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CIHR Training Program in
Health Law, Ethics and Policy
Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C5
email: info@healthlawtraining.ca
Tel: 1 + 416.978.3724
Fax: 1 + 416.978.2648

Alumni

Armed with the skills acquired over the course of the Program, graduate students in law are better able to meet challenges in the health care system as a result of being willing to work with and across different disciplines. As a consequence our graduates are in demand. They are employed as academics or decision makers (in federal and provincial governments, in non-governmental organizations and international agencies) or are pursuing further study.

For more information on Program alumni, scroll down this page:

Victoria Apold
Victoria Apold,B.Sc., LLB. Victoria graduated from the University of King's College with a B.Sc. in Psychology. She attended law school at Dalhousie, graduating in 2001. She was called to the Nova Scotia Bar in 2002. Victoria practiced law in the litigation department of Stewart McKelvey Stirling Scales in Halifax before commencing her LLM at Dalhousie.

Tom Archibald
Tom Archibald, BJ (Hon), LLB, LLM. Tom attended Carleton University, where he received a Bachelor of Journalism, then studied at Osgoode Hall Law School before articling with the Toronto labour law firm of Koskie Minsky. Tom completed his Master of Laws at Queen's University in 1998, his dissertation comparing nurse collective bargaining trends in Ontario and Quebec under hospital restructuring. After his call to the Bar in 1999, Tom entered the SJD Program at the University of Toronto. He is currently in the final drafting stages of his dissertation, and has worked on a wide range of health law and policy research projects during his time at Toronto.

Tom is examining the increasing challenges posed by health policy reform to collective bargaining by Canadian nurses, and the emerging need for a new labour law model tailored to the unique setting of professional employment in a single-tier Medicare system seeking greater cost-effectiveness in the delivery of care.

Jennie Baek
Jennie completed her LL.B. at Queen's University and will be starting her LL.M. this September at the University of Toronto. Before entering law school, Jennie studied biology at Queen's University. She hopes to combine her interest in law and the biological sciences in her studies, focusing on biotechnology and its effects on the provision of and research in healthcare.

Graham Barr
Biography not yet available.

Ron Bouchard
Ron A. Bouchard, PhD, LLB, LLM, SJD (Cand.) is a professor of law and medicine. His career has focused on the science, law, policy, regulation and commercialization of biomedical products as well as strategic planning for commercialization of innovative technologies. He began as a scientist, obtaining a doctorate and working in the field of ion channel biophysics and intracellular Ca2+ imaging. He shifted focus to obtain a law degree specializing in pharmaceutical and biotechnology law and has been involved in the prosecution, acquisition, financing, distribution and litigation of intellectual property rights. He has appeared before the Federal Court of Canada on trial and appeal matters and the Supreme Court of Canada.

Dr. Bouchard consults with firms, universities, governments and international organizations on matters relating to the science, commercialization, intellectual property and regulatory rights associated with biomedical inventions. He has been an advisor to the Canadian government on its new Progressive Licensing Framework for drug approval and Public Private Partnership and Commercialization research initiatives. His work in science and law has been funded by major federal and provincial funding agencies and private endowments (CIHR, Heart & Stroke, Genome Canada, AHFMR, Lupina Foundation).

He has won several awards and is published in the basic sciences and the law, policy and regulation of biomedical inventions. Dr. Bouchard currently conducts research on commercialization of publicly funded technologies, intellectual property and regulatory issues pertinent to medical product development, and drug regulation and innovation from the interdisciplinary perspective of systems dynamics/complex adaptive systems.

Oscar Cabrera
Oscar A. Cabrera, JD, LL.M., is a foreign-trained lawyer who earned his law degree in his home country, Venezuela from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas. After graduating from Law School, Oscar worked as an Associate at a Venezuelan law firm (d’Empaire Reyna Bermúdez). Afterwards, he moved to New York City where he earned a certificate in Intellectual Property Law from NYU focusing on the interface between IP and access to medication. During his Master of Laws (with concentration in Health Law and Policy, at the University of Toronto) he worked as a graduate Research Assistant with Prof. Trudo Lemmens for the Public Health Law course. After completing his Masters program he worked as a Research Associate with Professor Colleen Flood, for the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law and the Institute of Health Services and Policy Research (CIHR-IHSPR), where he was involved in several health law related projects, which included a research project on the right to health in middle income countries. Currently, Oscar is a fellow at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center.

Oscar’s LL.M. thesis examined Ontario’s public health legal preparedness to impose social distancing measures in the after SARS legal framework. His areas of interest include public health law, disease control and prevention, public health legal preparedness, right to health and health system law and policy.

Milton Castelen
Milton Castelen was born in 1969 in Paramaribo, Suriname. He received a LLM degree from the Anton de Kom (ADEK) University, Suriname in 1999. In 2002, he was admitted to the Bar Association as an Attorney-at-Law. Milton has been teaching health law since 2001 at the 'Centrale Opleiding voor Verpleegkundige en Aanverwante Beroepen' (COVAB - the nursing school of Suriname) and at the 'Opleiding tot Gezondheidsassistenten voor het Binnenland van Suriname van de Medische Zending' (the training institute for health care workers for the Surinamese hinterland).

From 2006 to 2008, he coordinated the National AIDS Programme and the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, HIV Programme Executing Unit (PEU) in Suriname. Milton has a wealth of experience in HIV/AIDS law, ethics and human rights in the Caribbean. He has worked on many regional projects, including with the Pan Caribbean Partnership on HIV and AIDS (PANCAP), Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network (CHALN).

Milton has presented at various international meetings, including the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV (UNGASS), 2006. His academic interests include human rights, health law, criminal law, constitutional law and ethics.

Maria Mercedes Cavallo

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1984, María Mercedes Cavallo received her LL.B. from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella Law School in 2007.

In 2002 she won the First Prize in Essay Category in “Universidad Torcuato Di Tella Literary Contest” for her article named “Borges y Kafka: Universos Simbólicos”. Moreover, her paper “The Problem of Phenomenologist´s Definition of ´Inner Life`” was published in November 2007 in the Argentine Juridical Journal “Universidad Torcuato Di Tella”.

