>> Public Health Workshop Speaker Bios

Anttila, Ahti

Ahti Anttila, PhD, MSc serves as a Cancer Epidemiologist and the Director of Research of the Mass Screening Registry at the Finnish Cancer Registry, Helsinki; and as an Adjunct Professor in Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland. His research and education activities involve environmental and occupational risk factors and prevention of cancer; epidemiological research on reproductive health issues; and consultations and expert networks for evaluation and building-up of organised screening programmes for cancer.

Brabin, Loretta

Loretta Brabin is Reader in Women’s Health, and has a PhD is Social Epidemiology. She has been Principal Investigator for many community based research studies, both in the UK and in developing countries. Her main research interest is increasing access to sexual and reproductive interventions to improve the health of adolescents and young women. She has participated in many advisory committees and has a wealth of publications on this topic. In recent years her focus has been the introduction of HPV vaccination and current research is addressing the impact of HPV vaccination on future cervical screening.

Brotherton, Julia

Julia Brotherton is Medical Director of Australia’s National HPV Vaccination Program Register and an epidemiologist for the National HPV Vaccination Program Register and Victorian Cervical Cytology Register. She is a medical graduate from the University of Newcastle, NSW, and has a Masters degree in Public Health from the University of Sydney. She completed her speciality training in Public Health Medicine through the NSW Public Health Officers Training Program. For the past six years Julia has been involved in research and policy development informing the implementation and evaluation of HPV vaccination programs in Australia.

Canfell, Karen

Karen Canfell is a cancer epidemiologist with a focus on cervical and breast cancer. She is involved in an international collaboration of epidemiologists and health economists who are evaluating various cervical screening options in the context of HPV vaccination. Her group have performed evaluations of cervical screening technologies for the governments of Australia, New Zealand and the UK. The work of the group focuses on the role of liquid based cytology, automated image analysis cytology, HPV triage testing and primary HPV screening. The objective is to assess outcomes and cost-effectiveness of using these technologies in context of HPV vaccination.

Castle, Phillip

Dr. Castle received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in 1995. Dr. Castle then did a post-doctoral fellowship at the NIH on the molecular biology of the zona pellucida. In 1999, he joined the Cancer Prevention Fellowship at NCI and received his MPH from JHU in 2000. He conducted his Cancer Prevention Fellowship training with NCI's Hormonal and Reproductive Epidemiology Branch (2000-2003) and joined the branch as a principal investigator in 2003. His professional interests are (1) epidemiology of human papillomaviruses (HPV) and cervical/anogenital cancer; and (2) science and translation of cancer prevention strategies. He is the lead investigator on several epidemiologic studies, including the Mississippi Delta Project, The HPV Persistence and Progression Cohort at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, and the Low-Cost Molecular Cervical Cancer Screening Study in China.

Cuzick, Jack

Jack Cuzick is head of the Centre for Epidemiology, Mathematics and Statistics at Cancer Research UK in London.  He is also John Snow Professor of Epidemiology at Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine at Queen Mary, University of London. He holds a PhD in Mathematics and has previously worked at Oxford University and Columbia University, New York.  His current interests are in cancer epidemiology and clinical trials, with special interest in prevention and screening. He is currently Chairman of the International Breast Cancer Intervention Study (IBIS) Steering Group, the Independent Statistician for the ATAC trial and is also involved in studies on the use of HPV assays for cervical screening, the use of flexible sigmoidoscopy for colorectal cancer screening and markers for the behaviour of early prostate cancer. He is the statistician for several major breast cancer trials and maintains an active interest in developing new statistical methodology, especially in the area of adjustments for non-compliance and cross-over, and multi-arm clinical trials. He is currently the President of the International Society of Cancer Prevention and is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Statistical Society, and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. In 2007, he was chosen by Thompson Scientific as one of the twelve hottest researchers in all of science. He is the author of more than 350 peer-reviewed papers and has published in all the major medical journals.

