Dr. Victoria Werth is a Professor of Dermatology and Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Chief of the Division of Dermatology at the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Hospital. Dr. Werth earned her medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is a co-founder of the Rheumatologic Dermatology Society and a past president of the group. She is also co-founder of the Medical Dermatology Society and a recipient of their lifetime achievement award. She has a longstanding interest in clinical and translational research pertaining to cutaneous lupus erythematosus, with a focus on improving the outcomes of autoimmune dermatologic diseases. She has developed and validated disease severity tools now used in many international trials for these diseases, aiming to advance evidence for current and new therapeutics. She has received numerous honors for her work, including the Rose Hirschler Award from the Women’s Dermatologic Society, the American Skin Association’s Research Achievement Award in Autoimmune & Inflammatory Skin Disorders, and the Lifetime Career Educator Award from the Dermatology Foundation.

Professor Mandana (Mandy) Nikpour is a rheumatologist at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and an NHMRC Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Her research interests include risk and prognostic factors for clinically important outcomes in lupus and scleroderma, development of clinical tools for screening and prediction of outcome, measurement of disease activity and damage, and clinical trials of novel therapies in the rheumatic diseases. Prof Nikpour leads several international working groups and research consortia in systemic autoimmune diseases. She and her team have received numerous awards for their research contributions, including the Australian Rheumatology Association (ARA) Collaborative Research Prize, the ARA Mid-Career Research Excellence Award, and the Parr Prize, which is ARA’s most prestigious individual award for research achievements.

Dr. Elizabeth Stringer is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is a pediatric rheumatologist and clinical researcher at IWK Health, the primary pediatric hospital serving the Maritime provinces. Dr. Stringer’s interest in Lyme disease began early in her career when the Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic at the IWK Health Centre began seeing increasing numbers of children with Lyme arthritis. The pediatric rheumatology clinic has now cared for over 300 children with Lyme arthritis. Dr. Stringer’s research interests include translational research examining the immune response in children with Lyme arthritis, defining optimal care pathways for this patient population, and knowledge translation and education around Lyme arthritis.

Maja Djikic, Ph.D., is a personality psychologist specializing in adult development. She is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and HR Management, the Executive Director of the Self-Development Laboratory, and the Academic Director of the Rotman Executive Coaching Certificate program at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Her research has been featured in over 50 media outlets (including The New York Times, Salon, Slate, and Scientific American Mind) in 15 countries. Thinkers50 has selected Maja as one of 30 thinkers around the world whose ideas have the potential to shape the future of organizations. Her first book, The Possible Self: A Leader’s Guide to Personal Development, was published in March 2024 by Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Mats Junek is a Canadian-born, Australian/Canadian-trained rheumatologist with a special interest in vasculitis and rare rheumatic diseases. In addition to his rheumatology fellowship, he has completed two additional years of training as the Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium/Vasculitis Foundation clinical research fellow, supervised by Dr. Nader Khalidi. He is also completing his PhD in Health Research Methods at McMaster University with a focus on trial design, epidemiology, and shared decision making in vasculitis under Dr. Michael Walsh, the architect of the PEXIVAS trial. He takes special interest in imaging and diagnostic approaches in GCA, the use of vasculitis databases, and outcomes and long-term management of individuals with ANCA vasculitis.

Ryan Rebello is an Associate Professor within the Radiology Department at McMaster University. He is in his 20th year at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton. Dr. Rebello completed his residency at McMaster in 2002. He then completed a cross-sectional fellowship at St. Michael’s Hospital at the University of Toronto in 2003. His primary areas of interest are head/neck, neuro and body imaging, and vasculitis.

Tom Appleton was recruited to Western in 2016 as a rheumatologist and appointed site chief of rheumatology at St. Joseph’s Health Care London in 2020. On top of his full spectrum rheumatology practice, he leads clinical trials, real world cohort studies, and a translational biology laboratory researching synovial inflammation and osteoarthritis. He has served on many boards, including the CRA and the Arthritis Society. Tom is a valued member of the ORA leadership team and is the Chair of our Informatics Committee.

Dr. Janet Pope is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Western in London, Ontario.  She is the Division Head in Rheumatology at St. Joseph's Health Centre in London.  Janet is passionate about research, teaching, mentoring and excellent clinical care. She is a founding member of the Canadian Scleroderma Research Group (CSRG) and CaNIOS (Canadian Network for Improved Outcomes in SLE). She Chairs Annual Scientific Meeting Committee for the Ontario Rheumatology Association, and is a past recipient of the ORA's Rheumatologist of the Year Award, and this is just one of many awards she has received.  She is interested in teaching, quality assurance, and other local, provincial and national projects. 