During 2007 and 2008 she worked as a Research Assistant for Professor Martin Hevia and for Criminal District Prosecutor Silvana Russi, studying professional secrecy and abortion. In addition, she worked as a Law Clerk in the Supreme Court of the Argentinean Republic from March 2007 to June 2008.

In May 2008 University of Toronto awarded her a Graduate Scholarship in Reproductive and Sexual Health Law for the academic year 2008-09. She is also a non-funded fellow in teh CIHR Training Program in Health Law and Policy.

Michael Coyle
Michael Coyle graduated from Dalhousie Law School in 1987. He has been a practising lawyer for the past two decades, mostly in private practice. He is currently Legal Counsel and a senior advisor on health policy to the Office of Leader of the Opposition in Nova Scotia.

He is on the board of the Annapolis Valley District Health Authority and is active on the District’s Quality Management and Patient Safety Committee. He is chair of the board of the Annapolis Valley-Hants Community Action Program for Children, which is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada to bring population health initiatives to rural and remote areas. He is a member of the Canadian College of Heath Service Executives and the Nova Scotia bar. His healthcare clients have included the Nova Scotia Department of Health, continuing care facilities and medical and allied healthcare clinics.

His LL.M. work at Dalhousie is in the area of collaborative models in primary healthcare delivery.

Elizaberh Cuéllar Barroso
Elizabeth Cuéllar Barroso graduated from law school in Mexico City from Universidad Iberoamericana. During her studies, she served as law clerk to the current president of the Supreme Court of Mexico for two years. After graduation, she joined a law firm in Mexico City, and then moved to CIDE (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas), a public university where she assisted in the restructure of the law program in the Faculty of Law, and designed the contents of several first year courses. She was teacher assistant for the seminar Legal Analysis imparted at CIDE.

Elizabeth’s interests include health systems and comparative policy analysis from a Latin American perspective. She is currently focusing on research ethics, and in her thesis she will address the need to protect aboriginal communities in Mexico as participants in biomedical research.

Ruby Dhand
Ruby Dhand completed the joint M.A./LL.B program through the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University and the University of Ottawa Law School in 2007. She is interested in health law and policy with a focus on psychiatric consumer/survivors (recipients or former recipients of mental health and/or addiction services). This interest stems from her academic and community work experiences. During law school, she was a caseworker at the University of Ottawa’s Community Legal Clinic where she assisted women who were victims of domestic violence, some of whom were psychiatric consumer/survivors, to bring forth their claims to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. As an articling student at the ARCH Disability Law Centre, Ruby worked on law reform initiatives and legal cases advocating for the rights of psychiatric consumer/survivors.

Her work experiences at ARCH and the University of Ottawa’s Community Legal Clinic have inspired her to begin a LL.M at the University of Toronto in September 2008. In her LL.M thesis, she will be analyzing the legal barriers faced by psychiatric consumer/survivors from various ethno-cultural communities in Ontario within the administrative law context.

Jennifer Dolling
Jennifer Dolling obtained a B.A. in Criminology with High Distinction from the University of Toronto in 1996 and an LL.B. from Queen’s University in 1999. Following her call to the Ontario Bar in 2001, Jennifer practiced civil litigation, focusing primarily on the areas of medical malpractice, health disciplines defence, professional negligence and liability, insurance defence, personal injury and contractual disputes. She has defended various regulated health professionals involved in civil suits and College complaints. Most recently, Jennifer has worked in-house at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital, where she has been responsible for the drafting, review and negotiation of research related contracts, including industry-sponsored and investigator-initiated clinical study agreements, and the provision of general legal advice. Jennifer is also a member of the Mount Sinai Hospital Research Ethics Board.

Jennifer will be commencing a course-work intensive LL.M. specializing in Health Law and Policy at the University of Toronto in September 2008. She has been awarded a fellowship by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Training Program in Health Law and Policy.

Sandra Dughman
Sandra was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1974. At the end of 1996 she received her Ministerial Theological Degree, granted by the Centre of Theological Studies. A few years later she was accepted by Universidad de Chile Law School were she got her LL.B in December 2007.

She has actively participated in the academic field by filling different teaching assistant positions in “Constitutional Law”, “Political Science” and recently in “Mediation and Negotiation Legal Clinic”.

During 2003 she helped coordinate and organized the “International Conference on Democracy”, which was conducted by renown political scientists from all over the world. Later on she assisted Professor Judith A. Teichman from the University of Toronto, with data collection in Chile during 2003–2004, which was use in the book “Social Democracy in the Global Periphery” published in 2006.

In 2004 she was awarded first place at the “Women’s Human Rights Essay Contest”, organized by Corporación de Deasarrollo de la Mujer La Morada, co-authoring the essay “Post Abortion Syndrome: The Destruction of a Myth”, which was published that same year. Her LL.B. thesis “The use of Post Abortion Syndrome in Legal Debate” also reflects her interest in developing a further reproductive and sexual health law discussion in Chile.

In 2008 she was accepted by University of Toronto to pursue an LL.M and was awarded a Graduate Scholarship in Reproductive and Sexual Health Law for the academic year 2008-09.

Tracey Epps
Tracey Epps, BA/LLB(Hons). Tracey obtained a Bachelor of Arts (political studies) and a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from the University of Auckland, in New Zealand. Following her studies, Tracey spent four years working as a lawyer in Auckland, including time as part of the health law team at one of the country's largest law firms. In 2000, Tracey came to Toronto where she obtained a Master of Laws (LLM) from the University of Toronto. She then spent 18 months working as a consultant in the health care practice at IBM Business Consulting Services in Toronto. She is currently an SJD candidate at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. Her doctoral research concerns issues relating to the intersection of international trade law and domestic health and safety regulations.

