Global Health Human Library: Real People & Conversations

Dr. Akbari is an expert in pediatric medicine, global health, and humanitarian response. In his role as Senior Director at Grand Challenges Canada, he leads initiatives to fund and nurture health, WASH, life-saving information, early childhood development and alternative energy innovations in conflict-affected countries. Fawad has held leadership positions in various organizations, including Aga Khan Foundation in Canada, the USA and Afghanistan. He has medical and public health degrees from Kabul Medical University and the University of Liverpool, respectively, and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa, School of Epidemiology and Public Health.

He has been a fellow, coach, mentor, and instructor with the Unites Nations Institute for Training and Research fellowship programs for Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt since 2009. He is also a research fellow with the WHO Collaborating Center for Knowledge Translation and Technology Assessment for Health Equity at the University of Ottawa. Fawad joined the board in 2019.  

Fawad grew up in Afghanistan and moved to Canada in 2013, He brings his lived experience to his current work both at Grand Challenges Canada and his academic engagement at uOttawa. 

Dr. Duguay is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Bruyère Research Institute, where she applies her expertise in epidemiology and spatial analysis to address challenges in the elimination of neglected tropical diseases. She earned her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Ottawa (2024), building on her MPH in Epidemiology (2020) and BSc in Biomedical Engineering (2018) from Drexel University. Claudia's current research is centered on evaluating the acceptability of a novel treatment for onchocerciasis in Ghana and Angola. Her prior work has been instrumental in identifying overlapping risk factors for malaria and schistosomiasis, as well as identifying never-treated populations for mass drug administrations targeting neglected tropical diseases and improving participation in these programs.

Ms. Heitkamp is the Director of the TBPPM Learning Network, an online community of South-South exchange on private health provider engagement in TB care, based at the McGill University Health Center, Research Institute. Petra has over 25 years of global health experience in applying effective collaborative approaches, health systems and community empowerment to advance public health interventions, specifically in Tuberculosis and infectious diseases. She has worked at the Stop TB Partnership, WHO/TB, including in India and Indonesia, forging partnerships and creating advocacy strategies among stakeholders from global agencies to grassroots tribal leaders. She also co-chairs Stop TB Canada since 2024, and is a core-group member of the Global PPM Working Group.

Dr. McLean is a Senior Program Specialist in Global Health at Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Rob’s broad interests lie in understanding how human creativity can create a better world. Pursuing that aim, he has worked across government, private, and NGO sectors and has published scientific research and invited commentary in venues ranging from Nature to the Stanford Social Innovation Review. He is author of the new book, Scaling Impact: Innovation for the Public Good published by Routledge NYC. Rob’s postdoctoral studies at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute focused on approaches to knowledge co-production. He earned his Ph.D. in the Department of Medicine at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He holds an M.Sc. from the Global Development Institute of the University of Manchester, England, and two undergraduate degrees following studies at Carleton University, Canada and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Dr. Jason Nickerson, RRT, PhD, FCSRT, CHE is the Humanitarian Representative to Canada for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an Investigator at the Bruyère Research Institute, and an Adjunct Professor of Common Law at the University of Ottawa in the Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics. Jason is a respiratory therapist with 19 years of clinical and research experience in adult critical care and anesthesia, in both the acute care and complex continuing care sectors in Canada.

Jason’s research and clinical interests are in the care of acutely and critically ill older adults, with a particular focus on models and systems of care for older adults during public health emergencies. His research has focused on strengthening the long-term care sector’s approach to managing acute illness and deterioration among residents of long-term and complex continuing care facilities, including improving access to asthma, COPD, and emergency cardiorespiratory care. His current research projects focus on the care provided to older adults during public health emergencies and humanitarian crises, including an ongoing review of inpatient care provided to older adults in MSF facilities in 11 countries experiencing humanitarian crises, and research related to the care of older adults in Ebola treatment centres during the 2018-2020 Ebola-Zaire outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo including the use of the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine and Ebola monoclonal antibody therapeutics in this population. Beyond this, he remains engaged in research and policy work focused on better describing the use of acute care services among residents of Ontario’s long-term and complex-continuing care facilities, as part of a renewed focus on improving the quality of care provided in this sector following COVID-19.  

Jason has worked extensively on drug policy research, analysis, and advocacy with a specific focus on pharmaceutical policy and access to medicines issues in Canada and in low- and middle-income countries, access to surgical care and perioperative outcomes, and drug policy related to controlled medicines and narcotics and has published extensively on how to improve access to new health technologies in more equitable ways.  

He is a graduate of Dalhousie University’s respiratory therapy program specializing in anesthesia and completed a master’s degree at the University of British Columbia studying the education of health professionals who provide community-based HIV care, and a PhD in population health at the University of Ottawa where he focused on the methodologies for conducting assessments of health facilities in severely disrupted health systems during acute and protracted emergencies.

Dr. Sohani has a medical degree from the University of Karachi and Masters in Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health. He has over 30 years of experience working in Africa, Asia and Americas with a major focus on health systems strengthening in fragile context. His specific area of interest has been Epidemic/Pandemic preparedness and response and enhancing access to services for women and children across the continuum of emergency response to recovery and longer-term development.  

In his capacity as Sr. Director, HiE, he is currently leading a multidisciplinary team of health experts responsible for providing technical advice and support to all health projects of the Canadian Red Cross being implemented in Canada and globally. Over the past 15 years with CRC, Salim designed and tested models of strengthening health systems with an emphasis on strengthening the critical link between Community-based health work and formal health system in humanitarian context. With his interest in health research, he facilitated academic partnership for CRC and served as a guest speaker at university of Western Ontario and McMaster. He has mentored and supervised several masters, doctoral and post doc fellows who are interested in developing career in humanitarian response.

Salim has worked and/ or provided consultancy support to the organizations such as the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research, Aga Khan Health Services in East Africa, the Aga Khan University, the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, Agri team and has authored and co-authored several publications including the theme on equity-based interventions for mothers and children.  

He is recipient of the 2017 Life Time Achievement in Global Health award from Canadian Society for International Health.