Following the United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB that took place in September of 2023, this webinar will serve as a check-in for TB advocates in Canada to assess where we are and where we need to go to fulfill TB elimination commitments.
Speakers:
Monica Shandal: TB survivor & Stop TB Canada steering committee member
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.
Lucica Ditiu: Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership
Lucica Ditiu has been the Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership since January 2011. Dr Ditiu is a physician and a public health expert, who has devoted her career to helping people living in communities heavily burdened by tuberculosis. Dr Ditiu has been instrumental in developing a clear identity for Stop TB Partnership, in ensuring a strong voice of TB Community in international arena and a great advocate for all those marginalized and vulnerable due to TB. She has deepened engagement with The Global Fund working with the board, the secretariat and at the country level. She works to ensure the provision of continued access of quality-assured TB drugs and diagnostics through the Global Drug Facility. A strong believer in innovation and change, Dr. Ditiu is restless in pushing for more ambition in TB work and in challenging status quo.
Tina Campbell: TB Advisor, Northern Inter-TRibal Health Authority & Stop TB Canada co-chair
Tina Campbell 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).
Yassen Tcholakov: Public Health Physician & Stop TB Canada steering committee member
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 organizations in front of the United Nations. Yassen is passionate about health equity and this has driven his career choices and volunteer engagements.
Madlen Nash: Assistant Director of Policy & Engagement for SMART4TB & Stop TB Canada steering committee member
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.
Watch the recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD3hwJD_iKY&t=4s