Lisa Forman
Lisa Forman, BA, LLB, MA. Lisa qualified as a lawyer in South Africa with a BA and LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand, and practiced in HIV/AIDS law, advocacy and research in South Africa for several years. Lisa has a Masters in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law. She has worked in Zambia, Switzerland and the U.S.A. on HIV/AIDS and human rights-related projects, and has published several articles and book chapters. Lisa's doctoral research addresses the role of human rights, particularly the right to health, in increasing access to essential AIDS medicines, with a South African case study.

Isabelle French
Isabelle graduated with a Bachelors of Human Kinetics from U.B.C. in 2002 and with her LL.B. with a specialization in health law and policy from Dalhousie in 2006. Prior to attending law school, she was involved in a variety of clinical research studies at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Since graduating with her LL.B., she has been working on her LL.M. on a part-time basis while also working as a legal analyst for a law firm in Halifax. At the completion of her maternity leave in September, she will be articling with a law firm in Halifax. Isabelle's thesis focuses on the the rights of mature minors to consent to their own participation in clinical research studies.

Catherine Gaulton
Catherine Gaulton, RN, BN, LLB. Catherine practiced as a registered nurse with a post-graduated specialization in neurosciences nursing. She practiced as an associate lawyer in corporate law with the law firm of Stewart McKelvey Stirling Scales in Halifax Nova Scotia and then became Advisory Services Council and Executive Director of the B.C. Health Care Risk Management Society in Victoria, B.C. Since her return to Halifax in June 2000, Catherine practiced as General Council with the Worker's Compensation Board of Nova Scotia and is now a Senior Solicitor with the Nova Scotia Department of Justice providing advise to the Department of Health, primarily in the areas of physician services, emergency health services, patient/health care safety and health professions. She is a practicing member of the Nova Scotia Barrister's Society and a non-practicing member of the Law Society of British Columbia. Catherine is pursuing her LLM on a part-time basis with an emphasis on Health Care Safety.

Lorian Hardcastle
Lorian Hardcastle completed her LL.B. and Health Law and Policy Specialization Certificate at Dalhousie University. During this time she worked as a research assistant with the Health Law Institute and in the Calgary Health Region's Legal Department. After completing her degree, Lorian articled and worked briefly as an associate at Miller Thomson LLP, doing some work with their health law group. For the past year, Lorian has been an LL.M. candidate at the University of Toronto, writing her thesis on the tort law accountability of systemic actors for quality of care. In the fall of 2006, she will be commencing an S.J.D. at the University of Toronto. Her broad area of interest is health systems law, including public/private financing, liability of governments and institutions, quality of care, and accountability and governance.

Matthew Herder
Matthew Herder, BSc. (hons.), LL.B., is a Master of Laws student at Dalhousie University. The primary focus of his thesis will concern the impact of intellectual property, in particular patents, upon the development of biotechnologies such as stem cell research in the context of a publicly-funded health care system. Matthew will also continue his work as a member of the Novel Tech Ethics research team (www.noveltechethics.ca) based at Dalhousie University, comprised of scholars in philosophy, law, health economics and anthropology, both in Canada and abroad.

Before undertaking his LL.M. degree, Matthew articled at McCarthy Tétrault LLP in Toronto, becoming a member of the Ontario Bar, and clerked at the Federal Court for Madam Justice Tremblay-Lamer. Currently, Matthew holds a Training Award from APOGEE-Net, a Network which aims to support the development of evidence-based health policies in the field of genetics through transdisciplinary capacity-building. Matthew is expected to complete internships at McGill University, Memorial University, Health Canada and l’agence d’évaluation des technologies et des modes d’intervention en santé (AETMIS) during the course of his LL.M studies as part of the APOGEE-Net program.

Dennis Holland
Dennis Holland, BA, LLB. Dennis is currently working as Senior Director Legislation, Policy, and Research with the Nova Scotia Department of Health. Dennis has developed a 4-year plan to review major pieces of health legislation in Nova Scotia, as well as overseeing the development of legislation and passage of legislative initiatives through the provincial legislature.

Dennis is pursuing his LLM degree in health law on a part-time basis and the focus of Dennis's coursework is health law and legislation.

Leah Hutt
Leah Hutt, BA, LLB, LLM. Leah graduated in 1993 from Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario with a BA in History. She attended law school at Dalhousie University, graduating in 1997. Leah was called to the Nova Scotia Bar in 1998 and practiced law for several years before returning to Dalhousie Law School for graduate work. The focus of her graduate studies was on research ethics, in particular the ethics of paying subjects for participating in medical research. Leah graduated with her Master of Laws in October 2004. She is currently working at Dalhousie's Health Law Institute as a consultant to the Nova Scotia Department of Health.

Ireh Iyioha
Ireh Iyioha (LL.B (Hons) BL.) obtained her LLB from the University of Benin, Nigeria in 2003 with the Best Graduating Student of the Year Award and went on to the Nigerian Law School in 2004 to obtain her BL. She served briefly as an intern with F.E.Ayanka-Wilson & Co. after which she joined the Law Firm of Iyioha & Iyioha as a research assistant; she is presently a partner in the law firm of Iyioha & Iyioha in Benin City, Nigeria. Her research topics have spanned both legal and literary fields including, ‘Nigeria’s National Health Insurance Scheme and Claims in Adverse Consequences of Medical Intervention: Civil Liability or No-Fault Compensation?. She has a number of publications in the areas of Obscenity (Obscenity and the Boundaries of Free Expression: the Doctrine of Prior Restraint, the Censor and Legal Standards) and Organized Crime (Corruptionand White-Collar Crime: the Role of the Nigerian Legal System) among others.

Ireh Iyioha is a recipient of over thirteen academic and non-academic awards, including the Federal Government of Nigeria Scholarship Award (2002/2003) and the First Atlantic Bank (PLC) Prize for Contribution to Peace and Academic Development in the University of Benin, Nigeria (2003).

Ireh Iyioha will join the University of Toronto as an LLM student and will be researching on medical malpractice in alternative/complementary medicine and analyzing Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control’s (NAFDAC) regulatory standards vis-a-vis legal parameters employed in forensic medicine.

