Jeffrey Brook
Scientific Director and Nominated Principal Investigator
Jeff Brook is an Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto. Jeff was a tireless advocate for the creation of an environmental exposure data platform for many years, leading to the development of a funding call at the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the ultimate establishment of CANUE in June of 2016 in collaboration with many of Canada’s leading environmental health researchers. As CANUE’s Scientific Director, Jeff acts as the key liaison between environmental health research groups, in government and in academia, in Canada and internationally, toward keeping CANUE at the leading edge of environmental health research and policy. He brings 25 years of experience as an Environment Canada scientist working at the science-policy interface, 15 years of experience as an Adjunct at the University of Toronto, 12 years of leadership of the Environmental Working Group of the Canadian Health Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) study, Canada’s largest birth cohort, and 5 years of service on the Research Committee of the Health Effects Institute (HEI) (Boston). Jeff has led scientific assessments to inform policy nationally and internationally, and advised multi-stakeholder groups shaping policy, and is one of Canada’s leading experts in air quality, recognized at all levels of government and academically, including for his substantial contributions in air pollution health research.
Dany Doiron
Managing Director
Joey Syer
Data Director
Joey Syer has been the CANUE Data Director since November 2022. He oversees the development of CANUE datasets and projects dedicated to their improvement in epidemiological research. Joey is also a part-time course instructor at the University of Victoria in Population Health and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and Spatial Epidemiology and Outbreak Detection. Prior to CANUE, he spent 10 years (2012-2022) as a geomatics specialist at Hemmera, an Ausenco Company. Joey holds degrees in GIS and Epidemiology. He has a strong interest in environmental epidemiology, using GIS, remote sensing, and machine learning to improve environmental exposure data quality, and a wide range of health outcomes.
Eleanor Setton
Advisor – Data Platforms and Tools
Eleanor Setton served as CANUE’s Managing Director from June 2016 – March 2022, leading the day-to-day operations of CANUE and its staff, and also establishing the CANUE data platform. She is now an Advisor to the continued expansion of the CANUE data platform and in the development of digital tools to help visualize and make the data holding policy-relevant. Prior to working with CANUE, Eleanor was an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Victoria (2008- 2016), where she was Co-Director of the Spatial Sciences Research Lab (SSRL). She brings 30 years of training and experience in the development, analysis, modelling, and visualization of environmental and socio-economic geospatial data. Her focus over the past 15 years has been on environmental exposures, from carcinogens in air, water and other pathways, to health-impacting urban factors including air quality, greenness, walkability, weather and others. She has a special interest in advancing the characterization of urban and rural environments using high resolution imagery and computer vision/machine learning, as well as developing data-driven tools for policy makers and the general public toward improving environmental conditions for all.
Andre Redivo
Geospatial Specialist
Andre has considerable expertise in the development and management of geospatial data. He developed national web-based applications for data analysis and visualization in Brazil. He developed and maintains the CANUE data browser and download site, and develops CANUE datasets.
Allan McKee
Communications Specialist
Allan is an experienced communicator with expertise in translating academic research for policy makers, media producers, public health practitioners and members of the public. He develops content for CANUE and the HealthyDesign.City projects and manages its communications channels.
Natalia Calijorne
Administrative assistant
Natalia brings extensive experience as an internal consultant for the Ministry of Attorney General, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Economic Development at the Minas Gerais State in Brazil. Her experience spans public policy development, implementation, and analysis.
Directors – Academic and Research
Philip Awadalla
Director and Principal Investigator
Philip Awadalla is the National Scientific Director of the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrows’ Health (CanPath) cohort, Principal Investigator for the Ontario Health Study, and Director of Computational Biology at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. He is also a Professor of Population and Medical Genomics at the University of Toronto and the Director of Genome Canada’s Canadian Data Integration Centre. Dr. Awadalla focuses on developing next-generation genomics approaches, model-based tools, and population-based approaches to study mutation rates, genome biology, and cancer. His main research interests include identifying genetic determinants of blood disorders and cancers, and genomic epidemiology of age related disorders in population cohorts.
Michael Brauer
Director and Principal Investigator
Michael Brauer is an internationally recognized expert in urban and environmental health. He is Director of UBC’s Bridge Program, Professor in UBC’s School of Population and Public Health, and Professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Dr. Brauer’s research has uncovered relationships between transportation-related and biomass air pollution, and reproductive, respiratory, and cardiovascular health, and identified impacts of multiple exposures mediated by urban form on population health. He has participated in studies throughout the world and served on advisory committees to the UN Climate and Clean Air Coalition Scientific Panel, the World Health Organization, the US National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine, the Royal Society of Canada, the International Joint Commission and governments in North America and Asia.
