Biographical Notes
(in alphabetical order)
Robert G. Cooke MD
Dr. Cooke is a psychiatrist with the Mood and Anxiety Program at the Centre for Addiction and
Mental Health (CAMH), and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the
University of Toronto. He directs the University of Toronto Psychiatric Outreach Program, a
partner in the Ontario Psychiatric Outreach Program. He has himself been a regular psychiatric
consultant to Sault Ste. Marie and various other northern sites since 1995, spending about 10%
of his clinical time in these underserviced regions. He is also the Ontario Telemedicine
Network's Medical Director for Telemedicine at CAMH. He is an experienced clinician, educator
and clinical researcher with a primary interest in the major mood disorders (Major Depressive
Disorder and Bipolar Disorder).
Katharine Gillis MD
Dr. Gillis was appointed Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Ottawa in March
2009. She is also Clinical Director of the Shared Care Mental Health Program at the Ottawa
Hospital which provides clinical services combined with education and research opportunities in
the teaching units of the Department of Family Medicine, University of Ottawa. Dr. Gillis is a
1982 graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland Medical School and is a former family
physician. From 2004-2008, she was the Chair of the Psychiatry English Exam Board at the
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and a member of the Working Group on a
National Strategy for enhancing Postgraduate Education in Psychiatry, Canadian Psychiatric
Association. Dr. Gillis has recently been appointed to the RCPSC Evaluation Committee. She
was the Psychiatry Residency Training Director for the University of Ottawa from 1999-2009.
Raymond Pong PhD
Dr. Pong is a professor at the School of Rural and Northern Health and the Northern Ontario
School of Medicine, Laurentian University. He also teaches in the graduate program of the
School of Nursing and is a Principal of the Ontario Training Centre in Health Services and Policy
Research (OTC). A sociologist by training, he has many years of public service and academic
experience in health services research, planning, and policy. His areas of research interest
include the health workforce, rural health, health policy, and medical sociology. As a principal
investigator, he has participated in many research projects including an examination of
community-based health care in Canada, the 1997 and 2001 National Family Physician
Surveys. Dr. Pong also sits on many committees and boards including the editorial board of the
Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, the Performance Measurement Advisory Board of the
Ontario Health Quality Council and the Health Research Personnel Development Program
Panel of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. He was a former member of the Scientific
Advisory Committee on Rural and Northern Health Research of the Canadian Institutes for
Health Research and a former executive member of the Canadian Rural Health Research
Society.
Hugues Richard MD
Dr. Richard studied at Université Laval, completing his residency in psychiatry at Université de
Sherbrooke and l’Université d’Ottawa. He is a true general psychiatrist and has practised in
Ontario since 1985. He has worked with NOFPP since its early days and provided monthly
community psychiatry in Sturgeon Falls for over 18 years. He began to use telepsychiatry in
2003 but also continues to provide outreach services in Kirkland Lake and Chapleau. His
practice in Stittsville, where he works together with his wife who is a registered nurse, includes a
consultancy at the Queensway Carleton Hospital where he was a staff member for six years.
He also manages the Balint group with family medicine residents at the Montfort Hospital which
he has done since 1994. After service as a civilian psychiatrist with the Canadian Forces for two
years at CFB Petawawa, he still does trauma work in his private practice with veterans. He has
had a strong interest in the use of technology in psychiatry and uses electronic medical records.
As a youth, Dr. Richard cycled coast to coast in 50 days and still maintains an active life style.
Glen Roberts PhD
Dr. Roberts is the Vice President of Research and Development with Canadian Policy Research
Networks (CPRN). Dr. Roberts is responsible for the development and execution of the overall
research agenda at CPRN. He has primary responsibility for the Connecting with Canadians
research program that is organized around five key research themes: citizenship; diversity and
values; productivity and skills; health and an aging population and the environment. Prior to
joining CPRN Dr. Roberts was The Conference Board of Canada’s Director of Health Programs.
In this role, he led many initiatives such as the Enhancing Interdisciplinary Collaboration in
Primary Health Care (EICP) Initiative, Primary Health Care Transition Fund Synthesis Project
funded by Health Canada, the development of a Directional Plan with the BC Ministry of Health
and the development of a new physician supply and needs model forecast based on disease
and risk factors. Dr. Roberts has led or authored over 50 publications which focus on
collaborative care. Dr. Roberts has led the development and execution of research networks in
both the public and private sectors. Dr. Roberts has formal training in Continuous Quality
Improvement, Lean, Six Sigma and root cause analysis. He has been acknowledged as a
leader in health policy analysis across Canada.
