2021 Award Recipients

Dr. Zelek’s passion for family medicine is guided by the opportunities, joys and relationships of the rural and remote clinical/generalist experience. Practising in Marathon for 20 years, she is highly respected for the breadth of her rural clinical experience and her expertise in solving diagnostic challenges. She provides care from cradle to grave—from resuscitating and supporting a child born unexpectedly at 27 weeks, to supporting a patient virtually as he chose to die at home with his family around him.

Dr. Zelek is a clinical teacher, mentor and researcher in academic medicine at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, where she is Clinical Sciences Division head. As a community-based researcher, Dr. Zelek co-created a practice-based research network (NORTHH) that collates de-identified primary healthcare electronic medical record data for use in practice-based quality improvement and community-based research.

A longstanding volunteer, Barb has managed a minor hockey team, built community gardens, given skate ski lessons, and hosted dinners and events to support physician recruitment in Marathon. Central to her community service is her quiet, diplomatic advocacy grounded in community relationships. She is a proud mom to two amazing teens and wife to an incredibly supportive husband.

As a family physician providing comprehensive care, Dr. Lyons’ roles are numerous and diverse, from intrapartum obstetrics to palliative care. She is director of Family Medicine Obstetrics for the Citywide Department of Family Medicine at London Health Sciences Centre. She is also an addiction medicine specialist and a valued consultant on addiction in pregnancy. She is actively involved in hospital and community programs that support and treat people who are experiencing harms from drug use.

At St. Joseph’s Family Medical Centre, Dr. Lyons is an academic physician and team lead. She is an associate professor and full-time faculty member at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University, supervising, teaching and mentoring medical students and residents. She is active in research and presents regularly at conferences on pregnancy complicated by psychosocial risks, mental illness and addictions.

Outside work, Laura stays active cycling, swimming and skiing. She is a voracious reader and cherishes family Sunday dinners with her three children and her husband, John.

After completing her rural residency program in Sudbury in 2002, Dr. Gower locumed throughout rural Ontario before starting her comprehensive family practice in Elora/ Fergus in 2009. She provides cradle-to-grave office care, obstetrics, in-patient care and palliative care.

Dr. Gower has held numerous leadership positions, most recently spearheading a new hospitalist program for unattached patients at Groves Memorial Community Hospital, the new Hospice Wellington, and the development of the Rural Wellington Ontario Health Team. She recently completed a Master’s degree in epidemiology of pregnancy after stillbirth and rural CME at the University of Guelph and is the chair of the Maternal and Newborn Committee for the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada. She is an associate clinical professor with the McMaster Department of Family Medicine.

She is a tireless advocate for all levels of health care from individual patients to the complex system. Sarah’s husband and three children keep her sane and make sure she spends as much time outdoors as possible.

Dr. Pencharz has been practising comprehensive family medicine at the Credit Valley Family Health Team since 2009. An experienced physician leader with a passion for team-based primary care, he has presented at conferences on interprofessional care models and quality improvement methodology in primary care.

Dr. Pencharz has been involved with regional efforts for increased collaboration in primary care and between primary care and other sectors (e.g., home care, community care, acute care). He is a founding member of the Mississauga Ontario Health Team and, during the COVID-19 pandemic, became co-lead of the Primary Care COVID Response for the OHT. He was co-lead of the North West Mississauga Health Link and served as the clinical lead, North West Mississauga (2017–19).

Dr. Pencharz is a dedicated educator in the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine and has taught medical students and residents throughout his career. He was the site program director for the Credit Valley Hospital Family Medicine Residency program (2009–14). James’s most important role is as a father to his children, Leila and Oliver, and husband to his wife, Farah.

Dr. Rubenstein attended the University of Toronto for medical school and residency. After working in rural Kenya, he joined Mount Sinai Hospital as a staff physician. He has served a large cohort of patients and taught and mentored medical students and residents for 42 years. His administrative positions at Mount Sinai have included residency director and eight years as chief of Family Medicine.

