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Governance & Team

Health Nexus is a bilingual registered charitable non-profit.

Board Members

Manjula Alles
Senior Program Manager,
Save the Children Canada
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Asim Bhatti
Managing Director,
PwC Consulting
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Stanislas Mian Etiegne​
Management Consultant, Accenture
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Amanda McLaren
Chief of Staff,
Independent Senators Group, Senate of Canada
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Dr. Deji Ayonrinde
Associate Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, Queen’s University
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David Burton
Senior Director,
Royal Bank of Canada
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Wendy Katherine
Executive Director,
Health Nexus
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Sara Wolfe
Director,
I3, Grand Challenge Canada
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Ankit Bhandari
Chief Financial Officer,
Asian Television Network Inc
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Dr. Jocelynn Cook
Chief Scientific Officer, Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada
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Reena Kudhail
Manager,
Public Health Agency
of Canada
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Meet the Health Nexus Team

Pascale Alexandre
(she/her)

Bilingual Knowledge
Mobilization Specialist

Pina Bozzo
(she/her)

Clinical
Content Advisor

Marine Delage de Luget
(she/her)

Bilingual
Executive Coordinator

Katerina Firlova
(she/her)

Bilingual Manager Strategic Partnerships and Operations

Malou Gabert
(she/her)

Bilingual
Project Assistant

Sam Hyder
(he/him)

Information Management
Lead

Wendy Katherine
(she/her/they)

Executive
Director

Nancy Lockwood
(she/her)

FASD
Consultant

Nathalie Pambrun
(they/them)

Indigenous
Lead

Anna Pupco
(she/her)

Clinical
Content Advisor

Haleema Siddiqi
(she/her)

Project
Assistant

Kensie Treacy
(she/her)

Student

Elizabeth Uleryk (she/her)

Medical
Librarian

Samantha Waechter
(she/her)

Bilingual
Project Associate

Judith Zarek
(she/her)

Knowledge Mobilization Specialist

Vicky Zhang
(she/her)

Executive
Assistant

Hot Links

Contact Us

240 Richmond St. W         Toronto, ON, M5V 1V6

Telephone: +1 (647) 495-6747

Toll-Free:     +1 (800) 397-9567 

Email: info@healthnexus.ca

Land Acknowledgement

The Health Nexus office is located on territory that for thousands of years has been the traditional homeland of the Anishinabewaki, Wendake-Nionwentsïo, Haudenosaunee, and, more recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit.  We are proud to take our part in the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabeg  and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the lands and resources around the Great Lakes. Health Nexus team members are grateful for the opportunity to partner with Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island and to work on this territory. 

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Manjula Alles

Over the past 18 years,  Manjula Alles has been dedicated to working around the topics of strengthening health systems and improving population and community-based health programming.  He is passionate about child and adolescent health and rights issues and has extensive experience around maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and human rights work.  His approach to this work has relied on pursuing community-centred co-design, health and gender equity-based approaches through a social determinants of health lens.  Currently a Senior Program Manager at Save the Children Canada, he is leading a sizable international consortium initiative around adolescent reproductive health and health rights in West Africa. Manjulahas also contributed to global health work with agencies like Plan International Canada, The Canadian Public Health Association, Right to Play and the UN Association in Canada.   

In Canada, Manjula recently worked as a senior executive leader with a Toronto based Community Health Centre (CHC) to establish, design and implement a localized health system initiative called Health Access Thorncliffe Park (HATP). It has shaped his experiences and insights around Canada’s healthcare system and governance structures. HATP is a government of Ontario supported model initiative designed to serve high needs, marginalized and racialized communities to ensure effectively integrated primary health care through unique synergies with localized health, social service, educational and community-led organizations. Through these efforts Manjula has significantly deepened his experiences at the intersection of digital health and community health services, particularly made critical during the COVID-19 pandemic.   

Equity and equality-based initiatives have been the cornerstone to what motivates Manjula’s professional efforts.  A firm believer –  that building trusting and accountable partnerships with community co-designed principles are critical to solving prevailing complex systemic societal issues. This path has led Manjula to launch a nascent firm called Disrupt InEquity.  Stay tuned for more to come!             
Most importantly, Manjula is a proud husband and father to two young very energetic boys — keeping up with them is inspiring!!  

