• Keynote Speakers
• Invited Speakers
• Special Invitees
• Concurrent Plenary Speakers

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Peter Barth Polatin MD, MPH

Clinical Faculty, Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma
Cambridge, MA
Volunteer Consultant in Refugee Mental Health
International Rescue Committee
Dallas, TX

PETER B. POLATIN, MD, MPH, is a past Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Global Mental Health at the George Washington University School of Medicine and was the senior health advisor for the DIGNITY Institute Against Torture, located in Copenhagen, Denmark until then end of 2015. He has prior specialization in community and disaster mental health, pain management, clinical outcomes research, and addictionology.

From 2007 to 2010, he functioned as a Health Program Manager for DIGNITY, working with partner NGOs in the developing world to construct, implement, and evaluate psychosocial and medical interventions to assist in the identification, assessment, and treatment of survivors of torture. Previously, he was an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Anesthesiology and Pain Management at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, and the disaster mental health consultant to Dallas County. He helped to coordinate the community mental health response in North Texas for evacuees from Hurricane Katrina in 2005-6, for which he received several prestigious awards.

He has recently returned to Dallas, where he is practicing pain medicine and trying to develop a public sector interagency consortium to service the large number of unaccompanied refugee minors in North Texas. He also serves as a consultant to the Dallas branch of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) for refugee mental health and provides national and international consultation on issues of emotional traumatology and refugee health. He has authored, co-authored, or edited over 60 chapters and peer review articles and one book.

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Martin Cetron MD

Director
Division of Global Migration and Quarantine
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, GA

Dr. Martin Cetron is currently the Director for the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine (DGMQ) at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The DGMQ mission is to prevent introduction and spread of infectious diseases in the U.S. and to prevent morbidity and mortality among immigrants, refugees, migrant workers, and international travelers. Dr. Cetron’s program is responsible for providing medical screening and disease prevention programs to 1.2M immigrants and 80,000 refugees prior to U.S. resettlement each year. Dr. Cetron has authored or co-authored more than 175 publications and received numerous awards for his work including: 2009 Public Health Hero Award by Research America; 2010 Dean’s Award by the Tufts Medical Alumni Association for Distinguished Contributions to Medicine; 2014 Dartmouth College Lester B. Granger Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the Martin Luther King Awards for a lifetime of work dedicated to social justice and combating health disparities; 2014 Harvard National Preparedness Leadership Institute’s Meta-Leader of Year Award- Ebola Response.

Dr. Cetron holds faculty appointments in the Division of Infectious Disease at the Emory University School of Medicine and the Department of Epidemiology at Rollins School of Public Health. His primary research interests are global health and migration with a focus on health disparities, emerging infections, tropical diseases, and vaccine-preventable diseases particularly in mobile populations. Dr. Cetron teaches and lectures worldwide and is frequently quoted in the media. Dr. Cetron served on the 2016 United States Olympics Committee and has functioned as an expert on several intergovernmental and international committees. He is a graduate and adviser to the National Preparedness Leadership Institute at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Kennedy School Gov.

Dr. Cetron has worked at the CDC since 1992 where he has led several domestic and international outbreak investigations, conducted epidemiologic research, and been involved in domestic and international emergency responses. He has played a leadership role in CDC responses to intentional and naturally-acquired emerging infectious disease outbreaks including the Anthrax Bioterrorism (2001), Global SARS epidemic (2003), U.S. Monkeypox Outbreak (2003), Pandemic Influenza H1N1 (2009), Haiti Earthquake and Cholera (2010), Japan Tsunami and Radiation Response(2011), and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Coronavirus Response (2013), Unaccompanied Children Central America (2014), Ebola Response (2014) & Zika Virus (2015).

Dr. Cetron is part of the CDC Pandemic Influenza Planning and Preparedness Team. He leads CDC’s all hazard preparedness for international border responses and community mitigation strategies. Dr. Cetron is also part of the WHO Influenza Pandemic Task Force, WHO Director General’s International Health Regulations Emergency Committee of Experts for Influenza, MERS Coronavirus, & Ebola. He also was elected in 2016 for a fellowship with IDSA (Infectious Diseases Society of America) & ASTMH (American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene).

Dr. Cetron received his B.A. in Biochemistry summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1981 and his M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine in 1985. He trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia (1985-88) and Infectious Diseases at the University of Washington (1989-92) before joining the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service and becoming a Commissioned Officer in the U.S. Public Health Service (1992-present).

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Jordan Jay Feld MD, MPH, FRCPC

Gastroenterologist & Associate Professor of Medicine
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Dr. Feld graduated from medical school at the University of Toronto in 1997 and then completed residency programs in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. Following his clinical training, Dr. Feld focused on developing skills in clinical and laboratory research in liver disease, with a particular interest in viral hepatitis. He completed a clinical research fellowship in hepatology and then spent 4 years doing clinical and laboratory research in the Liver Diseases Branch of the National Institutes of Health. He received a Masters of Public Health with a focus on Infectious Diseases as a Sommer Scholar from Johns Hopkins University and has worked extensively abroad, maintaining a strong interest in International Health. Currently, Dr. Feld is clinician-scientist based at the Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Centre for Liver Disease and the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health.

