2023 ASM Speakers

Anne Ellis

Kingston, ON

Dr. Ellis is a Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Division of Allergy & Immunology at Queen’s University. Her role is one of a Clinician Scientist with approximately 70% of her academic portfolio dedicated to research.

Dr. Ellis obtained her MD from Queen's University, and also trained in Internal Medicine at Queen's. Following this, she underwent subspecialty training in Allergy & Clinical Immunology at McMaster University in Hamilton. She returned to join the Faculty at Queen’s in September 2008. She assumed the role of the Chair of the Division of Allergy & Immunology in May 2011, and was awarded the James H. Day Chair in Allergic Diseases and Allergy Research in May 2016. Her research interests include conducting clinical trials of novel therapies for allergic rhinitis and asthma, the pathophysiology of allergic disease, and the developmental origins of atopy and asthma.

Anne Pham-Huy

Ottawa, ON

Assistant Professor, Physician Lead, Primary Immunodeficiency Clinic and Pediatric Infectious Diseases Consultant

Dr. Anne Pham-Huy completed her medical degree at the University of Ottawa in 2003 and her subspecialty training in pediatric infectious diseases at McGill University in 2008. She also pursued additional training in clinical immunology. Dr. Pham-Huy has been at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) since 2009. She is the lead physician for the primary immunodeficiency clinic at CHEO. Her research interests include the diagnosis and management of primary immunodeficiencies, infections in the immunocompromised host and immunization in special populations. She is the program director for the pediatric infectious diseases training program. She is also the current chair for Immunize Canada, a not-for-profit coalition of organizations with a specific interest in promoting the understanding and use of vaccines.

Bill Moote

London, ON

Dr. Moote is a past-president of the Canadian Society of Allergy & Clinical Immunology, having served on the Board of Directors from 1985 to 1998, and as president in 1992–1994.

Dr. Moote continues to conduct clinical trials in the treatment of asthma and rhinitis and other allergy problems at London Health Sciences Centre, and is the author of more than forty papers and book chapters on these topics. He has received several awards for Education, including the David McCourtie award in 2008 and the John Howard Toogood award in 2017.

Catherine Biggs

Vancouver, BC

Dr. Biggs is an Investigator, BC Children's Hospital and Clinical Assistant Professor, Division of Allergy & Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia

Dr. Biggs graduated from UBC Medicine in 2011. She then completed her Pediatrics Residency and Allergy/Immunology Fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. As a trainee in Boston, she received the Frederick H. Lovejoy Jr. Residency Award and performed translational research on primary immunodeficiencies and immune dysregulatory syndromes. She has been awarded the AllerGen Emerging Clinician-Scientist and CAAIF Research Fellowships to continue her research training into allergic and immune diseases under the mentorship of Dr. Stuart Turvey.

Charles Chan

Toronto, ON

Dr. Charlie Chan recently completed his tenure as Executive Vice-President & Chief Medical Officer at University Health Network (UHN). Dr. Chan previous leadership roles over a span of twenty years at UHN included Interim President & CEO, Vice-President of Medical Affairs, Program Medical Director, Business Units Medical Director & Head of Respirology.

Dr. Chan is the lead Respirology assessor for the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) and he was a member of the finance committee for the CPSO. Dr. Chan was previously a member of the examining board for adult Respirology for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Dr. Chan has also served as board members for several non-profit foundations including Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation and Toronto General & Toronto Western Hospitals foundation (TGTWHF), and he is a member of the senate for the TGTWHF. Dr. Chan’s current roles include: Professor of Medicine at UofT and senior advisor to the chair of Medicine at UoT, Consultant Respirologist at UHN, and he is the Medical Director & Owner of Rosedale Pulmonary Function Laboratory & Agincourt Pulmonary Services.

Connie Yang

Vancouver, BC

Dr. Connie Yang is an Investigator and Pediatric Respirologist, BC Children's Hospital and Clinical Associate Professor, Division of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia.

She is interested in learning more about lung diseases that affect children. Her research is focused on finding the best way to diagnose and treat different types of asthma. She is particularly interested in learning about the reasons why some children have severe, treatment resistant asthma and finding ways to treat these children effectively and in finding the best way to deliver asthma care to children across the province. She is also involved in projects that look at the effectiveness of different types of therapies that we use for children with cystic fibrosis.