Dipika Jain
Dipika Jain graduated in Political Science (HONS) and completed LL.B from Delhi University in the year 2004.In addition she has a diploma in International Human Rights Law and International Law and Diplomacy from Indian Society of International Law, New Delhi.

After completing her LL.B, she joined Human Rights Law Network, a legal N.G.O in Delhi. At HRLN, she worked on Refugee Rights, Child Rights, Health Rights and other Public Interest Litigations(PILs). She worked in the capacity of the National co-ordinator and legal officer for the HIV/AIDS and the Law Initiative. She also worked on a Public Interest Litigation (PILs) in the Supreme Court of India, Voluntary Health Association of Punjab v. Union of India, calling upon the Government to provide universal access to antiretroviral drugs. She is working on a book on HIV/AIDS and the Law in India with the Executive Director of Human Rights Law Network.

Currently, she is pursuing LL.M in Health Law from Dalhousie University with special interest in Ethics, Technology and Health Law.

Sara Josselyn
Sara graduated in 2002 from Trinity College at University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Arts, earning a double major in Bioethics and Ethics, Society and Law. These studies focused on the legal and ethical implications of modern socio-political issues, and cultivated Sara's interest in the area of health law.

After a working as a legal assistant at an insurance litigation firm in her native New Brunswick, Sara entered Dalhousie University Law School, graduating in May 2005. While at Dalhousie she completed in a number of courses offered by Dalhousie's Health law Institute.

Sara is currently an articled clerk at McInnes Cooper in Halifax. She will be fulfilling her articling requirements over a two-year period in order to undertake a thesis-based L.L.M. at Dalhousie beginning in September.

Alison Keagan
Alison Keagan, BA (Honours), LLB, is a Master of Laws candidate at Dalhousie University. She is the recipient of the Canadian Institute for Health Research Training Fellowship in Health Law and Policy. Her primary research interests are reproductive health law and privacy issues in the health care system.

Before undertaking her undergraduate studies, she graduated from McMaster University in 1999 and Dalhousie University in 2002. She completed her summer articles at Heenan Blaikie in Toronto and her articles at Davis & Company in Vancouver and was called to the Bar as a member of the Law Society of British Columbia in 2003. For the previous two years, she practiced law at Bernard & Partners in the area of insurance defense, including medical malpractice.

Suzanne Kennedy
Suzanne graduated from Western Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, Corner Brook, NL in 1984. She worked as registered nurse for approximately 11 years. In 1998, she graduated with her LL.B from Osgoode Hall Law School. From 1999 – 2002, she practised law in Halifax in the areas of family law and personal injury litigation. Since 2002, she has worked at the College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia as a consultant in the professional conduct process involving registered nurses. In 2002, Suzanne was hired on a contract basis by the Health Law Institute, Dalhousie, to teach health law to Dentistry Students at Dalhousie. She currently teaches 2nd and 3rd year students on part-time basis.

Suzanne is commencing her LL.M at Dalhousie in September 2006 on part-time basis. For her thesis, Suzanne will explore the ethical and legal issues impacting on disclosure by health care providers of their positive blood borne pathogen status (HIV and Hepatitis B and C).

Sasha (Alexandra) Kontic
Sasha Kontic, BSc., LLB, LLM. Sasha completed a BSc in Microbiology in 1998 from the University of British Columbia, then graduated from the UBC law program in 2001. Sasha was called to the British Columbia Bar in 2002 and worked for one year in the litigation department of a large Vancouver firm.

She particpated in the CIHR Health Law and Policy Training Program in 2004-2005, using the funding to complete an LLM at the University of Toronto. She studied a variety of health law topics and her thesis examined the post market surveillance system for pharmaceuticals in Canada. She is now working as Legal Counsel for Health Canada.

Hope Kynomugisha
Hope is an LLM student in the Faculty of Law at Dalhousie University. She is a recipient of the Canadian Institute for Health Research Training Fellowship in Health Law and Policy.

Hope completed her Post-Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice at Law Development Centre, Kampala, Uganda in August, 2006. In 2005 she completed her LLB degree at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.

In 1999 she graduated with a Diploma in Law from Law Development Centre, Kampala, Uganda. During her diploma course she wrote a Research Paper: “Is the Law sufficient to reduce traffic accidents?” Case study: Kampala City (Unpublished Research Paper submitted to the Law Development Centre, 1999)

She also obtained a Certificate in Secretarial Studies in 1988 from Nyamitanga Secretarial College, Mbarara, Uganda. She then worked for 10 years as an Administrative Assistant with M/S. Butagira & Co. Advocates, in Kampala. Working in the Law Firm inspired her to enrol for a Diploma in Law Course in 1998 and later for an LLB.

Research Interest: Health Law

During her LLM Course at Dalhousie, she has written the following research papers:

  1. PATIENT SAFETY IN UGANDA: APPROACHES AND MECHANISMS

  2. THE IMPACT OF DECENTRALISATION ON HEALTH CARE DELIVERY AND DEVELOPMENT IN UGANDA: A POSITIVE WORK IN PROGRESS

  3. HIV/AIDS SUFFERERS AND SERO-DISCORDANTS IN UGANDA: A SOCIO-CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF UNEQUAL TREATMENT BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN

  4. TRADITIONAL MEDICINE: OVERSIGHT OF PRACTITIONERS AND PRACTICES IN UGANDA

Reinhard Lau
Reinhard started to study law at the University of Rostock, Germany. He graduated from the University of Hamburg, Germany with the "1. Juristisches Staatsexamen" in 2007. The University of Hamburg awarded to him the academic title Diplom-Jurist.

Prior to the CIHR program in Health Law and Policy, he worked for the law firm Brinkmann & Partner in Hamburg. His special interest in health law arouse as he worked as a lifeguard for the German Red Cross and in an emergency medical service for the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians.

