The Steering Committee

The network's organizational structure is intended to balance the requirements of achieving wide representation in decision-making, broadening the participation of individuals and organizations in Stop TB Canada activities, and providing effective leadership and coordination.

How the steering committee was formed:

August 2020: To guide the strategic development and implementation of the Stop TB Canada network, a call for expressions of interest to join a steering committee was launched

We were delighted to have received such high levels of interest in supporting the building of a community committed to ending TB in Canada and abroad.

January 2022: We welcomed the second cohort of the steering committee, comprising 16 members, including researchers, practitioners, advocates, and a TB survivor.

January 2022: We held our first steering committee meeting of the year, where we welcomed new members and announced two co-chairs: Tina Campbell, TB Advisor for Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority, and Dr. Elizabeth Rea, Associate Medical Officer (TB Program) at Toronto Public Health.

January 2024: Petra Heitkamp took on the co-chair role alongside Tina Campbell.

We are grateful to have such a competent, dedicated and powerful group of individuals to guide and advise Stop TB Canada’s operations!

  • Adam R Houston (JD MA LLM PhD) works on global health policy, with a particular focus on access to medicines and infectious disease. By day, he is Medical Policy & Advocacy Officer for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières Canada. He holds adjunct appointments at the University of Ottawa (Faculty of Law -Common Law) & Royal Roads University (School of Humanitarian Studies). Follow Adam @HealthLawAdamH

  • Dr. Zwerling is an infectious disease epidemiologist with a special interest in tuberculosis (TB) and a focus on health economics. Her main areas of expertise and interest currently involve cost-effectiveness analyses to guide thoughtful implementation of community wide screening approaches and active case finding, new tools and treatment regimens for TB. She received her PhD in Epidemiology from McGill University, and subsequently specialized in health economic evaluation during a postdoctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Prior to joining the University of Ottawa, Dr Zwerling worked with the KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation in The Hague to provide technical support to national TB programs through the USAID funded Challenge TB program.

  • Courtney is interested in TB elimination, and using TB surveillance data to inform public health interventions against transmission and TB reactivation.

  • Follow DIna @DinaFisher10

  • Ekatha Ann John has more than 10 years of combined experience as a multimedia journalist and advocate for health equity in Canada, the UK, and South Asia. Currently, she is the Global Health Policy and Advocacy Manager at Results Canada and is part of the Stop TB Canada Secretariat. A Chevening scholar, she completed her Master’s in Migration, Culture and Global Health Policy from Queen Mary University of London, UK, and spent time in Geneva undertaking research in gender inequity in global health leadership. She is a published researcher and has also worked with the United Nations Office for Project Services, focused on TB-related programs.

    Follow Ekatha @EkathaJ

  • Elizabeth has worked as the Associate Medical Officer of Health with the Tuberculosis program at Toronto Public Health since 2005. She is one of the authors of the 2013 Canadian TB Standards and has been involved in TB policy issues in Canada for many years.

  • Dr. Mehta has over 30 years of Public Health experience, more than half of which were with the WHO. He has worked in several countries and regions of the world. He initially served in the Indian Defense Services and then joined the MOH, Sultanate of Oman in various capacities for 10 years at central level. He then joined the World Health Organization and worked in Somalia from 1998 – 2002, where he was responsible for supporting the control of TB and all other communicable diseases in a complex emergency situation. He moved from Somalia to Indonesia in 2002 in the capacity of Country Advisor Tuberculosis for seven years. Dr Mehta then moved to Sri Lanka in 2009 as the WHO country Representative until October 2014. He has authored and co-authored several scientific publications in peer reviewed journals. He is an Adjunct Professor and Fellow at institutions in Canada, as well as a Senior Mentor on several mentoring platforms. Follow Dr. Mehta @FirdosiMehta

  • Hilmi Quraishi is an Ashoka Fellow and the co-founder of ZMQ – a ‘Technology for Development’ social enterprise. As a pioneer in mHealth technologies, Hilmi has over 22 years of experience working with communities in LMICs to address critical social and health challenges using digital technologies. ZMQ Global is set up as an international NGO in Montreal, QC to scale tested and proven models in LMICs (Africa and Caribbean) and indigenous communities in North America. Follow Hilmi @hilmiq

  • Joel is the Project Manager of the TBPPM Learning Network. He is a physician from India with experience in primary care, clinical trial management, health service coordination and private health sector engagement. He played a crucial role in several projects at National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis including facilitating the initiation of STREAM Clinical Trial in India. Joel gained knowledge of the North American healthcare system by volunteering at several leading hospitals in USA and Canada. He has worked in diverse settings where the public and private sector have interlinked and has supported the development of several key resources on engaging private health sector towards universal health coverage. Follow Joel @drjoelklinton