Asim Bhatti

Asim Bhatti has 25+ years of experience in delivering high profile Digital and UX focused transformation projects ranging from large ERP/CRM/SaaS to custom point solutions.  His experience is a unique blend of private (consulting) and public sector roles.  Asim excels in fostering a culture of innovation, building diverse self-sufficient teams, developing practical solutions, and delivering business strategies and outcomes. 
Asim new role is with PwC Consulting as a Managing Director in their public/health sector technology practice.  Prior to this Asim was the Director of Product Management at Cancer Care Ontario/Ontario Health where he was responsible for managing teams providing technology products.

Asim enjoins social and community work and worked with his community to sponsor Syrian families to Canada in 2017, this experience allowed him to grow his understanding of the plight of refugee populations, share learnings with other private sponsors in navigating the complex sponsorship process and community develop responses to dealing with challenges refugees faced once they had arrived.  

Asim and his spouse have three children (two boys and a girl).  His youngest is his grade 10 daughter who keeps  him focused on thinking with an open heart.  Asim enjoys the outdoors and in particular camping in the back country.

Stanislas Mian Etiegne

Stanislas has over 15 years of experience in managing results-oriented projects across a several industries including Supply chain, Inventory management, Health, Food security, Health and safety and Finance. 

Bilingual (English/French), Stanislas has reliable record of leading high performing team under tough deadlines, and success in project management and reviewing engagements, with an ability to design, plan, establish milestones, coach, oversee deadline completion and resource management, as well as risk assessment and performance tracking.

Amanda McLaren

Amanda is the Chief of Staff to the Independent Senators Group, the largest parliamentary group in the Senate comprised mostly of members appointed to the Senate through an independent, merit-based appointment system. In this role she serves as an administrator and senior strategic advisor on public policy and parliamentary work.  

Amanda has over fourteen years’ experience on Parliament Hill and has supported several public health policy pieces, notably Bill C-45, the Cannabis Act, which proposed to legalize and strictly regulate cannabis. She has supported the work of several various parliamentary committees, including the Senate Social Affairs, Science and Technology Committee, by supporting legislative and social studies issues related to cultural affairs and the arts, social and labour matters, health and welfare, youth issues, pensions and housing. 

She is the founding President of the Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW) of Ottawa and is past Young Vice President of BPW Canada – a non-profit, non-partisan organization that works to improve the social, economic and political conditions of working women in Canada. 

She brings a passion for the rights of women and girls, her experience in motherhood, as well as strategic and public policy expertise to the board of Health Nexus (Board Member since 2018).

Dr. Deji Ayonrinde

Dr. Oyedeji (Deji) Ayonrinde is an Associate Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He is also the Chair of the Commission on Black Medical Students at Queen’s University. He is the Clinical Director of Community Psychiatry Programs at Providence Care and works in an Assertive Community Treatment Team with certification in both general and addiction psychiatry.

His specialist training was at the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals as well as the Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK. He has an MSc (distinction) in Research in Psychiatry ( University College London – UCL) an Executive MBA from Imperial College London where he received an award for his research in Organizational Behaviour in Healthcare. He also has a Diploma in the History of Medicine from the Society of Apothecaries.

 Dr. Ayonrinde has research and advocacy interests in Global Mental Health, with particular reference to marginalized and equity-seeking populations such as individuals with severe mental illness, racialized groups and people living in poverty with local, national and international collaborations.

 Dr. Ayonrinde plays an active role in cannabis education and the understanding of its impact on mental health across the lifespan. This includes initiatives with educational institutions, youth and family groups, Health Canada, parliament and the Canadian Armed Forces.

 Research and publications are broadly around themes of mental health, diversity, health inequity, advocacy and substance use.  Health innovation includes design of game-based learning in the understanding of complex health behaviour and diversity issues. He has received several local, national and international education and knowledge translation awards.

 For nearly 20 years, he has supported physician and occupational wellness programs advocating stigma reduction, mental health awareness and compassion.

 Dr. Ayonrinde is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK), International Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Member of the Society of Apothecaries. He is a recipient of the Freedom of the City of London, England.

