Dean Lising is the Team-Based Practice and Education Lead at the Centre for IPE, University of Toronto (UT).

Dean leads professional and faculty development programs locally and internationally and is the co-creator and Director of the BOOST! (Building Optimal Outcomes from Successful Teamwork) program, advancing collaborative practice for teams and providers.

He is actively faculty for Ontario’s Improving and Driving Excellence Across Sectors (IDEAS) Foundation programs, PT Practice within the Canadian Health Care Context Course and previously taught in the Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Certificate Course.

He also supports the UT IHI Student Chapter as a Faculty Advisor and Co-Curricular Record Validator. In previous leadership and management roles, Dean has led projects in professional practice, education, redevelopment and quality improvement in team rounding, falls prevention, electronic documentation, home first discharge and safe mobility.

As Co-Chair of Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN) working groups, he has supported the advancement of interprofessional competency framework, team and organizational tools across TAHSN hospitals. He has co-authored published research in international quality and safety literature, exploring quality improvement and team dynamics with a previous secondment as a Research Officer for the Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation, UT.

Dean continues to work as a clinical physiotherapist with almost 20 years’ experience in surgery, medicine, critical care, emergency and ambulatory clinic settings.

Genny is the Manager of Quality & Patient Safety and Co-Chair of the Green Task Force at Sunnybrook. In her role, she oversees accreditation preparations, and leads quality improvement initiatives aimed at enhancing patient care. As Co-Chair of the Green Task Force, Genny oversees a number of sustainability initiatives. Genny has over 15 years of healthcare experience, prior to joining the Quality & Patient Safety department, Genny worked as a Respiratory Therapist in the ICU.

Christine is the Director of the MSc Quality Improvement and Patient Safety concentration and an Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream) in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) at the University of Toronto. Her research and teaching focus on leadership, change, quality improvement and patient safety across IHPME’s programs. Christine also consults and teaches bespoke executive and continuing professional development programs to a variety of healthcare organizations. In Ontario she was the curriculum lead and faculty in the IDEAS Advanced Learning Program the provincial quality improvement program in healthcare. Christine brings over 30 years of experience working around the world as a consultant in safety and risk focusing on the role of leadership and culture to safety, risk and improvement in high reliability organizations including health care, aviation, rail and the nuclear industry. She has a master’s in educational psychology, a post graduate certificate in applied psychology and a PhD investigating the contribution of organizational, technical, and human factors in patient safety in English Emergency departments from the University of Manchester, UK. She then completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Faculty of Management at the Technical University Eindhoven, the Netherlands exploring factors contributing to patient safety in neo-natal intensive care units before returning to the UK where she worked as a safety and risk consultant for AEA Technology formerly the UK Atomic Energy Authority.

Heather Thomson, RN PhD is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, and Director of the Undergraduate Program at the University of Toronto’s Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing. Heather received her PhD in Nursing with a diploma in Health Services Research from the University of Toronto and has over 20 years of experience in the healthcare system with positions ranging from point of care nurse to leadership roles in the public and private sectors. Heather’s research and teaching interests include leadership, mentorship, quality improvement, patient safety, simulation, innovation, and technology.

Dr. Jobin Varughese is a comprehensive family physician with special interest in care of elderly. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University and Lecturer in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. He is the residency director for the family medicine residents at the Brampton site for McMaster University. With his involvement with the Ontario Long Term Care Clinicians, he had been teaching the IDEAs to clinicians within the long-term care. He has been working with IDEAs on the virtual delivery of the program.