  • Leigh Raithby is a Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer at Results Canada, a non-profit grassroots organization that advocates for the end of extreme poverty. Leigh's work focuses on building the political will to end TB. As an advocate for health equity, Leigh is dedicated to addressing the vast disparities in health outcomes that exist around the world. She applies this passion to her role as secretariat for Stop TB Canada. Follow Leigh @LeighRaithby

  • Dr. Kapralik is an Internal Medicine and Respirology physician working in both Toronto as well as remote Northern Ontario. Following her Respirology training, she completed a sub-specialization in Tuberculosis and Mycobacterial Disease at the University of Toronto. Throughout her training, she has had an interest in working with marginalized population, and in particular Indigenous communities. After completing her Tuberculosis fellowship, she was offered a position as a physician with the Tuberculosis Program through the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority and for the last year has been one of the physician leads managing two tuberculosis outbreaks on the James Bay coast in remote Northern Ontario.

  • Lena became involved in Stop TB Canada while completing her PhD in Epidemiology at the McGill International TB Centre (Montreal, Canada), where her thesis focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tuberculosis. She is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (London, UK), where her postdoctoral work will focus on tuberculosis in incarcerated populations. Follow Lena @LenaFaust1

  • Dr. Villa-Castillo is a Peruvian MD trained in human rights and ethics in research. She worked as a research coordinator at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Peru in the elaboration, implementation, and conduct of clinical trials for diagnostics of Tuberculosis (and COVID-19). During the -19 pandemic, she worked as an Epidemiologist Officer developing the COVID-19 vaccination strategy in Peru. Her last job was at FIND a WHO Collaborating Centre, as clinical trial manager of the TB Program. She was responsible of the clinical coordination of the FEND consortium, a NIH grant evaluating early-stage TB diagnostics in Peru and Vietnam. Also, she oversees a TB diagnostic trial at the Kharkiv University in Ukraine. I recently joined Dr. Pai’s team as a M.Sc. Epidemiology candidate. she aims to generate evidence-based policies that contribute to the access of universal health care and fight social inequalities that determine prognosis of TB patients. She speaks Spanish (native), Ingles and French.

  • Madlen Nash is the Assistant Director of Policy & Engagement for SMART4TB at Johns Hopkins University where she guides global and nation-specific policy recommendations and ensures representation of affected communities in TB research and policy translation. Her work in TB over the past decade has spanned academic, government and non-profit sectors. While at the McGill International TB Centre her research focused on the evaluation of innovative diagnostics for TB and HIV. In 2017, Madlen co-founded SeeChange, a non-profit that supports communities to lead responses to their own health crises. Most recently, she worked for the Canadian government supporting TB outbreak responses in remote communities. Madlen holds an MSc in Epidemiology from McGill University. Follow Madlen @madlennash

  • ElHadji is a Medical Doctor and Global health Practioner with over 15 years of experience in Public health. Elhadji is a Senior Health Advisor at Plan International Canada supporting HIV, TB, and Malaria projects as well as cross-cutting Health Systems Strengthening implemented in Senegal, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Niger.

    Elhadji holds a master’s degrees in Global Health and Public Health from Bordeaux School of Public Health in France and University of Montreal.

    Elhadji has held in Senegal many leadership positions, from a District-level Head Medical Officer to a Chief of Party TB and Malaria Global Fund project where he collaborated with MoH & partners, communities, and many other stakeholders across the country. Through working with diverse populations across the borders, he has also acquired an understanding of the many different socio-cultural influences impacting the control of HIV, TB, and Malaria.

  • Mahli Brindamour is a general pediatrician with an interest in global health, refugee health and infectious diseases. She has been working as a TB consultant within Saskatchewan's Tuberculosis Prevention and Control since 2021. In 2017, she co-founded the REACH Clinic, Saskatoon's only multi-disciplinary clinic dedicated to refugees. She does outreach general pediatric clinics for the Northern communities of Black Lake, Fond du Lac, Ile à la Crosse and La Loche and also covers inpatient pediatrics at the Jim Pattison Children's Hospital in Saskatoon. She is currently on a sabbatical leave from her practice to work on an MDR-TB program with Partners in Health in Maseru, Lesotho. Follow Mahli @MahliBrindamour

