Amanda Achtman
Amanda Achtman studied political theory in her hometown of Calgary. After making a viral political parody video, she moved to Toronto to do a mix of journalism, crowdfunding, and advocacy in defense of Canadians' fundamental freedoms. Living the alternation between action and contemplation, she then went to Poland to study saints, heroes, and martyrs in a master's program in John Paul II Philosophical Studies at the Catholic University of Lublin. Upon returning to Canada, she served as the senior advisor to a member of parliament working to prevent the expansion of euthanasia to persons living with a disability or mental illness.
Amanda recently spent two years in Rome studying the resurrection of the dead throughout Jewish tradition in a program of Judaic Studies and Jewish-Christian Relations offered by the Pontifical Gregorian University.
Determined to protect human life, Amanda's current priority is preventing euthanasia and encouraging hope through her cultural project, Dying to Meet You. Amanda also works with Canadian Physicians for Life on ethics education and cultural engagement. She is a 2023-2024 NextGEN Fellow at Cardus and a 2023-2024 Krauthammer Fellow at the Tikvah Fund.
Dr. Eloise Ballou
Dr. Eloise Ballou is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, and university lecturer.
She specializes in psychotherapy for creatives. Her private practice in Toronto offers individual psychotherapy to musicians, producers, and other creative professionals. She also offers psychological care to artists and musicians at professional creative retreats and songwriting camps. She teaches psychodynamic psychotherapy to psychiatry residents at the University of Toronto, where she holds an academic appointment as an Adjunct Clinical Lecturer. She also works as a locum physician providing emergency and inpatient psychiatric care to remote communities in northern Ontario and supervises medical trainees at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.
Dr. Mary L. Brandt
Mary L. Brandt, MD, MDiv, serves as Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Surgery, Pediatrics, and Medical Ethics at Baylor College of Medicine in the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy. During her long career as a pediatric surgeon, she cared for the full spectrum of surgical problems in children, with particular expertise in caring for children with biliary atresia, achalasia, necrotizing enterocolitis, and pediatric dialysis access. An established and successful clinical researcher, Dr. Brandt has published more than 245 peer-reviewed publications, including 26 chapters and two books. Dr. Brandt is known nationally and internationally as an educator and mentor and has received numerous teaching and leadership awards. Among her many roles in education, she served as a General Surgery Program Director and Dean of Student Affairs at Baylor College of Medicine. This work led to her growing expertise in belonging and the epidemic of healer distress in our country and worldwide. To better understand and write about these issues, she pursued a Master of Divinity degree, graduating in June 2021 from Iliff School of Theology. As a result, Dr. Brandt speaks and writes regularly on identifying and correcting systemic issues in medicine and the importance of meaning to heal those who heal others. In recognition of her leadership and contributions, in 2023, she was awarded the Ladd Medal, the most prestigious award in American pediatric surgery.
Dr. Filippo Ciantia
Filippo Ciantia, now retired, works as a volunteer with the Banco Farmaceutico Foundation as head of the Project Area and a member of the Observatory on Health Poverty (OPSan) research team. Also, as a volunteer, since April 2021, he has worked as a vaccination doctor in the Anti-Covid Vaccination Campaign at the ASST Sette Laghi (Varese). After graduating with a degree in medicine and surgery from the University of Milan, where he specialized in hygiene, preventive medicine, and tropical diseases, he married Luciana. Together, they left in September 1980 for Uganda, where they worked as doctors until 2009. In Uganda, he worked for the NGOs Cuamm, Avsi, and Unicef, promoting and implementing cooperation projects in collaboration with the Italian government, the United Nations, the European Union, and cooperation agencies such as USAID and DFID. From 2009 to 2016, he was director of the Thematic Clusters project at Expo Milano 2015. From May 2016 to March 2017, he directed the Dr. Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital in Kalongo, Uganda. From June 1, 2017, to January 2021, he was Director General of the Banco Farmaceutico Foundation. He is the author of some books dedicated to his experience in Uganda, published by Itaca, namely "La Montagna del Vento," "Padre Tiboni,” and “Elio Croce.” The book "Il Divino Nascosto" compiles stories published from 2017 to 2020, serving as "mission anecdotes" from the weekly publication "Il Risveglio Popolare."