Deeks, Shelley

Shelley Deeks is a medical epidemiologist at the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion.  Prior to this, she spent 2 years in Australia as Deputy Director at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, and was with the Public Health Agency of Canada where she was Executive Secretary of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI). She has worked as an advisor to the WHO on meningococcal disease and vaccine issues.  She holds a Fellowship in Public Health in Canada and Australia. Her current areas of focus are vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine program evaluation and outbreak management and response.

Dillner, Joakim

Professor in infectious disease epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Joakim Dillner was born 1962 in Stockholm. He received his MD degree from the Karolinska Institutet, where he also received his PhD in 1986 in tumor virology.

Between 1986-1988 he did a post doc at Scripps Institute, La Jolla, California. During 1988-2000 he did research on HPV at Karolinska Institutet, from 1990 as Associate Professor in virology. During 1996-1999 he held at Visiting Professorship at the National Public Health Institute of Finland, with teaching responsibility at the School of Public Health of the Tampere University, Finland. In 2001, he was appointed Professor in virology, in particular molecular epidemiology at Lund University, Malmö, Sweden. Since 2006 he heads the WHO HPV LabNet global reference laboratory in Sweden. In 2009, he was appointed Professor of infectious disease epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.

He has held numerous commissions of trust, including the steering groups of the Swedish cervical cancer screening registry, the Norwegian cervical screening program, the board of research and the study section for epidemiology of the Swedish Cancer Society, the study section for microbiology and the biobank infrastructure committee of the Swedish Research Council and the board of the Norwegian functional genomics initiative FUGE.

Currently, his main interests are the furthering of cervical cancer prevention through organized HPV screening and follow-up of HPV vaccination programs. He is also Director of the new Swedish national biobanking infrastructure, BBMRI.se.     

He has published about 270 research papers in the areas of cervical cancer screening, research on biobanking, tumor virology in general and HPV in particular. 

Franceschi, Silvia

Silvia Franceschi has worked for more than twenty years as a cancer epidemiologist. She obtained her MD and Postgraduate Diploma in Gynaecology and Medical Statistics in Italy. She worked for two years at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in Oxford, where she obtained a Master’s in Epidemiology. From 1984-2000, she was the Head of the Epidemiology Unit at Aviano Cancer Institute in Italy. In 2000, she became Head of the Infections and Cancer Epidemiology Group, and in 2004 Coordinator of the Epidemiology and Biology Cluster (currently named Section of Infections) at the International Agency for Research on Cancer. She has co-authored more than 1000 publications.

Gemmill, Ian

Dr. Gemmill has 29 years of experience in public health in Ontario and has a strong interest in communicable diseases, immunisation, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual health and tobacco use control. He is currently a member of Ontario's Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee and chair of its Sub-committee on Immunisation, and past chair of the Canadian Coalition for Immunisation Awareness and Promotion. He has served on a number of other national and provincial committees on communicable diseases and immunisation, including the National Advisory Committee on Immunisation (1996-2003), the Ontario Provincial Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases (1996 to 2004), the Board of the National Cancer Institute of Canada (2007-2009) and the Board of Directors of the Canadian Public Health Association. Dr Gemmill is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Community Health & Epidemiology and of Family Medicine at Queen's University, and is currently director of the Community Medicine Residency Programme at Queen's.

Giuliano, Anna R.

Dr. Giuliano is an internationally recognized speaker and consultant who has served on a number of committees and investigative task forces of CARE International. Research interests include cancer epidemiology biomarkers; nutritional supplements and diet as chemopreventive agents; HPV and cervical cancer, breast cancer, and cancer screening. Dr. Giuliano is a member of ASPO, AACR, SER, and IEA, and has contributed significantly to the Institute of Medicine publication, The Unequal Burden of Cancer.

The National Institutes of Health recently awarded $10 million to Dr. Giuliano for a study to determine men's role in the spread of the human papillomavirus virus (HPV) that causes cervical cancer. The NIH grant is the largest ever to a cancer control and prevention researcher at Moffitt.