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Brian Gushulak MD

Migration Health Consultants, Inc.
Vancouver, BC

Originally from the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, Dr. Gushulak completed undergraduate and medical studies in that province interspersed with graduate studies at the University of Western Ontario. Joining the Immigration Medical Services of the Federal Government in the early 1980’s his career has focused on international health and migration both in Canada and abroad. He has held positions in the federal health and immigration departments. He was closely involved in the initial planning for the revision of the International Health Regulations. From 1996 to 2001 he worked in the international sector as the Director of Migration Health Services of the International Organization for Migration in Geneva. During that time he was involved in refugee and complex humanitarian emergencies in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Asia and Africa.

From 2001 until 2004 he was the Director General of the newly created Medical Services Branch in the Canadian Department of Citizenship and Immigration. Since then he has been engaged in research and consulting in the area of health and population mobility.

His research interests include migration health and population mobility, international disease control and the history of quarantine practices.

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Michael Mackinnon

Senior Director of Migration Health Policy and Partnerships, Migration Health Branch – Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
Toronto, ON

Hailing originally from Northern Ontario, Michael moved to Ottawa to pursue his studies in the social sciences and completed a Masters of Arts in Soviet and East European Studies, and a Master of Arts in Public Administration. He joined the federal government in 1997, and has worked in a range of departments, most recently in the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Privy Council Office. In September 2014, Michael joined Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) as the Senior Director of Migration Health Policy and Partnerships. In this role he directs the development of policy options, research and relationships in support of IRCC’s Migration Health Branch.

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Alex Neve

Secretary General
Amnesty International Canada

Alex Neve believes in a world in which the human rights of all people are protected. He has been a member of Amnesty International since 1985 and has served as Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English Branch since 2000. In that role he has carried out numerous human rights research missions throughout Africa and Latin America, and closer to home to such locations as Grassy Narrows First Nation in NW Ontario and to Guantánamo Bay. He speaks to audiences across the country about a wide range of human rights issues, appears regularly before parliamentary committees and UN bodies, and is a frequent commentator in the media. Alex is a lawyer, with an LLB from Dalhousie University and a Masters Degree in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex. He has served as a member of the Immigration and Refugee Board, taught at Osgoode Hall Law School and the University of Ottawa, been affiliated with York University’s Centre for Refugee Studies, and worked as a refugee lawyer in private practice and in a community legal aid clinic. He is on the Board of Directors of Partnership Africa Canada, the Canadian Centre for International Justice and the Centre for Law and Democracy. Alex has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Trudeau Foundation Mentor and has received honorary Doctorate of Laws degrees from the University of Waterloo and the University of New Brunswick.

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Susan Ormiston

Susan Ormiston: Senior Correspondent CBC News reports, writes and broadcasts on international and domestic issues. She’s reported from Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South America, often in conflict zones where she tells stories of people living with, or displaced by war. Between November and December 2015, Ormiston reported from Lebanon and Jordan covering Canada’s efforts to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada. Her work has been recognized by numerous Canadian and international journalism awards, including three Geminis and a Foreign Press Association award.

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Barbara Raymond MD, B.Sc.

Senior Medical Advisor to the Assistant Deputy Minister,
Health Security Infrastructure Branch
Public Health Agency of Canada
Ottawa, ON

Dr. Barbara Raymond is the Senior Medical Advisor to the Health Security Infrastructure Branch of the Public Health Agency of Canada. Her work there addresses a broad range of public health issues, with a particular focus on strengthening capacity to prepare for, detect and respond to the public health impacts of threats to Canada’s health security. Dr. Raymond has previously served as the Executive Director of the Agency’s Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response, supporting the Government of Canada, provincial and territorial governments and other non-governmental partners in coordination of responses to health related events or emergencies. In this role, she served as the Agency’s Event Manager for the 2014-15 Ebola response.

Her health security and emergency management experience build on her prior experience as the Director of the Agency’s Influenza and other Respiratory Infectious Disease Division, responsible for coordination and oversight of seasonal and pandemic influenza (and other emerging respiratory pathogens) preparedness and response planning activities. She has worked in the area of pandemic preparedness since 2006, and joined the Public Health Agency of Canada in 2009, at the time of the H1N1 influenza pandemic.

Since joining the Agency, she has had the opportunity to contribute to a broad range of pandemic and emergency management related activities, from provision of technical, policy and logistical advice, clinical and public health guidance development, vaccine and antiviral procurement and stockpile management, and response management.Dr. Raymond received a BSc (Hon) in Health Studies from the University of Waterloo, and her medical degree from the University of Western Ontario. She received a National Security Practitioner designation from the Canadian Forces College in 2016.

