National Advisory Committee on Sexually Transmitted and Blood-Borne Infections (NAC-STBBI): Membership

Membership

• Voting members
  • Dr. Ian Gemmill (Chair)
  • Dr. Troy Grennan (Vice-chair)
  • Dr. Jared Bullard
  • Dr. William A. Fisher
  • Ms. Jennifer Gratrix
  • Dr. Todd Hatchette
  • Dr. Annie-Claude Labbé
  • Mr. Tim Lau
  • Dr. Gina Ogilvie
  • Dr. Marc Steben
  • Dr. Petra Smyzcek
  • Dr. Mark Yudin
• Ex-officio members
• Executive secretary

The NAC-STBBI consists of fifteen (15) voting members, including a chair and vice-chair. Members are appointed to the committee based on their expertise in one or more of the following areas: infectious disease, sexual health, public health, medical microbiology, obstetrics and gynecology, pharmacology, epidemiology and paediatrics. Members have a responsibility to give their best advice to PHAC with regards to the research, development and updating of STBBI guidelines. When seeking candidates, PHAC will consider a range of backgrounds and expertise.

Dr. Ian Gemmill - Chair

Dr Ian Gemmill is the former Medical Officer of Health for Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington (KFL&A) Public Health (1977-2017). He was the Associate Medical Officer of Health for Ottawa Public Health (1981-1997), and has practised family medicine in Brampton, Ontario. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Medicine at Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario, a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in Public Health & Preventive Medicine, an honorary member of the Canadian Paediatric Society, an Honorary Life Member of the Canadian Public Health Association, and a Fellow of the College of Family Physicians of Canada. Dr Gemmill is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Family Medicine and of Public Health Sciences at Queen's University. Dr Gemmill works at the Sexual Health Clinic for KFL&A.

He is the past chair of the National Advisory Committee on Immunisation (NACI) and was a member for 17 years and continues to serve on its working groups. He is a member of the World Health Organisation's Immunisation Practices Advisory Committee and is the liaison member to its Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety. He has served as chair of Ontario's Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee on Immunisation (2005-2014), and as co-chairs of the Pandemic Vaccine Working Group for the Public Health Agency of Canada (2008- 2010) and of Immunize Canada. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Cancer Institute and the Canadian Public Health Association.

Dr. Troy Grennan - Vice-Chair

Dr. Troy Grennan is currently the Physician Lead for the Provincial HIV/STI Program at the BC Centre for Disease Control, as well as a Clinical Associate Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of British Columbia. Following training in internal medicine, infectious diseases and medical microbiology, he completed a CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network postdoctoral fellowship examining human papillomavirus (HPV) in HIV-positive men who have sex with men (MSM). His research and clinical work currently focuses on HIV and STI prevention, as well as HPV and anal cancer screening, with a particular focus on MSM. He is currently co-PI on the CIHR Team Grant "HPV Screening and Vaccine Evaluation in HIV-Positive MSM", which is examining how best to screen for anal cancer in MSM living with HIV, as well as examining the utility of treatment of anal pre-cancerous lesions (versus observation alone) in preventing progression of these lesions. Dr. Grennan also co-leads two pilot grants on novel syphilis prevention using doxycycline chemoprophylaxis. One is examining the potential feasibility of dual HIV and syphilis PrEP using both tenofovir-emtricitabine, along with doxycycline daily in MSM who are HIV-negative; the other is a randomized, placebo-controlled trial examining the use of doxycycline as syphilis PrEP in MSM living with HIV.

Dr. Jared Bullard

Dr. Jared Bullard is a Pediatric Infectious Diseases specialist and Medical Microbiologist practicing in Winnipeg, Manitoba having received training in HIV Immunology (BSc 2002) and his MD (2004) at the University of Manitoba, and is Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada certified in Pediatrics (2008), Infectious Diseases (2009) and Medical Microbiology (2010).

He is the Associate Medical Director at Cadham Provincial Laboratory, the public health and reference laboratory for Manitoba, since 2010. His expertise includes STBBI testing and testing utilization patterns. He also coordinates HIV point of care testing (POCT) for the province and is the provincial representative to the Canadian Association of HIV Clinical Laboratory Specialists (CACHLS) and the Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network (CPHLN) Syphilis Diagnostics Working Group as well as a member of the numerous provincial STBBI response and steering committees.

In addition, Dr. Bullard is the clinical lead in pediatric HIV and HBV and the management and prevention of congenital STBBIs. He has led in the development of several STBBI hospital and provincial policies. He is the pediatric and laboratory representative to the Manitoba HIV Program and a member of the Canadian Pediatric AIDS/HIV Research Group (CPARG). Dr. Bullard has several publications in journals such as the Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases, Sexually Transmitted Infections, Biomedical Research International, CCDR and AIDS addressing clinical and laboratory aspects of STBBIs. Dr. Jared Bullard was born in Nassau, Bahamas and now calls Winnipeg, Manitoba home.

Dr. William A. Fisher

Dr. William Fisher is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Western University, having spent four decades in the Department of Psychology, cross-appointed to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. His work focuses on understanding and promoting sexual and reproductive health and the education of healthcare professionals in this domain.

