Biographies

KATHRYN DORÉ

holds graduate degree in epidemiology from the University of Toronto and is currently senior epidemiologist with the Foodborne, Waterborne and Zoonotic Infections Division and faculty member, Department of Population Medicine, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph. In addition to coordinating the overall design and implementation of NSAGI, a collaborative, multi-stage research study estimating the magnitude, burden, etiology and underreporting of acute gastrointestinal illness in selected urban and rural communities across Canada, Kathryn is working with federal and provincial partners on implementing a national surveillance system (CIPARS) to monitor antimicrobial-resistant enteric pathogens in humans, animals and food. She also oversees a multi-provincial case control study examining the risk factors and burden of illness of Salmonella typhimurium DT104 infection. In addition to these research and surveillance activities, Kathryn has taught foodborne disease epidemiology and outbreak investigation procedures to Canadian military personnel and enjoys opportunities to participate in international projects, most recently travelling to Amman, Jordan as part of a WHO advisory team to assist in the development of a study assessing the burden of foodborne disease in Jordan.

SHANNON MAJOWICZ

completed her M.Sc. in Epidemiology (University of Guelph) in 1999, where her research project involved a descriptive analysis of human cryptosporidiosis cases reported in Ontario. Upon completion of her M.Sc., she joined the Division of Enteric, Foodborne, and Waterborne Diseases as an epidemiologist with the Division's waterborne diseases group, working on a strategy for linking environmental and water-related risk factor data to human enteric and waterborne disease surveillance data using Geographical Information System applications. Her current activities include co-ordinating the NSAGI population study. Shannon is also a PhD candidate in the Department of Population Medicine at the University of Guelph. Her thesis is an evaluation of the magnitude, distribution, and impact of self-reported, acute gastrointestinal illness in the community, and her research interests include evaluating the impact of case definitions on infectious disease surveillance and research, and exploring the application of various analytic techniques including artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic to epidemiologic studies.

JAMES FLINT

completed his MPH at the University of Adelaide in South Australia. While completing his masters' research, which focused on the molecular epidemiology of MRSA in nursing home residents and hospital patients, he gained experience investigating infectious disease outbreaks with a local government health department and also spent some time working in the South Pacific. After further epidemiology and public health work in Adelaide, James spend 10 months working in India prior to emigrating to Canada where he began as an epidemiologist with Health Canada in 2000. With the Division of Enteric, Foodborne and Waterborne Diseases, James has been involved in the development of the National Studies on Acute Gastrointestinal Illness initiative and has coordinated the laboratory and public health reporting studies. He has also been involved in a number of antimicrobial resistance studies designed to support the creation of an integrated human-agri-food surveillance system. More recently James has been worked on projects with the Divisions core surveillance section and is looking for collaborative opportunities in international development.

VICTORIA EDGE

has both her undergraduate (BSc) and graduate degrees (MSc) from the University of Guelph. After completing her MSc in Applied Biostatistics, she worked for four years as a teaching assistant and provided statistical support for the Department of Population Medicine at the Ontario Veterinary College. Subsequent to that she spent a year in Norway working on research projects with the Veterinary Institute the Norwegian Dairies, followed by a year in Scotland working for the Scottish Agricultural College. In September of 2000, Victoria joined the Division of Enterics (Health Canada), and in January of 2001 she started her PhD program (epidemiology) with the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph. Her main interests are in the applications of spatial statistics and the use of Geographical Information Systems in infectious disease research, specifically with regards to cluster detection. Victoria is also involved in several projects in the Division, including the Alternative Surveillance Alert Program (ASAP) which is looking at alternate data sources that could be of use in early outbreak detection, and enteric illness research in First Nations communities. Her contribution to the NSAGI program is as Physician Studies Co-ordinator.

LEAH BUDD

studied at the University of Guelph, completing her BSc in 2000 and her MSc in epidemiology the following year. For her graduate research, Leah investigated the burden of illness associated with antimicrobial resistant Salmonella typhimurium infections using data from several Canadian provinces. She started at the Division of Food and Waterborne Infections and Zoonoses in 2000, working on a variety of projects, including a background research initiative for NSAGI. Currently, she is planning the Community Etiology Study, a future NSAGI project designed to look at the pathogen-specific magnitude, underreporting, and burden of illness for enteric infections in communities across the country.

CAROL TINGA

holds a graduate degree in epidemiology from the University of Guelph. Her research focused on veterinary communication. Subsequent to this degree, she held appointments with the City of Hamilton's Social and Public Health Services Department and the Clinical Trials Methodology Group, also in Hamilton, Ontario. Carol has worked on smoking risk factor and intervention studies and on quantitative, ecological studies of the endangered Hawaiian monk seal. She joined the Division of Enteric, Foodborne and Waterborne Diseases in 2002 and is coordinating NSAGI's upcoming National Population Telephone Survey.

[Foodborne, Waterborne and Zoonotic Infections Division]