Ontario Provincial Team
Provincial Team Lead
Souraya Sidani, Toronto Metropolitan University
Souraya Sidani is a Full Professor at the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing and Canada Research Chair in Design and Evaluation of Health Interventions. Her areas of expertise are in quantitative research methods, intervention design and evaluation, and measurement. Souraya’s research interests focus on evaluating interventions and advanced practice roles, on examining patient preferences for treatments, and on refining research methods and measures for determining the clinical effectiveness of interventions.
Provincial Team Co-Lead
Oona St-Amant, Toronto Metropolitan University
Oona St-Amant is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Social Work. His research focuses on the intersections of aging, im/migration, labour, and care experiences of racialized communities in Canada. Ilyan’s work incorporates intersectionality, oral history, and anti-oppressive social work theory and practice.
Toronto Team Lead
Kateryna Metersky, Toronto Metropolitan University
Dr. Kateryna Metersky is an Assistant Professor at the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing at Toronto Metropolitan University. Dr. Metersky also maintains her nursing practice in General Internal Medicine at Toronto Western Hospital. Dr. Metersky’s program of research focuses on: 1) health professions and nursing education; 2) nursing and interprofessional practice; and 3) persons with chronic health and social challenges. Fittingly her research program is focused on integration of her SRC work in pedagogy and practice to promote social justice, health-equity, and local/global community well-being.
Ontario Team
Anna V. Wong
Anna Victoria Wong is a journalist and doctor in speech-language pathology by training, and health executive and community advocate by profession. She spent years in communications in corporate, public, academic, health and social service sectors. Dr. Wong is the executive director of Community Family Services of Ontario (CFSO), which provides East-Asian Ontarians with mental health, newcomer settlement, disabilities and special needs services. Wong and CFSO are known for serving socio-politically oppressed Hongkongers through IRCC’s Hong Kong Pathway.
Ontario Team
Margaret Walton-Roberts
Margaret Walton-Roberts is a professor in the Geography and Environmental studies department at Wilfrid Laurier University, and affiliated to the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo Ontario, Canada. Educated in the UK and Canada, she has published widely in issues related to gender and migration, immigrant settlement in mid-sized cities and global health professional migration. Her current research focuses on the international migration of health care professionals within Asia and from Asia to North America and Europe. She is currently an editor with Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, and Studies in Social Justice. Her most recent edited book is Global Migration, Gender and Health Professional Credentials: Transnational Value Transfers and Losses published by University of Toronto Press in 2022. In 2023 her latest book Global health worker migration: problems and solutions were published with Cambridge University Press under the Elements, unsettling health care series.
Ontario Team
Victor Perez-Amado
Victor Perez-Amado is an Assistant Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University School of Urban and Regional Planning, trained as an architect and urban designer, and graduated from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His academic research is based on aging-in-place studies and multigenerational housing, including in 2SLGBTQI+ communities. Some of these projects include Lathrop Communities in Massachusetts, a masterplan and design for independent and assisted living with a focus on seniors with dementia and autism, and the Boston Home-Harmon Apartments, independent living for seniors with mental disabilities. On another scale of engagement with the city, Perez-Amado is interested in activating public spaces by designing and building equitable and educational installations. His methodology is based on theories of placemaking, where he explores prototyping, visualization, public realm activation and community engagement.
Ontario Team
Raktim Mitra
Raktim Mitra is an Associate Professor in the School of Urban and Regional Planning, at Toronto Metropolitan University and co-director of TransForm – the transportation and land use planning research laboratory at TMU. His research interests focus on Active Living and Healthy Communities. Raktim has published widely on the topics of suburban walkability, transportation accessibility and older adults’ wellbeing.
Community Partners
Rashed Afif, Wesley Urban Ministries, Hamilton
Rashed Afif is an experienced leader, social worker, and long-time newcomer advocate. He is the Director of Newcomers, Residential and Community Services at Wesley Urban Ministries where he oversees several programs, including the Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP), Client Support Services (CSS), Wesley Residential Services, and Wesley Senior Programs. He takes pride in helping provide client-centered, strength-based services to vulnerable populations in his community. Rashed holds a Master of Social Work (MSW) from University of Windsor, and a Diploma in Leadership Development from Morning Star Institute of Leadership. His commitment to community is fuelled by social justice, anti-racism, and anti-oppression practices.
