Community Leadership Team
The Community Leadership Team provides leadership to, support for, and guidance and oversight of the development and ongoing management of the Network’s operations, resource allocation, and its financial performance. All financial decisions and accountabilities are the responsibility of the Community Leadership Team. The Community Leadership Team oversees the creation and implementation of an annual work plan for the Network, with input from the Steering Committee and Working Groups.
Hilary Robertson, MScHA, PhD
Community Leadership Team Chair
Hilary’s area of research focus tended toward a mixed methods approach, encompassing systems learning, ethnography, learning histories, world cafes, focus groups, surveys, interviews, and blended methodology.
During her career, Hilary practiced as a private consultant in systems and organizational learning where she was privileged to work extensively with governance across public, profit and not-for-profit sectors.
Prior to moving into her consulting practice, she held executive and senior leadership positions in the health and human services sector. Hilary was diagnosed with moderate to severe ME in August 2015.
Hilary is Co-Chair of the ME/FM Society of BC. Hilary has served as Lead PI, Co-PI, patient leader, and patient partner on several research endeavours in the pursuit of studies related to post-infectious illness and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
Carrie Anna McGinn, MSc
Community Leadership Team Member
Chair, Working Group – Vascular Instabilities and Sleep Disturbances
As a research professional, she contributed her skills in systematic reviews, grant writing, project management, and knowledge translation to various patient-oriented projects. She also coordinated a centre of expertise which focused on bringing together stakeholders from research, the healthcare system and communities to improve access to healthcare.
Carrie uses her experience of living with Long COVID and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, to advocate for recognition, research and adapted care for post-infectious illnesses.
She recently served as a member of the ICanCME Trainee Development and Medical Education Working Group and has co-founded several science-driven provincial and national post-infectious illness groups. She is also co-president of the Association québécoise de l’encéphalomyélite myalgique (AQEM) and a patient partner for ongoing Canadian post-infectious illness research and initiatives.
Jason Karamchandani, MD
Community Leadership Team Member
Dr. Karamchandani served as McGill’s program director for anatomic pathology from 2015-2020 and has served on the Diagnostic and Molecular Pathology Royal College Specialty Committee since 2015. Dr. Karamchandani is currently the incoming president of the Canadian Association of Pathologists. He earned his AB Honours degree in biochemistry cum laude (2002) from Harvard University. In 2006, he received his MD from Stanford University School of Medicine, where he was class valedictorian. At Stanford, he pursued residency training in anatomic pathology, as well as fellowship training in surgical pathology and neuropathology. Dr. Karamchandani started his faculty career at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto as a staff pathologist, and as an assistant professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto. Dr. Karamchandani’s clinical research focuses on pathologies of the central nervous system and neuromuscular diseases. Dr. Karamchandani has authored / co-authored 85 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals (including several as senior author), as well as 5 book chapters.
Kirsten Boomer
Community Leadership Team Member
Kirsten holds a degree in economics and mathematics, with a specialization in statistics. She has spearheaded multiple federal working groups, led change management strategies, and implemented governance frameworks, demonstrating a deep understanding of program and project management. Her collaborative efforts with various government departments, including CIHR, PHAC, and the United Nations, highlight her adeptness in representing key interests in inter-governmental discussions. Kirsten’s proficiency in risk management and her experiences in consultative roles for various Steering Committees and Boards of Directors contribute to her holistic approach to management.
A former member of the ICanCME Trainee Development and Medical Education Working Group, Kirsten is committed to leveraging her life experience and professional expertise to improve the lives of Canadians living with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
Paul Lohnes, CPA
Community Leadership Team Member
Paul Lohnes is a senior financial executive with over 40 years of domestic and international experience in professional services organizations. Currently, he is Director of Finance and Administration with CATALIS Quebec, a not for profit organization (NPO) whose mission is to optimize the clinical research environment in Quebec, maximize private investment, and accelerate the development of innovative patient care. Previously he was the chief executive of a public sector NPO, held senior roles in audit regulation, quality control and standard setting, and was an audit partner with KPMG in Montreal and The Netherlands.
In addition to financial and audit acumen, Paul brings expertise in governance and human resources management. Paul’s wife is a long-term sufferer of M.E. He is thus an advocate for the recognition and treatment of M.E. and has a keen interest in contributing to ICanCME’s achievement of its mission and making a difference for M.E. patients in Canada.
Paul is currently a member of the volunteer board and the audit committee of the Montréal West Island Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre.
Sabrina Poirier
Community Leadership Team Member
Chair, Working Group – Trainee Development and Medical Education
Sabrina worked within the private, public and not-for-profit sectors for over 20 years. Her work in politics, education and community development helped shape her perspective and fine-tune her approach to meaningful engagement and positive systems change.
Sabrina is a co-founder of the ICanCME Research Network, the Chair of its Working Group on Trainee Development and Medical Education and a member of the 2023-2025 Community Leadership Team.
From 2018-2021, she served as a Research Ambassador for the Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis (IMHA) at the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) and from 2020-2023 as a Community Advisory Committee member for the NIH-funded Collaborative Research Centers Network in the US.
Sabrina uses her knowledge, skills, expertise and personal experience as an individual living with ME (and several common comorbidities), in the fight to have the illness understood, cared for, researched and removed from the shadows once and for all.
Farah Tabassum, MD
Community Leadership Team Member
Prior to joining the EHC, she completed a year-long fellowship in Clinical Environmental Health through the Department of Family and Community Medicine Enhanced Skills Program at the University of Toronto. Alongside her fellowship, she completed Functional Medicine training through the Institute of Functional Medicine and received her Certified Practitioner status. Earlier in her career, she was on staff for over 12 years at the The Four Villages Community Health Centre and previously had a private psychotherapy practice.