Dr. Sibel Aydin is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa, an Associate Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and a Rheumatologist at The Ottawa Hospital. She holds a Tier 2 Research Chair Award. Her primary research interests focus on Psoriatic arthritis and enthesitis, with a special emphasis on using imaging techniques to better understand disease pathogenesis. Dr. Aydin is a member of the GRAPPA Steering Committee and has published over 170 papers in her field. She also serves as the Vice-President of the Canadian Rheumatology Ultrasonography Society.

Obtained his medical degree at the University of Ottawa in 1983. He subsequently did a surgical internship at Toronto General Hospital followed by an orthopaedic residency at the University of Ottawa. He completed a Fellowship in Arthroscopy and Knee Ligament Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Ottawa – Carleton Sports Medicine Clinic. He holds specialty certification in Orthopaedic Surgery from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. In private practice in Oakville, Ontario since 1989 and is an active staff member at Halton Healthcare Services-Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital site. Director Oakville Sports Injury Clinic. Orthopaedic surgeon for the 100th, 105th, 109th and 111th Grey Cup winning Toronto Argonauts. Orthopaedic surgeon York University Lions football team. Master instructor for the Arthroscopy Association of North America. Associate Clinical instructor McMaster University. Member of the Canadian Society of Medial Evaluators.

Jessica Widdifield is a Senior Scientist at Sunnybrook Research Institute and ICES, and holds the Holland Chair in Musculoskeletal Clinical Research at Sunnybrook-University of Toronto. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation. Her research program focuses on providing real-world evidence to enhance patient care, patient outcomes, and health system efficiency and sustainability for rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) across the care continuum. She is a passionate advocate for improving arthritis care by highlighting gaps in care and the current human resource crisis in rheumatology, which struggles to meet the growing demands of rising RMDs in Canada. She is currently co-leading the Canadian Rheumatology Implementation Science Team (CAN-RIST)—funded by CIHR’s Transforming Health with Integrated Care (THINC) initiative—to develop a rheumatology learning health system in Ontario. This system aims to evaluate, implement, and sustain interdisciplinary team-based rheumatology care and other best practices to achieve better population health, improve patient and provider experiences, build higher-value rheumatology healthcare, and improve equity (the so-called Quintuple Aim).

Michelle Batthish is a pediatric rheumatologist and the physician lead for Ambulatory Care at McMaster Children's Hospital. She is also an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at McMaster University. Her clinical and research interests include healthcare transition and quality improvement in pediatric rheumatology. She is co-chair of the Transition Working Group at the Canadian Rheumatology Association and is on the steering committee of the Transition Hub, a national network aimed at bridging the gap between current treatment practices and evidence-based solutions for healthcare transition in Canada. Michelle also serves on the Board for the Ontario Rheumatology Association and is the incoming vice-president (pediatrics) for the ORA.

Dr. Greg Choy is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He serves as Head of the Division of Rheumatology at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. He completed his internal medicine training at the University of Saskatchewan and his rheumatology training at the University of Toronto. His academic interests focus on medical education at the undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing professional development levels. Dr. Choy’s clinical and research work centers on crystal arthritis, with an emphasis on improving quality of care in gout management.

Dr. Basharat completed her Internal Medicine and Rheumatology fellowships at the University of Western Ontario in 2011 and 2013. She also completed a fellowship in Inflammatory Myopathies at Johns Hopkins University in 2014. Dr. Basharat has a special interest in inflammatory myopathies. She runs a specialized multi-disciplinary clinic for Inflammatory Myositis bi-monthly with Dr. Shannon Venance, a neuromuscular specialist from the Department of Neurology. This clinic serves to enhance the care and assessment of patients with possible autoimmune muscle disorders. Dr. Basharat is also involved in research at local, national, and international levels in autoimmune myopathies and recently received the AMOSO Opportunities Fund Award from the Department of Medicine, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, for research in this area. She recently published a review on Autoimmune Necrotizing Myopathies and will be involved in the Canadian Inflammatory Myopathy Study Group research initiative, a national research network and database to enhance research in the area of inflammatory myopathies.