Dr. Rubenstein’s impact on family medicine has touched patients and educators internationally. He is the senior author of Medical Teaching in Ambulatory Care, a guide for doctors who bring learners into their offices, available in four languages. Dr. Rubenstein has been a visiting scholar at medical education centres in Indonesia, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Australia. He continues his scholarly influence on family medicine in the Office of Education Scholarship at U of T’s Department of Family and Community Medicine, where he recently received a Long Service Award.

Warren is married to Susan Devins, an art historian and educator. Together with their son, a psychiatry resident, they share a devotion to Toronto sports teams and hiking through the city’s ravines and parkland.

Dr. McIntosh has worked as a family physician in Orillia since her second year of residency in 2001. She is a physician and board member with the Couchiching Family Health Team and has a busy clinical practice providing comprehensive care at Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital (OSMH) and in the community.

Dr. McIntosh is the physician lead at the Couchiching Ontario Health Team (COHT) and chairs several COHT working groups, including the Social Determinants of Health and the Primary Care Council. She has served as the OSMH Family Medicine Department Chief and the North Simcoe Muskoka LHIN Couchiching sub-region lead and is an OSMH Program Medical Director. She has several faculty appointments and enjoys teaching.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. McIntosh has dug in alongside her colleagues and community partners to address population needs – from testing to treating to vaccinating. She will continue to advocate for integrated high-quality care for patients and positive experiences for providers. Thanks to the love and devotion of her husband, two children, and a black labrador, Kim gratefully enjoys life to the fullest, hiking, singing and restoring to continue caring.

Dr. Eyre is a bilingual family doctor at Centretown Community Health Centre in Ottawa. Working in team-based community health care for over 30 years, she focuses on frail, homebound elderly patients and new Canadians in her full-scope practice. She is also involved in multidisciplinary research addressing access issues for vulnerable populations.

Dr. Eyre is an associate professor at the University of Ottawa in the Faculty of Medicine. She was the Postgraduate Program Director (2011–17) and the IMG Director (2006–11). She is actively involved in shaping a better healthcare system as co-lead of the Champlain Community of Family Practice, as a steering committee member for Kids Come First, and through her involvement with the Ottawa Ontario Health Team. She has also worked with the Red Cross in Sri Lanka and Haiti doing disaster relief.

Alison is a mother of three, newly a grandmother and consciously adding more farming and fibre arts to her life.

Dr. Teper graduated from medical school at the University of Ottawa in 1992. After training as one of the last rotating interns at Scarborough General Hospital, he began his career in comprehensive primary care doing family and emergency medicine before moving his practice to Brampton and Peel Memorial Hospital.

Advocating for his patients, and as coroner for Peel Region, Dr. Teper became interested in health system issues. He is the lead physician at Queen Square Doctors, Board chair at Queen Square Family Health Team and chair of the Community Medical Advisory Committee of the Brampton/Etobicoke and Area Ontario Health Team (now called Central West OHT). Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, he became interim site chief of Family Medicine at William Osler Health System and led many aspects of his community’s COVID response.

Dr. Teper feels lucky to work with so many dedicated people from all areas of health care and hopes to continue improving the system, keeping patients and frontline providers at the centre of its transformation. Shane enjoys spending time with his family and casting a flyrod, but doesn’t fish.

Dr. Vairavanathan works in the emergency department and in labour and delivery at Michael Garron Hospital (MGH) and provides primary care, including low-risk obstetric prenatal care at Flemingdon Health Centre. She teaches University of Toronto residents and medical students at both sites. She is the family medicine residency site director for Flemingdon and the director of the family medicine residency simulation program at MGH.

Dr. Vairavanathan teaches basic, advanced cardiovascular, and pediatric advanced life support to her family medicine and specialty colleagues. She works with the Supplemental Emergency Medicine Experience program to help family physicians gain confidence in working in the emergency department. She also teaches international medical graduates preparing for their residency programs.

Dr. Vairavanathan enjoys providing continuity of care for her patients and working with community members and allied health professionals. Her interests include pediatrics, obstetrics, emergency medicine and simulation-based teaching. A dedicated mother of four, Rajani values her time with family and friends and enjoys hiking, watching Netflix and reading.