Dianne Lougheed

Kingston, ON

Dr. Diane Lougheed is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Respirology. She is cross-appointed to the Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences (Physiology) and the Department of Public Health Sciences (Epidemiology). Additionally, she is an Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Science. She obtained her medical degree from McMaster University, where she also completed Internal Medicine residency. She came to Queen’s in 1990 for Respirology fellowship training and joined the faculty in 1993. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Epidemiology from Queen's University.

Dr. Lougheed is a clinician scientist whose primary clinical interests are asthma and cystic fibrosis in adults. She established an inter-disciplinary tertiary care Asthma Program locally, including an Asthma Education Centre, of which she is the Medical Director and the Asthma Research Unit at Kingston General Hospital. She is also the Director of the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at Hotel Dieu Hospital. Dr. Lougheed has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications and 2 book chapters. Her research interests include asthma symptom perception, mechanisms of cough in asthma, work-related asthma, asthma health services and outcomes research, and guidelines implementation.

Edmond Chan

Vancouver, BC

Dr. Edmond S. Chan is a practising Pediatric Allergist, Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, Clinical Investigator at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, and Head of the Division of Allergy & Immunology at BC Children’s Hospital, where he leads a food allergy research program team.

He has authored many peer-reviewed publications on food allergy on a wide range of topics including prevention, food immunotherapy, and anxiety. He is a co-author of several guidelines on the topics of food allergy or eosinophilic esophagitis including: NIAID peanut allergy prevention guidelines, CPS/CSACI position statement on allergy prevention in infants, AGA/Joint Task Force eosinophilic esophagitis guidelines, and CSACI oral immunotherapy guidelines. He is on the Board of directors of the Canadian Society of Allergy & Clinical Immunology (CSACI) and was a past recipient of the CSACI Jerry Dolovich Award for demonstrating excellence in clinical work, teaching, and research, and serving as a leader and role model in the specialty. He is on the Executive of the Allergy Section of the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS). He is a member of the scientific advisory board of Food Allergy Canada and steering committee for Canada’s National Food Allergy Action Plan.

Harold Kim

Kitchener-Waterloo, ON

Dr. Harold Kim has been practicing as an allergist in Kitchener, Ontario for 22 years. He has appointments at Western University and McMaster University. He is the Chief/Chair of the Division of Clinical Immunology and Allergy at Western University.

He graduated with his MD from UWO and completed Internal Medicine and Allergy training at UWO. His clinical interests include allergic conditions including asthma, allergic rhinitis and food allergy. Although clinical research has been an interest for Dr. Kim, his "extra-practice" activities have included participating in the Canadian Asthma Guidelines and the Canadian Allergen Immunotherapy Guidelines. He is co-chief editor of Allergy, Asthma and Clinical Immunology. He is the past president of the Canadian Network of Respiratory Care. He is the president of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Also, he has lectured across Canada as well as in the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.   Dr. Kim was awarded the Dr. David McCourtie Lecture at the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Annual Meeting in Quebec City 2011.   Dr. Kim's major goal in life is to successfully raise his 5 daughters.

Helen Brough

London, UK

Helen is a Consultant in Paediatric Allergy and Immunology and the Head of Service for the Children’s Allergy Service at the Evelina London, Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Helen is also the Speciality Group Lead for a range of paediatric specialties at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, including Allergy, Gastroenterology and Respiratory Paediatrics. Helen jointly set up Children’s Allergy services in the community, specialist joint clinics with Respiratory Paediatrics, and the Adolescent service for transitioning young people into adult allergy services.

Helen is a Senior Lecturer in Paediatric Allergy at King’s College London. Helen's clinical and research interests are in food allergy prevention and diagnosis, immunotherapy, asthma, eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders and eczema. Helen is the lead for the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI) guideline on the management of atopic eczema. She leads the Pronuts study, a multicentre, interventional study in the management of nut and seed allergies

Hilary Longhurst

Auckland, New Zealand

Dr. Hilary is a Consultant Immunologist and Senior Medical Officer at the Auckland City Hospital in New Zealand. Longhurst has wide experience in management of allergic and immunological disorders. She is a world leader in developing patient-centred services for those with hereditary angioedema and other immune deficiencies.

