Dalla Lana School of Public Health

The Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) Program is the first professional doctorate offered at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Students, who require several years’ experience to enrol in the program, rely on their learned practical experiences in progressing through the requirements leading to scholarly work that will translate into changes in public health practice. Along the way, our DrPH students are making an impact, as evidenced by these accomplishments we are proud to share with our community.

DrPH Students Making An Impact

DrPH Cohort III 

Julia Burt

September 2024 – Julia was recently awarded first prize for her poster at the International Population Data Linkage Network (IPDLN) conference, held in Chicago. The poster described her collaborative work with Australian colleagues comparing and contrasting methods of engagement and findings in the area of health data social licence.

April 2024 – Burt published a study in the International Journal of Population Data Science (IJPDS) that sought to better understand public perspectives on health data use (i.e., “health data social licence”). This manuscript describes the methodology used to engage with diverse members of the public during the first phase of the project, which was funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada. 

DrPH Cohort II  

Eugene Nam 

December 2024 – Eugene has recently been promoted to Associate Director, HIV Medical Affairs at Gilead Sciences Canada, where he will spearhead the HIV Prevention portfolio. In this role, he will be leading the launch and implementation of the long-acting HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) across Canada. Eugene’s evolved responsibilities include developing and leading the clinical implementation strategy, as well as creating programs and resources focused on scientific and clinical education. Additionally, he will oversee real-world implementation trials, the scientific communication strategy, and scientific publication efforts, all aimed at supporting individuals with unmet needs in HIV prevention in Canada. 

Gladys Olisaekee (Mastercard Foundation Scholar)

November 2024 – Gladys Olisaekee joined leading global thinkers, researchers, and practitioners to share actionable research insights and advancements related to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals during the 2024 Annual Reach Alliance Research Conference. She spoke about her work comparing healthcare service delivery in rural Nigeria and rural Ontario, highlighting access challenges, human resource complexities, and data management issues. She also discussed opportunities for leveraging digital health technology and optimizing human resources to improve healthcare delivery in both settings. 

 

Ronald Carshon-Marsh (Mastercard Foundation Scholar)

July 2024 – Ronald was invited by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to participate and facilitate in the Collection of Vital Events Information through Sample Registration Systems (COVERS) workshop in Lusaka, Zambia. This event was held from the 22nd – 25th July 2024. This is part of the effort to improve the collection and use of mortality data in low resource settings due to the weak Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Sample Registration Systems (SRS) offer a routine and nationally representative data collection platform to regularly update key vital statistics and disease surveillance information. Sixteen country teams from Africa and Southeast Asia attended. In an open discussion forum, Ronald narrated his experience in setting up and implementing the SRS in Sierra Leone with his research colleagues in 2019 and which is still ongoing. He further facilitated many sessions and co-presented the Sierra Leone HEAL-SL project. These valuable information and more technically supported country teams in the development of a feasible and costed action plan for the establishment of sample registration SRS as part of their mortality surveillance program. 

July 2023 – Ronald Carshon – Marsh, has recently published an article titled “Validation of malaria-attributed deaths using verbal autopsy studies: a systematic review” in the peer-reviewed BMC Malaria journal. His work was supervised by his academic supervisor Prof. Prabhat Jha and also co-authored by Profs. Susan Bondy and Theodore Witek. The proposal for this systematic review was inspired and written during Prof. Susan Bondy’s course ‘CHL 4002H Critical Appraisal and the Use of Evidence’. The systematic review was done as an Applied Research Project for the DrPH programme. 

In summary, malaria contributes substantially to the persistent burden of child deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. However, civil registration and vital statistics are weak and incomplete in many low- and middle-income countries and the majority of deaths in these regions occur outside of healthcare facilities, predominantly at home. From the 21 eligible articles reviewed, it was concluded that Minimally Invasive Tissue Sampling (MITS) demonstrated better accuracy compared to Verbal Autopsy (VA) in diagnosing malaria-attributed deaths, particularly in hospital settings. The high specificity of malaria in VA diagnosis suggests population-based estimates of the proportion of deaths due to malaria are broadly plausible. Hence efforts to improve VA by using MITS calibration are justified from a public health perspective. This robust review suggests that further VA studies in malaria endemic areas with MITS and CDA studies in selected populations are highly required to inform policy and practice. 

