Ontario Immunization Advisory Committee (OIAC)

Established in August 2021 at the request of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, the Ontario Immunization Advisory Committee (OIAC) provides evidence-based advice to Public Health Ontario on vaccines and immunization matters including vaccine program implementation in Ontario, priority populations and clinical guidance. 

The focus of the Committee’s work is on publicly-funded vaccines and immunization programs in Ontario, including COVID-19, and those under consideration for new programming.

To see resources published by the Committee, please scroll to the bottom of the page.

Recently Published

Members

Dr. Jessica Hopkins, Co-chair
Dr. Jessica Hopkins leads the scientific and operational activities for the Health Protection portfolio at Public Health Ontario. She oversees the Medical and System Support and Operations and Response departments, which are responsible for communicable disease surveillance and control, outbreak response, infection prevention and control, and emergency preparedness and response.

Dr. Hopkins has 10 years of experience in local public health and previously worked as the Medical Officer of Health for Peel Region, and as Associate Medical Officer of Health in Hamilton and Niagara Region. She also currently works as a family doctor and is an Assistant Professor (part-time) with the Department of Health Research Methods, Epidemiology, and Impact at McMaster University as well as an Adjunct Lecturer with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Hopkins holds a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Western Ontario and a Master of Health Science from the University of Toronto in the field of Community Health and Epidemiology. She completed residencies in Family Medicine and Public Health and Preventive Medicine at McMaster University.

Dr. Jeffrey Pernica, Co-chair
Dr. Jeffrey Pernica, MSc MD FRCPC DTMH, is the Head of the Division of Infectious Disease and Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at McMaster University. His clinical interests include infectious diseases, immunization, tropical medicine and congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV). He currently runs the Special Immunization Clinic at McMaster Children’s Hospital, is a member of the Canadian Committee to Advise on Tropical Medicine and Travel and is the Regional Lead for the Ontario CMV newborn screening program. His research interests relate to the optimization of the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory infections, enteric infections, and sepsis, both in Canada and in resource-limited settings.

Dr. Vinita Dubey
Dr. Vinita Dubey is an Associate Medical Officer of Health for Toronto Public Health specializing in vaccine preventable diseases and currently the public health response to COVID-19. She has also worked as an Emergency Medicine Physician outside the Greater Toronto Area. She is a volunteer member of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization and currently holds an Adjunct Professor appointment with the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

Dr. Julie Emili
Dr. Julie Emili is an Associate Medical Officer of Health (AMOH) for the Region of Waterloo, practices part-time family medicine in Hamilton, and is the Program Director for the Public Health and Preventive Medicine Program at McMaster University. In her role as AMOH, she has provides medical oversight to the Vaccine Preventable Disease Program, which includes publicly funded vaccines, the school-based vaccine program and adverse events following immunization. In addition, she previously served as the College of Family Physicians of Canada Liaison Representative on the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.

Dr. Emili graduated from medical school in 2000 and then went on to complete further training in Family Medicine, Public Health and Preventive Medicine and a Master’s degree in Health Research Methodology at McMaster University.

Susie Jin
Susie Jin, RPh, CDE CRE, is a Pharmacist and Certified Fitter of Compression Therapy for Compression Stockings. She has over 25 years of experience working in both a community pharmacy and various public health-care settings. She supports safe travel through administering immunizations as well as patient travel consultation and education. She has also supported the pandemic response through COVID-19 testing, while administering COVID-19 vaccinations both at her community pharmacy and with the community mass immunization teams.

Susie Jin is also a Certified Diabetes Educator and Certified Respiratory Educator. On a national level, she has co-authored and continues to support disseminating and implementing the Diabetes Canada Clinical Practice Guidelines. She has also co-authored Wounds Canada Best Practice Recommendations.

Dr. Ava John-Baptiste
Ava John-Baptiste, MHSc, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University, where she is appointed to the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine and the Interfaculty Program in Public Health. She is a health economist and health services researcher with expertise in cost analysis, economic evaluation, evidence synthesis, decision modeling, and the analysis of linked administrative and clinical databases. Her research evaluates the safety, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of health technologies in clinical and community-based settings. Of particular interest are interventions to promote healthy aging for community-dwelling older adults and optimizing the perioperative care of older adults. She also partners with members of the Indigenous community to estimate the cost of travel for birth and obstetric evacuation from First Nations communities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. John-Baptiste co-led an initiative to investigate barriers and opportunities for incorporating social determinants of health into mathematical models of disease spread.

