Bonita Eby is a Burnout Prevention Strategist, Executive Coach, and owner of Breakthrough Personal & Professional Development Inc., specializing in burnout prevention and wellness for organizations and individuals.

Her career began in healthcare. Bonita owned a Registered Massage Therapy clinic in Kitchener, Ontario, focusing on rehabilitation and optimum health. Her expertise led her to work at the Wellness Centre of the St. Mary’s Hospital multidisciplinary team, rehabilitating victims of traumatic motor vehicle accidents.

Bonita later spent twelve years at a non-profit organization in Waterloo, Ontario, developing leaders, training teams, and coaching people through complex struggles.

Having experienced burnout herself, Bonita spent years researching burnout from both a healthcare and leadership perspective. She supports organizations with workplace wellness and culture transformation, workshops and programs. Additionally, she provides executive coaching and workshops for individuals.

Passionate to see people and organizations thrive, Bonita is on a mission to end burnout.

Dr. Katharine Smart is a pediatrician in Whitehorse, Yukon. Her work is centred on developing collaborative partnerships with community and government services to serve marginalized children using a model of social pediatrics. She works primarily with children who have experienced trauma and adverse childhood events, and she witnesses the broad and lasting impact these events have on children and their development daily. She is passionate about improving services for marginalized children in an effort to change their life trajectory. In addition to her community-based work, Dr. Smart enjoys acute care and provides on-call services to the hospital. Before moving to the Yukon, she was a pediatric emergency medicine physician at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary.

As president of the Canadian Medical Association — the national voice of the medical profession – Dr. Smart has cemented a reputation as a trusted, authoritative voice to advance key priorities for Canadian physicians. Her presidency has been underscored by some of the most difficult challenges health care workers have ever faced in Canada. She is one of the country’s leading health care experts, respected and lauded by colleagues across the country.

Dr. Smart is the 10th woman to take on the presidency in the association’s 154-year history. She’s leading the profession at a key moment in time, as more women enter medicine than ever before and the need for health leadership is paramount.

Dr Saroo Sharda MBChB, MMEd, FRCPC is an anesthesiologist, medical educator, writer and trained creative writing coach. She identifies as a woman of colour of North Indian descent, who has the privilege of being cis-gender, straight, able-bodied and economically privileged.

She is an advocate for physician wellness, equity and antiracism, and has written and spoken widely about these topics, including publications in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, British Medical Journal, Anesthesiology, The Globe and Mail and Today’s Parent.

Dr Sharda is the inaugural Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Lead at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, where she has led cross-organizational work to embed an EDI and anti-racist lens into complaints processes, policy work and ongoing education of committee and Council.

She has presented and taught on EDI in the context of healthcare at a variety of national and international organisations and conferences. She has been described as a “gifted”, “insightful” and “excellent” facilitator, and is able to guide groups through challenging and brave conversations.

Dr Sharda holds a Masters and Fellowship in Medical Education, is the Chair of the Physician Wellness Committee at the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society and a Faculty Member in the Department of Anesthesia at McMaster University. She was recently awarded the Pauline Alakija trailblazer award for her EDI work.

When not writing or working she works hard to avoid stepping on lego pieces strewn around the house by her 5 year old and 8 year old sons.

Article: Not neutral: reimagining antiracism as a professional competence

Dr. Semir Bulle is currently a resident in Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and is co-founder of both Doctors for Defunding Police and Doctors for LTC Justice He was born and raised in the west end of Toronto in a working-class neighbourhood which directly motivated his longitudinal commitment to the organization of his community and an emphasis on the improvement of their overall material conditions. His work within the Ethiopian diaspora has recognized him with the Bikila Foundation award and a position as the executive chair of the Bikila Youth Council. Semir has also co-led the initiative “Mental Health in the Black Community: A Speaker Series” which aims to create spaces for the community to collectively educate themselves, form long-lasting partnerships, develop solidarity and create increasingly powerful networks. Additionally, he is the official liaison for the Canadian Doctors’ for protection against guns, the former president of the Black Medical Students’ Association and he has strong ties to the Zero Gun Violence Movement, which has made Semir an expert correspondent for the Toronto Star, CBC and other news organizations in the city of Toronto.