Emanuela Ciarlelli, BScN, MScN
Emanuela Ciarlelli is the Nurse Manager of the Operating Room at the Jewish General Hospital. She has been in a leadership & management role for 15 years, spending most of her career as the Nurse Manager of the Orthopedic Department. During that time, she put in place many patient-centered initiatives that helped improve & optimize patient care and decrease length of stay. She is currently known for a high recruitment and retention rate throughout the CIUSSS. She is also a guest speaker for 2 BSN courses and one graduate MS(A) stream at the Ingram School of Nursing (ISON), McGill University. She works closely with McGill graduate students and developed Strength-Based Nursing in Healthcare education tools (posters & videos of personal accounts of Strength-Based Nursing and Healthcare, SBNH) for nurses. In addition, she submitted her own personal story of strength to ISON during the second COVID wave. Emanuela was inspired to become a mentor because she would like to help nurses better understand SBNH. During her graduate studies, she had the opportunity to take the SBN course at ISON. During SBNH sessions held at the JGH with Dr. Gottlieb, she gained a better understanding of SBNH and would like to share this knowledge with nurses. She successfully implemented SBNH in the Orthopedic Department and has begun the implementation of SBNH in the Operating Room.
Dr. Dominique Corti
She was born on Nov 17, 1962, in Lacor Hospital (Gulu, Uganda), where she attended the local primary school. In 1972, at the age of 10, because of the destabilization of the situation in Uganda, she was sent to school in Italy. She returned to Uganda once a year for holidays. From 1975 to 1979, she attended Green Acres Secondary School (Limuru, Kenya). She returned home to Lacor Hospital for holidays every three months. She achieved the London O Level “General Certificate of Education Examination” in 1979. In 1979/1980, she returned to Italy, attended the International School of Milan, and took the London A Level “General Certificate of Education Examination” in 1981. She attended the Medical Faculty of the State University of Milan, where she achieved her degree in 1998 cum laude, with a thesis on “Modern thoracoscopic approach to lung cancer: staging and treatment.” During her stay in Italy, she continued to help with logistic support at Lacor Hospital. After her medical degree, she took up full-time activity for the Piero and Lucille Corti Foundation in Milan (Italy), a non-profit organization created by her parents to support “their” Lacor Hospital. Since 2006, she has been a Board Member of the sister foundation Teasdale Corti Foundation in Montreal (Canada).
She is fluent in Acholi, Italian, English and French.
She was awarded “Cavaliere dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana” by the President of the Italian Republic in June 2002; the Paul Harris by the Rotary Club International in March 2004; and the Peace Prize by Regione Lombardia in January 2010. She was a Board Member of IDRC (International Development Research Centre), a Canadian Crown Corporation located in Ottawa, Canada, from 2016 to 2019.
She has a good knowledge of issues regarding developing countries, especially in the health sector. She has been invited to speak of Lacor Hospital and related issues in many meetings and media events.
The support that the two organizations she is responsible for give to Lacor Hospital is focused, since their inception, on budget support. Over 70% of funds are transferred to the hospital for supporting its running costs, thereby anticipating the current SDG indications regarding local ownership of priorities, long term support and local empowerment. This focus on local empowerment ensures that Lacor Hospital can continue to grow and thrive. The support aims at:
Helping the Hospital to keep its fees as low as possible so that a mostly poor or very poor population can pay for their health care needs without facing “catastrophic health care expenditures” (which are among the major causes of falling into poverty in poor countries)
To ensure that women and children, who are the most vulnerable sections of the population, continue to receive the largest share of services provided by the Hospital
To contribute to the institutional strengthening of Lacor Hospital by recognizing its ample operational and decisional autonomy in the achievement of its mission to offer health care for all, including women, children, the poor, and those affected by chronic diseases.
Dr. Cristiano Ferrario
Dr. Ferrario received his MD degree in 2001 and his Specialty Certificate in Medical Oncology in 2005, both from the University of Milan in Italy. After training in Milan (Istituto Nazionale Tumori), Dr Ferrario moved to Montreal (Canada) to work in basic research at the Lady Davis Institute for two years. In 2007 he was awarded the Terry Fox Foundation Post MD Research Fellowship Award and then started on a clinical fellowship program for four years in the Oncology Department of McGill University, training in clinical research in breast cancer, hepatobiliary and prostate cancers. In 2011 he moved back to Italy, where he worked for two years as a medical oncologist at the “IRST” (Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la cura dei Tumori) in Meldola, focusing on breast cancer and on the treatment of refractory testicular cancer with high-dose chemotherapy. In 2012 he accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Oncology Department of McGill University (Montreal) and Medical Oncologist at the Segal Cancer Centre (Jewish General Hospital, Montreal), where he is currently working. In 2012 he was the recipient of the Kate McGarrigle Fellowship Award.