Reinhard is an LLM candidate in the coursework program at the Faculty of Law, Dalhousie University. His main research interests include physician-patient relationship, access to medication, medical records, and problems associated with transplantation. Following graduation, Reinhard plans to do a dissertation in Germany.

Angela Long
Angela Long B.A. (Toronto), LL.B. (Osgoode), LL.M. (Toronto). Angela is in the doctoral program at the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, University of Ottawa. She graduated from Victoria University at the University of Toronto in 1995 with a B.A. in philosophy. Upon graduation, she was the recipient of the Prince of Wales Silver Medal for achieving the second highest standing in her graduating class. She then completed her LL.B. at Osgoode Hall, where she received the Lang Michener Shaw prize for the highest standing in commercial law. After articling, Angela spent two years clerking for the courts of the Yukon Territory. She was then appointed as a Belzberg Legal Research and Writing Fellow at the Faculty of Law at the University of Alberta, where she spent two years designing and teaching the faculty’s new first year research and writing program. During her time at the University of Alberta, Angela was also involved with the Health Law Institute and was an associate editor of both the Health Law Journal and the Health Law Review.

At the University of Toronto Angela was a CIHR Training Program in Law and Policy Fellow. Currently, she is a Gowling Lafleur Henderson Fellow and the recipient of a University of Ottawa Doctoral Admissions Scholarship. She is also a part-time professor at the Faculty of Law, Common Law section, where she teaches Contract Law.

Angela’s LL.M. thesis was entitled “Human Dignity in the Assisted Human Reproduction Act: An Alternative Conception”. This work focused on the conception of human dignity used by Parliament in legislating on reproductive technology and provides critiques of this approach, which is seen as inconsistent with the conception of human dignity within Canadian law and policy generally. Angela’s doctoral work will focus on the role of values, including that of human dignity, in influencing the law in the areas of health and biotechnology, with an emphasis on the therapy/enhancement debate. In addition to her dissertation, Angela is currently conducting research in the area of brain enhancements and privacy and on the medical application of RFIDs.

Juhee Makkar
Juhee is an LLM candidate at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. She is a recipient of the Canadian Institute for Health Research Training Fellowship in Health Law and Policy.

Juhee graduated with her JD from the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto in 2005. Prior to entering law school, she completed a Bachelor of Arts & Science majoring in Economics from McMaster University in 2002. While studying at McMaster, she was the recipient of the Hurd Medal for Economics.

After completing her legal studies, Juhee was admitted to the Ontario bar in 2006. She articled and practiced with Torys LLP, an international business law firm. Her areas of concentration included competition and general corporate/commercial law.

For her thesis, Juhee will examine the issues surrounding current access to cancer drugs in Canada and whether existing funding mechanisms comply with the guiding principles of the Canada Health Act.

Fiona McDonald
Fiona McDonald, BA, LLB, LLM. Fiona is an Associate Lecturer at the School of Law at Queensland University of Technology in Australia and is a doctoral candidate at Dalhousie Law School, Canada. Her thesis examines the governance of patient safety in Canada and England. Fiona completed her BA in politics and her LLB at Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) 1999. After Fiona graduated with her LLB she was admitted to the Bar as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand and became a legal advisor to New Zealand's Health and Disability Commissioner. Fiona completed her LLM, focusing on health law, at Dalhousie University in 2003. Fiona was a Research Associate at the Health Law Institute at Dalhousie University from March 2004-April 2005.

Nisha Menon
Nisha Menon’s academic focus is on legal issues in reproductive and sexual health care and on related feminist legal theory. She will be starting an LLM at the University of Toronto in September 2008 in which she will be assessing the success of legislation and the courts in mediating on the maternal-foetal conflict and in regulating assisted reproductive technologies in Canada.

Nisha read law at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom and graduated with an LLB. She was awarded a Starred First Class for her dissertation on court-ordered caesareans and the right to treatment refusal and was given the Punch Coomaraswamy Award for Outstanding Contribution to the School of Law.

In addition to her legal interests, Nisha Menon earned a Bachelors degree in Environmental Engineering from the National University of Singapore and has worked as legal counsel for a multinational engineering company and as general counsel for an environmental consultancy.



Ninoslav Mladenovic

Ninoslav Mladenovic has earned his LLM degree in International Human Rights Law at the University of Notre Dame Law School in 2001. He has an extensive professional experience in human rights filed with OSCE, UN and various national and international NGOs. His primary focus was promotion and protection of international minority rights standards, analyzing the implementation of those standards in comparative jurisdictions, and proposing policy initiatives to address problems faced by particular vulnerable groups.

Mr. Mladenovic’s involvement in the field of public health began with an interest in HIV prevention strategies in his native Macedonia, where being involved in the implementation of the project related to advocacy and lobbying for improvement of sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people. His international involvement, particularly with respect to the work of the European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) only broadened the scope of his interest in HIV testing, criminalization of HIV transmission, travel restrictions for HIV positive people, providing information to patients etc.

Mr. Mladenovic’s acceptance at 2008/09 UT Graduate Programme in Sexual and Reproductive Health Law will only bring him a step forward into applying a human rights framework to sexual and reproductive health, and teach him novel approaches how to improve global response to HIV/AIDS.

Martina Munden

Martina Munden, BACS, LLB. Martina completed her Bachelor of Arts Community Studies at the University College of Cape Breton in 1996 and graduated with her LLB, with a specialization in health law and policy, in 1999 from Dalhousie University. She was called to the Bar of Nova Scotia in 2000. She is currently a partner with Patterson Palmer Law.

Martina is completing her LLM on a part-time basis. Her research thesis is titled "Community Treatment Orders, and Their Impact on Women's Autonomy".

Thu Minh Nguyen
Biography not yet available.

Obiajulu Nnamuchi
Obiajulu Nnamuchi is a human rights attorney from Nigeria. Prior to his acceptance to the Canadian Institute for Health Research Training Fellowship in Health Law and Policy, he held various legal positions in Nigeria and the United States. He obtained an LL.M from the University of Toronto in 2006 and proceeded to Loyola University Chicago where he is completing a doctoral program in health law and policy. His research and writing concentrate on moral and ethical issues in health care, financing/governance of health care and the intersection of health and human rights.