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Bertrand Rossier

General Coordinator
Médecins Sans Frontières
Mexico

Bertrand Rossier is the General Coordinator of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Mexico, responsible for the coordination office in charge of MSF’s humanitarian projects in Acapulco and Tierra Caliente as well as MSF’s program assisting migrants in Mexico who fled the Northern Triangle of Central America.

His first field work with Médecins Sans Frontières was in 2003 in South Sudan in a therapeutic center for malnourished children. Over the years Bertrand has worked for MSF as a Logistician, Log-Administrator and Project Coordinator. He has also led as General Coordinator for MSF field missions in conflict and violent contexts including in Angola, Somalia, North Sudan (Darfur), Philippines, Democratic Republic of Congo, Honduras and Mexico.

Bertrand began his post as General Coordinator of Médecins Sans Frontières in Mexico in September 2015. He recently helped launch MSF report, Forced to Flee Central America’s Northern Triangle: A Neglected Humanitarian Crisis (May 2017)

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Gabriel Schirvar

Gabriel Schirvar is the LGBTI Training Focal Point for the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Gabriel has helped develop IOM’s comprehensive training package, “Working with LGBTI persons in the Humanitarian Context,” including a training module specifically concentrating on LGBTI health and another addressing sexual and gender based violence concerns for LGBTI people in displacement. Gabriel has traveled internationally to facilitate LGBTI training for IOM staff, and has trained audiences from every region of the world, in addition to helping develop and lead two workshops for future facilitators. Gabriel is currently finishing their master’s degree in Global Public Health Policy at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. Their previous experience includes sitting in on the Health Working Group for the US Department of State.

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David R. Shlim MD

David R. Shlim, M.D. first visited Nepal in 1979 to work as a volunteer doctor for the Himalayan Rescue Association, at an aid post at 14,000 feet. After three stints near the base of Mt. Everest, he moved to Kathmandu in 1983 to begin what became a fifteen-year career as the Medical Director of the CIWEC Clinic Travel Medicine Center in Kathmandu, the world’s busiest destination travel medicine clinic. He is the author of more than forty-five original research papers, numerous chapters in textbooks, and is the recent past-president of the International Society of Travel Medicine.

He was the Director of the Himalayan Rescue Association for more than ten years. He also provided free medical care for a Tibetan Buddhist monastery for fourteen years, and developed a close relationship with the head of the monastery, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, and his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, who was recognized as one of the greatest meditation teachers of the twentieth century. He also offered free medical care to all newly arrived Tibetan refugees who came over the Himalayan passes from Tibet.

He is the co-author, with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, of Medicine and Compassion: An American Doctor and a Tibetan Lama on How to Provide Care with Compassion and Wisdom. The book has been translated into four other languages. He resides in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he practices travel medicine and teaches Tibetan Buddhism. He has nearly finished a memoir of his experiences of living and working in Nepal. He will be hosting a unique Medicine and Compassion Retreat in Jackson Hole, October 1st to 6th, 2017. More information is available at www.medicineandcompassion.com

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Paul B. Spiegel MD, MPH

Professor and Director
Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health,
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Baltimore, MD

Dr. Paul Spiegel is the Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where he lectures and undertakes research in humanitarian emergencies.

Previously, Dr. Spiegel was the Deputy Director of the Division of Programme Support and Management at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, Switzerland where he supervises and manages four technical sections – Public Health (including health, HIV, nutrition, water and sanitation, and food security); Cash-based Initiatives; Shelter and Settlement; and Operations Solutions and Transitions (including energy, environment, livelihoods, and solutions). He was also Chief of the Public Health and HIV Section (2002-2012) and the Refugee Agency’s Global HIV Coordinator for UNAIDS (2004-2016).

Dr. Spiegel is Chair of the Funding Committee for the DFID and Wellcome Trust funded Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises or R2HC, and is on the editorial board of the journal entitled Conflict and Health.

Before UNHCR, Dr. Spiegel worked as a Medical Epidemiologist in the International Emergency and Refugee Health Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Previously he worked as a Medical Coordinator with Médecins Sans Frontiéres and Médecins du Monde in refugee settings in Kenya and DRC as well as for numerous organisations including the Canadian Red Cross, the Pan American Health Organisation and the Centre for Victims of Torture in Toronto, Canada. He received his medical degree at the University of Toronto and his Master of Public Health and specialty in Preventive Medicine at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Spiegel has responded to crises and undertaken field work and research in humanitarian emergencies in numerous countries on all continents. He has published and lectured extensively in the field of humanitarian emergencies. His research interests are in epidemiological methods, health information systems, and HIV. He has won numerous awards including CDC’s Charles C. Shepard award for outstanding research in Assessment and Epidemiology.

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