Team

Dr. Meldon Kahan, MD CCFP FRCPC, has worked in the addiction field for many years. In addition to his role as Medical Director of META:PHI, he is a staff physician at the Substance Use Service at Women’s College Hospital. Dr. Kahan has written a number of peer-reviewed articles on addiction, and has been a principal or co-principal investigator on various research studies, including several randomized trials and observational studies. He has been extensively involved in policy and advocacy. He has helped write several guidelines on opioid agonist treatment and opioid prescribing for chronic pain, and has co-authored several handbooks and guidance documents on addiction medicine. He has given numerous presentations for local, provincial, and national conferences. His main interest is the integration of addiction medicine into primary care, emergency departments, and hospital units.

Ann Marie Corrado, MSc, has worked at Women’s College Hospital since 2019 and has a background in project management, spread and scale, and government policy development. As the Acting Director of META:PHI, Ann Marie provides professional leadership and program development and oversight to the provincial network. Ann Marie also liaises with provincial agencies and raises the profile of the rapid access model, which has been adopted by over 75 clinics in Ontario, in addition to clinics in other provinces.

Dr. Jennifer Wyman, MD CCFP FCFP DABAM MPH, is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, and Medical Director of the Substance Use Service at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto. As a physician working in primary care and addictions, in community and academic settings, her interest is in improving care pathways for people with substance use disorders through education, resource development and advocacy across the heath care sectors.

Sarah Clarke, PhD, has been involved with verious research projects since 2006, and joined the Substance Use Service at Women’s College Hospital in 2013. She works with the META:PHI team to develop educational materials and resources for health care providers.

Leslie Molnar, BSW MSW RSW, is a clinical social worker/psychotherapist working in the Substance Use Service at Women’s College Hospital, where she provides assessment, psychotherapy, and group experiences to patients struggling with substance use disorders. She also works in the General Psychiatry/Mental Health in Medicine program, a specialized mental health service for clients with mental health concerns complicated by a concurrent medical illness, where she delivers individual psychotherapy and facilitates a CBT group for depression and anxiety as well as a group for people who have PTSD symptoms and substance use issues. As META:PHI’s social work educator, Leslie provides educational support to social workers and outreach workers in RAAM clinics across the province. She has trained in trauma-informed care and a number of therapeutic interventions, including CBT, relational psychotherapy, DBT, structured relapse prevention, CPT, and IPT, and brings compassion and enthusiasm to her work.

Laurie Smith has a background in teaching and music, and spent five years travelling and teaching English as a second language internationally. Laurie’s previous positions have included roles in education, provincial and municipal government, and healthcare. Laurie is delighted to be on the META:PHI team and support their determined and inspiring work in expanding and improving addictions treatment throughout Ontario and beyond.

Katie Dunham, BSc Hons BScN MN NP-PHC, is a nurse practitioner with a Master’s in Nursing (Humanitarian and Emergency Medicine) and an Honours Specialization in Kinesiology. She is also a member of the Canadian Medical Assistance Team and was deployed to Nepal for earthquake relief in 2015. She previously worked in the emergency department at London Health Sciences Centre, and has a research background in cardiovascular studies in youth and human kinetics.

Kate Hardy, MSW RSW MHSc, has worked at Women’s College Hospital since 2013 and helped found the META:PHI program in 2015. As director of META:PHI, Kate liaises with provincial agencies and raises the profile of the rapid access model, which has been adopted by over 70 clinics in Ontario, in addition to clinics in other provinces.

Kim Baker is the Director of Clinical Services at St. Leonard’s Community Services.  She is a Registered Social Worker with career experiences that have spanned clinical work, training, health promotion, system planning, implementation, and leadership.  After more than a decade working at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), in 2018 Kim joined St. Leonard’s where she provides leadership and oversight for a wide variety of addiction and mental health programs, including outpatient concurrent disorders, bedded withdrawal management and treatment, and mental health crisis telephone line, walk-in, and outreach supports.  Kim is passionate about driving change by combining knowledge of evidence-informed frameworks, such as Implementation Science and Quality Improvement methodology, with a strong work ethic and compassion for people.

Dr. Brasch is the Lead, Addiction Psychiatry, for the Mental Health & Addictions Program at St. Joseph’s Healthcare.  Her clinical work includes serving as the only psychiatrist for the Concurrent Disorders Clinic at St. Joe’s, working in an opioid agonist clinic weekly and in the Rapid Access Addiction Medicine Clinic.

Dr. Brasch is a member of the Peter Boris Centre for Addiction Research and involved in projects including screening for head injuries in patients and the concurrent disorders clinic, and a meta-analysis of opioid use disorder in chronic pain patients.  She is the Conference Chair and Past-President of the Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine.

Dr. Lisa Bromley, MD, CCFP(AM), FCFP, is an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa, and Medical Director of The Ottawa Hospital Substance Use Program. She works in both the inpatient and community settings. She provides low-barrier Opioid Agonist Treatment in the RAAM clinic at Sandy Hill CHC in Ottawa. She has been a methadone prescriber since 2001.