Remiguis Nwabueze
Biography not yet available.

Ubaka Ogbogu
Ubaka will be commencing S.J.D. studies at the University of Toronto in September 2008 in the area of health and biotechnology law and policy, with particular focus on the history of, and legal theories relevant to science regulation. His S.J.D research will examine the historical influence of law on science, and normative philosophical contexts upon which the study of issues in health and biotechnology law can be grounded.

Ubaka currently works as a research associate at the Health Law Institute, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta and also holds a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Doctoral Scholarship. He is a graduate of the LL.M program at the University of Alberta (2004), and the LL.B program at the University of Benin, Nigeria (1997).

Idowu Ohioze
Idowu Ohioze recently obtained a master's degree in Law (LLM) from the University of Alberta where he researched into "Access to Essential Medicines: Analysis of the TRIPs Amendment and Canada's Jean Chretien Pledge to Africa Act".

While in the programme, he participated in various research projects with the Health Law Institute and attended academic conferences around Canada where he presented papers on the patentability of stem cell research in Canada, access to essential medicines in developing countries etc.

Ohioze, a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, holds an LLB from the University of Benin in Nigeria and was also at the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi Nigeria for a diploma in Mass Communication. He presently works, on a consultancy, with Engelking Wood, a law firm in Edmonton, Alberta. His research interests include biotechnology, patentability of stem cell research, access to medicines for the poor, the Genome project etc.

Cheluchi Onyemelukwe
Cheluchi graduated from the University of Nigeria in 2000 with First Class Honours. She was called to the Nigerian bar in 2002. She practised law with G. Elias & Co. in Lagos, Nigeria before commencing her LLM at Dalhousie University in September 2003. Cheluchi graduated with her LLM from Dalhousie in 2004.

Cheluchi started her JSD at Dalhousie University in January 2007. Her thesis focuses on the governance of research involving humans in developing countries.

Demitry Papasotiriou
Biography not yet available.

Caroline Pitfield
Caroline Pitfield, BA, MA, LLB, LLM. Caroline completed a BA in History and English at the University of Toronto and an MA in History and Sociology of Science, Medicine and Technology at the University of Pennsylvania prior to attending law school at the University of Toronto. She received her LLB in 2000 and was a litigation associate at McMillan Binch before returning to the University of Toronto to pursue graduate work. Her thesis research was on administrative and constitutional challenges brought by Canadians seeking better access to insured health care services. In particular, she critically examined the decisions rendered by specialized administrative appeal boards and courts in Canada in response to such challenges with a view to evaluating the comparative accessibility and effectiveness of these mechanisms. She completed her LLM in September 2003 and is now working as Legal Counsel for Health Canada.

Samara Polansky
Samara Polansky, (B.A.(Hons), LL.B.). Samara completed her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Political Science at McGill University. She graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 2004, where she was supported by the John Graham Fellowship. In 2005, Samara was called to the Bar of Ontario. After articling at Heenan Blaikie in Toronto, Samara worked as primary researcher for the Canadian Association for Community Living, examining the legal and regulatory context of prenatal genetic testing, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, genetic counseling, selective abortion, and wrongful life/wrongful birth law suits, and the consequences of this regulation for people with disabilities. Samara serves on the Executive of the Board of Directors of the Ontario Foundation for Visually Impaired Children, and will be a guest lecturer for the course Disability and the Law at Osgoode Hall Law School in 2006. Samara is currently a Master of Laws student at the University of Toronto. Her primary research interests include the medicalization of disability, mental health law, gender and reproductive issues, and health policy.

Cheryl Power
Cheryl Power BSc, BA, LLB. Cheryl received a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Memorial University of Newfoundland. She then attended law school at the University of Saskatchewan where she received a LLB in 2001. She articled with an Intellectual Property firm in Toronto, ON and was called to the Ontario bar in 2002. During the past year she worked in a research position at the University of Genoa, Genoa. Italy. She is currently pursuing her LLM at the University of Alberta. Her thesis will investigate the ethical, legal and social issues surrounding nanotechnology with a specific focus on issues relevant to Canadian Healthcare.

Simon Rabinovitch
Biography not yet available.

Catherine Régis
Catherine Régis, LLB, LLM. Catherine obtained her Bachelor of Laws at the University of Montreal and her Master’s degree in Health Law and Policy at the University of Sherbrooke. She also completed a Certificate in Clinical Ethics from the University of Geneva and is a member of the Quebec Bar. She is currently finishing her Doctorate at the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto under professor Colleen M. Flood. In her doctoral thesis, she explores what represents the optimal conflict resolution model for patients facing access-to-care issues. She is addressing the subject using the Law and Psychology and Comparative approaches. She recently accepted a tenure track position at the Faculty of Law of the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec. Catherine is also a member of the Quebec Public Health Ethics Committee.

Nola Ries
BA, LLB, MPA, LLM

Carolina Ruiz Austria
Carolina S. Ruiz Austria is a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Philippines, College of Law. She was founding Executive Director of the Women's Legal Education, Advocacy and Defense Foundation, Inc.from 2000-2005. She currently serves as a volunteer and the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees for Womenlead. She was National Convener of the Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN) in 2003 and a Packard-Gates Fellow at the University of California's International Family Planning Leadership Program in 2001. She has worked as an independent conusltant on women's human rights as well as sexual and reproductive rights advocacy NGOs such as Intermnational Planned Parenthood (IPPF)U.K., Women's Feature Service and the Women and Gender Institute (WAGI).

Carol is currently a blogger on Global Perspectives at RHRealitycheck.Org.

Robert Shapiro
Robert Shapiro is entering into the LL.M. program at the University of Toronto where he will be looking at the regulation of the pharmaceutical industry. Robert concurrently completed his U.S. Juris Doctor degree (magna cum laude) at the University of Detroit and his Canadian Bachelor of Laws at the University of Windsor in 2005. Prior to law school, Robert specialized in chemistry at the University of Toronto where he graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Science with distinction.