Qualifying in medicine from Cambridge University and St Mary’s Hospital (Imperial College), London, she developed an interest in immunology while studying for her PhD with Professor Tony Holder at the National Institute for Medical Research (now the Crick Institute), Mill Hill, UK.

During many years of service to the UK National Health Service, at Barts Health and more recently Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, she has pioneered the development of and access to new therapies, alongside her interest in better use of existing established therapies. Dr. Longhurst has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals, participated in over 20 international trials of new immunological treatments, many as Principal Investigator, and has helped develop several key consensus documents. She is a regular invited speaker at national and international meetings and serves as a lecturer/supervisor for medical students, doctors and scientists undertaking advanced immunological study and research. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Pathologists. a member of the British Society for Immunology, The European Society for Immunodeficiency and the UK Primary Immunodeficiency Network. Dr. Longhurst has served on the World Allergy Organisation, the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and the Canadian angioedema guideline panels as well as medical advisor to the patient organisations, Hereditary angioedema (HAE) UK, UKPrimary Immunodeficiency Patient Support (UKPIPS) and Dyskeratosis Congenita Action (DCAction).

Jaclyn Smith

Manchester, UK

Jacky Smith is a Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Manchester and an Honorary Consultant at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. She runs a multi-disciplinary research team whose focus is on understanding mechanisms underlying pathological cough and a regional clinical service seeing patients with refractory chronic cough. She is also the Director of the NIHR Manchester Clinical Research Facility and Leads the Rapid Translational Incubator Theme of the NIHR Manchester Bioemdical Research Centre.

Lori Connors

Halifax, NS

Dr. Lori Connors is a clinical immunologist and allergist with both academic and community-based practices. She received her MD with Distinction from Dalhousie University in 2005 and completed residencies in internal medicine (Dalhousie 2005-2008) and clinical immunology & allergy (McMaster, 2008-2010).

She is actively involved in curriculum development and teaching of clinical skills, and is Associate Professor at Dalhousie University Department of Medicine, Cross Appointment in Pediatrics, Communications Skills Lead, PGME at Dalhousie University, and Clinical Immunologist and Allergist in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax. She is an active board member and CPD chair for the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Marcus Shaker

Lebanon, NH

Dr. Shaker is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and of Community and Family Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He attended medical school and completed his Pediatrics residency at the University of Virginia, remaining in Charlottesville during his fellowship in Allergy and Immunology. While in practice he earned his Masters of Science degree in Evaluative Clinical Science and Healthcare Leadership through the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.

Meyer Balter

Toronto, ON

Meyer S. Balter, MD, is Director of the Asthma and COPD Education Clinic at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada, and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr Balter is currently a staff member in the Division of Respiratory Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and University Health Network.

His major clinical interest aside from asthma and COPD is sarcoidosis. He serves on the Executive of AASOG. His contributions to the medical literature include numerous refereed journal articles and a number of book chapters. He is a member of the Canadian Thoracic Society committee responsible for writing the CTS Guidelines.

Paul Forsyth

Hamilton, ON

Associate Professor, Division of Respirology, Department of Medicine, McMaster University Dr. Paul Forsythe obtained his BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry MSc in Laboratory Medicine and PhD in Mast Cell Immunopharmacology from Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Following his PhD he undertook a post-doctoral fellowship with the Pulmonary Research Group at the University of Alberta (1999-2003). He continued his post-doctoral training at the Brain-Body Institute, McMaster University before joining the Faculty of Medicine in 2008.

Richard Leigh

Calgary, AB

Richard Leigh is a physician-scientist and the Senior Associate Dean – Faculty Affairs in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Cape Town, and subsequently undertook specialist and sub-specialist training in Internal Medicine and Pulmonology at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. This was followed by further research training in the areas of airway inflammation, asthma and COPD at McMaster University in Canada, where obtained a Masters degree in Health Research Methodology and a PhD in Medical Sciences.

Dr. Leigh’s areas of interest include understanding the basic mechanisms underlying airway remodeling in asthma, the assessment of airway inflammation and early phase clinical trials in asthma and COPD. His program of research studying the role of rhinovirus infections in the pathogenesis of airway remodeling in asthma is funded through a CIHR Project Grant (ranked #1 in the Spring 2018 competition). His clinical practice focuses on severe asthma and other airways diseases, and he previously served as the Division Chief of Respiratory Medicine and as the Chair of the Department of Medicine before taking up his current appointment in January 2020.

