The 3rd CNIW Health and Bio-Medical Symposium a Great Success

CNIW March 20, 2023 News

The third CNIW Health and Bio-Medical Symposium and Community Contribution Award Ceremony was successfully held on March 19th at Hart House, University of Toronto main campus. The CNIW Health Forum is held annually with a different theme each year within the framework of health and biomedicine. This year’s theme was “The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Canadian Immigrants and Vulnerable Populations”. The symposium, sponsored by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), covered a wide range of topics including legal issues, employment opportunities for immigrants, mental health, COVID-19 incidence geography, factors related to COVID-19 vaccination, and discrimination against Asian immigrants. The symposium invited speakers and students from four universities in Canada to share their research and community service achievements related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canadian immigrants and vulnerable populations.

Dr. Peizhong Peter Wang, MD, MPH, and PhD in Epidemiology is a tenured professor (Epidemiology) in the Division of Community Health and Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), Professor (status only) at DLSPH, University of Toronto, s senior scientist at Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute, and the Founding Director, Centre for New Immigrants Wellbeing (CNIW).

Dr. Lixia Yang, a full professor in the Department of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University. She received PhD in psychology from the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and completed her postdoc fellowship at the Max-Plank Institute for Human Development (Germany) and University of Toronto. Dr. Yang is an active community leader with a commitment to promote mental health of Chinese immigrant population in Canada, particularly during the pandemic.

Dr. Tony Fang is a full professor and the Stephen Jarislowsky Chair at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is also the J. Robert Beyster Faculty Fellow at Rutgers University and sits on a World Bank’s Expert Advisory Committee on Migration and Development. He served as the President of the Chinese Economists Society (2012-13) and was a visiting professor at Harvard University, NBER, and Wharton School of Business.

Dr. Josephine Pui-Hing Wong, RN, PhD, holds the positions of Professor and Research Chair in Urban Health in the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her teaching and research focus on social justice and health equity. She has extensive experiences in public health practices, community-based action research, intervention and implementation science, and community-centred knowledge translation.

Dr. Lu Wang is a Professor at the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her research areas include geography of health and healthcare; spatial epidemiology; COVID-19 prevention, spatial mobility and risk
perception; transnational healthcare; immigration, and ethnic retailing. Her methodological expertise includes Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial analysis, statistical modeling, and mixed-method approach.

Dr. Desai Shan is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland. As a dedicated researcher in the fields of international maritime law and occupational health and safety (OHS), she has published more than 40 research articles and book chapters on Canadian and international seafarers’ rights to occupational health and safety. Her current research focuses have been on Maritime Occupational health and safety in Canada.

Student Presenters