This year’s theme focuses on how modern stressors impact aging and health across the lifespan.
Moderator
Ross Upshur, BA (Hons.), MA, MD, MSc, CCFP, FRCPC
Ross Upshur is currently the Dalla Lana Chair in Clinical Public Health and Head of the Division of Clinical Public Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. At the University of Toronto, he is a Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Family and Community Medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Associate Director of the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health and Sustainable Care, Affiliate Member of the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, and Member of the Joint Centre for Bioethics. He is an elected Fellow of the Hastings Center and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
Speakers
Susan Deering, MD, MPH
Dr. Susan Deering is a Family Physician who has been practicing in Long Term Care for about 20 years. She currently provides primary care and consultant wound care to patients and residents within the Veterans Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. In 2024 she completed a Master of Public Health with a focus on the impacts of climate change on human health, particularly the health of older adults. She is also a co-chair for the Sunnybrook Green Task Force, which focuses on reducing healthcare’s impact on climate change.
Dawn Bowdish, PhD
Dr. Dawn Bowdish is a Professor at McMaster University, the Executive Director of the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health. Dr. Bowdish investigates the changes in the aging immune system
that make older adults vulnerable to pneumonia and how the microbes that naturally live on us keep dangerous germs at bay. Her research team aims to discover novel treatments to protect older adults from infection by improving their immune systems and harnessing the power of the microbes that live on and in us (“the microbiome”) and to understand why the aging immune system does not respond as well to vaccinations for pneumonia and COVID-19. She also sits on the Board of Directors of the
Lung Health Foundation and advocates to increase research funding for lung health.
Andrew Lim, MD, MSc
Dr. Lim is a scientist in the Hurvitz Brain Sciences Research Program at Sunnybrook Research Institute, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Toronto and a neurologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. The focus of his clinical practice and research programme is on disorders of sleep and circadian biology, especially as they relate to brain health. He completed an MD and residency in neurology at U of T, a clinical sleep fellowship at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and a master’s degree in clinical investigation at Harvard Medical School.