Dr. Lam graduated from medical school at the University of Toronto in 2010 and completed her family medicine residency at the University of Ottawa in 2012. She was a locum for many family practices and has worked as a staff physician at Markham Stouffville Hospital doing in-patient rehabilitation and palliative care and assisting in the operating room.

With a keen interest in palliative medicine, Dr. Lam co-founded the Evergreen Palliative Care Physician Team in 2013 and has been the lead physician for the home palliative care program serving patients in Markham and Stouffville. She is also a family physician with Markham Medical Centre. In 2020, she was elected chair of the Primary Care Association – Eastern York Region North Durham Ontario Health Team. Dr. Lam is also a lecturer with the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Emilie is the proud mother of two daughters, aged four and seven, and is an avid mountain biker.

Dr. Siou is completing her second year of residency with an integrated fellowship in the care of the elderly at the University of Toronto. She enjoys working in interprofessional teams aiming to keep aging populations healthy and active in their homes. She received the Susan J. Wagner Award for student leadership for her dedication to interprofessional care during medical school.

Dr. Siou continues collaborative quality improvement (QI) work with the North Toronto Ontario Health Team, developing ways to better identify and improve healthcare access for more complex, higher-risk patients. She has a Master’s degree in system leadership and innovation and was elected to lead a diabetes equity QI project at Sunnybrook Academic Family Health Team to reduce inequity in diabetes monitoring between socioeconomic groups.

Inspired by the family doctors she has worked with professionally and personally, Dr. Siou is committed to setting high standards of primary care for her patients both individually and across the health system.

Ms. Lotsios is a fourth-year student at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM). She grew up in Ignace, a community of around 1,200 people along the Trans- Canada Highway. She attended Ignace School, part of the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board, from junior kindergarten to Grade 12 and was among eight graduating peers. She completed the Honours Bachelor of Kinesiology Program as the entering Presidential Scholar at Lakehead University.

Ms. Lotsios has a passion for rural health and family medicine. She completed her comprehensive longitudinal community placement in Sioux Lookout. Her interests include preventive health care, advocacy and addiction medicine. At NOSM, she has been a representative on, and president of the CFPC’s Family Medicine Interest Group and is the first student member of the CFPC’s Social Accountability Working Group.

Felicia enjoys giving back to her community, whether it be mentoring youth, promoting community health, performing at a local charity concert or coaching skating.

As a child, Dr. Rosenkrantz dreamed of being a doctor. Her passion for obstetrics started in her first month at McMaster University, when she saw a baby being born. She became a “country” doctor 40 years ago when she joined a husband-and-wife team in Carp, which has since grown into the 13-physician West Carleton Family Health Team.

An active staff member at Queensway Carleton Hospital, Dr. Rosenkrantz is one of just a few female mohels in Canada. For Dr. Rosenkrantz, celebrating the birth of babies to parents who she also delivered really puts the “family” in family medicine.

For 10 years, Dr. Rosenkrantz has been the drummer for the Draggin’ Docs, a team of 26 women physicians who paddle a dragon boat to raise money for the Ottawa community. Alicia is grateful for the unwavering support of her husband of 45 years, the constant teasing of her three adult sons, and the love and laughter of her four grandchildren.

Dr. Josée Adam and Dr. Shoshanah Deaton (Rockland) are recognized for their work and commitment in leading Rockland through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As co-leaders of the Clarence-Rockland Family Health Team Pandemic Planning Committee, they transformed their clinic, including the rapid creation of a local testing and assessment centre, to safely serve patients in their rural community and eliminate the need for patients to travel to Ottawa for care.

Dr. Sharon Bal (Cambridge) is recognized for her person-centred approach in the design and implementation of Cambridge-North Dumfries Ontario Health Team, developing strong partnerships across various sectors to successfully create the integrated healthcare team. Dr. Bal is also recognized for her advocacy for quality care for people who experience structural vulnerabilities, including working with community groups to tackle COVID-19 outbreaks in shelters, collaborating with Indigenous communities to create pop-up testing clinics and combating vaccine hesitancy in South Asian populations.