Robert articled at a mid-size general practice firm in Toronto and will be called to the bar of the Law Society of Upper Canada in July 2006.

Robert published his first paper on patent infringement during at ime of emergency focussing on the legal and policy reasons for dealing with patents rights during medical epidemics. Robert has also been a teaching assistant teaching Contracts and undergraduate chemistry.

Jacob Shelley
Jacob Shelley is currently a LLM student at the University of Alberta and has been a Researcher with the Health Law Institute since May of 2007. Prior to that he worked as a student research assistant during the course of his legal studies at the University of Alberta. Before entering law school, Jacob studied theology and philosophy. He has a BA from the University of Waterloo and a Masters of Theological Studies from Conrad Grebel University College at the University of Waterloo. Jacob finished his LLB in 2007. His LLM is under the supervision of Timothy Caulfield and is exploring the normative framework for public health law.

Jacob's interests include public health law, biotechnology and genetics. The focus of his LLM research will be on the use of public health law as a tool to address the obesity epidemic. Upon completion of his LLM, Jacob aspires to complete a PhD and pursue a career in public health law. Jacob has presented at several conferences across Canada and in the United States.

Lori Sheremeta
Lori Sheremeta, RT (N.M.)(assoc.) LLB. Lori is a graduate of the University of Alberta and was called to the Bar of Quebec in 2001. Lori articled at Oyen Wiggs Green and Mutala. Lori is currently enrolled in the LLM programme at the University of Alberta and is the recipient of the Alberta Law Foundation Scholarship in Health Law and Policy. Her thesis is focused on the legal, ethical and policy considerations of large scale population genetics studies and associated databanks.

She is currently employed by the Health Law Institute, Alberta, as a Research Associate. Her work is focused on the legal, ethical and social issues surrounding genetic technologies (Genome Prairie), stem cell technologies (Stem Cell Network) and nanotechnology (National Institute of Nanotechnology). Lori has a particular interest in the intersection of intellectual property law and health policy both in Canada and abroad. Lori has co-authored background papers for Genome Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee on various issues relating to genetic research in Canada.

In addition to her research duties, Lori sits on the University of Alberta Hospital Clinical Ethics Committee, the Cross Cancer Institute Animal Care Committee and on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Society.

Lisa Shields
Biography not yet available.

Rami Shoucri
Rami Shoucri, B.Sc. (McGill. 2003), LL.B. (Osgoode Hall Law School, 2007), is an LL.M. candidate at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law. He is a recipient of the Canadian Institute for Health Research Training Fellowship in Health Law and Policy.

His coursework during the 2007-2008 academic year will include Contemporary Issues in Health Law and Policy, Sexual and Reproductive Health Law, Comparative Health Law, and International Human Rights.

In developing a thesis, Rami is exploring the conceptual intersections between health and human rights imperatives in defining and advancing human well being, and the contexts in which these intersections can be integrated within a coherent framework in developing law and policy, nationally and internationally. Specifically, he is looking at the law and policy of health care in the context of Crown-Aboriginal relationships in Canada.

At Osgoode, Rami completed the International, Comparative and Transnational Law curricular stream as well as the Intensive Program in Aboriginal Lands, Resources and Governments. Outside of the classroom, Rami enjoys playing ultimate frisbee and cheering on his hometown Toronto Raptors.

Daniel Sperling
Daniel Sperling, BA, LLB, LLM. Daniel received a Bachelor's degree in both law and philosophy from the Hebrew University and a Master's degree in law from the University of Toronto. His supervisor at Toronto was Professor Trudo Lemmens. His Master's programme was a collaborative programme in law and bioethics. Daniel wrote a thesis on management of post-mortem pregnancy and discussed the legal and ethical issues of the dilemma whether to maintain a brain-dead pregnant woman on life-support for the delivery of her fetus.

Daniel is currently enrolled as a doctorate student in law at the University of Toronto (Supervisor: Prof. Bernard Dickens). In his doctorate programme, he intends on exploring the legal and philosophical aspects of the various treatments that are performed on the "newly-dead" persons, such as practicing resuscitation procedures, doing research on dead people, extracting organs and other tissues from the dead for therapeutic purposes, and using the dead for future reproduction. While analyzing these issues, he hopes to focus not only on the family members of the brain-dead patient and their "interests" in the first, but on the legal and moral status of the brain-dead person herself.

Aside from legal and bioethical scholarship, Daniel is familiar with the responsibilities involved in teaching, having served as an examiner, supervisor, and research assistant at the three leading Israeli law faculties and the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. His professional career includes experience as a trainee lawyer under the supervision of the Israeli State Attorney, as well as a legal assistant to a trial judge, to a retired Vice President of the Supreme Court, and most notably as a lawyer in the Supreme Court of Israel.

Daniel's areas of interest are: end-of-life issues (specifically medical treatment on brain-dead patients, brain-death and moral and legal status of dead persons), reproduction (specifically issues related to women's fertility, pregnancy and moral and legal status of embryos gametes and fetuses), law and psychiatry, advance directives and the process of decision-making for incompetent patients. Daniel is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Cambridge UK as a visitor to Cambridge Forum for Legal and Political Philosophy. Daniel recently published his first book: "Management of Post-Mortem Pregnancy: Legal and Philosophical Aspects" (Ahgate).

Michael Thomas
Michael graduated from the University of Otago, New Zealand in 2004 with First Class Honours and was admitted to the New Zealand bar in 2005. Michael is currently an LLM student at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law. He is a recipient of the Canadian Institute for Health Research Training Fellowship in Health Law and Policy.

As a student Michael worked as a law clerk at the Ministry of Health. Following his LLB, Michael practiced at the Office of the Crown Solicitor in Auckland, New Zealand for 2 ½ years. Michael worked in a medico-legal and public liability team and his work included advising health clients and appearing in court on a range of criminal and health related proceedings. In 2005, Michael completed a short secondment to the Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner, which investigates all complaints against medical practitioners in New Zealand.

