Biography
Dr. Sharon Whiting was appointed as Vice-Dean of Faculty Affairs at the Faculty of Medicine in May 2019 after having served as Interim Vice-Dean since 2018. Previously, Dr. Whiting served as the Assistant Dean and later Vice-Dean of Health & Hospital Services from 2007 to 2017.
She is a pediatric neurologist who obtained her undergraduate degree at the University of the West Indies followed by Royal College specialization in Pediatrics and Neurology at the University of Ottawa and the University of British Columbia. She completed her training with a fellowship in epilepsy at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Whiting is a graduate of the Hedwig van Amerigen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Program (ELAM) for women at the Drexel University College of Medicine and was a Faculty Advisor for ELAM.
Prior to joining the Faculty of Medicine leadership team, Dr. Whiting was the Chief of Staff for VP Academic Affairs at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) where she was instrumental in the development of a patient safety program. She undertook the negotiation of a hospital-wide alternate payment plan with the Ministry of Health and physicians at CHEO, leading to a successful model for integrating clinical, research, and educational goals at CHEO and the University of Ottawa.
She is currently head of the Neurology Division in the Department of Pediatrics. As an active clinician specialising in epilepsy, she has had major national roles in neurology as Past President of the Canadian Association of Child Neurologists and Past President of the Canadian League against Epilepsy. She is currently on the executive of the Canadian Neurological Societies Federation (CNSF).
Her clinical research is in the area of health services, specifically the use of the ketogenic diet in the treatment of epilepsy and the quality of life for patients with epilepsy as well as clinical trials. She founded the Canadian Pediatric Epilepsy Network, a multidisciplinary group of researchers involved in epilepsy research. Dr. Whiting is Vice-Dean of Health/Hospital Services and is responsible for the linkage of services between the Faculty of Medicine and the major affiliated teaching hospitals. The affiliation agreement between the faculties of Medicine, Health Sciences, Social Sciences, Telfer School of Business and the five teaching hospitals including The Ottawa Hospital, CHEO, the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, Montfort Hospital, and Bruyère Continuing Care,results in mutual cooperation in the mandates of education research and clinical care
Dr. Whiting chairs the Faculty of Medicine Relationship Committee, responsible for the development of policies crucial to the lives of faculty members such as appointment, promotion and evaluation.