Deepali Kumar MD, MSc, FRCPC, FAST
Dr. Deepali Kumar, MD MSc FRCPC FAST is a Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto, and Director of the Ajmera Transplant Centre at the University Health Network in Toronto, Canada.  She is a consultant in transplant infectious diseases and her clinical and research interests focus on infections and vaccination in immunocompromised persons. Dr. Kumar received her MD from the University of Ottawa followed by Infectious Diseases training at the University of California-San Diego and McMaster University.  She completed a MSc at the University of Toronto with a focus on vaccine preventable diseases in the transplant population.  She has since conducted several clinical trials of vaccination in the organ and stem cell transplant populations. Dr. Kumar has previously served as a member on the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.  She has also led the adult vaccine guidelines for transplant recipients via the American Society of Transplantation. Dr. Kumar has published over 250 scientific papers and mentored many trainees. 

Dr. Allison McGeer
Dr. Allison McGeer is a Professor in Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. She is also an Infectious Disease Specialist and Senior Clinician Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of the Sinai Health System in Toronto. She has a research interest in adult immunization and emerging issues. Since February 2020, she has been working on research related to the prevention and management of COVID-19. Dr. Greer has been a member of Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization.

Dr. Matthew Miller
Dr. Miller is Executive Director of the Global Nexus School for Pandemic Prevention & Response, and the M.G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University. He also serves as Co-Director of Canadian Pandemic Preparedness Hub (CP2H). Dr. Miller holds a Canada Research Chair in Viral Pandemics. He was recruited to McMaster University in 2014 as an Assistant Professor and has authored over 90 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals including Cell, Nature Immunology, PNAS, etc. He has received several major awards, including election to the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, CIHR New Investigator Award, the CIHR Bhagirath Singh Early Career Award in Infection and Immunity, and an Early Researcher Award from the Government of Ontario, and a Distinguished Alumni Award for Excellence in Basic Science from Western University.

Dr. Miller’s research program is focused primarily on pandemic prevention, especially the development of broadly-protective vaccines, antibodies, and therapeutics. He is a member of the Canadian National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) COVID-19 Working Group and H5N1 Working group, and the PHAC Expert Advisory Panel on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).  He served as Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Society for Virology from 2021-2022.

Dr. Justin Presseau
Dr. Justin Presseau is a Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and Associate Professor in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health and School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa. He chairs the Behavioural Science Working Group within Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, and chairs the Canadian Psychological Association’s Health Psychology and Behavioural Medicine section. His research program focuses on understanding and promoting health behaviour change. Dr Presseau holds a PhD in Psychology.

Dr. Maurianne Reade
Dr. Maurianne Reade is a Rural Family Physician in Mindemoya on Manitoulin Island and an Associate Professor at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM). Dr. Reade completed medical school and residency at the University of Alberta and worked in several rural locations across Canada prior to moving to Ontario in 2001. As the past President of the Physician Clinical Teachers’ Association at NOSM, Dr. Reade brings perspectives from her northern and rural faculty colleagues. Reade has been involved in pandemic planning and the COVID vaccine rollout through the Emergency Preparedness committee and as the President of the Professional Staff at the Manitoulin Health Centre. The hard work and collaboration between local Family Health Teams, NoojmowinTeg and First Nations clinics; First Nations and municipal leadership, Sudbury District Public Health and volunteers have contributed to the Manitoulin Island vaccine success story.

Dr. Marina Richardson
Dr. Marina Richardson is an Associate Director of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Methods and Health Economics at the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER). Marina leads and contributes to the development of economic evaluations of health interventions, methods to evaluate and deliberate on evidence, and participates in national and international conversations that aim to support evidence-based population-level decision-making. Marina has an MSc in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Western University and a PhD in Health Services Research from the University of Toronto. She serves as a Deputy Editor for the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care (IJTAHC) and is a Co-Chair of the International Scientific Program Committee for Health Technology Assessment International’s (HTAi) 2025 Annual Meeting.

Richard San Cartier
Richard San Cartier is a Primary Care Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Team Lead for the N’Mninoeyaa Aboriginal Health Access Centre. He provides primary care to the First Nation Communities of Serpent River and Sagamok situated on the north shore of Georgian Bay in Lake Huron. He has been a lead for COVID-19 screening/testing programs for N’Mninoeyaa using rapid molecular testing and PCR testing. He has presented for Algoma Public Health as a community/provider champion for COVID-19 vaccination helping to increase vaccine uptake in the Algoma area. He instituted an HPV program for First Nation boys and girls in Serpent River two years before the provincial programs. He is a graduate of Laurentian University’s combined post Registered Nurse/ Nurse Practitioner program in 2003. He received his original nursing diploma from Algonquin College in 1994. He lives with his wife in Elliot Lake Ontario.

Fairleigh Seaton
Fairleigh Seaton is the Director, Infectious Disease Prevention and Environmental Health at Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health (KFL&A Public Health). After graduating as a Registered Nurse, she joined KFL&A Public Health in 2004. She has held a variety of positions in the areas of communicable disease prevention, sexual health, vaccine preventable disease and environmental health. Seaton holds a Master of Science in Nursing and a Master of Public Administration from Queen’s University.