Dr. Eyal Cohen is a Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Dr. Cohen co-founded the Complex Care Program with his colleagues in the Division of Paediatric Medicine at The Hospital for Sick Children where he practices clinical pediatrics. His research program focuses on the health outcomes of children with complex needs and their families and child health policy. He is as Senior Scientist and Program Head in Child Health Evaluative Sciences in the SickKids Research Institute, with scientific cross-appointments at the CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research at McMaster University and at ICES.

Dr. Astrid Guttmann is a staff physician and senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children, senior scientist and chief science officer at ICES, and a professor of paediatrics with a cross-appointment in the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. She holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in child health service and policy, and has expertise in the use of population-based administrative data and observational methods to evaluate health systems and policies with a focus on equity. Current work includes a focus on the impact of COVID-19 on immigrant and refugee children and families, an evaluation of Canadian refugee re-settlement models and long-term health and social outcomes, and multiple projects related to mental health and addictions including the impact of prenatal opioid use in First Nations communities.

Dr. Catherine S. Birken is a general paediatrician in the Division of Paediatric Medicine, Professor at the University of Toronto (U of T), and a Senior Scientist in Child Health Evaluative Sciences at SickKids Research Institute. She is a paediatrician in inpatient paediatrics and a paediatrician in the Healthy Living Clinic for children with complex obesity. Dr. Birken's research is in prevention of childhood overweight and obesity in early childhood, and is co-leader of TARGet Kids! primary care, practice-based research network to advance child health research. Dr. Birken is funded by CIHR for the study of obesity and cardiometabolic risk and early childhood development in school, randomized controlled trials in obesity prevention and treatment with public health nurse led parenting intervention, and a population evaluation of the Healthy Kids Community Challenge in Ontario. She is leading a new CIHR funded study on preconception health in women and their partners and the impact on child growth and development, and is co-PI on HeLTI Canada, a large randomized controlled trial in women and their partners starting in preconception, part of the HELTI initiative.

Natasha completed a Bachelor of Kinesiology degree at the University of Toronto and MSc degree in Health Promotion at Queen’s University. Working as a Clinical Research Project Manager in the Orkin Lab at The Hospital for Sick Children has shaped her understanding of the challenges faced by youth with medical complexity and their families during the transition process from paediatric to adult health care systems. Eager to enhance transition supports and standards for this population, she is currently pursuing PhD studies in Health Systems Research at the University of Toronto under the co-supervision of Dr. Eyal Cohen and Dr. Julia Orkin.

Dr. Sloane Freeman is a full-time pediatrician at St. Michael’s Hospital’s Inner City Health Program and an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She has worked as a General Pediatrician in downtown Toronto since 2008 with particular expertise in social pediatrics, developmental/school issues and care of the medically complex child. Dr. Freeman is the founder and lead for the Model Schools Pediatric Health Initiative (MSPHI), a program developed in partnership with the Toronto District School Board to bring health care to inner city schools. This innovative health care delivery model focuses on developmental and mental health care for students who face barriers to accessing health care and is the first of its kind in Canada. Dr. Freeman is also the primary investigator for the Feasibility Study on the Model Schools Pediatric Health Initiative, the first study published in Canada to evaluate school-based health care. Dr. Freeman is currently leading the first randomized controlled study examining school-based health care in Canada. Her groundbreaking work and research in the area of school-based health care has made her a Canadian leader in this field.

Dr. Magdalena Janus earned a PhD in behavioural sciences from Cambridge University. Her doctoral research involved studying the nature of relationships among young human and non-human primates. Subsequently, she was a post-doctoral fellow and research associate at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, before joining the McMaster faculty in 2002. Since joining the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University in 1997, Dr. Janus, together with the late Dr. Dan Offord, has been involved in a community-linked project (School Readiness to Learn Project) developing a measure of children’s readiness to learn at school entry, called the Early Development Instrument (EDI). The focus of this research is to provide communities with the information that will inform them about the state of early childhood development and provide a tool for mobilization of resources and monitoring over time. Magdalena and her team have now supported the implementation of the EDI for over 1,500,000 children in Canada, and its adaptation in over a dozen international sites, including developed as well as developing countries, e.g., Australia, USA, Sweden, Brazil, Peru, and Jordan. Magdalena’s research interests include indicators of early child development and their correlates in population and international contexts, social determinants of children’s health, transition to school, with a particular emphasis on children with special needs.

Dr. Jennifer Jenkins is the Atkinson Chair of Early Child Development & Education at the University of Toronto. Jenkins is internationally known for her research on the family processes that promote lifelong learning and mental health in young children, as well as the study of resilience amongst siblings for children living in high-risk environments. She runs the Kids, Families, Places Study, a birth-cohort, longitudinal study of 500 children, their older siblings and parents, followed into middle childhood. She carries out intervention studies in the home and childcare environments to improve children’s experiences in close relationships. She does meta-analytic studies to synthesize intervention and observational findings about children’s close relationships. She works with statisticians to improve statistical models for analyzing family data. She is currently collaborating with governments and NGOs to offer online training that works to enhance parent and sibling responsivity in low-income settings.

Dr. Ripudaman Singh Minhas is a Developmental Paediatrician and Director of Pediatric Research at St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Toronto. His research interests are in the development, behaviour, disability, and rehabilitation of children in urban settings and in newcomer immigrant and refugee families. He is currently working to develop interventions to support the developmental potential of children in the unique context of their social determinants of health and inequity. His team uses Community-Based Participatory Research principles to guide the co-creation and implementation of family-based interventions and the evolution of health systems.