Dr. Ferrario is very involved in the training of McGill Medical Oncology Residents, and he is the Lead of the Competence Committee of the Residency program. In his busy clinics, Dr. Ferrario treats several patients with prostate, bladder, and breast cancers at the Segal Cancer Centre and is particularly dedicated to clinical research. He is the local responsible for more than 20 phase 1-3 clinical trials, offering innovative treatments to patients with advanced cancers. Many of these trials include new immunotherapy strategies and genomics-driven personalized therapies, also integrating ct-NDA screening.
As the local PI for the CCTG study Captur, Dr. Ferrario started the first Molecular Tumor Board in Quebec, which he has been co-leading in biweekly meetings since September 2018.
Bryn Mcnamee-Tweed, CNM, MSN
Bryn McNamee-Tweed was raised in North Carolina before graduating from Dickinson College in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in Global Health. After working as a Community Health Worker at the Mexican Consulate, she went to New York University, earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She then joined Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital/ New York Presbyterian, Columbia University Medical Center, as a Registered Nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. After nearly four years in the NICU, she moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to complete a Masters Degree as an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse, specializing in Nurse Midwifery at the University of Michigan. Bryn graduated and later became licensed as a Certified Nurse Midwife in 2019 before joining a large Obstetrics & Gynecology practice in Morristown, New Jersey. She provided full-scope health care for women of all ages, including prenatal and postpartum care, labor, and delivery. After several years in private practice, Bryn returned to Columbia University in a different capacity as the Clinical Coordinator of the Neonatal Comfort Care Program. Bryn’s diverse academic and work experience adds to the breadth of expertise on the Neonatal Comfort Care team. She is able to use her experience in both maternal and neonatal health to support and counsel patients who are carrying a fetus with a life-limiting diagnosis. Bryn is passionate about the work she gets to do at CUMC. She sees it as a privilege to accompany families through some of the hardest days of their lives while simultaneously helping them create moments of joy and opportunities to celebrate their child, no matter how long they are in the world.
Marina Orsini
Marina Orsini has been part of our cultural landscape for over forty years. Her debut as an actress was marked by her role as Suzie Lambert in the cult series Lance et Compte in the mid-80s. Her career was crowned with several major roles, including Émilie Bordeleau in the highly popular series Les Filles de Caleb in 1991 and Lucille Teasdale in the CTV TV movie Dr Lucille in 2001. Marina can also be seen in the series Urgence, Miséricorde, Shehaweh, 30Vies, and Une Autre Histoire, in which she plays the lead role of a woman with Alzheimer's disease, broadcast by Radio-Canada from 2019 to 2022. In parallel with her acting career, Marina has worked in French, English, and Italian and held the microphone for a decade on Rougefm radio. She co-hosts the successful documentary series Deuxième Chance, hosts her eponymous morning TV show Marina, Le Matin, and for the past four years has hosted the daily 5 Chefs Dans Ma Cuisine on Radio-Canada télé. Recipient of numerous Prix Gémeaux, Artis, Gemini Awards, Festival International de Monte Carlo, Festival International des Programmes Audiovisuel à Cannes, and the Order of Canada in 2013 and the Order of Quebec in 2015.
Nicola Tasca, RN
Nicola Tasca (RN) is a qualified nurse specializing in home supportive and palliative care. With more than a decade of experience, Nicola Tasca is currently a home support nurse at A.N.T. Foundation and a home palliative care nurse at Humana Oncology Association for Luigi Sacco Hospital and Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation in Milan, Italy. In these roles, Nicola Tasca provides comprehensive care for patients with chronic and terminal illnesses, focusing on education, clinical management, protocol application, and empathic support for both patients and caregivers.
Prior to these roles, Nicola Tasca founded and coordinated the company T-CARE, where he managed a range of healthcare services, including COVID-19 health surveillance for individuals and large companies across Europe and home nursing. He also has experience in operating room nursing, having worked in several surgical specialties at Humanitas Hospital in Rozzano and in experimental nursing research at the European Institute of Oncology.
Nicola Tasca holds a bachelor's degree in Nursing from the University of Milan, studied Philosophy and Theology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, and is currently attending a master's degree program in “Management with Coordinating Functions of Health Care Professionals” at Unipegaso Telematic University.
Dr. Hannah Wunsch
Dr. Hannah Wunsch is a Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine, where she works as an intensivist in the Cardiothoracic ICU. An investigator funded by the NIH and Department of Defense, her research focuses on the use of large databases to understand care delivery and long-term outcomes of critically ill patients. She has written for many publications, including Nature, The Globe and Mail, and the Literary Review of Canada. She is the author of the recent book, The Autumn Ghost: How the Battle Against a Polio Epidemic Revolutionized Modern Medical Care.