Ruchi Gupta

Chicago, Illinois

Dr. Gupta is a Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Northwestern Medicine and has more than 15 years of experience as a board-certified pediatrician and health researcher. Dr. Gupta is the director of the Center for Food Allergy & Asthma Research (CFAAR) within Northwestern's Institute for Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM) and is a clinical attending at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital Chicago, where she is actively involved in clinical, epidemiological, and community-based research.

She is nationally recognized for her groundbreaking research in the areas of food allergy and asthma epidemiology; specifically, her research on childhood food allergy prevalence. She has also significantly contributed to academic research surrounding economic costs, pediatric management of food allergy and asthma, ED visits and hospitalizations, quality of life and community interventions, especially in schools. Along with being an author of The Food Allergy Experience, Dr. Gupta has over 100 publications and her work has been featured in major TV networks and print media.

Samira Jeimy

London, ON

Dr. Jeimy completed her undergraduate medical training and internal medicine residency at the University of Toronto, followed by a clinical immunology and allergy fellowship at Western University. She also completed PhD studies in medical sciences at McMaster University, supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Banting and Best Doctoral Award.

She is certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in internal medicine and in clinical immunology and allergy. She is also board certified through the American Board of Internal Medicine. She is an assistant professor at Western University and the training Program Director for Division of Clinical Immunology and Allergy at Western University as of July 2019.

Scott Cameron

Victoria, BC

DR. SCOTT B. CAMERON, MD, PhD, FRCPC Pediatrics, FRCPC Allergy & Clinical Immunology Completed his Bachelor of Science degree (Biology) at Simon Fraser University in 1998. He went on to complete a PhD in the Department of Experimental Medicine at the University of British Columbia. Following that he moved to Winnipeg to pursue his medical degree and in 2007 and graduated from the University of Manitoba.

He moved back to Vancouver where he completed a Pediatric Residency at BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver. Finally, he completed a sub-specialty Fellowship in Pediatric Allergy & Clinical Immunology at the University of Manitoba in 2012. Upon completion of his 18 years of post-secondary education, he was very excited to move with my family to Victoria, BC. where he runs a community academic Pediatric Allergy and Immunology practice with Dr. Cook.

Scott Halperin

Halifax, NS

Dr. Scott Halperin is the Director of the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology (CCfV), Dr. Halperin is a Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology and Immunology at Dalhousie University, and the Head of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the IWK Health Centre. He is also the co-Principal Investigator for the Immunization Monitoring Program, Active (IMPACT) and a member of CAIRES Management Committee. His research focuses on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of pertussis and other vaccine preventable diseases.

Sébastien Talbot

Montréal, QC

Under the mentorship of Dr Rejean Couture, Dr Talbot obtained is PhD in Physiology from the Université de Montreal (2012). His thesis focused on the role of CNS immune cells in priming diabetic pain neuropathy. Next, he joined Dr. Clifford Woolf’s lab at the Neurobiology center of Harvard Medical School to study the crosstalk between pain neurons and adaptive immune cells in the context of allergic inflammation

Stuart Turvey

Vancouver, BC

Stuart Turvey, MBBS, DPhil, FRCPC is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia where he holds the Aubrey J. Tingle Professorship in Pediatric Immunology. He is a Pediatric Immunologist based at BC Children’s Hospital, and Director of Clinical Research at the Child & Family Research Institute. Prior to coming to Vancouver, Dr. Turvey completed both his Pediatric Residency and Allergy/Immunology Fellowship at Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston.

He holds a medical degree (MB BS) from the University of Sydney, Australia and a doctorate (DPhil) in Immunology from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Dr Turvey is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatrics. Dr. Turvey provides clinical care in the specialties of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, while his research program focuses on pediatric infectious and inflammatory diseases. Specifically, Dr. Turvey is interested in the role of innate immunity in protecting infants and young children from infectious agents, and how abnormalities of the innate immune system contribute to inflammatory diseases of childhood.

Susan Waserman

Hamilton, ON

Dr Waserman is a Professor of Medicine, Director, Division of Clinical Immunology/Allergy at McMaster University and Director of the Adverse Reactions Clinic, Firestone Institute of Respiratory Health, St Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. She is a past President of the Ontario and Canadian Societies of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and current President of the Canadian Allergy Asthma and Immunology Foundation.

