Princess Margaret Global Cancer Program

Dr. Mary Gospodarowicz is a radiation oncologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and a Professor at the University of Toronto. She is the Associate Editor of Cancer Biology & Medicine and the Journal of Global Oncology.

Professor Gospodarowicz is a Fellow of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists, and an honorary member of the European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology (ESTRO), the German Society for Radiation Oncology (DEGRO), and the Scientific Association of Swiss Radiation Oncology (SASRO). She was the President of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) from 2012 to 2014, and chairs the TNM Prognostic Factors Project at UICC. She has received the ASTRO Gold Medal, the American Radium Society Janeway Medal, the O. Harold Warwick Prize from the Canadian Cancer Society, and the Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology. She was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada in 2015.

Danielle Rodin, MD, MPH, FRCPC, is a radiation oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto. She is the Director of the Global Cancer Program at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and was elected to the Board of Directors for the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) in Geneva. Her clinical interests are in breast cancer and hematologic malignancies. She is a health services researcher, with interests in health technology assessment, global health systems, and large database analyses of cost and quality in cancer care. Dr. Rodin received her B.A.(Hons.) from McGill University, her medical degree from the University of Toronto, and her Master of Public Health from Harvard University, and was the 2017-2018 Canadian Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Meredith Giuliani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto and a radiation oncologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. She received her MBBS qualification from the University of London, England and her Master of Education from the University of Toronto. She completed her residency training a the University of Toronto. She is the Chair of the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology's Education Committee, the Medical Director of Education for Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, the Director of Undergraduate Medical Education for the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto and the Cancer Care Ontario Smoking Cessation Champion for Toronto Central South. Her research interests include the influence of globalization on education with a focus on curriculum design and implementation. Her clinical interests are in lung and head and neck cancers.

Laurice Karkaby, BSc, MA, is a Research Manager at GIPPEC and the Princess Margaret Global Cancer Program. She earned both her BSc and MA in Psychology at the University of Toronto. Her Master's research explored the psychosocial and cognitive outcomes of prophylactic oophorectomy in BRCA1/2 carriers via in-depth qualitative interviews. Laurice is experienced in managing international, multi-site mixed-methods research studies and has worked in both Canada and Sweden.

Lesley Chalklin, MSc, PMP, is a Program Manager for the Princess Margaret Global Cancer Program and the Program Manager for the Global Institute of Psychosocial, Palliative and End-of-Life Care (GIPPEC), a research institute of the Princess Margaret and the University of Toronto. Lesley completed her Master's of Health Administration and has her Project Management Professional (PMP) designation. Prior to joining the program, Lesley acted as the Program Manager for the Adolescent and Young Adult Program and the Older Adults with Cancer Clinic at the Princess Margaret. Lesley has led projects within the health sector for over five years.

Jacqueline Hutton is the Education Coordinator for the Cancer Education and Global Cancer Programs at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Jacqueline recently completed her Master of Public Health at the University of Guelph and during her master's practicum, she worked at the Princess Margaret Cancer Health Literacy Research Centre. During her placement, Jacqueline contributed to research projects focusing on health numeracy and the needs of cancer caregivers in diverse, marginalized, and underserved populations. Jacqueline is experienced in project coordination and evaluation.

Arleigh Dean is a Project Coordinator for the Princess Margaret Global Cancer Program. He completed both his Bachelor of Medical Science and Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences at Western University. During his Masters he completed a number of research projects related to cancer education, basic science research, and clinical care. Arleigh is also experienced working in project coordination and research.

Geoffrey Liu is a Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. He was Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School before returning in 2006 to the Ontario Cancer Institute–Princess Margaret Hospital. Dr. Liu’s major research focus is on molecular prognostic factors and pharmacogenomics of lung and esophageal cancer, with additional interest in head and neck, pancreatic, ovarian and testicular cancers, mesothelioma and thymoma.

He is a member of the Computational Biology and Medicine Program at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Trained in clinical and molecular epidemiology, he is the principal investigator of over three dozen cancer pharmacogenomic and molecular epidemiologic analyses of cancer observational studies and clinical trials. Dr. Liu has research interests in epidemiological outcomes database methods, novel analyses of high dimensionality biologically rich data, pharmacogenomic analyses of conventional and molecularly targeted agents using primary human xenograft models, patient-reported outcomes in pharmacogenomics, and knowledge translation of personalized medicine and pharmacogenomic algorithms into clinical practice.

Meena Merali is the Director of Cancer Strategy Stewardship at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. She is a results-driven healthcare leader with a track record of building strong relationships and partnerships on a local, national, and global scale. Meena has led sustainable and culturally congruent international programs to build capacity, improve access to cancer care, and advocate for global cancer control. In her current role, she provides leadership and oversight to catalyze progress towards strategic goals while measuring and maximizing the impact of philanthropic dollars to accelerate cancer research, education and clinical care.

Meena is a Professional Engineer with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo and a Master of Business Administration from Ivey Business School at Western University.

Dr. Andrea Covelli is a surgical oncologist in the Division of General Surgery, Mount Sinai Hospital and University Health Network. She is an Assistant Professor and Surgeon-Investigator at the University of Toronto. Dr. Covelli's clinical focus is the surgical management of complex skin malignancies and breast disease with a special interest in rare breast malignancies, including mesenchymal tumours.

She received her medical degree from the University of Western Ontario, and obtained both her residency training in General Surgery and her General Surgical Oncology fellowship training at the University of Toronto. Dr. Covelli is also an alumna of the Surgeon-Scientist and Clinician Investigator Program, having completed her PhD in Clinical Epidemiology at the Institute of Health Management, Policy and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include improving patient and cancer care outcomes and addressing health inequities in cancer care for underrepresented patient populations.