May 2023 – At the invitation of the Africa CDC of the African Union, Ronald recently took part in Technical Workshops on Mortality Surveillance in Ethiopia and Mozambique. Ronald is addressing mortality surveillance in his DrPH dissertation. 

Tashani Parker 

2024 – Parker facilitated consultations with Black community members to develop the National Dementia Guidelines with the Alzheimer Society of Canada. The guide shares key considerations and strategies for family physicians, nurse practitioners, and specialists when communicating a diagnosis with Black community members. Collaborative partners included The College of Family Physicians of Canada, the Canadian Consensus Conference on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Dementia, and was funded by PHAC. 

Manreet Bhullar

2024 – Manreet Bhullar, a Senior Forensic Epidemiologist, was involved in the launch of a new public dashboard that highlights key findings from Cuyahoga County’s Pilot Drug Checking Program in Ohio, USA. This program tests used syringes from Syringe Service Programs to determine the drugs/drug residues found on the syringe. These findings are shared with participants of the program about what drugs they are using, and also informs public health surveillance efforts to understand the local drug supply. For more information, click these links here and here. 

September 2023 – Manreet recently published local surveillance efforts in Cleveland to identify fentanyl and fentanyl analogs contributing to overdose deaths, and the changing demographics of the overdose crisis. Her publication in Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports uses similar forensic epidemiology approaches to the ones used in her DrPH dissertation. 

Anil Thota 

September 2023 – Anil was appointed as Deputy Director, Synthesis and Reviews Office at International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie). This organization promotes evidence-informed equitable, inclusive, and sustainable development. 

Cheyenne Joseph 

2023 – Cheyenne was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Award for her exceptional contributions in the field of nursing, rehabilitation, education, and research and her unwavering commitment to the advancement of Mi’kmaq wellness and culture. 

DrPH Cohort I 

Hazim Hassan

March 2025 – DrPH student Hazim Hassan had the opportunity to share the work he is doing around mindfulness and clinicians in a recent podcast series. The early days of his DrPH dissertation work looking at the impact of mindfulness on physician burnout was at the center of the podcast discussion. Hazim shared his perspectives on how mindfulness can offer new ways of approaching mind states that can support optimal performance and stress management. He looks forward to coming back to the podcast and sharing more insights when his DrPH dissertation is complete. You can listen to the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P53sJLC-1E 

 

Louis Wong

September 2024 – Louis Wong, a member of the DrPH inaugural cohort, accepted a new position at the Public Health Agency of Canada as Co-Director of the Canadian Field Epidemiology Program, training the next generation of field epidemiologists. With his leadership, future experts are being prepared to tackle domestic and global health challenges. 

Kimberly Harding  

June 2024 – Kimberly Harding has recently published her work with Erica Di Ruggiero and her colleagues from Public Health Ontario (PHO) on the topic of Supporting Ontario Public Health units to address adverse childhood experiences in pandemic recovery planning: A priority-setting exercise. 

Karla Ghartey 

2024 – Karla was recently awarded the EPIC Doctoral Award from the Emerging & Infectious Consortium at the University of Toronto. 

Amy Nakajima 

May 2023 – Nakajima was promoted to Associate Professor with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Ottawa. 

Julia Roitenberg 

March 2023 – Julia Roitenberg has been promoted to General Manager and Chief Nursing Officer at York Region Public Health. In her GM and CNO role, Julia will provide leadership on strategic, operational, and administrative matters. Julia is responsible for providing progressive leadership and oversight to the administrative requirements of the Public Health Branch such as strategic and business planning, budget development, and staff engagement.

Susanna Ogunnaike-Cooke 

2021 – Susanna was one of the recipients of a Public Service 2021 Award. She is part of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Task Force. She received recognition for her exemplary contribution under extraordinary circumstances.