Hariri, Susan

Dr. Susan Hariri is an epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She joined the CDC as an EIS officer and has been with the Division of STD Prevention since 2007. She is the lead investigator on a multi-site project to evaluate HPV vaccine impact on early cervical disease and associated HPV types in the U.S. In addition, she is an active member of the CDC HPV Working Group, involved in international and domestic vaccine monitoring research and policy, and served as consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO) on global vaccine impact monitoring.

Kim, Jane J.

Jane Kim, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Health Decision Science at the Harvard School of Public Health.  Dr. Kim’s research focuses on the development and application of mathematical modeling methods to evaluate health policy issues related to women’s health.  She has developed a series of models to perform cost-effectiveness analyses of cervical cancer prevention strategies for informed decision making in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and less developed regions. Her methodological interests include integrating methods of operations research to optimize health provision, such as packaging health services, and quantifying the impacts of human resource constraints on program effectiveness and feasibility.

Kitchener, Henry

Professor of Gynaecological Oncology at University of Manchester - 1996 to date.
Chair, Department of Health Advisory Committee for Cervical Screening – 2009 to date.
Chair, Gynaecological Cancer InterGroup – 2008 to 2010.
Principal Investigator ARTISTIC (HPV testing) and MAVARIC (Automated Cytology) trials funded by Health Technology Assessment Programme.

Kliewer, Erich

Erich is an epidemiologist and was Head of CancerCare Manitoba’s Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Registry from 1997 to 2005. Although he has moved to Vancouver and has an adjunct Senior Scientist appointment at the British Columbia Cancer Agency, he continues to work for CancerCare Manitoba and has retained a faculty appointment at the University of Manitoba. Previously he was a faculty member of the Australian National University, the University of Utah and the University of British Columbia. Erich is currently involved in a series of studies on HPV vaccine surveillance and evaluation based on Manitoba’s extensive linked databases.

Mahmud, Salaheddin

Dr. Mahmud is a medical officer of health in Winnipeg and an assistant professor at the Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba. His areas of research include pharmacoepidemiology and cancer epidemiology.

Markowitz, Lauri

Dr. Markowitz received her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed her residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She joined the US Centers for Disease Control in 1983 and has worked in a variety of areas related to both vaccines and sexually transmitted diseases.  Since 2004, she has coordinated the HPV Vaccine Working Group of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).  In this capacity, she spearheaded the development of recommendations for use of HPV vaccine in the US.  Dr Markowitz has provided consultation related to HPV vaccine to a variety of national and international groups, and is a member of HPV Vaccine Advisory Committee of the World Health Organization.

Mayrand, Marie-Hélène

Dr Mayrand trained as a gynecologist at the Université de Montréal.  During her residency she completed a Master’s degree working on the characterization of HPV-16 variants under the guidance of François Coutlée and Michel Roger, both from Université de Montréal.  She then completed a PhD in epidemiology at McGill University with Eduardo Franco.  Her thesis work focused on the evaluation of HPV tests in cervical cancer screening.

Since completing her training, Dr Mayrand has been working in general gynecology and colposcopy clinics, and conducting research at the centre de recherche du CHUM.  Her research interests focus on the evaluation of innovative strategies for cervical cancer prevention.  She also works as a medical advisor for the Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec

McLachlin, Meg

Dr. McLachlin is currently the Deputy Chief of Pathology at the London Health Sciences Centre and a Professor in the Departments of Pathology and OB/GYN at the University of Western Ontario. She has chaired committees that have established reporting systems and a quality assurance program for GYN cytology in Ontario, as well as developing evidence based guidelines for cervical screening and management. Nationally, she chaired the Canadian Society of Cytology and was an organizer of the 2003 Pan Canadian Conference on Cervical Screening.  Currently, she chairs the Pan Canadian Cervical Screening Initiative of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer. Current interests include the development of a standardized, programmatic approach to cervical cancer screening and the appropriate use of new screening technologies.

