About Us
We are a team of researchers who are working in partnership with Sunnybrook’s President’s Anti-Racism Taskforce (PART), the Indigenous Data Governance Table, the Black Data Governance Table and other Indigenous, Black, racialized and equity-deserving Sunnybrook workers, and equity leaders, researchers, and educators from other institutions, to inform anti-racism initiatives at Sunnybrook and beyond.
Meet our team
STUDY LEADS
Dr. Csilla Kalocsai
MPhil, PhD
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I am a cis-gender white settler woman, using she/her pronouns, first generation immigrant from Eastern Europe, raising trilingual Jewish children. I studied gender studies and cultural anthropology, and have been exploring the workings of power and efforts for social justice and transformation in and outside of healthcare in various geographical contexts for almost two decades. I am thus a critical cultural anthropologist and work as an education scientist at Sunnybrook. I lead this study on anti-racism education and practice in academic hospitals, and deeply committed to the collaborative, participatory way in which our team works. I believe in the power of storytelling, and passionate about the possibilities of change stories and our overall research can bring about in the hospital.
Ayelet Kuper
MD, DPhil
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I am a physician in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Two of my grandparents were Holocaust survivors; this inspired me to get a doctorate in Holocaust literature, which led to my cross-appointment to the University of Torontos Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies. As an academic I publish a lot of papers and am frequently asked to give talks in my areas of expertise; many of these relate to concepts like power, equity, inclusion, and social justice. I have also won national awards for my academic work (most recently the 2024 AFMC May Cohen Equity, Diversity and Gender Award from the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada and the 2024 Senior Investigator Award from the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine). Between June 2021 and June 2022 I was the Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s Senior Advisor on Antisemitism.
Mireille Norris
BSc Phys Ther MD MHsc FRCPC
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I am an Internist and Geriatrician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto and an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. My commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, comes from lived experience as a Francophone immigrant from Haiti who still has family living in insecurity in Port-au-Prince. I have been serving as Faculty Lead for Black and Indigenous medical learners and leading the Core Internal Medicine Black and Indigenous pathway since 2020. More recently in 2023, I took on the position of Black Health Theme Lead at Temerty Faculty of Medicine. As a Black, French-speaking female physician, I seek to empower trainees, many of whom have gone on to successful careers across Canada, the U.S., and Europe. I co-founded initiatives like the Sunnybrook President’s Anti-Racist Task Force and SPARK (Sunnybrook Program Accessing Research Knowledge) in collaboration with colleagues, Dr Jill Tinmouth and Dr Nick Danerman since 2021. My work in geriatric medicine spans dementia care, fall prevention, and ethno-cultural geriatrics, and I mentor students in providing care to marginalized communities, Black and francophone and frail seniors in long term care and subsidized housing. I have been recognized for my work with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Black Physicians of Canada an Excellence in Teaching Award from the Black Physicians Association of Ontario in 2024 and recently the King Charles III coronation award.
Emily Simmonds
MPhil, PhD Candidate
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Emily (she/her) is a critical ethnographer of Métis (Red River) and European descent. As a member of Ganawishkadawe Center for Wise Practices in Indigenous Health (GCWP-IH) at Women’s College Hospital, she co-leads research-based initiatives to support Indigenous wellness, foster accountability to communities, and advance First Nations, Inuit, and Métis data sovereignty. Emily is a member of the Indigelab Network (IN) and an alum of several critical justice research collectives, including the Technoscience Research Unit (TRU), the Digital Research Ethics Collaboratory (DREC), and the Civic Laboratory Environmental Action Research (CLEAR). Her work centres on anti-racist and anti-colonial approaches to scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, with a commitment to supporting transversal networks of scholars, activists, and community leaders who challenge structural inequities and advocate for transformative justice. Emily employs multimodal methodologies, such as digital mapping and visual storytelling, to make her research accessible and impactful across diverse audiences.
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I am an emergency physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Associate Professor in the Department of Family Community Medicine, University of Toronto. I am also the Interim Assistant Dean, Admissions Recruitment, School of Medicine, Toronto Metropolitan University. My professional work and advocacy has demonstrated a commitment to increasing the representation of Blacks in medicine, supporting Black physicians and improving experiences of Blacks patients in the health care system. This commitment is reflected in my roles as a co-founder for the following programs and organizations: Summer Mentorship Program for Black and Indigenous Students at Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Black Physicians’ Association of Ontario and TAIBU Community Health Centre in Malvern.
Study staff and students
RESEARCH COORDINATOR
Oshan Fernando
MA, PhD
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I am an anthropologist, a settler of South Asian descent, and a research coordinator at Sunnybrook
Research Institute (SRI). My areas of research interest include colonialism and state formation, identity
formation, the politics of memory, and medical education.
RESEARCH ANALYST
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As a Black woman born in Canada to Caribbean parents, I care deeply about Black people and our collective futures free of racism and oppression. I am currently working on my PhD in Sociology at the University of Toronto focusing on issues of racialization, racism, Blackness, generational migration, and national belonging. As part of the research team at Sunnybrook, I conduct narrative interviews to understand anti-racism education and practice, with the goal of fostering systemic changes within these types of institutions.
RESEARCH ANALYST
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Originally from the United States, I moved to Canada to pursue my undergraduate degree which I have now completed in Global Health and Medical Anthropology at the University of Toronto. As a Haitian- American of Latino descent, I have always been drawn to social justice and equity projects. I am deeply passionate about interdisciplinary research and the pursuit of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the natural sciences and healthcare. I work with the core research team to analyze, interpret and synthesize data, along with supporting administrative tasks.
Centre for Wise Practices in Indigenous Health
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Women’s College Hospital