Dr. Khursheed Jeejeebhoy is a Gastroenterologist, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Director of Nutrition Support for St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, and leader of the CHANGE pilot project. Dr. Jeejeebhoy has achieved an international reputation for his research in the fields of gastroenterology and nutrition and has published over 500 peer-reviewed articles, abstracts and book chapters. He sits on the editorial boards of nutritional journals and over the course of his career has been recognized with over 20 awards from Canada, USA and the UK. In 2001 he was elected as a senior member of the Canadian Medical Association. His principal areas of focus are: assessment of nutritional status, particular nutritional requirements in the patient, the interaction between nutrition and disease, inflammatory bowel disease, malabsorption, and colon cancer. Dr Jeejeebhoy was chosen to receive the “Cuthbertson Lecture Award” by the European Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, for his ground-breaking work in Total Parenteral Nutrition.

Dr. Doug Klein is an Associate Professor with the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta. His research experience has included both qualitative and quantitative research methods. He has strong connections to primary care physicians through his work with Primary Care Networks in Alberta. Dr. Klein has expertise in behaviour change including the Theory of Planned Behaviour, often used in lifestyle interventions. He has been recruited for his experience in primary care research by provincial and national committees. Dr. Klein is a recognized expert on lifestyle intervention in primary care and has several ongoing research and health promotion projects based in primary care in Alberta. He gave a keynote address on lifestyle modification at the Alberta College of Family Physicians Annual Meeting in February 2013.

Dr. Paula Brauer is on the faculty in the Applied Human Nutrition program of the Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, with adjunct status in the Dept Human Biology and Nutritional Sciences, University of Guelph. Her research focuses on development and testing of new strategies to improve effectiveness of clinical nutrition services for treatment of obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and dyslipidemia, with a current focus on primary health care. Dr. Brauer is the Chair (2000-present) of a dietitian advocacy group focused on primary health care and serves on a provincial advisory committee for Family Health Teams, a multi-disciplinary primary care model. She has been active in the national association, serving on the Board of Dietitians of Canada, the national registration examination committee and as editor of the Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research. She was recognized in 2003 by Dietitians of Canada with their highest award for leadership and innovation. Dr. Bauer is working with Dr. Lorian Taylor, a dietitian working with Alberta Health Services, to train and support the dietitians involved in the CHANGE study.

Dr. Angelo Tremblay is a kinesiologist and researcher with the Universite of Laval. He has extensive expertise in physical activity and aging. The applicant had a significant scientific impact over the last years by documenting the effects of some nutrients or food-related bioactive agents on components of energy metabolism. Other areas of research have included the regulation of energy metabolism as well as the linkages between exercise, energy metabolism and body composition.

Dr. Leah Gramlich is a Gastroenterologist and Physician Nutrition Specialist at the University of Alberta. She is a member of the Canadian Malnutrition Task Force and the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition task force on Nutrition Education. Dr Gramlich was Co-Chair of the Canadian Clinical Practice Guidelines for Nutrition in the Critically Ill adult. She is the medical lead for Nutrition and Food Services for AHS and more recently a member of the Nutrition Obesity and Diabetes Strategic Clinical Network and medical director of Nutrition support programs in northern Alberta. 

Dr. Daren Heyland is a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada specializing in clinical and health services research. He is trained in Internal Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, and Clinical Epidemiology. Overall, Dr. Heyland has published approximately 205 peer-reviewed papers, raised more than $72 million in external grant support including more than $32 million from CIHR, and given more than 230 international presentations. Dr. Heyland currently serves as Director of the Clinical Evaluation Research Unit at the Kingston General Hospital (www.ceru.ca) which functions as a methods center for multicenter clinical research.

Dr. Lee Green is a practicing family physician and leads a research program using cognitive and organizational science tools and theories to study clinical translation and primary care transformation at the individual and team levels. His research focuses on how experts and teams update their knowledge, change practices and routines, and how social and technical systems can be designed and implemented to support rapid, reliable implementation of new knowledge in practice. For several years Dr. Green has been involved at the national level in the US in practice guidelines development, including the JNC VI and VII hypertension guidelines, and work with a number of regional public and private health systems as well as consulting on guidelines implementation, performance measurement and improvement. Prior to moving to Alberta, he directed the Great Lakes Research Into Practice Network (GRIN), the statewide primary care research network in Michigan. GRIN's major projects are collaborations with physician organizations, payers, health systems, and learning collaboratives across the state of Michigan, providing a solid base of practical experience.

