About us » Leadership team Leadership Team

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We continue to build our capacity to support improvements to Ontario’s public health system, as well as a solid governance and accountability framework to ensure we are accountable to our stakeholders and the people of Ontario. View our organizational chart and learn more about our leadership team:

He has been engaged in a broad range of research activities related to public health, particularly focusing on chronic disease prevention and control. These research activities include the economic evaluation of health-care interventions, optimization of the use of laboratory tests in the periodic health examination and the development of measures for health status assessment. In addition, Goel has served on numerous local, provincial and federal committees related to public health as well as being involved in international activities through the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO).

Prior to joining OAHPP, Goel was vice-president and provost at the University of Toronto, and he is a professor in the Paul Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. He is also adjunct senior scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and Program in eHealth Innovation at the University Health Network, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Institutes for Health Information.

Corkum has more than 20 years of experience of creating new programs and strategies that promote the use of research-based information to enhance health decision making. She has held leadership positions in public health, hospital, non-profit and government environments and was the inaugural vice-president of Knowledge Translation and Partnerships with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Prior to OAHPP, Corkum served as a technical advisor at the World Health Organization for four years, creating networks to influence the use of research evidence in low- and middle-income countries.

Pasut has extensive public health leadership experience, having served as associate chief medical officer of health, Public Health System Policy and Planning, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care; medical officer of health and chief executive officer of the Simcoe County Health Unit; and as a senior medical consultant and physician manager in the Public Health Branch and as acting director of the Health Promotion branch of the Ministry Of Health and Long-Term Care. Most recently, Pasut was at Cancer Care Ontario where he was vice-president of Prevention and Screening.

A public health physician, Crowcroft has a broad background in clinical medicine, microbiology and field epidemiology, and an extensive portfolio of research, training, policy and public health service. She has worked internationally in several European programs and as an advisor to the World Health Organization. During her decade with the United Kingdom’s Health Protection Agency, Crowcroft was a national expert in immunization for the U.K., ran several national surveillance systems, and conducted research studies in a number of areas, including pertussis and encephalitis. She is a member of the Canadian National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) and Ontario’s Provincial Infectious Disease Advisory Committee Subgroup on Immunization.

Heather Manson directs OAHPP’s planning, policy development, evaluation and research activities relating to health promotion, chronic disease prevention and injury prevention. In addition to leading OAHPP’s healthy communities initiatives, comprehensive tobacco use prevention, and commitment to reducing health inequities, Manson promotes provincewide system-level changes, particularly by helping public health units meet their obligations under the Ontario Public Health Standards.

Manson joined OAHPP from her previous role as vice-president, Vancouver Coastal Health, where she led the improvement of health outcomes by enabling a continuum of care focused around the needs of the patient, client, resident and population. She brings clinical, administrative and population health experience to OAHPP, having also worked as an internist, hematologist, senior medical director and medical health officer in Richmond, British Columbia.

Heather obtained her MD from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of British Columbia (UBC). She completed post-graduate training in internal medicine and clinical hematology at the University of Toronto and McMaster University respectively, and is certified in these specialities by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. She also has a Master of Health Sciences from UBC.

Schwartz has practiced emergency medicine for over 30 years in both community and academic settings. During SARS, Schwartz was vice-chair of the Ontario SARS Scientific Advisory Committee. He serves as scientific advisor to the Emergency Management branch of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, has chaired several Ontario pandemic planning committees and working groups, and contributes to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive (CBRNE) planning and response.

Samir joined OAHPP in April 2008 from the legal branch of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

He acted as the Ministry's lead counsel on alternative financing and procurement (AFP) hospital projects, including Ontario’s first pilot AFP hospital projects, the William Osler Health Centre and the Royal Ottawa Healthcare Group projects.  Samir also successfully negotiated the transfer of three provincial psychiatric hospitals to public hospitals.  His previous experience includes working with the Ministry of Correctional Services where, in addition to his role as counsel, he assumed other senior management positions, including an acting director for the Infrastructure Renewal Project aimed at renewing the province’s ageing correctional facilities. 

Samir has an LL.B and an LL.M (Business Law) from Osgoode Hall Law School as well as an MA in Criminology from the University of Toronto.  

Kessel has held senior management positions with the Ontario Public Service in policy development, business planning, facility planning and project management. At ServiceOntario, Kessel was director of the Project Management Office and director of the ServiceOntario Counter’s Initiative, leading a multi-year project to modernize customer-facing facilities. At the Ontario Realty Corporation, he led a number of priority initiatives related to performance management, customer satisfaction and contract management.

Mike Mendaglio has extensive experience in the health-care and laboratory services. He comes to OAHPP from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre where he served as the operations director of Laboratory services, of Biomedical Engineering, and of Phlebotomy Services. Prior to that, he served in various roles at the Scarborough General and Grace sites, including director of the Quality and Performance Improvement Division. Mendaglio has an honours Bachelor of Science degree, a post-graduate registration as an Advanced Registered Technologist, and an MBA from Wilfred Laurier University, School of Business and Economics.

Rees is a chartered accountant who brings three decades of health-care experience in both the private and public sectors. He has a particular interest in creating and implementing systems and business processes and coaching and mentoring teams.

Most recently, he was the chief financial officer and chief information officer at Lakeridge Health Corporation and prior to that, he was the vice-president of Corporate Services at the Rouge Valley Health System. Rees has also held senior finance positions with Baxter Corporation-Canada.

Tom comes to OAHPP from the University of Missouri, St. Louis, where he was chief information officer and associate vice-chancellor of Information Technology. As a consultant in strategic technology planning, he helped enterprises to understand and utilize the strategic value that technology can bring to business. Tom has held executive positions in the public and private sectors in Canada, including chief technology officer of the University of British Columbia Medical School expansion, director of Networks at UBC and vice-president of Research and Engineering for a digital imaging firm.