McNeil, Shelly

Shelly McNeil is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine and an Infectious Diseases Consultant at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Dr. McNeil completed her medical education at Dalhousie University followed by a three-year residency in Internal Medicine at Dalhousie and a three-year fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Dr. McNeil returned to Dalhousie as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in 2000 and is currently cross-appointed as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics. She is a Clinical Investigator at the Clinical Trials Research Center and the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology, Halifax where her research focuses on health policy, the evaluation of vaccine-preventable diseases in the elderly and in pregnant women and clinical trials of new vaccines targeted at adolescent and adult populations.  Dr. McNeil is the Medical Director of the Sanofi Pasteur Vaccine Challenge Unit at the Canadian Center for Vaccinology, the first human vaccine challenge facility in Canada. Dr. McNeil has been awarded the Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine Clinical Research Scholar Award for the period 2005-2010. She is Co-Chair of the Professional Education Working Group of the Canadian Immunization Committee and a member of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), the Canadian Immunization Committee HPV Expert Working Group, and the Pandemic Vaccines Working Group of the National Pandemic Influenza Committee.

Njoo, Howard

Dr. Howard Njoo is the Director General of the Centre for Communicable Diseases and Infection Control at the Public Health Agency of Canada. In his career as a public health physician, Dr. Njoo has worked in all three levels of government.  Previously, he worked at the Public Health Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Health and as the Associate Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto Department of Public Health.  Dr. Njoo joined the federal government in 1996 as the Director of Tuberculosis Prevention and Control at Health Canada and subsequently worked in a variety of positions, in both chronic and infectious diseases as well as emergency preparedness and response.

Dr. Njoo earned his medical degree and a Master s in Health Science, specializing in community health and epidemiology, from the University of Toronto, and has a fellowship in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in community medicine. Dr. Njoo is a Consultant Physician at the Ottawa Hospital Tuberculosis Clinic, is an Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, and has an adjunct appointment in the Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine at the University of Ottawa.

Ogilvie, Gina

Dr. Gina Ogilvie completed her undergraduate education at Queen's University and McMaster University in Ontario, and then did her Family Medicine residency at McMaster University.  She then completed a Fellowship in Population and Primary Care at McMaster University.  She taught in the Family Medicine in the Department of Family Practice at McMaster University before moving to British Columbia.  She completed a Masters of Science in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of British Columbia.  Her clinical and research interests include women's health, care of marginalized and at-risk populations, reproducitve health, sexually transmitted infections, HPV and the HPV vaccine.  She has published widely in these areas, and has consulted both nationally and internationally on cervical cancer prevention, HPV, HPV vaccination and STI care.

At present, Dr. Ogilvie is the Associate Director for STI/HIV Prevention and Control at the BC Centre for Disease Control, and is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia in the Departments of Family Practice, Obstetrics & Gynecology and with the School of Population and Public Health. She holds several million dollars in research grants, and is principal investigator of the HPV Focal trial - a randomized trial including over 30,000 women to examine HPV testing vs cytology as the primary screen for cervical cancer.  She is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Public Health. Her most important job is that of mother to Lauchlan - 9  and McKerron - 7, her two children.  She is often seen at hockey rinks, soccer pitches and basketball courts around the Lower Mainland.

Roe, Ian

Saraiya, Mona

Dr. Mona Saraiya joined the CDC as an EIS officer. As a CAPTAIN in the U.S. Public Health Service and a medical officer at the CDC's Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, she has largely been involved with cervical cancer screening research and policy. She provides technical expertise to the CDC Breast and Cervical Cancer Program. She is an active member of the CDC HPV workgroup, CDC HPV Vaccine Workgroup, and ACIP HPV Working Group (CDC) and the ACIP writing group for the HPV vaccine, and coauthor of several articles related monitoring the impact of HPV cancers.  She has provided a cancer perspective on the areas of HPV testing for cervical cancer and provided technical assistance on several public and provider education campaigns.

