, Dr.Garcia held the positions of Country Manager and Medical Coordinator with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for projects in Brazil, Croatia, Nicaragua and Belize. Dr Garcia received his Masters in Public Health form Yale University in 2002. He also holds a Masters of Science in Community Health in Developing Countries from the University of London’s School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Garcia Received his MD degree in 1983 from the Universidad Javeriana, Colombia
Pamela S. Hughes
Pamela Hughes is a senior partner in the securities law group at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP in Toronto. Her practice focuses on international corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions transactions, corporate governance and equity trading and compliance advice.
Prior to 1995, Ms. Hughes was Director of the Capital Markets Branch of the Ontario Securities Commission. Ms. Hughes was the primary negotiator on behalf of Canada of the multi-jurisdictional disclosure system between Canada and the U.S. She was also the OSC representative on the International Organization of Securities Commissions working groups on secondary markets, international equity offers and collective investment schemes and on the IOSCO-EU Consultative Committee regarding securities regulatory reform.
Ms. Hughes has undertaken capital market regulatory reform work in Canada and in the Philippines and Turkey on behalf of CIDA, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. She assisted drafting the Investment Company Act (Philippines) now before the Philippine Senate. In 2003 and 2004 she prepared the Canada chapter in a treatise on Corporate Governance and Shareholder Rights to be published by the World Bank, International Institute for Corporate Governance at Yale University and Harvard University.
Ms. Hughes also taught international securities regulation in the LL.B and LL.M. programs at Osgoode Hall and the LL.B. program at the University of Toronto.
In 2001, Ms. Hughes was appointed Vice-Chair - North America of the Corporate and Securities Law Practice Group of Lex Mundi, an international law firm association, and taught at an APEC Financial Regulators Forum on Regulation of Demutualized Exchanges. Ms. Hughes has also been appointed to the Mergers, Acquisitions and Corporate Control Contests Committee of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York effective September 2004.
Ms. Hughes is recognized in the LEXPERT Directory as one of the leading securities lawyers in Canada and has testified as a securities regulation expert witness in securities litigation.
Ms. Hughes is a director of two Canadian for profit corporations and Schools Without Borders, a registered Canadian charity that conducts leadership seminars for students and offers international community service volunteer placements.
Ms. Hughes and her husband, David, have three sons Peter, Andrew, and Christopher.
Dorothy Kuanda
Dorothy Kuanda is Acting National Coordinator and Research Associate for the Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust in Malawi. She conducts and coordinates action research aimed to improve the legal status of women in Malawi. Her research projects have focused on gender based violence against women and children, human rights of women and children living with HIV/AIDS in Malawi, women’s sexual and reproductive health rights and sexual violence.
Ms. Kuanda is a member of the Malawi Law Society and was admitted to the bar association in Malawi in 1996. She was a consultant for the GTZ/DFID Joint Appraisal Mission on Gender Based Violence in Malawi in 2001 and was also the Principal Legal Aid Advocate for the Ministry of Justice, Department of Legal Aid in Malawi. She is also a member of the Malawi Women Lawyers Association and in 2003 she was appointed by the Malawi Law Commission to the special commission to review the Legal Aid Act.
Ms. Kuanda received her Master of Arts in Women’s Studies from Rutgers University in 1999. She received her Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Malawi in 1995. Dorothy is also currently completing a Certificate in NGO Management from the Imperial College of London under the Distance Learning Programme with support from Oxfam.
Steven Labana
Steven Labana is the Home Based Care Coordinator in Thyolo District, Malawi, Steven’s areas of expertise include representation and coordination, program definition and planning, implementation, management and monitoring, and evaluation of home based care and social support projects.
Mr. Labana was the HIV/AIDS Counsellor at the Health Education Unit until 1997 and was the Health Surveillance Assistant with ZOA Refugee Care from 1995 to 1996. He has experience in immunization, health education, disease surveillance, nutrition, family planning, water and sanitation and data collection. From 1992 to 1994, he was Community Development and Social Assistant with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Mr. Labana earned his Community Development and Social Assistant certificate from the Community Development Training College and his Health Surveillance Assistant Certificate in from the Primary Health Care Training Centre. Mr. Labana is Chairperson of the Home Based Care Sub-technical Committee and is also a member of the Thyolo District Aids Coordinating Committee and the National Sub-Technical working group for Home Based Care and Orphan Care.
Shawn Saulnier
Shawn Saulnier is a Senior Vice President, Strategic Consulting at Univision Strategic Fundraising and a member of Univision's internal strategic solutions team. Shawn began his career as a professional fundraiser 17 years ago with Manhattan-based Community Charitable Counselling Services and, over an 8-year period, worked with fundraising consulting firms: CCS, Ketchum and DVA Navion.
He successfully conducted 27 campaigns and/or feasibility studies in a variety of fields and raised more than $150 million in major gifts.
Shawn has served universities, hospitals, political parties and several health research organizations by introducing information technology and/or outsourcing non-core business functions such as data management, donor communications and telefundraising services.
Dr. Michael Schull
Dr Michael Schull is a Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine (Division of Emergency Medicine) at the University of Toronto. He is also a staff emergency physician at the Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Sciences Centre and member of the hospital’s Clinical Epidemiology Unit.
Dr. Schull’s involvement in international health grew out of his experience as a general practitioner in remote parts of Canada, and at the King Edward VII Hospital in Durban, South Africa. He joined Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in 1991, and subsequently worked in Iraq, Bangladesh, and Burundi, as well as assessing MSF projects in Rwanda, Uzbekistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He served on the Board of Directors of MSF Canada from 1997-2002, and was its President from 1997 to 2001. Dr Schull has published research in the fields of complex emergencies and humanitarian medicine. In 2002, Dr Schull was made a Fellow of the International Federation for Emergency Medicine (IFEM) for contributions to emergency medicine and international health.
Dr. Ross Edward Grant Upshur
Dr. Ross Upshur is the Director of the Primary Care Research Unit and Staff Physician at the Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. He is Assistant Professor at the Department of Family and Community Health and the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto. In 2000, he received an award for excellence in Post-Graduate Teaching from the Department of Community and Family Medicine. Dr Upshur is also Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of Geography and Geology at McMaster University. He holds a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and a Research Scholar Award from the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto.
Dr. Upshur is a Member of the Joint Centre for Bioethics and Member and Research Fellow of McMaster University’s Institute of Environment and Health. He was a consultant for the East York Health Unit’s Tuberculosis Control Program and was Primary Care Physician at the East York Medical Centre from 1994 to 1998.
Dr. Upshur received his M.D. degree from McMaster University in 1986 and ran a General Practice for seven years in Southern Ontario. He received his M.Sc. degree in Epidemiology from the University of Toronto in 1997 and also holds a Masters degree in Philosophy from Queens University.
If you have any questions or would like to learn more, we can be reached at:
info@dignitasinternational.org
