SPEAKER BIOS​

We are pleased to welcome the following speakers, panelists and moderators.

Keynote Speaker

Sharon Ramagnano
RN, BScN, MHA, MScN, ENC(C), CCMP

Sharon Ramagnano is the Operations Director- Emergency, Critical Care, & Trauma Program at Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre. Sharon has an extensive background in leadership, education, quality improvement, policy, and performance measurement.  Sharon is a dual masters prepared nurse with a Masters in Science in Nursing and a Masters of Health Administration.  She is also Emergency Nursing Certified and has a practitioner level certification in Change Management.  Sharon has also taught the Emergency Nursing program as well as critical care courses at the college and certificate level as well as at York University in year 3 and 4 of the nursing program.  Sharon has also been an adjunct lecturer at the University of Toronto and is a TNCC and ENPC instructor and instructor trainer for Ontario.  She has served on the National Emergency Nurses Association Board as the Ontario education lead as well as on the ENAO board of directors.

Sharon’s 30 year career includes extensive experience in Emergency Nursing and Trauma, where she worked as a front-line nurse, clinical educator, research nurse, advanced practice nurse, and Trauma Program Manager at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.  Sharon also worked as the Director of Policy Education and Practice at Trillium Gift of Life (TGLN) where she worked on standardization of care, best practices, integration of a transplant hospital coordinator model, the first hand transplant program in Canada, as well as performance improvement for provincial Transplant care. 

In her role as the Trauma Program Manager at Sunnybrook, Sharon led the team in the redevelopment of the P.A.R.T.Y. Program internationally which included development of an Indigenous P.A.R.T.Y. Program with ORNGE, as well as bringing and advancing the first American College of Surgeons STOP THE BLEED® program to Canada.  She also collaborated with external stakeholders including EMS and Police to develop and advance Trauma education as well as patient outcome reporting.  At RVH Sharon has implemented and evaluated many change management and quality improvement processes, and has led the development and implementation of one of the first Level 3 Trauma Programs in Ontario. 

Sharon’s primary areas of expertise and interests include quality improvement, change management, education, staff development/retention and mentoring, program development and evaluation, and performance measurement and improvement. She is most proud of watching her team members succeed and grow, and her family which includes her 3 children and of course her 2 dogs. 

Speakers

Dr. Barbara Haas

Dr. Barbara Haas is a trauma surgeon and critical care physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto and a Scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute. Dr. Haas' research program focuses on trauma and emergency surgery in older adults. Her work aims to optimize long-term outcomes in this patient population, as well as to improve inter-specialty communication regarding these complex patients.
​Isabel Hayward 

Isabel Hayward is the Executive Director of CritiCall Ontario. Isabel has more than 30 years of experience in healthcare, 21 of which have been in  leadership positions. Isabel has a passion for developing people and teams to their full potential, and this has placed her at the helm of many high performing teams within acute care hospitals in Hamilton, Ontario.
 
Prior to joining CritiCall Ontario in 2016, Isabel was the Director of Acute Medicine, Critical Care and Emergency at Hamilton Health Sciences. This included Trauma and Burns, as well as Trillium Gift of Life. Isabel is a graduate of McMaster University’s Bachelor of Science Nursing degree program and holds a Master’s of Health Science from the University of Toronto. 
​Dr. Heather Heipel

Dr. Heather Heipel is a practicing EM physician who splits her time doing community emergency medicine, moving more to a rural focus as well as being one of the Trauma Team Leaders (TTL) at Sunnybrook Hospital. She has done a masters in Education and her focus is on how to maintain clinical competency in practicing physicians as well as the development of clinically relevant policies and guidelines in trauma for practicing physicians. When she is not working, she is out at the farm cuddling with her fur babies or travelling and hiking in beautiful new places. 
Moira Hennebury

Moira Hennebury is the Manager of Emergency Preparedness at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and co-chair of the Ontario Health Toronto Region Health Emergency Preparedness Committee. In 2019, Moira co-led the development of Exercise GTA Unified, which involved 34 participating agencies (including 22 separate hospital sites), making it the largest health-sector-focused mass casualty incident exercise ever conducted in Canada. Moira is an Associate Business Continuity Professional and holds a Master’s of Disaster & Emergency Management from York University and a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo. 
Kassandra Ma

Kassandra Ma is a performance improvement (PI) coordinator for the Tory Trauma Program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, a Level 1 trauma centre. Kassandra has worked as a Registered Nurse with the trauma population for over 4 years. She is passionate about trauma care and committed to providing quality care for patients through interdisciplinary collaboration and partnerships.
​Dr. Nava Maham

Dr. Nava Maham is a critical care physician at St. Michael's Hospital, Unity Health. Dr. Maham has a master's degree in quality improvement and patient safety. Her areas of interest are improving the care of mechanically ventilated patients and quality improvement education.
Dr. Brodie Nolan

Dr. Nolan is an emergency physician and trauma team leader at St. Michael's Hospital and a transport medicine physician for Ornge. He is and Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Nolan's research interests are in trauma, prehospital care, and patient safety. His work focuses on improving timely access to trauma care for injured patients in Ontario and the role of the provincial air ambulance system.
Dr. Dylan Pannell

​Major Dylan Pannell was born and raised in downtown Toronto where he attended Jarvis Collegiate Institute.  He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto and continued on to complete his PhD in Medical Genetics and Molecular Biology at the University of Toronto in 2002. In 2003 he enrolled in the Canadian Forces as an infantry officer and trained as a paratrooper. He later transferred to the Medical Branch as a medical officer and completed his MD at Queen’s University. Dylan then trained in family medicine at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. 