  • Dr. Mark Palayew is a respirologist at the Jewish General Hospital, serving the most ethnically diverse population in Montreal. He co directs the TB clinic at the hospital with 40-50 new active cases annually. He liases with public health for active cases for declaration, contact tracing and verifying compliance with therapy. The clinic sees people with abnormal X-rays referred by immigration physicians as well as people evaluated for pre biological or health care pre employment. In the past, he has worked in Inuit and Cree communities in Northern Quebec. In 2000-2001, he spent one year in The Gambia working in TB clinics and with the Government. He spent time with a joint Canada-Ecuador program to evaluate Ecuador’s TB control program, and on a national TB advisory committee, before it was dissolved . In the last 5-7 years of his career, he is interested in doing all possible with the goal of eliminating TB

  • Monica Shandal was working in Malawi as an impact evaluation practitioner when she fell sick - she lost her voice and became extremely lethargic. Given that it was 2020, and there was a lot going on in the world with COVID-19 border closures and being alone in a new country, she assumed it was due to stress and carried on with her life. The following year, after returning to Canada and feeling much better, she needed to complete a TB skin test as a routine procedure for a PhD program she had been admitted into. She was later asked to do an x-ray, followed by many other tests including blood tests and bronchoscopies. In July 2021, Monica was diagnosed with subclinical pulmonary TB. Even in a country with ample resources, like Canada, she found that there are many barriers to care. She feels fortunate that she had access to a TB clinic. Her biggest challenge was finding communities in Canada that understood her journey. She has since joined the TBPeople Canada group and hopes to use her experience as a survivor and an advocate for good and to help with awareness and access to care for TB.

    Follow Monica @MonicaShandal

  • Since 2008, Dr. Beddingfield’s clinical and academic career have focused on TB care. This depth of experience provides her with a strong TB knowledge base and an extensive professional network. In 2008, she began working as a Registered Nurse at the Calgary TB Clinic and maintain close ties with the clinic. She is currently working under Dr. Dick Menzies and Dr. Amrita Daftary as a post-doctoral fellow after having completed a PhD focused on TB (University of Calgary - 2022), a 1-year work term as a TB Project Manager with the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease (2023-University of Manitoba), and a 7 year placement as the Calgary Site Coordinator for 3 clinical trials operating in Dr. Dick Menzies’ research group. I am a member of the Canadian TB Elimination Network. The focus of her doctoral dissertation and her research interest moving forward, was/is using mixed methodologies to strengthen TB patient education for people born outside of Canada.

  • Petra Heitkamp is the Community Manager/Director of the TBPPM Learning Network, a dynamic online community that fosters South-to-South learning exchanges, shares knowledge, and promotes best practices in private provider engagement to End TB. Petra graduated from Maastricht University with a Masters of Public Health and has taught courses and moderated workshops around the world, published widely. She has worked in WHO (HQ, Regional and country offices), Stop TB Partnership and with stakeholders from global to local levels. Her interests are in applying effective collaborative approaches to strengthen health systems and empower communities to advance public health interventions, specifically in infectious diseases. Follow Petra @PetraHeitkamp

  • Dr. Thapa obtained his MPH degree from Manipal University, India, following which he served as a faculty member at Pokhara University, Nepal. Subsequently, he transitioned to Possible, where he held roles as the Director of Research and Evaluation and the District Director of Community Healthcare. Later, he pursued his PhD in Public Health at the University of New South Wales, Australia, and presently holds a position as a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University, Canada. His profound interest lies in TB care, a focus that he has maintained throughout his postgraduate and doctoral studies. During his PhD, he focused on informal healthcare providers, a group of providers often overlooked in TB care but serve as a first point of contact for significant TB patients. His expertise includes research methods, operations, applied statistics, and proficiency in proposal writing, research implementation, data analysis, and manuscript preparation.

  • Priya Amin is a seasoned Educator in the public and private sectors. In 2015, she did a routine TB skin test for a new employer to satisfy work requirements. When it turned out to be positive, everyone was surprised. Priya was diagnosed with pulmonary and presumed extra pulmonary TB and was resistant to two drugs. As she navigated this diagnosis, Priya felt alone and was desperate toconnect with people who understood what she was going through. She found that there was no support group for people affected by TB. So, she became her own advocate and for those she would see waiting their turn at the TB clinic with her. Priya shared her journey with TB at a public event for the first time in 2018 – it was empowering. Education, cultural awareness and sensitivity, early detection, and patient-centered care, she feels, are critical to fighting TB, and people with lived experience hold the key. With persistence and great support from some of her healthcare team members, Priya fought and conquered TB!

