Pier Bryden, MPhil, MD, FRCPC

Panelist Speaker

Dr. Pier Bryden has been a staff psychiatrist at the Hospital for Sick Children since 2001 and has subspecialty certification in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry with the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada. 

She is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Clinical Affairs & Professional Values, for the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Bryden is a graduate of the University of Toronto, the University of Oxford, and McMaster University.

Her academic publications include papers on medical education, medical professionalism, and ethical and legal aspects of child psychiatry.  She is the co-author, with Dr. David Goldbloom, of a popular book on psychiatry, “How Can I Help: A Week in my Life as a Psychiatrist,” and with Dr. Peter Szatmari of “Start Here: A Parent’s Guide to Helping Children and Teens Through Mental Health Challenges.”

Dr. Bryden was the 2018 Recipient of the University’s prestigious President’s Teaching Award, the 2020 Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Region 3 Mentor of the Year Award, and the 2021 Sarita Verma Award for Advocacy and Mentorship in Postgraduate Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Ariel Lefkowitz MD, CM, MEd, FRCPC

Panelist Speaker

Dr. Ariel Lefkowitz is an Internal Medicine physician and the Education Lead for the Division of General Internal Medicine at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, where he is the lead for many educational sessions at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, including Professional Boundaries, Communication, Feedback, Resilience, and Managing the Self. He is the lead author of a recently published book chapter entitled, "Future Directions and Disruptive Innovations in Medical Professionalism".

Anjali Menezes MBBS, MClinEd, FHEA, CCFP

Panelist Speaker

Dr. Anjali Menezes is a community family physician based in Hamilton. With special interests in trauma-informed care, and the factors that lead to differentials in attainment, her career is an eclectic mix of clinical work, teaching, mentoring, scholarly work, and community activism. Born and raised in Scarborough, she studied medicine and obtained her master’s in clinical education in the UK before returning to Canada for residency.

A theme of most of her academic and activism work has been creating community and safe spaces for people with shared identities. She co-founded and chaired Racialized Residents at McMaster during her residency training at McMaster, and this year finished her role directing the Racialized Medical Learner Mentorship program. In 2021, she created and led the DARe Group Collaborative: exclusively Racialized academics studying and addressing the racial attainment gap in medical training. The group rapidly expanded, reaching a peak of just under 50 within 3 years.

Her prior scholarly focus on how race-based data is collected and used in healthcare and education eventually led her to be appointed to the Hamilton Police Service Board where she serves as the Citizen Appointee.

Chris Watling, MD, MMEd, PhD, FRCPC

Panelist Speaker

Chris Watling is the Chief Executive Officer of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, a position he started on July 1, 2024. Previously, he was Professor in the Departments of Oncology, Clinical Neurological Sciences, and Family Medicine at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University in London, Canada; Vice Dean (Acting), Education Scholarship and Strategy; and the Director of Schulich’s Centre for Education Research and Innovation. A neurologist by clinical training, he holds a Masters in Medical Education from the University of Dundee and a PhD in Health Professions Education from Maastricht University. His research, widely published in the medical education literature, explores how and why feedback influences learning, and how medicine’s professional culture shapes its educational practices. He is an avid teacher of academic writing, and is the co-author, with Lorelei Lingard, of a recent book on the subject - Story, Not Study: 30 Brief Lessons to Inspire Health Researchers as Writers.

Tasha Wyatt, PhD

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Tasha Wyatt is Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Health Professions Education at Uniformed Services University. As a trained educational psychologist in cross-cultural, her interests include the study of race, ethnicity, and culture, and the ways these elements intersect with educational systems. Current areas of research include critical perspectives on the professional identity formation of racially minoritized physicians, strategies for professional resistance in medicine, and the control of others' time as a form of oppression in medical education.