Vence L. Bonham, Jr. is acting deputy director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and a member of the senior leadership team for the institute. Mr. Bonham provides leadership for the institute’s health equity and workforce diversity programs and works in partnership across NIH to promote the mission of the institute. He is currently an associate investigator in the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) within the Division of Intramural Research's Social and Behavioral Research Branch. He leads the Health Disparities Unit, which investigates the equitable integration of new genomic knowledge and precision medicine into clinical settings.

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Dr Nadine Caron MD, MPH, FRCSC, is a General and Endocrine Surgeon at Prince George Regional Hospital and Professor at University of British Columbia (UBC)'s Faculty of Medicine, Department of Surgery and teaching in the Northern Medical Program. She is Co-Director of the UBC Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Health located at UBC’s School of Population and Public Health. Dr Caron is also appointed as an Associate Faculty member of the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University where she teaches for the Center for American Indian Health. Dr Caron is Anishnawbe from Sagamok First Nation. Her work involves a variety of audiences and knowledge users including governments, provincial health authorities, national medical organizations, health research funding bodies, and several universities to achieve identified and overlapping objectives.

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Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, PhD, is Chief of the Division of Ethics and Professor of Medical Humanities and Ethics at Columbia University. Trained as a medical anthropologist, Dr. Lee has extensive experience leading multi-disciplinary bioethics research on race, ancestry and equity in genomics, precision medicine and artificial intelligence; governance of biorepositories and commercialization of biotechnology; and diversity in academic medicine and entrepreneurship. Dr. Lee is Co-PI of the national Center for ELSI Resources and Analysis (CERA) funded by the NIH/NHGRI, a collaboration between Columbia and Stanford with partners at the Hastings Center and Harvard University. Dr. Lee is also the co-Director of the NIH/NHGRI funded biennial International ELSI Congress and President of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors.

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Prof Ambroise Wonkam is a professor of Genetic Medicine, and Director of the McKusick-Nathans Institute, and Department of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Prof Wonkam is president of the African Society of Human Genetics, Chair of the steering committee of H3Africa consortium, Board member of the International Federation of Human Genetics Societies, steering committee’s member of the Global Genetic Medicine Collaborative (G2MC). Prof Wonkam research interests are reflected in more than 180 peer-reviewed publications, which are in molecular, clinical, educational, and ethical aspects of medical and human genetics. His research focuses on 1) Genomics modifiers of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD); 2) Genetics of hearing loss, and 3) Ethical and educational Issues in human genetics.

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Dr. Lori Chibnik, PhD, MPH is a biostatistician and Assistant Professor with appointments in the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Departments of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She received her MPH in International Health and her PhD in biostatistics from Boston University where she worked on predictive modeling methods for disease risk. Over her career she has developed and assessed predictive models for diseases such as HIV, pre-natal screening and autoimmune diseases and continues to apply her methods to various diseases. Dr. Chibnik’s current research focus is in two primary areas, genetics and genomics Alzheimer’s disease and dementia with an emphasis on longitudinal cohorts and genetic studies in ethnically diverse populations. She serves as the co-lead of the Data and Statistics Core of the Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (MADRC) and Director of the Biostatistical Consulting Service in the Dept. of Neurology.

Dr. Segun Fatumo is an Associate Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and Bioinformatics at the MRC/UVRI Uganda and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in the UK. He leads The African Computational Genomics (TACG) Research group at the MRC/UVRI and LSHTM. Dr Fatumo’s research broadly focuses on the genetic impact of non-communicable diseases in Africa, with particular interest in assessing the impact of genetic variation on kidney function, diabetes, lipid metabolism and a range of cardiovascular diseases. He leads major genomics programmes in Africa including the Uganda Genome Resource, Malawi Genome Resource and co-lead the Nigerian 100K Genome Project.

Dr Gravel’s is interested in learning about biology and evolution through creative analysis of high-throughput biological data. His group develops mathematical and statistical methods that take advantage of diverse data sources to refine our understanding of fundamental parameters of human history and biology. His recent research has focused on how the history of diverse human populations affected patterns of genetic diversity and disease. His group made contributions about the origins of modern humans, the successive waves of migrations that led to the formations of contemporary populations in the Americas, as well as the identification of genetic predispositions for disease.