  • Dr. Robyn Christine Waite is currently working as an independent consultant and focusing her efforts on applying community building, project management, research, and advocacy skills to the fight to end TB. She currently works with TB Alliance as their Access Advocacy Lead coordinating and building the Fast Track the Cure initiative. Recently, she was also the Policy and Advocacy Lead for the #2023TBHLM Affected Communities and Civil Society Coordination Hub, where she worked to equip, mobilize, coordinate, and connect the TB community to engage meaningfully throughout the 2023 UN High Level Meeting on TB process. Before setting out on her own, Robyn worked with Results Canada, where she started as a TB Campaigns Officer and grew into the role of Director of Policy and Advocacy. During her tenure, she played a leading role in building and coordinating a high-impact coalition of 14 Canadian based CSOs engaged in advocacy in support of the Global Fund's 7th Replenishment. She has also demonstrated initiative and commitment to the cause and community through successful efforts to reinvigorate the Stop TB Canada network, as well as support with driving the progress of a global initiative to capture the experience of the pandemic amongst key TB stakeholder groups. Dr. Waite holds a PhD in Development Studies from SOAS, University of London; a MSc in Global Health from McMaster University, a Graduate Diploma from the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health; and a BSc in Health Promotion from Dalhousie University. Follow Dr. Waite @WaiteRobyn

  • Dr. Suvesh is a medical doctor with specialization in public health. He has more than 8 years’ experience working in the field of Tuberculosis and HIV in Nepal. He has worked with National TB program of Nepal as Senior Technical Advisor for Global Fund grant from Save the Children. He provided technical support to National and provincial TB program to develop strategies and guidelines, improve TB diagnosis and treatment, strengthen DR TB program, Childhood TB, PPM and TB HIV collaboration and conduct various national level surveys. Prior to joining Save the Children Dr. Suvesh was involved in HIV prevention program implemented by FHI 360, which was funded by USAID. Dr. Suvesh holds Master’s Degree in Public Health from Mahidol University, Thailand and Medical Degree (MBBS) degree from Sichuan University, China. He is currently an PhD student at University of Ottawa. Follow Dr. Suvesh @ShresthSuvesh

  • Tamara is an MPH graduate (with specialization in epidemiology) and Research Coordinator with the Tuberculosis Program Evaluation & Research Unit at the University of Alberta for the CIHR-funded project “Pathways to Health Equity for Indigenous Peoples.” Her professional and research interests include using epidemiological approaches to promote positive health outcomes.

  • Tina is an Indigenous woman of Cree ancestry who lived a majority of her life in Nunavut. Her passion for TB work started in 2010 as a nursing student during a summer placement at a TB clinic. With rates of TB being 290x greater than southern Canada - her learning and experience grew fast. She became a RN in 2013 and continued work as a TB Nurse for 6 years where her main roles were case management, contact tracing and surveillance. She then worked as a Territorial TB Educator for a year where she provided training, orientation and TB education to staff. Tina heavily advocated for cultural orientation for every health care professional providing TB Care, which focused on learning the historical events regarding TB and the Indigenous population. Since September of 2019, she has been in the TB Advisor role for Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority (NITHA). Follow Tina @NITHATB306

  • Trevor Stratton is a 58-year-old, two-spirit citizen of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation near Toronto, Canada with mixed English and Ojibwe heritage. Diagnosed with HIV in 1990, he is the Indigenous Leadership Policy Manager for CAAN Communities, Alliances & Networks. Trevor has almost 2 decades of experience working with Indigenous Peoples and HIV/TB at the international level. Trevor is a Board Director for 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations in Toronto, and the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR).

  • Yassen Tcholakov works as a public health doctor in Nunavik and has an appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global and Public Health at McGill University.

    He has been involved in global health advocacy for more than a decade and has represented numerous health professional organisations in front of the United Nations. Yassen is passionate about health equity and this has driven his career choices and volunteer engagements.

    Follow Yassen @yassentch

  • Dr. Duyen Nguyen earned her PhD in Public Health at the University of Calgary and completed her CIHR Health Systems Impact Fellowship at University of New Brunswick and University of Ottawa. Currently, she is a senior program advisor for the Government of New Brunswick in the Department of Health, and adjunct professor at the University of New Brunswick. In her roles she advises on tuberculosis, Indigenous health, immigrant health, child and maternal health, and program evaluations, and is actively involved in various research and mentorship programs. She is also Chair of the Global Indigenous Stop TB Initiative and consultant to a TB NGO in Viet Nam. Over her career she has published manuscripts regarding tuberculosis, pediatric global health, and program evaluations. She enjoys staying active with her husband and 3 young boys.

Contact us.

Want to work together or have ideas for what more we can do to support the TB community in Canada? Reach out to us at

hello@stoptbcanada.com