During the academic year 2007/2008, Michael will be completing many of the health law papers taught at the University of Toronto. He will be completing his thesis on the topic of psychiatrist-patient privilege. Specifically, he will be focusing on the discretion/duty to breach this confidence to protect third parties.

Yola Ventresca
Yola Ventresca, B.A. (Hons.), LL.B. Yola is the recipient of a 2006 Canada Graduate Scholarship (Master's Award) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research council. In addition, Yola is a non-funded CIHR Training Program Fellowship in Health Law and Policy. During the 2006-2007 academic term, she will be enrolled in the LL.M. program at the University of Toronto.

Yola obtained her Bachelor of Laws Degree in 2005 from the Faculty of Law at The University of Western Ontario. Prior to commencing the LL.M., Yola completed her articles of clerkship at Lerners LLP in London, Ontario. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 2006.

Yola’s thesis will examine the development of the doctrine of informed consent in Ontario. In particular, Yola will examine how and why changing conceptions of the physician-patient relationship came to be reflected in the law of consent to treatment.

Michael Waite
Michael Waite, B.A. L.L.B. Michael graduated from the University of Calgary law school in 1998, articled with Bennett Jones LLP and was called to the Bar as a member of the Law Society of Alberta in 1999. As a student and litigation associate at Bennett Jones LLP, Michael worked primarily in the area of health law with a focus on the defence of medical negligence actions and the defence of disciplinary proceedings against physicians. Michael joined Stones Fontaine Carbert in October 2003 and the majority of his practice is now focused on defending the Calgary Health Region and other provincial Health Regions on behalf of the Alberta Provincial Health Authorities Association. Michael also practices in Employment Law as well as general civil and commercial litigation.

Michael has commenced his L.L.M. in Health Law and Policy at the University of Alberta and will be researching and writing in the areas of Medical Error, Patient Safety and Quality Assurance.

Michael is an extremely active member of the Calgary Legal Community. Michael coaches the University of Calgary, Faculty of Law, corporate/securities law moot team. He is a volunteer lawyer at Student Legal Assistance and Calgary Legal Guidance. Michael is the external member of the University of Calgary Faculty of Law Mooting and Debating Committee and is a volunteer judge for various mooting competitions. Michael has been a judge of the Canadian National Phillip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition since 1999. Michael is a member of the Board of Directors of Student Legal Assistance at the University of Calgary and is Chair of the board of directors of the Calgary John Howard Society. Michael is also a member of the Law Society of Alberta, the Canadian Bar Association, the Calgary Bar Association and the Calgary Medical-Legal Association.

Sheila Wildeman
Sheila Wildeman,, BA, MA, LLB. Sheila started as an assistant professor at Dalhousie Law School in July 2004. She articled with the law firm Eberts Symes Street and Corbett in 1999-2000 and was called to the Bar in Ontario in February 2001. She was a Research Associate at the Health Law Institute at Dalhousie in 2001 and entered the SJD program at the University of Toronto in September 2002. Her doctoral thesis explores the normative tensions or broad contests of value implicit in the legal determination of capacity to make treatment decisions in the context of involuntary psychiatric committal.

Anthea Williams
Anthea Williams, BA, LLB. Anthea studied for a BA (Politics) and a LLB (Honours)(1st) at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She was called to the Bar of New Zealand in 2000 and worked for a specialist public law firm before moving to the Crown Law Office, New Zealand Government's legal advisor. Anthea is currently studying for an LLM at the University of Toronto. Her specific academic interest is Potential Government Liability for Accidents in The Health Sector.


Matthew Wong
Matthew Wong, Hon. BSc (Toronto), MSc (Toronto), LLB (Osgoode) is an LLM candidate in the coursework intensive program in Health Law and Policy at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. Matthew’s research interests in the areas of law and bioethics include: Constitutional and ethical rights of patients in the Canadian healthcare system; Access to experimental and off-label drugs as innovative therapies; Interaction between the pharmaceutical industry, patients, and related stakeholders; Medical negligence; the doctor-patient relationship.

Clara Wong
Clara completed her J.D. and LL.B at the University of Toronto and The University of Hong Kong respectively. She also completed a B.A. at the University of Toronto. Clara has written on health issues as they relate to the Canadian and Hong Kong contexts. After graduation, Clara articled at an international law firm in Hong Kong. She is returning to the University of Toronto in 2007 to pursue her LL.M studies. Clara is a recipient of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Training Fellowship in Health Law and Policy. She expects her thesis will involve examination of the relationship between religion/culture and end-of-life healthcare.

Wei Wang
Wei Wang is an LL.M. candidate in the Faculty of Law at the University of Alberta, Canada. Obtaining her Master’s degree in Philosophy at the University of Alberta and Bachelor’s degrees in both Philosophy and Law at Peking University (PKU), one of the best universities in China, Wei has begun to appreciate the multiplicative power of combining these two fields to approach ethical and legal issues arising in the context of biomedical research and health policy. Her primary research interests lie at health law, bioethics, and the intersection of biotechnology and intellectual property. Her LL.M. thesis is intended to examine legal, socio-ethical and policy issues posed by the existing intellectual property protection system—particularly stem cell patenting.

Akorede Yusuff
Akorede Yusuff was called to the Nigerian bar in 1995. He graduated with a Master of Laws,from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile- Ife, Osun State, Nigeria in 1999. He obtained his BL in 1995 and his LLB in 1994. Yusuff recently defended his PhD Thesis with the Title "A Critical Evaluation of the Legal Regime of Computer Related Crimes in Nigeria." He has publications in all areas of his academic interest.

His specializations include: Law and Medicine, Intellectual Property Law and Criminal Law. Akorede will be entering the LLM program at the University of Toronto. His main area of interest will be reproductive technologies and their implications.Before entering into the LL.M. program Akorede lectured at Obafemi Awolowo University.

 
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