In addition to her work at the EHC, she presently serves as a consultant physician with Ontario’s eConsult physicians group, on the topics of Post COVID Condition fatigue and on environmentally linked complex chronic conditions. In June 2023, she joined Ontario’s Centre for Effective Practice as the Clinical Lead to support the development of a tool for primary care clinicians on the topics of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), Fibromyalgia, and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS).
She has always had an avid interest in integrative approaches to health, wellness and preventative care. She graduated from McMaster University’s Family Medicine training program in 2001 and prior to this obtained her medical degree from McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine.
International Scientific and Medical Advisory Board
The mandate of the ISMAB is to ensure that the network’s research activities meet the highest standards and objectives are achieved.
Chris Armstrong PhD
ISMAB Member
Director – Melbourne ME/CFS Collaboration
Open Medicine Foundation
University of Melbourne, Australia
Jonas Bergquist MD PhD
ISMAB Member
Professor
Director CRC for ME/CFS
Chief Medical Officer for OMF
Biomedical Center, Uppsala University
Sweden
Sonya Chowdhury
ISMAB Member
Chief Executive, Action for M.E.
United Kingdom
Ronald Wayne Davis PhD
ISMAB Member
Professor of Biochemistry and of Genetics
Director, Stanford Genome Technology Center
Director, ME/CFS Collaborative Research Center at Stanford
Stanford School of Medicine
California, USA
Nancy Klimas MD
ISMAB Member
Chair, Department of Clinical Immunology
Director, Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine
Assistant Dean for Research, Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine
Nova Southeastern University
Florida, USA
In partnership with the Miami Veteran’s Administration Medical Center’s Gulf War Illness (GWI) research program, the INIM is a multi- disciplinary research and clinical institute that takes a systems biology approach to understanding complex medical illnesses, such as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Gulf War Illness (GWI).
Dr. Klimas is Professor Emerita, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, a diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine, a diplomat in Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, and Director of Clinical Immunology Research at the Miami VAMC. She has achieved national and international recognition for her research and clinical efforts in multi-symptom disorders including ME/CFS and GWI, was the past president of the International Association for CFS and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (IACFS/ME), a professional organization of clinicians and investigators, and a past member of the Health and Human Services (HHS) CFS Advisory Committee.
Eliana Lacerda MD PhD
ISMAB Member
CureME team – Research Leader
Clinical Research Department
Faculty of Infectious & Tropical Diseases
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK
Dr. Eliana Lacerda has been the Vice-Chair of EUROMENE, a network involving participants from 22 European countries, which provided guidelines for epidemiological, clinical and biomarkers research, in addition to diagnosis of and health care provision to people with ME/CFS. Dr. Lacerda is the PI for a new research project (NIH funded) on HHV6 viral reactivation in people with ME/CFS and with Long Covid in the UK.
Neil McGregor PhD
ISMAB Member
Clinical Associate Professor
Dental School, University of Melbourne
Melbourne, Australia
Dr. Neil McGregor is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Neil gained his PhD at the University of Sydney in 2000 and has published over 70 papers in peer reviewed journals. He was a co-editor of the Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome until it was replaced by the current journal. His academic research involves the science of metabolomics, microbiology, genetics and inflammatory mediated disease.
Peter Rowe MD
ISMAB Member
Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Chronic Fatigue Clinic, Johns Hopkins Children’s Center
Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine
Maryland, USA
Dr. Rowe is a graduate of Trinity College, University of Toronto, and the McMaster University School of Medicine. His work has focused on the association between treatable circulatory disorders and ME/CFS, and the overlap of these conditions with connective tissue laxity and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. He has directed the Chronic Fatigue Clinic at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center since 1996, where he is the inaugural recipient of the Sunshine Natural Wellbeing Foundation Chair in Chronic Fatigue and Related Disorders.
Carmen Scheibenbogen
ISMAB Member
Prof. Dr. med. Carmen Scheibenbogen
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin | Institut für Med. Immunologie, Berlin, Germany
Carmen Scheibenbogen is hematooncologist and professor of clinical immunology at the Institute of Medical Immunology at Charité Berlin. She is co-founder of the COST-funded European network for ME/CFS EUROMENE, the Charité Fatigue Centre (https://cfc.charite.de) and the Post COVID Network (https://pcn.charite.de). She has co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed papers with a focus on ME/CFS, T cell immunology and cancer vaccines.
Steering Committee
Under the direction of the Community Leadership Team, the Steering Committee will:
Provide strategic support, advice, feedback and guidance to the Director and Community Leadership Team on key issues such as network priorities and goals.
Provide support and feedback to the Working Groups as determined by the Director and the Community Leadership Team.
Working Group – Trainee Development & Medical Education
MANDATE
To focus on identifying and addressing significant challenges within medical education in Canada for all healthcare practitioners, from any backgrounds and at all levels. To foster the development of early career investigators and existing researchers, and sustain the activities of the ICanCME ACADEME.
LEADERSHIP
Chair – Sabrina Poirier – Community Development Leader (medically retired), Patient Partner
Working Group – Vascular Instabilities & Sleep Disturbances
MANDATE
To identify the current knowledge and gaps associated with vascular instabilities and sleep disturbances in the field of ME. To find new research approaches to address these issues and potential therapies, in ways that are safe and respectful to the community.
LEADERSHIP
Co-Chairs – Dr. Heather Edgell, School of Kinesiology and Health Sciences, York University and a Patient Partner (wishes to remain anonymous)