Dr. Vikaash Kumar is a DMOH Medical Oncologist and Clinician Teacher at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre with a focus on Breast and Genitourinary cancers. Dr. Kumar completed a Breast Oncology Fellowship at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and completed his Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology Residency at McMaster University. He also completed a Masters of Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Toronto. He has an interest in expanding the PM Global Cancer Program partnerships to countries in the Caribbean.

Michael Milosevic is a radiation oncologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and a Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto. He is also Vice-Chair of Research in the Department of Radiation Oncology, a Past President of the Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology (CARO) and the founding Chair of the Canadian Partnership for Quality in Radiotherapy (CPQR).

Dr. Milosevic's clinical practice is focused on gynecological cancers. His primary research interests are in high precision, MR-guided external beam radiotherapy and brachytherapy, and biological targeting of tumour hypoxia and immune-mediated radiation treatment resistance. Dr. Milosevic is committed to building radiation treatment capacity in developing parts of the world where gynecological cancers are amongst the most common and devastating diseases.

Dr. Milosevic received his MD at Queen's University and completed his training in radiation oncology at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Al-Awamer is a native Saudi Arabian and obtained his medical degree at King Faisal University. He completed residency training in family medicine and palliative medicine and a Master of Health Science degree in bioethics at the University of Toronto.

He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, a staff Palliative Care Physician and educator in the Department of Supportive Care, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Dr. Al-Awamer is the Co-Director of the Palliative Medicine Clinical Fellowship Program. Dr. Al-Awamer's research interests include advancing palliative care globally, models to provide palliative care for adolescents and young adults, medical education and curriculum development, and end of life ethics. He has published and delivered conference papers nationally and internationally about palliative care and ethics.

After graduating from Sheffield University and completing her radiation oncology residency at Queen's University, Dr. Rebecca Wong joined the Princess Margaret. She holds an MSc in Clinical Epidemiology from McMaster University. Currently, she is a Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto and the Director of the Clinical Trials Program for Radiation Medicine at the Princess Margaret.

Her clinical and research interests are aimed at improving the outcomes of patients with gastroesophageal cancer and patients living with metastatic cancer, including oligometastases. Her specific focus in this area examines the use of radiotherapy through clinical trials, knowledge synthesis and guidelines development. She is active in evidence-based guidelines development through her role as Co-Chair for the gastrointestinal disease site group in the Cancer Care Ontario Practice Guideline Initiative. She is also the author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications and 8 book chapters.

Dr. Krzyzanowska is a practising medical oncologist and a health services researcher at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto. The overarching goal of her research program is to improve the quality of care received by cancer patients. She combines patient-level studies focusing on specific quality issues in the oncology population such as drug safety and toxicity with population-based research. This approach allows her to look at quality issues from different, but complementary perspectives. Her studies have had an impact at both the hospital and population levels. Dr. Krzyzanowska obtained her medical degree and clinical training at the University of Toronto and completed a research fellowship at the Centre for Outcomes and Policy Research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. In addition to her clinical and research work, she holds leadership positions related to quality of cancer care at the local, provincial and international levels.

Anet Julius completed her Master of Nursing at the University of Toronto in 2011, and has been an Advanced Practice Nurse Educator at the Princess Margaret for the inpatient medical radiation, palliative care, and short stay units since 2012. She tool on the role of interim Senior Professional Practice Leader at the Princess Margaret in 2017 and is currently the Interim Director of Professional Practice.

Anet has been involved in various initiatives to improve patient care and nursing practice at UHN.

She holds an Adjunct Lecturer appointment with the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto. Anet has also been a frequent lecturer for UHN-Princess Margaret's International program teaching the Specialized Oncology Nursing Curriculum in Kuwait and Qatar.

Abhenil Mittal is a Clinical Research Fellow in Breast, Genitourinary and Acute Oncology with an additional interest in Thoracic Oncology. He completed his Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology training in India before joining the Princess Margaret for fellowship in September 2021. Dr. Mittal comes from a family of doctors, and his spouse is a radiology fellow at Sunnybrook. Dr. Mittal's research interests include real world data synthesis, global oncology and health disparities, quality of life studies, and toxicity of cancer treatment including financial and time toxicity. Dr. Mittal is passionate about global access to cancer care and working toward that goal.

Yat Tsang is Director of Radiation Therapy at the Princess Margaret Radiation Medicine Program. He has been a registered Therapeutic Radiographer in the United Kingdom (UK) since 2002. He completed his MSc in healthcare informatics in 2006 and received his PhD by published work in 2018. Yat is involved in European society for radiotherapy and oncology Radiation TherapisT (ESTRO RTT) Committee to lead and organize international radiotherapy.

Beverley Essue is an Associate Professor of Global Health in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. She holds a Visiting Scientist appointment at the Institute for the Advanced Study of the Americas, University of Miami and is an Honorary Senior Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health, India. She is a global health systems researcher and health economist who leads interdisciplinary research focused on strengthening financial risk protection, supporting effective and equitable priority setting and advancing equity, including gender equity, across global health systems.

She has led work for key global health initiatives including the Disease Control Priorities series and the Lancet Taskforce on Non-Communicable Diseases. She co-chairs the Scientific Advisory committee for the Lancet Commission on Gender Based Violence and Maltreatment of Young People and co-leads the Economics working group for this Commission. She is also a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Cancer and Health Systems and a Scientific Advisor to the Lancet Commission on Breast Cancer. In 2020 she was recognized on the list of Canadian Women in Global Health for her scholarship and contributions to the field.

Arun Ghoshal is a Palliative Care Physician from India. He graduated from the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai and is currently a clinical research fellow in the Division of Palliative Care, University Health Network. Most of his research work is in cancer-related palliative care.