Dr. Neil Hanchard received his medical degree with Honours from the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, and his D.Phil. in Clinical Medicine from the University of Oxford, UK, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Thereafter he completed his clinical training as a pediatrician at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and as a clinical geneticist at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston, Texas. Dr. Hanchard is currently a Senior Investigator and Stadtman Scholar in the Center for Precision Health Research within the National Human Genome Research Institute, where he heads the Childhood Complex Disease Genomics lab. His research uses quantitative and integrative genomics to better understand the pathophysiology of complex pediatric diseases, with a particular emphasis on the interplay of population genetics and disease susceptibility in diverse populations. The lab’s current research portfolio includes studies of pediatric hypertension, transfusion reactions in sickle cell disease, severe childhood malnutrition, and pediatric HIV. Dr. Hanchard is an adjunct Associate Professor at BCM, Chair of the Genome Analysis working group of the Human Health and Heredity in Africa (H3Africa) Consortium, Chair of the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Task Force of the American Society of Human Genetics, and a Distinguished Scholar of the NIH.

Julie Kristof is the Chair of the Montreal Jewish Genetic Disease Fund, mother of a child with the rare Jewish hereditary disease called Familial Dysautonomia (or Riley Day), a marketing researcher by profession and a fierce advocate for inclusion and accessibility in the special needs world. The Montreal Jewish Genetic Disease Fund works with medical professionals, clergy, and community to raise awareness of the issues and to improve access to testing - and perhaps screening one day. Ms. Kristof holds a Bachelors in Science from McGill University and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Toronto.

Ms. Kristof and Dr. Rosenblatt have been working together for over 10 years to address some of the challenges related to targeting ethnic populations.

Maxine Macintosh leads the Diverse Data initiative at Genomics England, which aims to reduce health inequalities in genomic medicine by ensuring patients, regardless of their background, receive the same quality of genomics-enabled personalised medicine, supported by the latest research on people like them. Maxine is also the co-founder of One HealthTech – a global, volunteer-led, grassroots community that supports and promotes under-represented groups in health innovation. OHT has over 20,000 contributors worldwide across 20 Hubs which have collectively delivered over 1000 events, projects, campaigns and initiatives improving diversity in healthtech. She also set up Data Science for Health Equity, a community of practice that brings together those with expertise in data science and health inequalities to connect and collaborate on cutting-edge domains in health. She has been part of a number of communities and committees including being a Non-Executive Director for the Eastern Academic Health Science Network, a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers, and the British Computer Society (Health Exec) and the DeepMind Health Independent Review Board.

Tuya Pal is a Professor of Medicine and an Ingram Professor of Cancer Research at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she is also the Associate Director for Cancer Health Disparities at the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center. The research efforts have a broad focus on cancer health disparities, spanning across basic and clinical services as well as health services delivery in diverse populations and healthcare settings. She currently leads multiple studies focused on genomics, etiology, outcomes, and care delivery among underserved and/or inherited cancer populations. She is also the Vice Chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Genetics/Familial Guidelines Committee for Breast, Ovarian and Pancreatic Cancer; as well as the Editor-in-Chief for the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Genetics PDQ Editorial Board.

Dr. David Rosenblatt, Holder, Dodd Q. Chu and Family Chair in Medical Genetics and Professor, Departments of Human Genetics, Medicine, Pediatrics, and Biology at McGill University, is a leader of basic and clinical research and education in human genetics in Canada and internationally. He has made major contributions to our knowledge of inherited metabolic diseases, particularly in the genetics and treatment of defects of the vitamins folic acid and vitamin B12. As Chair of the Department of Human Genetics at McGill’s Faculty of Medicine from 2001-2013, he built an outstanding department that has achieved international prominence both for research, and also for the education of basic and clinical scientists, clinical and laboratory physicians, and genetic counsellors. He has served as President of the Society for Inherited Metabolic Disorders, the Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of Medical Geneticists of Quebec. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and Correspondant étranger of the Académie Nationale de Médecine of France.