Robin is the Executive Director of St. Michael’s Homes, an addiction and mental health service provider in Toronto.  Robin has worked in a number of sectors including primary care, community social services, mental health and addictions, and health system community engagement.  He has been Chair of the Addiction Service Providers Working Group in Toronto, and co-chaired the Mental Health and Substance Use Working Group for the Mid-West Ontario Health Team.   As Director of Homeless and Housing Services at St. Stephen’s Community House, Robin led the founding and implementation of the Toronto Community Addiction Team, one of the first major community-hospital partnerships in the substance use service sector in Toronto. Robin has a Masters’ Degree from University of Toronto.

Janelle brings the insight of a skilled medical social worker to the practice of addiction medicine. Her highly developed skills in assessing the psychosocial circumstances precipitating and maintaining substance abuse and addiction are invaluable to the multidisciplinary teams to which she contributes. Her perspective is informed by her strong understanding of the intersectionality of trauma, culture and multiple social determinants of health on individual recovery. Janelle regards the opportunity to participate on this panel as a valuable chance to implement overdue systemic change that will facilitate recovery and healing for a historically stigmatized population. Janelle holds a Hons. BHSc in Public Health, Graduate Certificate in Addictions and Mental Health and a Masters of Social Work. She is currently working as a social worker for CAMH’s Medical Withdrawal Services.

Pia Heikkinen is Northwestern Ontario Regional RAAM Coordinator, with 23 plus years working in addiction and mental health for St Joseph’s Care Group in Thunder Bay.  She is also the chair of the Northwestern Ontario Regional RAAM Steering Committee. Her variety of work experience ranges from creating and managing addiction intervention and prevention programs, to providing leadership for intensive residential addiction treatment programs. Most recently Pia has taken on the role as the lead for eight Northwestern Ontario RAAM clinic sites, helping support, coordinate and guide them in the creation and expansion of a hub and spoke model of care in the region. She is a strong advocate for Northwestern Ontario, which is characterized by a vast geographical area, scattered with small rural and remote communities. Pia brings a unique perspective to the voice of the region which is embedded in cultural safety and delivered through an equity lens.

Mae Katt is a Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner from Temagami First Nation and lives in Thunder Bay, Ontario. She holds an Honours degree in Nursing, Master of Education (Curriculum Specialty) and has an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Trent University.  She coordinates a Mobile Treatment Team that provides opiate-agonist treatment with Suboxone and Sublocade in remote and rural First Nations communities. For the past 20 years, Mae has provided primary care and mental health care to students in an urban based Indigenous high school.

Kate Lazier is an emergency and addiction physician practising at Michael Garron Hospital in Toronto, Ontario and at Fishermen’s Memorial Hospital in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. She is Addiction Health Physician Lead at Michael Garron Hospital and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto.

Adam McInnis RN, BsCN, MScCH (AMH), MN NP (Student) is the Nursing Team Lead of Addiction Medicine at CMHA Thames Valley Addiction & Mental Health Services, based in London, Ontario.  Adam completed his graduate studies at the University of Toronto with a Master of Science in Community Health, specializing in Addictions and Mental Health. During this time, he worked at Sherbourne Health, caring for individuals experiencing homelessness, and CAMH on the TAY/PICU Unit (Transitionally Aged Youth & Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit). Adam was recently appointed to the Mental Health & Addictions Advisory Panel (MHAAP) for the London Police Service Board. He is also working with the Centre of Excellence on the Mental Health and Addictions ‘Bed-Based Services For Substance Use’ task group.  Adam combines his clinical practice, public health background and lived experience inspiring hope and change amongst his clients and colleagues in the community of London and on a provincial level.

Patrick Nowak is a registered nurse and the program manager for outpatient mental health and addictions at the Timmins and District Hospital. Patrick has a background in inpatient mental health, crisis response, public health, and harm reduction. Throughout his career, he has been involved in the creation of different systems and programs ranging from early warning systems for opioid poisonings to overdose prevention sites. Patrick provides oversight for Timmins and District Hospital’s outpatient mental health services, inpatient withdrawal management, community withdrawal management, addictions medicine consult services, and Timmins’ temporary supervised consumption site.

Ainko Ramanathan RPh MPharm PharmD is a pharmacist from Toronto, Ontario which is where he started his journey into helping those with OUD. Having worked in different regions of Southern Ontario has given him a unique insight into the needs of this population, as well as what gaps pharmacists can fill to improve care. He then worked as a Medical Science Liaison providing indepth knowledge about extended release buprenorphine to addiction providers across Ontario while learning the needs of patients in their community. He also presented a poster at CSAM in 2022 on long-term outcomes from BUP-XR. After returning to work as a pharmacist he partnered with METAPHI to provide education to pharmacists, and will guest lecture at the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy in their substance use course.

Ainko believes that community pharmacists are an important piece of the puzzle to address the opioid epidemic, and is keen to connect with others who believe the same.

Dr. Lori Regenstreif, MSc MD CCFP (AM) FCFP MScCH (AMH) CISAM, is a graduate of University of Toronto medical school and has been working in inner city Hamilton since 2004. She co-founded the Shelter Health Network in 2005 and the Hamilton Clinic’s opioid treatment clinic in 2010, and has had an active role in recruiting and training clinicians to provide opioid treatment. Dr. Regenstreif was instrumental in the establishment of the St. Joseph’s Hospital RAAM clinic and the inpatient addiction medicine service at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Hamilton Health Sciences General, services that she envisioned and planned while working on her Master’s degree at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.