Dr. Andrea Chittle (Guelph) is recognized for her commitment to ensuring continuity of care and access to medical services during the pandemic for underserved populations experiencing structural vulnerabilities. Dr. Chittle spearheaded multiple patient-centred interventions to improve the quality and success of the region’s pandemic response—from working at the local COVID-19 assessment and vaccination clinics, to developing accessible COVID patient materials, to ensuring continued access to sexual and reproductive health services.

Dr. Ali Damji (Mississauga) is recognized for sharing his expertise in quality improvement and systems and for developing innovative initiatives that have supported the Credit Valley community, including webinars and free modules to improve virtual care and support vaccination learning. Dr. Damji is also recognized for his work as physician lead for Trillium Health Partners Assessment Centres and clinical lead for the mass vaccination centres, as part of the local COVID-19 response.

Dr. Sohal Goyal (Mississauga) is recognized for leading the Mississauga Halton Primary Care Network and for engaging in numerous local activities to build physician engagement and inclusion, which has led to a tremendous renewal of the primary care community in the region. His efforts in advocating for frontline family physicians have improved collaboration between primary care and key system partners such as acute care, public health and local OHTs. The Network is now seen as a model that many other regions are considering implementing in their communities.

Dr. Allan Grill (Markham) is recognized for his local, regional, provincial and national leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes his work helping to manage COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care and other congregate settings as well as his involvement in pandemic planning for the Eastern York Region North Durham Ontario Health Team and the Ontario Health Central Region Primary Care Council. Dr. Grill is also recognized for his role in developing and broadly disseminating Choosing Wisely Canada’s “The Cold Standard: How to Care for Ambulatory Patients with Respiratory Tract Infections: A Toolkit for Using Antibiotics Wisely in the Era of COVID-19 and Virtual Care.”

Dr. Jennifer Jing Wah Kwan (Burlington) is recognized for her leadership and commitment to communicating accessible health information in a transparent and understandable way during the COVID-19 pandemic, sparking increased public awareness and important healthcare discussions. Dr. Kwan is also recognized for her advocacy, early in the pandemic, to secure PPE for frontline workers and in support of mask mandates in high-risk settings.

Dr. Elaine Ma (Kingston) is recognized for her exceptional leadership in Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington public health efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the primary care lead for the region’s assessment centre and vaccination clinics, Dr. Ma’s involvement and dedication are credited with helping to keep case numbers low and testing and vaccination rates high, as well as lessening impacts of the pandemic on the emergency departments of local hospitals.

Dr. Louisa Marion-Bellemare and Dr. Julie Samson (Timmins) are recognized for their ground-breaking work to ensure accessible, appropriate and equitable care for people experiencing structural vulnerabilities and living with addiction in Timmins and elsewhere in Northern Ontario. Through their leadership, advocacy and tireless efforts, they challenged community and regional partners to foster collaboration and accountability. They applied scientific evidence and the new standard of care for withdrawal management to bring new perspectives and approaches to education for local physicians and healthcare providers.

Dr. Kristianna Martiniuk (Oakville) is recognized for championing the value and involvement of family physicians in the creation of a strong Connected Care Halton Ontario Health Team (OHT). As the OHT’s co-chair, she is a passionate advocate for system improvement and for improved patient and provider experiences in our healthcare system. Dr. Martiniuk is also recognized for co-founding the Halton Physician Association to strengthen collegiality in her local medical community and to support the ongoing integration of care.

Dr. Vanessa Redditt (Toronto) is recognized for improving the care and wellbeing of people who experience structural vulnerabilities, particularly refugee patients. Her work includes research characterizing the health status of newly arrived refugees, with a goal of enhancing systems of care responsive to their health and social needs. She is also active in education initiatives focused on improving refugee health, ranging from developing resources for patients to innovating community-based learning experiences for medical students. As a result of her efforts, Dr. Redditt has become a leader and mentor for clinicians and community workers in her community.

Dr. Karim Vellani (Toronto) is recognized for pioneering a cost-effective home visit service that has improved access to care for frail elderly and homebound patients. Dr. Vellani is also recognized for working closely with the Toronto Islands community, which has historically had poor access to care. With this service, Dr. Vellani was able to maintain home visits to Island residents during the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling access to in-person care when needed.