Ms. Kristof and Dr. Rosenblatt have been working together for over 10 years to address some of the challenges related to targeting ethnic populations.

Victoria Siu has been a pediatrician and clinical geneticist for over 30 years and is currently the medical director of the Medical Genetics Program of Southwestern Ontario. During that time, she has had the privilege of meeting and working with Amish and Mennonite families in our region. She has learned from my patients and from my mentor, Dr. Holmes Morton, founder of the Clinical for Special Children in Pennsylvania, about how to provide optimal genetics care that is tailored towards their needs, and appropriate within their cultural context. Through collaborations with numerous colleagues, especially Dr. Tony Rupar and Dr. Robert Hegele, they have identified the molecular basis of several unique genetic disorders in these populations, and have applied this knowledge to the development of targeted newborn and adult carrier screening.

Krystal Tsosie (Diné/Navajo Nation), PhD, MPH, MA, is an Indigenous geneticist-bioethicist and Presidential Post-Doctoral Fellow transitioning to Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences (effective 01/2023) at Arizona State University. As an advocate for Indigenous genomic data sovereignty, she co-founded the first US Indigenous-led biobank, a 501c3 nonprofit research institution called the Native BioData Consortium.

Her research can be encapsulated in two main foci: Indigenous population genetics and bioethics. In particular, she focuses on bioethical engagement of Indigenous communities in genomics and data science to build trust. As a whole, her interest is in integrating genomic and data approaches to assess Indigenous variation contributing to health inequities.

Dr. Aziz holds a PhD in Gene Targeting from University of Dundee, UK, MPhil in Biotechnology and Executive MBA from Bradford School of Management, UK. His previous roles include serving as the Director of Technology programs at Genome Canada, Head of Genomics at University of York, UK and as Research Fellow at the Noble Research Institute, USA.

Christina R. Daulton serves as the Partnerships and Engagement Officer at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) in the Training, Diversity and Health Equity (TiDHE) Office. In her role, Ms. Daulton works internally in collaboration with National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institutes, and externally with Minority-Serving Institutions, industry, museums, and other organizations on the development of initiatives focused on diversifying the genomics workforce and creating a more equitable and inclusive field. For more than two decades, she has worked directly with diverse communities to address issues of access and equity in higher education and to advance diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility within the field of genomics.

Dr. Lopez-Correa holds a Medical degree from the UPB in Colombia, a Master’s degree in Human Genetics from Paris V University in France, a PhD in Medical Biosciences from the KULeuven in Belgium, a mini MBA from McGill University in Canada and has trained in innovation leadership at Singularity University.

As part of her commitment to international development, Dr. Lopez-Correa has championed several initiatives aimed at demonstrating the impact of genomics and innovation in developing countries. She is also fully committed to advance equity, diversity and inclusion, with a particular interest in gender equity in science that led her to be a co-founder of the IWS Network (International and Immigrant Women in Science).

Dr. Christopher McMaster is the Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Genetics since 2018. He is also a Professor and former Head of the Department of Pharmacology and Director of the Cheminformatics Drug Discovery. Previous to this, he held a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Biosignalling (the study of how messages are conveyed into cells by the interaction of a signal or a chemical messenger with a receptor incorporated into the cell membrane), and was the Assistant Dean for Graduate and Post-doctoral Studies in the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University.

Wesley Oakes provides strategic leadership to further integrate and advance the Genome Canada’s commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA), as well as truth, reconciliation and Indigenous engagement.

Wesley is an applied sociocultural anthropologist with over a decade of experience in community-based ethnographic research, population health and EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion) policy. Before Joining Genome Canada, he held a senior role at the Ontario HIV Treatment Network, where he managed the development and implementation of strategic EDI and truth and reconciliation roadmaps and initiatives.

He has spent many years designing, delivering and evaluating care interventions for Black, Indigenous and newcomer communities in Canada, with a focus on culturally safe clinical and case management for people living with HIV.