Senikas, Vyta

Dr. Vyta Senikas graduated from McGill University in 1970 with an Honours BSc in Biochemistry and later pursued doctoral studies in medicine and a masters of surgery (MDCM) at McGill University from 1970 to 1974. Dr. Senikas completed her internship and residency in obstetrics/gynaecology at McGill University from 1975 to 1980. She later received a research grant in the field of perinatology from the Hôpital Sainte-Justine (Université de Montréal) in 1979-80. Dr. Senikas was president of the McGill Association of Interns and Residents from 1977-79, president of the Fédération des internes et résidents du Québec from 1979 to 1980, Assistant Professor at McGill University from 1982 to 1985 and Associate Professor since 1985. She has been actively in practice at the Royal Victoria and Queen Elizabeth hospitals since 1980. Dr. Senikas' many activities include serving as president of the general overview of obstetrics-gynaecology in 1991-92, Director of Obstetrics at the Royal Victoria Hospital from 1991 to 1994, Medical Director at the birthing centre of the Royal Victoria Hospital from 1992 to 1994, and Director of the restructuring project for the new obstetrical centre. Dr. Senikas has worked as an administrator since 1987. In addition to being a member of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, she was a member of the Association des obstétriciens et gynécologues du Québec (AOGQ) Board of Directors from 1987 to 2000.

She served on the executive of the AOGQ from 1991 until 1999 and was president of the Association des obstétriciens et gynécologues du Québec (AOGQ) for the years 1997-1998. Dr. Senikas represented the AOGQ in dealings with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) from 1989-2001. She has also served the ACOG as an External Peer Reviewer in the field of medical training since 1992. She was seconded by the AOGQ to the Federation of Medical Specialists of Quebec in 1994, led the open discussion forum at the 1994 International Federation of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians in Montreal; chaired the AOGQ rate-setting committee in 1995; and served as delegated chair of the AOGQ.

From 1997-2003, Dr. Senikas was a counsellor for the Canadian Medical Protective Association and was a member of its executive from 2000-2003.

Dr. Senikas has been a member of SOGC since 1979, has sat on Council, various committees including post Vice-President. She is currently the Associate Executive Vice President of SOGC in charge of continuing professional development.

Steben, Marc

As a family practitioner he currently works at Quebec’s National Institute of Public Health on sexually transmitted infections. He is a member of both Social and Preventive Medicine and obstetrics and gynecology departments of the faculty of medicine at Université de Montréal. He chairs the Québec province committee on STI.

He was an investigator for the quadrivalent HPV vaccine. He is a member of the Canadian STI guidelines expert group and lead author on the HPV and genital ulceration chapters.

He was the 2010 recipient of the Gilles Des Rosiers award for his contribution to continuing medical education. He will chair the International papillomavirus society meeting of 2010 and is co chair of the policy and health services track of the International society for STD research congress of 2011.

Wang, Susan

Dr. Susan A. Wang received her AB from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and her MD and MPH from Columbia University in New York City. She completed internal medicine and pediatrics training at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina and is board-certified in both specialties. She was a primary care physician in North Carolina before she joined the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention in 1996. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a member of the American College of Physicians.

At CDC, her areas of work included outbreak investigations, infection control, injection safety, HIV postexposure prophylaxis, antimicrobial resistance, public health responses to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and to influenza, integrated prevention of perinatal infections, adolescent vaccination, screening for chronic hepatitis B virus infection, and domestic and global perinatal hepatitis B prevention, including evaluation of hepatitis B vaccination programs. In addition, during her six years in CDC's Division of STD Prevention, she coordinated national surveillance to monitor antimicrobial resistance of Neisseria gonorrheoae in the United States, supervised outbreak investigations, collaborated with international colleagues to improve global antimicrobial resistance surveillance for gonorrhea, and worked on gonorrhea treatment issues. Dr. Wang also worked extensively on monitoring integrated reproductive health services (family planning, hepatitis B vaccination, STD and HIV screening) for adolescents in non-traditional venues.

Since December 2008, Dr. Wang has been a Medical Officer for New Vaccines in the Expanded Programme for Immunization (EPI) at the World Health Organization in Geneva where she provides technical support for the introduction of new vaccines, including HPV vaccine.