Women's Symposium

Leading Healthcare & Beyond

Faculty of Health Sciences Women's Symposium 2021

That's a Wrap! 

Come back soon for access to videos of our keynotes!

Wednesday, April 28, 2021 - 12:30pm-6:00pm Eastern Time Zone


Welcome Addresses
Dr. Susan Tighe
Dr. Susan Denburg
Dr. Paul O'Byrne

Moderator: Dr. Sonia Anand

Mainstage Session: Leadership Journeys

12:40-12:55
Leading a Few to Leading Many        

Anita Anand, LLB

MP, Government of Canada

1:00-1:15
Preparation & Strategy to Become President

Melissa Farrell

President of St. Joseph's Healthcare, Hamilton

1:20-1:35
How Women Can Force Change in STEM

Dr. Imogen Coe

Professor, Faculty of Science, Ryerson University

1:35-2:00  Panel Session: Q+A  & Orientation to rest of day

Moderator: Dr. Teresa Chan

2:00-2:10 Stretch & Decide on Zoom Breakouts

Breakout Sessions

Each breakout time will offer the same four workshops, allowing you to participate in two different breakout sessions.
Please ensure that you choose one workshop per breakout session. There are two times:

2:10-2:55 Breakout Sessions - Time 1

TRANSITION TIME ( 5 min to select next break out room)

3:00-3:45 Breakout Sessions - Time 2


Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Dr. Margo Mountjoy &
Dr. Susan Reid

Responding to Microaggressions  Remarks  at the Boardroom Table
Dr. Amanda Bell &
Dr. Sandra Carroll

Mentoring & Sponsoring: For Others & Yourself
Dr. Dina Brooks &
Rebecca Repa

Balancing & Optimizing Your Life

Dr. Sharon Bal &
Dr. Smita Halder 

3:45-4:00pm
Reporting Back to Large Group:
Key Lessons for each Topic from Discussants

4:00-4:15pm
Introduction of afternoon plenaries
Dr. Sharon Bal & Dr. Clover Hemans
(OMA Women Co-Chairs)

4:15 - 5:00pm
How to Diversify Healthcare Cultures

Dr. Sonia Anand

Professor,  Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University

5:00-5:10pm  Closing Remarks
Orientation to Networking Event

Please make sure you use the CHROME browser to join us on the Sophya World. You can  find out more in this video to the above.

5:10-6:00pm
Networking Event @ Sophya.ai

Keynote Speakers

Anita Anand, LLB

The Honourable Anita Anand was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Oakville in 2019. Minister Anand is a scholar, lawyer, researcher, and mother of four children. Born and raised in rural Nova Scotia, she moved to Ontario in 1985. Minister Anand is a devoted leader with a proven record of service. In her Oakville community, she has served on the Board of Directors of the Lighthouse Foundation for Grieving Children, the Oakville Hospital Foundation, and Oakville Hydro Electricity Distribution Inc.

For the past two decades, Minister Anand has been a legal academic, employed most recently as a Professor of Law at the University of Toronto where she held the J.R. Kimber Chair in Investor Protection and Corporate Governance. She served as Associate Dean and was a member of the Governing Board of Massey College and the Director of Policy and Research at the Capital Markets Research Institute, Rotman School of Management. She has also taught law at Yale Law School, Queen’s University, and Western University. Read here full bio by clicking here.

Dr. Sonia Anand

Dr. Sonia Anand is a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at McMaster University, and a Senior Scientist at the Population Health Research Institute. She is also a vascular medicine specialist at Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University. Dr. Anand is the Association Chair of Equity & Diversity in the McMaster Department of Medicine. Dr. Anand holds the Canada Research Chair in Ethnic Diversity and Cardiovascular Disease and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario/Michael G. DeGroote Chair in Population Health Research. Her present research focuses upon the environmental and genetic determinants of vascular disease in populations of varying ancestral origin, women and cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Imogen Coe

Dr. Imogen R. Coe was the founding dean of the Faculty of Science from 2012 to 2018. She is currently a professor of Chemistry and Biology at Ryerson University and an affiliate scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, where her research group studies drug transport proteins. She is the President of the Canadian Molecular Biosciences Society and sits on various boards. In addition to her work as a research scientist, Dr. Coe is internationally recognized as a Canadian thought leader in the integration of principles of inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA) particularly into science and medicine. She has advised academia, government and industry on best practices and approaches towards inclusive excellence and has contributed to national dialogue about these issues through various platforms.  She is much in demand as a speaker and panelist and has received numerous awards for her advocacy work.

Melissa Farrell

Ms. Melissa Farrell is the President of St. Joseph's Healthcare, Hamilton. Ms. Farrell is a health system leader who is the former Assistant Deputy Minister, Acute and Emergency Health Services, within Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care where she lead the government’s acute care strategy and policy direction for a $20 billion portfolio. In this role, she has been responsible for a number of highly complex change initiatives across every sector in the provincial health system including acute care, community care, primary care and long-term care.  Ms. Farrell is well known and highly regarded for her dynamic and collaborative leadership style and ability to manage and deliver transformational results. Read more about her at this link.

Accreditation Statement

McMaster University, Continuing Professional Development Office (CPD) is fully accredited by the Committee on Accreditation of Continuing Medical Education (CACME) to provide CFPC Mainpro+ and RCPSC Maintenance of Certification (MOC) study credits for Continuing Medical Education.

This one-credit-per-hour Group Learning program meets the certification criteria of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and has been certified by the McMaster University Continuing Health Sciences Program for up to 3.75 Mainpro+ credits.

This activity is an Accredited Group Learning Activity (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification program of The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and approved by McMaster University, Continuing Health Sciences Education Program for up to 3.75 MOC Section 1 hours.

Through an agreement between the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the American Medical Association, physicians may convert Royal College MOC credits to AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Information on the process to convert Royal College MOC credit to AMA credit can be found at www.ama-assn.org/go/internationalcme. 

*Each healthcare provider should claim only those hours of credit that he/she actually spent in the educational activity.

Conflicts of Interest

The following Planning Committee Members and Speakers did not declare a relationship with a FOR-PROFIT and/or NOT-FOR-PROFIT organization over the previous two years:  Clare Mitchell, Annette Rosati
The following Planning Committee Members and Speakers have or had a relationship with a FOR-PROFIT and/or NOT-FOR-PROFIT organization over the previous two years:
  • Sharon Bal: Faculty Employment with McMaster University; Ontario Medical Association Women Committee.
  • Teresa Chan: Faculty Employment with McMaster University.

Our Event Partners

Office of the Dean
Office of Faculty Affairs

Office of the Chair
Office of the Associate Chair, Equity & Inclusion

Increasingly, we know that women are underrepresented in academia and healthcare settings. The 2021 Women’s Symposium will be a venue where we can bring together women and their allies to consider how we might close the gap over time. 

This will represent the first of these events, which we are hoping will evolve into an ongoing annual conference over time.

All faculty members who identify as women and allies of women within the Faculty of Health Sciences (and beyond) are invited to join us.

Each session will have a mix of external speakers and FHS leaders interested in exploring key topics around how we might increase the number of women in healthcare leadership positions in both academia and clinical work.

Overall Learning Objectives:

A Chance to Pay-it-Forward

To make this program accessible to trainees, we have a special program entitled the "Pay-it-forward" program. 

We are hoping that faculty members who can afford this event will pay more to offset the cost for the trainee tickets.

This event is proudly co-developed by the Ontario Medical Association.