David Burton

David is a Senior Director in Telecommunication and Network Services at RBC. He is a certified Information Security Manager with extensive knowledge and experience in network security, DevOps, analytics, and machine learning. 

He has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto and a MBA from the Rotman School of Management. 

In his spare time David also writes books, and has published four novels.

Wendy Katherine

Wendy Katherine, RM, MBA (she/they) is the Executive Director of Health Nexus/Nexus santé, a Canadian bilingual non-profit knowledge mobilization organization specializing in person-centered health promotion. 

A career champion of reproductive and child health, Wendy carries rich experience as a health care provider, policy decision-maker and advocate. Among Canada’s first registered midwives, Wendy was a pioneer in establishing midwifery as a profession and later joined the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to manage funding for the profession’s services.  She developed and supported implementation of new programs and strategies including the Better Outcomes Registry and Network (www.bornontario.ca), the Toronto (www.torontobirthcentre.ca) and Ottawa Birth Centres (www.ottawabirthcentre.ca), and the Integrated Cancer Screening Program.  

Following completion of an MBA from the Rotman School of Management, Wendy led innovative digital projects including creation of the www.OMama.com website and app, an interactive hub for pregnancy and parenting information. A member of the Provincial Council for Maternal and Child Health and a published author and speaker, Wendy is passionate about evidence-based care, equity diversity and inclusion; and supporting Indigenous-led health improvement projects.  

When not at the office, Wendy can be found in the woods with her kids and dogs or on the ice improving her wrist shot.   

Sara Wolfe

Sara Wolfe is Anishnawbe from Brunswick House First Nation. She is a registered midwife and nurse. ​

A first generation residential school survivor, Sara has worked for more than two decades in Indigenous community and perinatal health, in both urban and remote communities. ​

She is a founding partner of Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto and was one of the co-leads of the award winning Toronto Birth Centre facility. ​ She has an MBA from the Rotman School of Management.

Ankit Bhandari

Ankit is a CPA, CA currently working as a CFO at a media broadcasting company that is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. 

He also serves as a Board of Director at Autism-in-Mind, a non-profit organization that gives children with autism an equal opportunity in life. 

Outside of work, Ankit is a recent father to a little girl and with each new day, he is gaining a new-found level of respect for all parents out there – especially his own who raised him and his twin brother.

Dr. Jocelynn Cook

Dr. Jocelynn Cook received a Bachelor of Science degree (Honours Biology) from Bishop’s University and then a PhD in Reproductive Physiology from the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Cook studied the effects of alcohol consumption on preterm birth for her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Alberta. She also completed an MBA, with a focus on Economics and Health Policy, from the University of Saskatchewan. Dr. Cook was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan before joining the Government of Canada where she held a number of Executive leadership roles at the Public Health Agency, Health Canada, Assisted Human Reproduction Canada and, as the Executive Director of the CIHR’s Strategy for Patient Oriented Research.  

 Dr. Cook joined the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada as its first Chief Scientific Officer in 2014, with the vision of facilitating the strengthening of, recognition of and incorporation of academics, science and evidence into the work of the SOGC and our membership.  In her role, Dr. Cook oversees all activities related to Academic programs, Clinical Practice Guidelines, Research, JOGC operations and Public Health-related activities and programs.  Dr. Cook also sits on the SOGC’s Board of Directors and its Executive committee, regional CME and ACSC planning committees, and represents the SOGC and its work nationally and internationally. 

 In her spare time, Jocelynn has been seen running marathons (slowly), trying to figure out how to get better at riding the Peloton (also slowly), and living vicariously through her two daughters.

Reena Kudhail

Reena Kudhail is an experienced knowledge translation and health communication professional with a passion for systems thinking and the use of storytelling to explain complex health issues and data with the goal of improving care and health outcomes for all. 

Reena recently started a new role at the Public Health Agency of Canada as Manager of Strategic Partnerships and Outreach with the Public Health Intelligence and Knowledge Translation Division. Over the past decade, she has worked in communications and stakeholder engagement roles for a variety of organizations, including a large teaching hospital, several Canadian health charities, a provincial health quality council, and most recently a pan-Canadian data organization where she worked in collaboration with health system partners to develop and deliver capacity building workshops. 

In her spare time she enjoys cooking, travelling, as well as practicing and teaching yoga.