Ginette L. Rodger OC, RN
Dr. Rodger is the Senior Vice President Professional Practice and Chief Nursing Executive at
The Ottawa Hospital, the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and the Past President of the
Canadian Nurses Association. She completed a Ph.D. in Nursing at the University of Alberta
and a Master in Nursing Administration from the Université de Montréal. Prior to 1989, she was
the Executive Director of the Canadian Nurses Association (C.N.A.). She has served on many
commissions and boards of health, nursing and educational organizations and has chaired the
Canadian Council on Hospital Accreditation and the National Health Care Committee of the St.
John Ambulance. For the last four years, she has been instrumental in the development and
implementation of The Ottawa Hospital Inter-Professional Model of Patient Care, which involves
all professions; the model is currently being rolled out in 84 units of the hospital. Dr. Rodger has
also been a member of the HealthForceOntario Interprofessional Care Strategic Implementation
Committee (IPCSIC) since 2007. The recipient of numerous awards and six honorary
doctorates, in 2008 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada and in 2009 was
named the personality of the year for Radio Canada and Le Droit in health science and
technology.
Abraham Rudnick MD PhD
Dr. Rudnick is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Philosophy at the
University of Western Ontario (UWO). He is also the Chair of the Division of Social and Rural
Psychiatry, the Director of the Extended Campus Program and the Clinical Director of the North
of Superior Programs at UWO. He is the Physician Leader of the Psychosis Program at
Regional Mental Health Care, which is affiliated with UWO. His main research programs focus
on psychiatric rehabilitation and on bioethics. He uses qualitative, quantitative, mixed and
conceptual methodologies in his research, which is funded, among other agencies, by the
Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Jill Sherman
Jill Sherman joined the Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research at Laurentian University
in January 2008. She has a Master of Public Health degree from Tulane University, and is a
doctoral candidate in Geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her
research interests include geographies of health and health services, and the socio-spatial
dimensions of health and wellbeing. Jill has experience with a broad array of quantitative and
qualitative research methodologies, as well as geographic information systems (GIS) and
spatial analysis. After working for several years in the international arena on USAID- and
UNFPA-sponsored reproductive health communication projects, Jill returned to the US and
began working on domestic rural health and development projects. She began as a research
assistant on the AHRQ-sponsored Mountain Healthcare Accessibility Project at UNC, which
examined physical access to healthcare services by degree of rurality for the rural mountain
region of western North Carolina. Prior to joining CRaNHR, Jill worked for the National Center
for Frontier Communities (Ojo Sarco, New Mexico) as a researcher on a variety of projects, with
the majority for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Rural Health Policy.
She has also served as a GIS consultant to international health NGOs.
J. Robert Swenson MD
A graduate of the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Medicine in 1980, Dr. Swenson specialized
in internal medicine and psychiatry at the University of Ottawa and the University of California,
San Diego. Dr. Swenson was appointed Director of the Ontario Psychiatric Outreach Program in
December 2006. He is currently the Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the Ottawa
Hospital and Professor and Associate Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Ottawa. In 2005
he was awarded the C.A. Roberts Award by the Canadian Psychiatric Association for clinical
leadership and innovative program design. Dr. Swenson's clinical and research interests have
focused on psychological adaptation and depression in patients with heart disease. He is
currently involved in a longitudinal research project that aims assess how a multidisciplinary
team of mental health professionals provides services to patients from two family medicine
practices.
Joshua Tepper MD
Dr. Joshua Tepper is a family physician and an Assistant Deputy Minister at Ministry of Health
and Long-Term Care, Health Human Resources Strategy Division. As the Assistant Deputy
Minister he leads the HealthForceOntario health human resources strategy. In this role, he also
reports to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. With a degree in Public Policy
from Duke University he has been involved in health policy and research relating to health
human resources at both the provincial and national level. He was a senior medical officer for
Health Canada, an adjunct scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and a
research consultant for the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI). He was president of
both the Canadian Federation of Medical Students and the Provincial Association of Interns and
Residents of Ontario. He has sat on the board of both the Canadian Medical Association and
the Ontario Medical Association. He completed his Masters of Public Health at Harvard
University in 2005. He currently co-chairs the Physician Services Committee – a joint
committee between the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Ontario Medical
Association. He is also a member of the Joint Provincial Nursing Committee.
Patricia Wiebe MD
Dr. Patricia Wiebe works to serve Aboriginal communities in her role as the Medical Specialist in
Mental Health for the Community Programs Directorate, First Nations and Inuit Health Branch,
Health Canada. She received her medical training as a psychiatrist from the University of
Toronto, and a master's degree in public health from Harvard University. Her clinical work
has included a special interest in serving Aboriginal clients, including outreach to under-serviced
areas through the Ontario Psychiatric Outreach Program. Her focus includes taking a
participatory and holistic approach to community engagement around mental wellness, and
helping to facilitate sharing of Aboriginal and western knowledge.