Dr. Fisher serves on the National Advisory Committee on Sexually Transmitted and Blood-Borne Infections of the Public Health Agency of Canada, he is contributing author of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada Canadian Contraception Guidelines, former Associate Editor of the Journal of Sexual Medicine and presently on the editorial boards of the Journal of Sex Research, Archives of Sexual Behavior, and Sexual Medicine Reviews.

Dr. Fisher is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and has received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality and the Alfred C. Kinsey Award from the Kinsey Institute, has held a National Health Scientist (AIDS) award from Health Canada, and has been supported by the US National Institutes of Health, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Dr. Fisher has published 250 peer-reviewed papers.

Ms. Jennifer Gratrix

Ms. Gratrix is the Interim Director for the provincial STI program at Alberta Health Services. She began work with the STI program in 1998 and has held various positions including partner notification nurse, clinical team leader, epidemiologist, as well as management positions. Her current responsibilities include strategic planning, implementation, and evaluation of services under the STI program, as well as policy development, and collaboration with multiple stakeholders. Past collaborations included data collection and analysis of PHAC's Track studies on people who inject drugs and street youth. Current collaborations include the national Enhanced Surveillance of Antimicrobial resistance in Gonorrhea and LGV Surveillance among MSM attending Alberta STI Clinics with Alberta Public Laboratories and the National Microbiology Laboratory, and the Alberta HIV PrEP Research and Evaluation Operations Committee. She is a member of the Alberta Sexual Health Network developing the STBBI Operational Action Plan, as well as the Alberta Health Outbreak Investigation Coordinating Committee for syphilis. She has a number of publications on different aspects of notifiable and non-notifiable STI care. Ms. Gratrix holds a Masters in Health Promotion and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Alberta.

Dr. Todd Hatchette

Dr. Hatchette is a Medical Microbiologist and infectious diseases physician and a Professor in the Department of Pathology with a cross-appointments in the Departments of Immunology and Microbiology and Medicine. He is the Chief of Service for the Division of Microbiology, and the co-Director of the Virology and Immunology QEII Health Science Center which provides primary testing for STBBIs in the Central zone and reference testing for BBIs for the rest of the province in Nova Scotia. Locally he is the clinical director for the Queen Elizabeth II Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic and has been an attending physician at the clinic for over 15 years and sits on the Board of the Halifax Sexual Health Center. Dr Hatchette has been a member of a number of national committees related to diagnostic testing including the Canadian Association of HIV Clinical Laboratory Specialists (CACHLS) since 2004. This national group, which is made up of laboratory experts from across Canada has provided guidelines for HIV testing and has provided a forum for collaborative research in HIV diagnostics. Dr. Hatchette is also the President of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease (AMMI), Canada which is the national specialty association that represents physicians, clinical microbiologists and researchers specializing in the fields of medical microbiology and infectious diseases.

Dr. Annie-Claude Labbé

Dr. Annie-Claude Labbé is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of microbiology, infectious disease & immunology at l'Université de Montréal. She works as a consultant in infectious diseases and medical microbiologist at l'Hôpital Maisonneuve Rosemont (CIUSSS de l'Est-de-l'Île-de-Montréal). Dr. Labbé graduated from the Faculty de Medicine at the Université de Sherbrooke in 1993 and did her residency in medical microbiology and adult infectious diseases at l'Université de Montréal. Her post-doctoral training was carried out at the University of Toronto (Dr. Kevin Kain, 1999-2000: Detection of resistance genes in Plasmodium falciparum) and at l'Université Laval (Dr. Michel Alary, 2000-2002: Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections in sex workers in Benin and Ghana). She received her diploma in Epidemiology: Principles and Practice from the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 2003.

Dr. Labbé is a member of advisory committees at the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ), Direction des risques biologiques et de la santé au travail, in the areas of sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBI), where she was Chair of the Comité sur les analyses de laboratoire en lien avec les ITSS (CALI) from 2010 to 2018. She is also regularly consulted by the Institut national d'excellence en santé et services sociaux (INESSS) for the development and updating of optimal use guides and medical protocols related to STBBI. She has been a member of the Public Health Agency of Canada's Canadian STBBI Guidelines Expert Panel since 2013.

Mr. Tim Lau

Mr. Tim Lau works as a Clinical Supervisor and Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in Infectious Diseases/Antimicrobial Stewardship at the Vancouver General Hospital and is the Pharmacy Lead for ASPIRES (the Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme) at Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), where he is involved in numerous initiatives to promote rational antimicrobial prescribing based on best clinical practices. He graduated with a BSc (Pharm) and PharmD at The University of British Columbia (UBC), and completed a Pharmacy Residency at the Fraser Health Authority. He is a member of the Provincial Antimicrobial Stewardship Clinical Expert Working Group with the BC Ministry of Health, and the Antimicrobial Stewardship and Resistance Committee with the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada. Tim is a Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Associate Member in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine at UBC. His main research interests have been focused on antimicrobial stewardship and clinical practice-based systematic reviews.