Dr Waserman is extensively involved in medical education in academic and community settings, in addition to an active hospital-based clinical practice in adult and pediatric Allergy/Clinical Immunology. Activities include practice guidelines in anaphylaxis, food allergy management in schools, milk allergy, hereditary angioedema and urticaria. Her research interests and activities include peanut allergy, and mechanisms of food allergy persistence.

Tanya Laidlaw

Boston, MA

Dr. Laidlaw is allergist and translational investigator in the Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy at BWH, and focuses on treating patients with aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD) and on investigating the underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms of this complicated disease. Since joining the faculty in 2009, she has devoted the majority of my time to research in the area of AERD, with her remaining time dedicated to clinical service and teaching.

Thomas Ritz

Dallas, TX

Incoming Editor-in-Chief, Biological Psychology

Education and Training
1992 Diploma (equivalent to M.A.) in Clinical Psychology, University of Hamburg, Germany
1996 Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, University of Hamburg, Germany
1997-2002 Post-doctoral Fellowships in Clinical and Health Psychology, University of London, St. George’s Hospital Medical School (UK) and Stanford University Medical School (USA)
2002-2005 Habilitation and ‘Venia legendi’ certificate to teach, received for all subdisciplines of psychology, University of Hamburg, Germany (equivalent to tenure-track evaluation)

Troy Torgerson

Seattle, Washington

Dr. Torgerson is the Director of Experimental Immunology at the Allen Institute for Immunology and an Affiliate Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital in Seattle Washington. He obtained his MD and PhD from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and completed a Pediatrics Residency and Pediatric Rheumatology/Immunology fellowship at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital in Seattle. He has a longstanding interest in the molecular basis of immune dysregulation and autoimmunity in humans and in advancing transplant and non-transplant therapies for patients with immunodeficiency and immune dysregulation disorders. He is currently President of the Clinical Immunology Society (CIS).

Victoria Cook

Vancouver, BC

Completed a Bachelor of Science degree (Biology) at the University of Victoria in 2006. She obtained an MSc in Neuroscience from the University of Alberta in 2008. She remained at the U of A for her Medical Doctorate, and finished in 2012. She moved to Vancouver to complete a Pediatrics Residency at BC Children’s Hospital through the University of British Columbia and remained at UBC and BC Children’s Hospital for her Fellowship training in Pediatric Allergy and Clinical Immunology, which she completed in June 2017.

She has ongoing research projects with the Division of Allergy at BC Children’s Hospital, and is developing a mobile tool for patients who are concerned about possible food allergy.

Waleed Alqurashi

Ottawa, ON

Dr. Waleed Alqurashi is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, University of Ottawa. He completed his pediatric residency training at the Montreal Children’s Hospital and McGill University and his fellowship training in pediatric emergency medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and the University of Ottawa. He then completed a Master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Ottawa while doing a research fellowship at The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

He also completed the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) research fellowship. He joined the Division of Emergency Medicine at CHEO and the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Ottawa in 2013. Since then, he has been a clinical investigator at the CHEO Research Institute. He secured research funding and published scholarly projects related to allergic reactions and anaphylaxis, with a particular focus on biphasic anaphylaxis, anaphylaxis epidemiology, and patient education materials. Dr. Alqurashi is the Content Advisor for anaphylaxis at the Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids (TREKK), a National Centre of Excellence aimed at bringing evidence-based pediatric emergency care to general emergency departments across Canada. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the TREKK network.

Zainab Abdurrahman

Hamilton, ON

Assistant Clinical Professor (Adjunct) of Pediatrics at McMaster University

Dr. Abdurrahman is a Pediatric Clinical Immunologist and Allergist as well as an Allergist for adults. In addition to her allergy and immunology clinics in the community, she has clinics at McMaster Childrens’ Hospital in Hamilton. Her academic interests include vaccine allergy, asthma, anaphylaxis, and food allergy, particularly the patient and caregiver experience. She also has a strong interest in medical education and is involved with the training of residents.

Wade Watson

Halifax, NS

Dr. Wade Watson is a pediatric allergist and Professor of Pediatrics at Dalhousie University. He is also the head of the Division of Allergy at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax.

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