Howard Hu
Director and Principal Investigator
Howard Hu, Chair and Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, and Founding Dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at University of Toronto, is internationally renowned as an expert on environmental health. He is a physician-scientist, specializing in occupational and environmental medicine and epidemiology. Previously, Dr. Hu was a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Channing Laboratory of the Brigham & Women’s Hospital (1988-2006), and the NSF International Chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Professor of Environmental Health, Epidemiology & Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan (2006-2012). His work leading an international team of scientists has won a number of awards, including the 1999 US National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences Progress and Achievement Award, the 2006 Harriett Hardy Award, the 2009 Linus Pauling Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2011 Award of Excellence from the American Public Health Association, and the 2015 John R. Goldsmith Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field from the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology.
Kim Mcgrail
Director and Principal Investigator
Kimberlyn McGrail is a Professor in the UBC School of Population and Public Health and Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, Director of Research for UBC Health, and Scientific Director of Population Data BC and Health Data Research Network Canada. Her research interests are quantitative policy evaluation and all aspects of population data science. Kim is Deputy Editor of the International Journal of Population Data Science, the 2009-10 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Associate in Health Care Policy and Practice, 2016 recipient of the Cortlandt JG Mackenzie Prize for Excellence in Teaching, 2017 recipient of a UBC award for Excellence in Clinical or Applied Research, and in 2019-2020 participated as a member of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Task Force on AI4Health. She holds a PhD in Health Care and Epidemiology from the University of British Columbia, and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Michigan.
Dave Stieb
Director and Principal Knowledge User
David Stieb, MD, is a Public Health Physician with Health Canada’s Environmental Health Science and Research Bureau and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine, and member of the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the University of Ottawa. In addition to conducting primary research, including linking national administrative cohort data and exposure surfaces, and key systematic reviews and meta-analyses of epidemiological studies of air pollution and health, he has made notable contributions to knowledge translation, working with federal, provincial and municipal public health and NGO partners. These include acting as health science lead in the development of Canada’s Air Quality Health Index, a public health risk communication tool (www.airhealth.ca). He also co-developed the Air Quality Benefits Assessment Tool and other applications that translate knowledge to estimate the human health impacts and costs/benefits of changes in ambient air quality resulting from proposed regulatory or other initiatives.
Padmaja Subarrao
Director and Principal Investigator
Padmaja Subbarao (PA) has expertise in maternal, fetal, and child health. She is a Clinician Scientist and Respirologist at the Hospital for Sick Children and an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. She is Co-Director and Toronto Site Leader of the CHILD study. She has specific expertise in lung development and physiology and is a world recognized expert in Infant and Preschool lung function. As Director of the Pulmonary Function Laboratory at the Hospital for Sick Children, she has developed objective markers of lung disease to improve respiratory phenotyping of infants and children. This work has led to international recognition and opportunities to introduce novel phenotyping tools to North America. She has worked with Environmental Scientists both in and out of the CHILD study to look at the impact of the environment on child health, specifically lung health. Her work has been continuously funded by CIHR and AllerGen NCE to study the development of lung function in health and asthma and the impact of the environment.
We would especially like to acknowledge the contributions of our Term Directors, Special Advisors, Team Leaders and past Staff members.
Term Directors
- Dan Crouse
- Mark Gibson
- Perry Hystad
- Olimpia Pantelimon
- Salimah Shariff
- Audrey Smargiassi
Special Advisors
- Bert Brunekreef
- Gordon McBean
- Diana Royce
- Salim Yusuf
Team Leaders
- Air Quality – Markey Johnson and Amir Hakami
- Climate and Weather – Johannes Feddema and Tim Takaro
- Natural Spaces – Matilda van den Bosch and Paul Villeneuve
- Neighbourhood Factors – Dan Fuller and Michael Widener
- Noise – Hugh Davies and Audrey Smargiassi
- Transportation – Marianne Hatzopoulou and Ahsan Habib
- Child Health – Meghan Azad and Stephanie Atkinson
- Exposure measurement – Greg Evans and Dan Rainham
- Integrated Health – Chris Carlsten and John McLaughlin
- Biostatistics – Rick Burnett and Wendy Lou
- Operations Policy – Paul Demers and Doug Manuel
- Knowledge Exchange – Ray Copes and Olimpia Pantelimon
Past Staff
- Mary Speck – Administration
- Kerolyn Shairsingh – Data Specialist and Administration
- Mahdi Shooshtari – Data Scientist
- Sajjad Azami – Data Scientist
- Evan Seed – Data Specialist