Upon completion of his residency he was posted to 2 Field Ambulance in Petawawa, Ontario and employed as a General Duty Medical Officer for 3rd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment. He deployed to Canadian Force Station ALERT, the northernmost permanently inhabited station and was also the Canadian Forces Task Force Medical Advisor during the G8 Summit.  In 2010 Dylan deployed to Afghanistan on Operation ATHENA as a trauma team leader at the Role 3 Multinational Medical Unit and second-in-command of the Canadian contingent.  During this combat deployment his team was responsible for resuscitating hundreds of critically injured soldiers and Afghans. He was awarded the Chief of the Defense Staff Commendation for his conduct.  Upon his return from Afghanistan he pursued specialist training in General Surgery at the University of Toronto and Fellowship in Trauma at Sunnybrook Hospital. He is now a Trauma Surgeon and Trauma Team Leader at Sunnybrook.  Dylan’s research focus is on Trauma survivorship, combat-related trauma, pre-hospital care in austere environments and disaster medicine.  He has three young daughters who are awesome.  In his free time he enjoys running, hiking, camping and free-style rap battles.
Jayme Paterson

Jayme Paterson is an Emergency Preparedness Specialist with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and co-chair of Sunnybrook’s Code Orange Steering Committee. She holds a Master's of Disaster & Emergency Management from York University, where she completed original research on organizational learning and mass casualty incidents. Before joining Sunnybrook, Jayme worked as a Registered Nurse in the Emergency Department of the Hamilton General Hospital, and has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from McMaster University.
Dr. Claire Richardson
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Dr. Claire Richardson was born in South Africa but grew up in Barrie, Ontario. She obtained her medical degree from the University of Sydney in Australia, where she specialised in Family Medicine and subspecialised in Emergency.  
 
While in Australia she worked in rural and remote communities and has also volunteered in Belize as a primary physician for mobile clinics.  She returned to Canada and received her CCFP with certification in EM while continuing to work in remote and regional areas of Northern Ontario.  

In 2022 she completed her Masters in Tropical Medicine & International Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, specifically focusing on access to care in resource poor settings and Refugee camps.
 
She currently splits her time between Emergency Medicine in Alliston, Surgical Assistance in Barrie as well as providing virtual ER Support to nursing stations in remote Northern Ontario through Meno Ya Win Hospital in Sioux Lookout.  She also does locum work  in Yellowknife, NWT.
 
She is connected to Unity Health as an Instructor for ATLS and ACLS and is particularly passionate about access to care for Trauma patients in rural and remote regions as well as supporting health care workers in resource limited settings.
Dr. Carolyn Snider 
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Dr. Carolyn Snider is an emergency physician and clinician scientist at Unity Health Toronto - St. Michael's Hospital and MAP urban health solutions. Her academic work is centred on the development, implementation and evaluation of interventions for those experiencing disadvantage in the healthcare system - with a focus on hospital-based violence interventions and emergency department interventions for people experiencing homelessness. Dr. Snider has a B.Comm from Queen's, an MD from McMaster, an MPH with a certificate in injury control from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and completed her emergency medicine training at the University of Toronto. 
Brandy Tanenbaum

​Brandy Tanenbaum is a certified Risk Manager and works as the Injury Prevention Program Coordinator in the Tory Trauma Program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ontario. In this role she strives to improve community health by reducing the risk and severity of traumatic injury. Brandy has a degree in kinesiology and health sciences and a master’s degree in public health. You can find her exploring the intersections of injury with the social determinants of health, advocating for progressive prevention strategies, and contributing to research that aims to understand how we can do this work better together. 
Verity Tulloch

Verity Tulloch is the Quality Improvement Specialist for the Trauma program at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. She holds a Certificate in Lean Six Sigma from the University of Toronto and has completed the Canadian Patient Safety Officer Course. Verity spent seven years as a physiotherapist on the St. Mike’s Trauma & Neurosurgery inpatient unit and ICU. In 2022, Verity coordinated the first American College of Surgeons (ACS) consultation visit to St. Michael’s Hospital, which led to the creation of her current role and laid the groundwork for the current QI program. 

