Members of the Board of Directors

Dr. John Hamm, Chairperson

Dr. John Hamm obtained a B.Sc. at the University of King's College and graduated in medicine from Dalhousie University, both in Halifax. He was a family doctor for 30 years and was active in a number of professional organizations, serving as President of the Nova Scotia Medical Society, President of the College of Family Physicians of Nova Scotia, and President of Aberdeen Hospital medical staff.

Dr. Hamm entered politics and was first elected to the provincial legislature in 1993. He was elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia in 1995 and formed a government in 1999. When his Progressive Conservative government was reduced to a minority government in 2003, Dr. Hamm displayed his talent for flexibility and came to agreement with the opposition on a number of sensitive issues. He also negotiated an off-shore resources agreement with Ottawa.

Throughout his professional life, Dr. Hamm has been a strong advocate for improved health care in Nova Scotia and across Canada.

Dr. Elinor Wilson, President

Dr. Elinor Wilson has a Master of Health Sciences degree from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and a Ph.D. in Administration Management from Walden University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Following early training and practice in nursing, and a term as Director, Professional Services at the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, Dr. Wilson moved into a number of increasingly responsible positions with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. She also worked at Health Canada's Preventive Health Services on a two-year executive exchange, to increase the public health capacity particularly with respect to national issues in prevention.

Most recently Dr. Wilson served as Chief Executive Officer for the Canadian Public Health Association, where she was responsible for managing an operating program and project budget of over $15 million, and for building relationships with stakeholders, members, partners and donors in the public, private and NGO sectors. Her numerous professional activities include Chair of the Research and Science Committee at the Health Charities Council of Canada, and member of the Institute of Population and Public Health Advisory Board at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. She was formerly Vice President of the World Heart Federation, Chair of the Chronic Disease and Health Surveillance Working Group, and member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Advisory Group on Global Cessation Policy.

Dr. Wilson has worked in the academic, public and private sectors, and at the international, national and provincial levels. She has published extensively on a variety of public health issues including women's health.

Dr. Joseph Ayoub

Dr. Joseph Ayoub was educated at the University of Alexandria in Egypt and at McGill University in Montreal. Since 1972 he has held a number of positions in several Montreal hospitals. He is currently a hemato-oncologist with the Service d'Hémato-oncologie at the Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, a professor in the Department of Medicine, Université de Montreal, and an adjunct professor in the Department of Oncology, McGill University.

Dr. Ayoub has extensive experience on boards and committees within institutions where he has worked and the broader medical community, including President of the Canadian Association of Medical Oncologists, President of the Program Committee for Medical Oncology of the Royal College of Medicine of Quebec, and member of the board of directors of the Oncology Society of Canada. He has published extensively on cancer and bioethics.

Dr. Albert Chudley

Dr. Albert Chudley is Medical Director of the Genetics and Metabolism Program with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and a professor in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health and Department of Biochemistry and Medical Genetics at the University of Manitoba. He graduated in medicine from the University of Manitoba in 1974 and has certifications in paediatrics, clinical genetics and medical genetics.

Dr. Chudley's clinical and research interests are in the areas of dysmorphology (the recognition, delineation and prevention of birth defects); the causes of mental retardation, developmental disabilities and autism spectrum disorders; prenatal diagnosis, gene mapping and gene discovery. He has been a consultant to the Manitoba and Alberta governments on Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and is a former member of Health Canada's National Advisory Committee on FASD. He has published over 300 papers and abstracts (including several book chapters) on birth defects and genetics; he co-authored a book on birth defects, Basic Concepts in Teratology, and is a contributor to recent editions of the embryology textbook The Developing Human. He is section editor of Clinical Genetics, an international journal on genetics and molecular medicine, and serves on the editorial boards of other medical journals.

Dr. Chudley has served on several university and hospital committees and on community, church and national professional society boards. He is a former President of the Canadian College of Medical Geneticists.

Theresa Kennedy

Theresa Kennedy received her Bachelor of Science, Psychology and Communications from the University of Calgary in 1990, with a minor in Communications. A senior member of Canada's biotechnology community, she is currently President of TEK Inc., a project management and communications company that she started which works closely with corporations and not-for-profit entities.

Previously she was VP Corporate Communications for a biotechnology firm -- Resverlogix Corp. Prior to this position she was VP of North American Life Sciences at Hill & Knowlton Canada. Ms. Kennedy worked with U.S. and Canadian biotechnology companies both large and small. In addition, she was engaged by a variety of international federal governments to provide strategic counsel on key issues including stem cell technology and its impact on human health including fertility. Ms. Kennedy was also National Communications Manager for the Canadian Bacterial Diseases Network, and helped launch two biotech companies.

Ms. Kennedy has been a guest lecturer for the Kluyver Centre for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation (Delft, The Netherlands), a member of the American Heart Association, BIO and BIOTECanada, and an international advisor to the Imagine Life Sciences Foundation (also based in Delft).

Dr. David Novak

Dr. David Novak was born in Chicago in 1941 and received his A.B. degree from the University of Chicago in 1961. He obtained an M.H.L. (Master of Hebrew Literature) degree in 1964 and a rabbinical diploma in 1966 from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Georgetown University in 1971.

Dr. Novak currently holds the J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto, where he has served since 1997 as Professor of the Study of Religion, Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Jewish Studies Programme, and member of University College and the Joint Centre for Bioethics. Previously (1966-89) he was a pulpit rabbi in several locations in the United States, and held a number of teaching and chaplaincy positions in the U.S. (1989-97).

Dr. Novak is a founder, vice-president and coordinator of the Panel of Inquiry on Jewish Law of the Union for Traditional Judaism. He has extensive experience serving on advisory boards. He is primarily engaged in the study of the philosophical aspects of the Jewish legal tradition, including research and writing extensively in such areas as Judaism and contemporary bioethics.

Dr. Suzanne Rozell Scorsone

Dr. Suzanne Rosell Scorsone received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Toronto in 1979. She has worked professionally within the Catholic Church for nearly 25 years and is currently Director of Research and Senior Communications Consultant for the Archdiocese of Toronto.

As a former commissioner on the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies, she has an in-depth awareness of the issues that fall within the mandate of the Agency. She participated in Parliamentary Committee hearings and departmental consultations that led to the development of the AHR Act.

Dr. Scorsone has lectured at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Theology on Family in Multicultural Perspective and has published several articles on family and reproductive issues.