Andrea Austen, Senior Services, City of Toronto
Andrea Austen is the Manager of Seniors Services at the City of Toronto, a role that was established to better integrate city services for seniors including the 83 Toronto Community Housing (TCHC) seniors’ buildings. Andrea has been leading Toronto’s age-inclusive work since 2011 and has a deep understanding of the needs of seniors across the health, social service, community and municipal service systems. Andrea leads the development of the Accountability Framework (approved by City Council in October 2020), to oversee and evaluate a new model of integrating housing and health services for seniors in TCHC’s seniors designated buildings.
Eugenia Canas, Centre for Research on Health Equity and Social Inclusion (CRHESI), London
Corina Carvallo, Skills for Change of Metro Toronto
Andrea Austen is the Manager of Seniors Services at the City of Toronto, a role that was established to better integrate city services for seniors including the 83 Toronto Community Housing (TCHC) seniors’ buildings. Andrea has been leading Toronto’s age-inclusive work since 2011 and has a deep understanding of the needs of seniors across the health, social service, community and municipal service systems. Andrea leads the development of the Accountability Framework (approved by City Council in October 2020), to oversee and evaluate a new model of integrating housing and health services for seniors in TCHC’s seniors designated buildings.
Michelle Dellamora, Age-friendly Network London (AFNL)
Michelle Dellamora is a Manager, Policy & Strategic Issues, in Neighbourhood, Children,and Fire Services with the City of London. She oversees London’s Age Friendly initiative and has supported its network for the past seven years. She continues to enjoy working with its many volunteers and member organizations. Michelle holds a Master’s degree in Health Sciences from Western University.
Samya Hasan, Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA), Toronto
Samya Hasan has been working with the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians since 2015 and is currently the Executive Director. Samya has a Master of Public Policy and has written policy papers on transportation, immigration and race relations, childcare, housing, international development, economic development and innovation, and health care. Prior to working with CASSA, Samya worked at the Affordable Housing Office at the City of Toronto and was a Toronto Urban Fellow for the City of Toronto during which she worked at the Municipal Licensing and Standards division, conducting by-law reviews of business industries in Toronto.
Co-Applicants
Melissa Northwood, McMaster University, Hamilton
Melissa Northwood is an RN and Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at McMaster University. The focus of her research is health-care system integration for older adults with clinical complexity and their caregivers and is informed by her clinical practice as a certified gerontological nurse. Prior to joining McMaster, Melissa held a Canadian Institutes of Health Research-funded health system impact post-doctoral fellowship with the Saint Elizabeth Health Research Centre and the University of Waterloo.
Jenny Ploeg, McMaster University, Hamilton
Jenny Ploeg is Full Professor in the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University. She is Co-Scientific Director of the Aging, Community and Health Research Unit. Her research interests focus on the development, implementation and evaluation of health care services for older adults with multiple chronic conditions and their family caregivers. Jenny has extensive experience in qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods research.
Bharati Sethi, Western University, London
Bharati Sethi is an Associate Professor at Kings College, School of Social Work, Western University. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing at Western University. She utilizes participatory action research and arts-based methods to highlight social determinants of health in immigrants and refugees’ lives as they pertain to issues of social justice. Bharati’s research has earned her several prestigious community and academic awards including the Early Career Researcher Award, Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, Hilary Weston Graduate Scholarship, Ontario Women’s Health Scholar Award, Newcomer Champion Provincial Award, Citizens Award, and a Governor General’s Award.
John Shields, Ryerson University, Toronto
John Shields ia tenured Full Professor with over twenty-five years of university teaching and research experience in the areas of public administration and public policy, Canadian politics, the political economy of labour market and welfare state. John is also a member of the Yeates School of Graduate Studies at Ryerson. John will lead the ICOI Economic Inclusion Research Stream.
Zhixi Zhuang, Ryerson University, Toronto
Zhixi Zhuang is a Registered Professional Planner and an Associate Professor at Ryerson’s School of Urban and Regional Planning. Her passion for city- and community-building has sparked her research interests in topics related to ethnocultural diversity, migration and cities, and ethnic entrepreneurship and placemaking. Her research explores how immigrant and racialized communities have made long-lasting impacts in urban landscapes inscribing places with important cultural, historical, and political meanings. Zhixi’s research addresses the importance of adopting equity-based approaches to engaging immigrant and racialized communities in decision-making.