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CANUE | Our TeamJeffBrook photo
Jeffrey Brook

Scientific Director and Nominated Principal Investigator

Dr. Brook is an Associate Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. For over 25 years he was a research scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada. He has wide ranging expertise related to air quality and environmental health, contributing to the development of Canadian policy through his research, participation on national and international committees, past leadership on federal science assessments and through studies on children’s health via his leadership role on the CHILD (Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development) Cohort Study. Dr. Brook started and serves as the scientific director of the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE.ca), which represents an open data resource for Canadian researchers. He is one of the co-directors of HealthyDesign.City, which aims to make CANUE data visualization and analysis tools widely accessible.

CANUE | Our TeamDDoiron
Dany Doiron

Managing Director

Dany Doiron has been the Managing Director of CANUE since March 2022. Prior to this, he acted as Data Linkage Lead and Special Projects Manager (June 2016 – March 2022). Under his leadership, CANUE data have been integrated with all of Canada’s large cohorts and many provincial administrative health data organizations, providing one-stop research approvals. Dany is also a Research Associate at the Respiratory Epidemiology and Clinical Research Unit of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Canada, and acts as the Chief Operating Officer of the Canadian Cohort of Obstructive Lung Disease (CanCOLD), a large population-based cohort dedicated to better understanding Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Dany holds a PhD in Epidemiology and focuses his research on the respiratory health impacts of ambient air pollution exposure. Prior to joining CANUE, Dany worked with Maelstrom Research, helping epidemiological research consortia in Canada and Europe implement innovative solutions to facilitate multi-centre data integration and co-analysis.

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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.

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Priya Patel

Data Scientist

Priya is an environmental engineer and data scientist with a background in urban environmental modelling. She worked for six years as an engineering consultant before returning to graduate school at the University of Toronto for a Master’s degree. Her research was focused on modelling air pollution and microclimates using satellite imagery and machine learning. Priya is passionate about using environmental data to create actionable insights that can lead to real-world changes in urban design.

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Rick Gao

GIS Web Developer

Rick Gao has been a GIS Web Developer with CANUE since November 2023. He oversees the development of CANUE web applications such as the Smoke data Knowledge Exchange (SmoKE). He has previously worked as a web developer at various firms including Arup and IBM specializing in data visualizations. Rick holds a degree in environmental science from the University of Toronto. He has a strong interest in urban environmental science, aerial imagery and web-based GIS solutions and data visualizations.

CANUE | Our TeamMCA
Marie-Claude Allard

Communication Specialist

Marie-Claude is a Communication Specialist. She has 14 years of experience in communications in the private and public sectors, having worked in the cybersecurity, healthcare and education fields. Marie-Claude is bilingual and holds a bachelor and a master’s degree in communications. For her Master’s thesis, she explored how individuals can influence a brand’s image on social media platforms. Her specialty is everything to do with using social media for an organization in order to make it known to its audience.

CANUE | Our TeamMary Speck
Mary Speck

Administrative Support

Mary Speck is a registered Medical Laboratory Technologist at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, with over 20 years of experience working in research related to the health effects of air pollution. She works as a study coordinator on environment and health studies in collaboration with Fort McKay First Nation, and for CANUE as administrative support.

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Mohammad Naoeen

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Mohammad Noaeen is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (PDF) in Professor Jeff Brook’s lab at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. He joined CANUE in June 2022, specializing in environmental health research and developing applications for data analysis and visualization. Simultaneously, he has been a PDF at the Ethical Intelligence Lab at Harvard Business School since January 2022, focusing on social and ethical studies pertaining to autonomous machines. Prior to his current appointments, Mohammad worked as a PDF in Transportation Engineering at the University of Toronto. He obtained his PhD in Software Engineering from the University of Calgary, where he concentrated on urban traffic network management using data analysis, traffic theory, and reinforcement learning.

Mohammad’s primary research interests include intelligent transportation systems, environmental health, digital public health, ethical intelligence, and social media analysis.

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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.

We would especially like to acknowledge the contributions of our Term Directors, Special Advisors, Team Leaders and past Staff members.

Directors – Academic & Research

  • Philip Awadalla
  • Michael Brauer
  • Howard Hu
  • Kim Mcgrail
  • Dave Stieb
  • Padmaja Subarrao

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

  • Allan McKee – Communications Specialist
  • Andre Redivo – Geospatial Specialist
  • Natalia Calijorne – Administration
  • Kerolyn Shairsingh – Data Specialist and Administration
  • Mahdi Shooshtari – Data Scientist
  • Sajjad Azami – Data Scientist
  • Evan Seed – Data Specialist