CMA Board of Directors

A member of the Jane Finch Family Health Team in Toronto, Dr. Strasberg is the lead physician responsible for submission of budgets to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and development of the corporation's business and operational plan. She has worked closely with the CMA, including as a board member, co-chair of the committee on public/private interface and member of a committee dedicated to health care and education.

Dr. Smart is a pediatrician in Whitehorse, Yukon, and is passionate about improving services for marginalized children in order to change their life trajectory. Her work is centred on developing collaborative partnerships with community and government services to serve children using a model of social pediatrics. She is past president of the Yukon Medical Association.

Dr. Lafontaine practises anesthesia in Grande Prairie and has served in medical leadership positions for almost two decades. He co-led the Indigenous Health Alliance project, helping to successfully advocate for millions in federal funding for Indigenous health transformation and in 2020, launched Safespace Networks, an online platform that empowers marginalized patients to navigate health systems.

For three decades, Dr. Collins ran a full-time family practice in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She has served as president of the New Brunswick Medical Society (NBMS) and spent five years as chair of the NBMS Board of Directors. Prior to serving as CMA president, she spent seven years serving as the New Brunswick representative on the CMA Board of Directors.

Dr. Kozroski is a rural family physician practising in southwest Saskatchewan. She has worked in several provinces and was an active member of the Canadian Forces Health Services reserves for over 20 years. She has served as a Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA) regional delegate since 2006, on the board of directors for eight years and as SMA president in 2013.

Dr. Poole is a rural and remote multidisciplinary general surgeon. He has practised general surgery in the Yukon for 18 years. His background in engineering and rural and remote surgery has fostered an interest in virtual care. He served five years on the board of the Yukon Medical Association, two as president and CEO.

Dr. Howard is an emergency physician in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. She was first author on the 2017 briefing for Canadian policymakers on behalf of the Lancet Countdown on Climate Change and Health and the Canadian Public Health Association. She is president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and sits on the board of directors of the Global Climate and Health Alliance.

Dr. Walton practised in northern Saskatchewan and rural British Columbia before settling as a general practitioner in West Vancouver. For 18 years he was a director of the British Columbia Medical Association (now known as Doctors of BC), where he served on various committees; his roles included being a delegate to 13 General Councils of the CMA.

Dr. Nohr is a community general surgeon in Medicine Hat, Alberta. He co-chaired the development of the Alberta Provincial Medical Staff Bylaws and Rules. Dr. Nohr has also served on the Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, and as speaker and president of the Alberta Medical Association.

Dr. Cram has been a strong advocate for rural medicine. He organized the region’s doctors into the Manitoba Southwest Association of Rural Physicians, then later joined and became president of Doctors Manitoba. Dr. Cram is currently Chair of the Manitoba College of Physicians Westman Standards and the Regional Medical Advisory Committee.

Dr. Forman is a Toronto-based specialist in obstetrics and gynecology and sub-specialist in reproductive endocrinology and infertility. She is the pharmacology lead (clerkship) for U of T’s MD program and is a representative on the University Governing Council. Dr. Forman has been an Ontario Medical Association (OMA) director since 2014 and is a member of the OMA’s Governance and Nominations Committee.

Dr. Shabah is an emergency physician, innovator and public health specialist. He has taken part in numerous humanitarian missions, conducts research in information technology in disaster settings and continues to serve in the International Emergency Response Unit with the Canadian Red Cross. In 2013, Dr. Shabah founded HUMANITAS to generate technological solutions to assist emergency responders and other groups.

Dr. Kennedy is a family physician in Perth-Andover, New Brunswick. He has has served on the board of the New Brunswick Medical Society, as treasurer and chair of the society’s finance committee and as its president (2010–11). He has been active in multiple attempts at primary care reform over the past 10 years, eventually leading to a new provincial delivery model.

Having graduated from Dalhousie Medical School in 1979, Dr. MacDonald first practised rural family medicine in Cape Breton. Since the early 1990s he has been an otolaryngologist, currently located in Amherst, Nova Scotia, and he has done locums in Yellowknife. He has chaired and participated in several committees over the years and is currently on the board of Doctors Nova Scotia.

Dr. Pan is a radiation oncologist and head of Prince Edward Island’s provincial radiation oncology service. He served as president of the Medical Society of Prince Edward Island in 2017–18 and as chair of its board of directors in 2018–19, and has a strong interest in medical professionalism and health system innovation.

Dr. Cashin is a Mi'kmaw physician who has worked in rural Newfoundland since 2009 and is Canada's first Indigenous radiologist and nuclear medicine physician. She is an advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion in medicine and openly discusses these challenges and the systemic barriers to focus attention on changing the culture of medicine.

Dr. Stewart is a PGY-5 emergency medicine resident at UBC and a graduate student in UBC’s Master of Health Administration program. In her work with Resident Doctors of Canada and Resident Doctors of BC, she has advocated extensively on issues related to learner excellence in medical education, training and wellness.

A second-year medical student at the Cumming School of Medicine, Ms. Sivananthajothy serves as vice-president community and global health for the Calgary Medical Students Association and co-chair of the EDI in Curriculum Taskforce. She is a passionate advocate for social justice, healthy public policy and centring the voices and lived experiences of equity-deserving communities.

Ms. Ecker is the former president and CEO of the Toronto Financial Services Alliance, a concept she turned into a growing and influential public–private partnership dedicated to building Toronto as an international financial services centre. During her political career, she served as minister of finance for Ontario, minister of education, minister of community and social services, and government house leader.