2021 Conference Presentations and Speaker Bios
Dr. Valorie Crooks
Talk Title: “Spatially Exploring COVID-19 Pandemic Neighborhood Vulnerabilities”
Bio: Dr. Valorie Crooks is a Professor in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University where she holds the Canada Research Chair in Health Service Geographies and is currently a Fraser Health Faculty Fellow. Since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, she has been undertaking funded research to deepen our understanding of various pandemic geographies and their implications in Canada with a focus on identifying and exploring vulnerable places.
J Scott Weese DVM DVSc DipACVIM FCAHS
Talk Title: “One Health and COVID-19: issues, actions and missed opportunities”
Dr. Weese is a veterinary internist and a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. He is a Professor at the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Director of the University of Guelph Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses, and Chief of Infection Control at the Ontario Veterinary College Teaching Hospital. He is also a member of the Tripartite Global Leaders Group on AMR and runs the infectious disease website WormsAndGermsBlog:
Dr. Maureen Anderson
Talk Title: “The Olympics of Epidemiology: Perspectives from Saskatchewan’s COVID-19 Pandemic Response”
Bio: Dr. Maureen Anderson spent the substantive part of her career working across the country as an epidemiologist with the Canadian Public Health Service, Public Health Agency of Canada. In 2019, she completed PhD-level training at the University of Prince Edward Island, co-supervised by a Canada Research Chair in Epi-informatics and ‘big data’. She was the 2019 recipient of the Dr. Ian Dohoo Award to recognize ‘those who are likely to make a significant contribution to the field of epidemiology in Canada’. Dr. Anderson was pleased to bring her training and experience back to her home province – she is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan. In addition, she is also serving as a Technical Advisor, Public Health Surveillance to Saskatchewan’s pandemic response.
Dr. Anderson is passionate about data for action and conducting epidemiological analyses to improve the health of the population. Her research interests span all areas of population and public health, including communicable disease control; quantitative methods in epidemiology; administrative health data; mental health and addictions; and trans-disciplinary collaborative teams.
Angela L. Rasmussen, Ph.D.
Talk Title: “Where Do We Go From Here? The Future of SARS-CoV-2 Research”
Research Scientist III, VIDO
Adjunct Professor, University of Saskatchewan BMI
Affiliate, Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security
I am a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), as well as an adjunct professor in the department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology at the University of Saskatchewan. I am also an affiliate at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security. I am the lead for the Host-Interactions Pillar within the Coronavirus Variants Rapid Response Network (CoVaRR-Net), a pan-Canadian network to facilitate research on SARS-CoV-2 variants. I am also a member of the Verena Consortium, a multi-disciplinary, international effort to predict and study emerging viral pathogens. I study the role of the host response in emerging virus pathogenesis, with a particular interest in viruses that are or have the potential to be major threats to global health, such as influenza, dengue, Ebola, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2.