Dr. Denise Campbell-Scherer is an Associate Professor, Dept. of Family Medicine, University of Alberta, and a practicing a family physician active in training undergraduate medical students and residents. For the past 10 years she have been active in teaching and scholarly work in Evidence-based medicine. Currently, she is an Associate Editor of Evidence-based Medicine, BMJ group. Her research interest is multi-morbidity and the quality of primary care. She is currently involved in health services research, particularly in the area of system and patient effects of multi-morbidity and evidence-based shared decision-making in the prevention and management of chronic disease.

Dr. Jennifer Klein is a Senior Research Consultant, Specialized Geriatrics at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton. Her training included Gerontology, Sociology, Occupational Therapy and a PhD in Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta. Her research experience focuses on gerontological issues with expertise in both qualitative and quantitative methods. She has published within occupational therapy and gerontology journals and presented scientific papers at national and international aging and occupational therapy conferences.

Dr. Christopher McCabe is a health economist who has worked on methodological and applied research for evaluating new technologies to inform health reimbursement decisions for the last 20 years, primarily in the United Kingdom, but also working for governments in Europe, North America and Australasia. He was co-author of the 2004 edition of the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) Guide to the Methods of Health Technology Assessment, and an expert advisor to its update in 2008. He was founding Director of the NICE Decision Support Unit, an academic collaboration of 4 Universities providing methodological support and expert peer review to the NICE Technology Appraisal programme. Prior to moving to the University of Alberta he was the EPSRC Translational Research Professor in Health Economics at the University of Leeds, in the UK, as well as a founder member of the NICE Medical Technology Advisory Committee; which appraises non-drug technologies; including biomarkers, for the UK National Health Service. 

Dr. David Mutch is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Health & Nutritional Sciences at the University of Guelph. He received his PhD in nutrigenomics from the University of Lausanne Switzerland in 2005. During his post-doctoral positions at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego California and the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in Paris France, Dr. Mutch began to study human obesity using an approach integrating global metabolite profiling (metabolomics), gene expression (transcriptomics), and genomics. In January 2009 he joined the University of Guelph to establish a nutrigenomics research program focused on studying the interactions between genes, dietary fats, and inflammation, and how this contributes to the development of obesity-related complications.

Dr. Sonja Reichert, is a primary care physician, assistant professor and clinical researcher at Western University. She is Co-Medical Director of the St. Joseph’s Primary Care Diabetes Support Program and Co-Creator/Director of the Chronic Disease Management Residency Training Program at Western. Her current research interests include diabetes, exercise, and the complexities of chronic disease in primary care.  In addition, she is also a contributor to the 2013 Canadian Diabetes Association Clinical Practice Guidelines and the Integrated Ontario Vascular Health Strategy.  

Dr. Arya Sharma is professor at the University of Alberta. He is international recognized expert on the management and research of Obesity. He is the founder and Scientific Director of the Canadian Obesity Network.

Rupinder Dhaliwal is Director of Operations of Metabolic Syndrome Canada, a federally incorporated non profit organization aimed at improving the health of Canadians at risk of metabolic syndrome through lifestyle interventions. She has been responsible for the coordination and overall conduct of the CHANGE study, a diet and exercise intervention in primary care clinics.

As Manager of Research & Networking at the Clinical Evaluation Research Unit at Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario, she played a key role in the development and implementation of several multicentre randomized trials funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, US National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Defense. In this role she also led knowledge translation activities such as the development of the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Nutrition Support in the Mechanically, Ventilated, Critically ill Adult Critical care, International Nutrition Surveys and the PEP UP Collaborative.

As Executive Director for the Nutrition and Rehabilitation Investigators Consortium, she was responsible for bringing together researchers and stakeholders to improve the health and care of patients through optimal nutrition and exercise by fostering the development of multicentre clinical trials. She is a Registered Dietitian, has written numerous publications and presented at many national and international conferences.

In June 2016, Rupinder was awarded “Fellow of Dietitians of Canada” for her professional growth, excellence and achievements throughout her career.