Panelists

Trevor Chaput

Trevor Chaput (he/him) is a CNCC(C) certified RN. Trevor completed his BScN at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) in 2008. He is continuing his studies in the MN program at Athabasca University. The willingness of others to share knowledge and experiences has impacted the care he provides as a nurse.  He is committed to continuing this practice for the benefit of others. Currently, he is employed as the Trauma Performance Improvement Coordinator at Lakeridge Health in Oshawa, Ontario. Interests include advanced practice nursing, quality improvement and clinical teaching. He lives in Bowmanville, ON and enjoys spending time with his wife of twelve years and his three sons.
Lynda Foster
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A Registered Nurse (RN), Lynda Foster is currently a Trauma Coordinator at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket. Lynda has more than 16 years’ experience in healthcare, predominantly spent on the frontline in emergency care. She is passionate about the patient experience and continually strives to improve processes within system structures to better provide high quality, human-centred care. Lynda holds an Honours Bachelor’s degree in Nursing and a Master’s degree in Disaster and Emergency Management.
Deanna Gardner

Deanna Gardner is a Decision Support Associate at PRHC in Peterborough since November 2022.  She is a Certified Member in good standing with CHIMA and has worked in the Acute Care setting for 10 years as an HIM Chart Management Specialist. Deanna uses that experience and knowledge as the Trauma Data Analyst for the Level III Trauma Program at PRHC. Recently, Deanna became a first-time part-owner to two horses. She finds that spending time with Amber, and Izzy every day, and listening to e-books when doing the barn chores, allows her to pull away and unwind from the demands of working with trauma data. 
Dr. ​Leeor Sommer

Dr. Leeor Sommer has been practicing emergency medicine at high volume community sites in the Greater Toronto Area for the past 20 years, with the last 11 years at Southlake Regional Health Centre. In December 2022 he was hired as Trauma Medical Director at Southlake.
Dr. Sommer completed his undergraduate and post graduate medical training at the University of Toronto. He has a strong interest in medical education and has been teaching at the undergraduate and post graduate level for the duration of his career. He is passionate about delivering quality medical care, and for quality improvement in the emergency department. 
He continues to court trauma through a passion for rock climbing, cycling and most dangerously, raising 3 children with his talented wife.
Dr. Troy Tebbenham

Dr. Troy Tebbenham is a full time ER physician and Trauma Medical Director at Peterborough Regional Health Centre. After training in orthopaedic surgery, he transferred to the FRCPC Emergency Medicine program and graduated in 2001. While in Ottawa Troy was a researcher with the Ontario Prehospital Advanced Life Support (OPALS) study examining outcomes in traumatic head injury. 
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In 2001, he relocated to Thunder Bay and was an emergency physician, resident coordinator, base hospital physician and trauma team leader for 13 years.
He is excited to be involved the the implementation of a level 3 site in Peterborough and the chance to interact with trauma teams from across Ontario.
Dr. Hilary Whyte

Dr. Hilary Whyte has been a neonatologist at The Hospital for Sick Children since 1984 and Medical Director of the Acute Care Transport Service since 1998. She graduated in 1976 from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, trained in Paediatrics in Dublin, Neonatology in Vancouver and Toronto, and was then appointed to the Neonatology faculty at SickKids. 

She is cross appointed in Paediatric Emergency Medicine and the Department of Critical Care Medicine at SickKids, and holds positions at Sunnybrook and Mount Sinai Hospitals.  She provided leadership to the Follow-up program for high risk infants until 1994 and as such, developed a strong interest in neuro-critical care and outcomes research.  Dr. Whyte’s leadership as medical director of the Transport program at SickKids has resulted in a more integrated program of retrievals for critically ill neonates and children in the Province of Ontario and the SickKids team expansion to include respiratory therapists, transport fellows and an enhanced scope of practice up to the age 18 years.  Dr. Whyte also works with Ornge, the Ontario Air Ambulance Program and CritiCall, the Provincial ‘one number to call’ for advice and transfer, as an Associate Medical Director.

Dr. Whyte is a full Professor of Paediatrics at University of Toronto; her research interests relate to education, transport medicine and neuro-critical care. In particular she is involved in using advanced MRI technology in the preterm and full term baby to assess brain injury and has helped to build a focus on neuro-critical care in the NICU.  Her passion in transport medicine is both clinical and around organizational challenges. 

She has been Medical Director of SickKids International for the past 10 years providing consultations and education on many international projects.  She is very interested in creative and innovative ways to educate and maintain the competencies of interdisciplinary health care professionals involved in the transport service, neonatal intensive care and follow up programs.  

Moderators

Dr. Andrew Beckett

Andrew Beckett CD MD MSc FRCSC FACS is a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Canadian Medical Service and serves as a trauma surgeon and critical care physician serving on multiple military missions overseas. 

His research interests include massive transfusion and resuscitation in the austere setting, combat casualty database management and military simulation training. ​Dr. Beckett is also an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and is the Medical Director of the Trauma Program at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
Dr. Suzanne Beno

Dr. Suzanne Beno is a Paediatric Emergency Medicine Specialist and Medical Co-Director for Trauma at The Hospital for Sick Children.  She is the Chair of the Injury Prevention Committee for the Canadian Paediatric Society and liaison to the Council on Injury Violence Poison Prevention at the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Beno's professional focus is the continuing advancement and improvement of both acute paediatric trauma care and injury prevention.