Dr. Gina Ogilvie

Gina Ogilvie, MD MSc FCFP DrPH, is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Global Control of HPV related diseases and prevention, and Professor at the University of British Columbia in the School of Population and Public Health. She is also Senior Public Health Scientist at BC Centre for Disease Control and Senior Research Advisor at the BC Women's Hospital and Health Centre. She was previously Medical Director of Clinical Prevention Services at BC Centre for Disease Control where she provided both operational and scientific leadership to an integrated public health unit with over 100 staff. This unit focuses on providing public health leadership and service in STIs, HIV, Hepatitis and Tuberculosis provincially, nationally and globally. Her research is focused on both the public health and clinical aspects of reproductive health, sexually transmitted infections, HPV screening and the HPV vaccine, and her findings have been highly influential in setting and directing health policy both in Canada and globally. Among other research projects, she is principal investigator for the ASPIRE program, a global health initiative conducting research and providing women-centred, innovative solutions for cervical cancer prevention and reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa. She also leads HPV FOCAL, which is a randomized trial of over 25,000 women comparing primary screening for cervical cancer, and QUEST, a pragmatic randomized trial defining the effectiveness of reduced dosing of the HPV vaccine.

Dr. Ogilvie received her MD from McMaster University, and completed a specialty in Family Medicine and a fellowship in Population Health and Primary care. She received her Master of Science at UBC, and her Doctorate in Public Health from the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. Dr. Ogilvie is the recipient of several honors, including YWCA Woman of Distinction (2018); President's Award, Children and women's Health Centre of BC (2018); Options for Sexual health Sexual Health Champion of the Year (2018); Provincial Health Officer's Award for Excellence in Public health (2015); Researcher of the Year, College of Family Physicians of Canada (2014); YWCA Women of Distinction Nominee (2014); Distinguished Achievement in Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia (2014) She is the recipient of the CIHR 'Foundation Grant' awards, given to leading scholars to pursue 7 years of research in a field.

Dr. Petra Smyczek

Dr. Petra Smyczek is the Provincial Medical Director for STI in Alberta, a Medical Officer of Health for Alberta Health Services, and Medical Director of the STI clinic in Edmonton.

Her undergraduate medical training was taken at the Johannes Gutenberg University School of Medicine (Germany) and the West Virginia University in Morgantown (USA). She received her MD in 1999 and completed residency training in Internal Medicine in Germany in 2006. This was followed by a residency in Medical Microbiology at the University of Alberta completed in 2013. She provides clinical expertise and support to physicians across Alberta and contributes to strategies and methods for STI prevention, control and treatment. She has been a major contributor to the provincial STI/HIV guidelines and is actively involved in STBBI research. Since 2013, she is a member of the National Enhanced Surveillance of Antimicrobial-Resistant Gonorrhea (ESAG) Working Group for the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Dr. Marc Steben

Dr. Steben is a family physician with training in sexual health and public health. His research and clinicial interests focuses on chronic genital diseases including HPV and HSV. He is a professor at the Social and Preventive Medicine department at the School of public health, Université de Montréal. He does his clinical practice at the La Cité du parc Lafontaine Family Medicine Group and is devoted to multidisciplinary approach to sexual health.

He is a member of the Canadian STI guidelines expert group. He has chaired the 26th International papillomavirus society meeting as well as the first Public health workshop and the Clinical workshop. He is Chair of the Canadian network on HPV prevention at the International Centre for Infectious Diseases. He is on the board of International papillomavirus society and American STD association. Until recently he was on the board of the International Society for the Study of Vulvo-vaginal Disease. He is a founding member of HPV Global Action and IUSTI Canada, a branch of the International Union against STI-North America. He is associate editor of the Journal of lower genital tract disease journal as well as the Journal of obstetrics and gynecology of Canada.

Dr. Mark Yudin

Dr. Mark Yudin is currently a Professor at the University of Toronto and an Active Staff Physician in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at St. Michael's Hospital. He received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Ontario and his medical degree from the University of Toronto. He completed his residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Toronto. He then completed a two-year combined clinical and research fellowship in Reproductive Infectious Diseases at Magee-Womens Hospital and the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, PA. He also received a Masters Degree in Clinical Research from the Graduate School of Public Health and the University of Pittsburgh.

He started on active staff at St. Michael's Hospital in 2003, and his clinical and research interests include general obstetrics and gynecology, colposcopy, and infectious diseases in women. He co-founded the Positive Pregnancy Program, a comprehensive and multidisciplinary program for the care of HIV-positive pregnant women, in 2006.

He is the past Chair of the Infectious Diseases Committee of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC), a position he held for 10 years, and the Director of Clinical Research for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Toronto. He has lectured and published in the area of infectious diseases in women.

Ex-Officio Members

Dr. Irene Martin

Streptococcus and STI Unit, Bacteriology and Enterics Division, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, MB

Dr. Ibrahim Khan

Regional Medical Health Officer, Manager Health Surveillance, First Nations Inuit Health Branch-Sask Region, Indigenous Services Canada, Regina, SK

Executive Secretary

Annie Fleurant

Manager, STBBI Guidelines for Health Professionals, Centre for Communicable Diseases and Infection Control, Public Health Agency of Canada.