Chair, Dr. Jonathon Leipsic
Dr. Leipsic is Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiology and Professor of Cardiology with the University of British Columbia. He has served as the Regional Department Head of Medical Imaging of the Department of Radiology for Providence Health Care, Vancouver Coastal Health for the last 5 years. Dr. Leipsic is also a Canada Research Chair in Advanced Cardiopulmonary Imaging. Dr. Leipsic has over 650 peer reviewed manuscripts in press or in print, over 300 scientific abstracts, and editor of 2 textbooks. He speaks internationally on a number of cardiopulmonary imaging topics with over 150 invited lectures in the last 4 years. He is Deputy Editor of Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging and is Associate Editor for JACC CVI, Radiology, JCCT and Structural Heart. He is also past President of the Society of Cardiovascular CT (2015-2016) and was awarded its Gold Medal in 2019 and was recently named to the prestigious Top 1% most impactful scientist designation by the Web of Science for 3 years in a row from 2019-2021.
Vice-Chair, Continuing Professional Development, Dr. Savvas Nicolaou
Dr. Nicolaou is a Professor of Radiology, Head of the Department of Radiology, and the Director of Emergency/Trauma Radiology at Vancouver General Hospital. Dr. Nicolaou’s 25 year career at VGH and his passion for teaching have been recognized with numerous awards including the Bringing Clinical Renown to Vancouver Hospital (2020), the UBC Killam Teaching Prize (2013) for outstanding teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels, Mentor of the Year (2013), and the Prestigious Royal College Regional Award for Specialist of the Year (2018). Dr. Nicolaou is also serving as a representative of the Joint Faculties on the Vancouver Senate of UBC. He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications and over 90 educational exhibits. In 2021, Dr. Nicolaou received the Innovation and Translational Research Award from VCHRI to develop a prognostic algorithm for COVID-19, derived from CT and clinical data, in collaboration with UBC CIC and Amazon AWS. He is one of Canada’s most experienced educators in Emergency Radiology, and his lectures locally, nationally, and internationally accordingly reflect his dedication, expertise, and outstanding collaborative skills.
Vice-Chair, Research, Dr. Corree Laule
Dr. Laule is an MR physicist, an Associate Professor in the Departments of Radiology and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Vice Chair of Research in Radiology, and an Associate Director of the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD) at the University of British Columbia. She is also an associate member of the Department of Physics & Astronomy, where she is actively involved in the Medical Physics program. Dr. Laule heads an interdisciplinary research program in multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury spanning technical innovations to clinical translation. Her research on human brain and spinal cord MRI and histology is funded by NSERC, the MS Society of Canada, the Craig Nielsen Foundation and ICORD. With an h-index of 35, 98 publications and 250+ conference presentations, she has been cited more than 5000 times. She is an elected Senior Fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and serves on many UBC and international committees each year, including the Radiology Awards Committee (co-chair) and the Radiology EDI committee. Dr. Laule is passionate about science communication and leads initiatives to increase diversity in Science-Technology-Engineering-Math including the ICORD Summer Research Program for Indigenous Youth.
Vice-Chair, Medical Informatics, Dr. Timothy O’Connell
Dr. O’Connell is Clinical Assistant Professor, and works at a number of hospitals in Vancouver. He completed his MD at the University of Toronto, his residency at UBC, and his fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Before entering medicine, he obtained an M.Eng in network engineering and worked as a network engineer at Nortel Networks and Bell Canada. He has designed and implemented numerous software packages at various hospitals to improve patient safety and workflow management.
Vice-Chair, Quality, Dr. Gerald Legiehn
Dr. Legiehn is Clinical Associate Professor, and an Interventional Radiologist, with a special interest in diagnosis and treatment of vascular malformations, at VGH. He completed his MD at University of Manitoba, and his residency and fellowship at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. He has been the Quality and Safety Officer at VGH for four years, during which time he completely overhauled several quality programs, in particular the Morbidity and Mortality Rounds, the latter of which have become a model of success.
Vice-Chair, Professionalism and Wellness, Dr. Silvia Chang
Dr. Chang is Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Professionalism and Wellness in the Department of Radiology at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She is also the Abdominal Imaging Fellowship Director, head of Abdominal MRI and the Radiologist Lead for the Prostate MRI-US Fusion Program in the Department of Radiology at VGH. She completed her medical degree and radiology residency at UBC and her abdominal imaging fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. She interests and expertise are in abdominal MRI, particularly prostate and liver, as well as medical education. She has over 100 peer reviewed publications, over $10 million in grants and over 140 invited presentations at local, national and international meetings. She is the past UBC Radiology Residency Program Director, a Royal College Examiner and the Region 1 Representative Voting Member of the Royal College Specialty Committee in Diagnostic Radiology. She is a Fellow of the Society of Abdominal Radiology, founding President of the Canadian Society of Abdominal Radiology and on the Board of the BC Radiological Society.
Co Vice-Chair, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Dr. Charlotte Yong-Hing
Dr. Yong-Hing is co Vice Chair Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and Clinical Assistant Professor at UBC Radiology. She co-Chairs the UBC Radiology Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee and and chairs the Canadian Association of Radiologists Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group. She is Medical Director of Breast Imaging at BC Cancer Vancouver, President of the BC Radiological Society and President Elect of the Canadian Society of Breast Imaging. She founded Canadian Radiology Women in 2018 to advocate for improved diversity in Canadian Radiology practices. She has been invited to speak internationally about the gender gap in Radiology and actionable ways to improve equity, diversity and inclusion in the Radiology workforce and training programs.
Co Vice-Chair, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Dr. Faisal Khosa
Dr. Khosa is co Vice Chair Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and an Associate Professor at UBC Radiology. He is the Co-chair of the Leadership Skills & Talent Development Committee of Vancouver Physician Staff Association. Dr Khosa has authored over 230 manuscripts on Leadership and Equity and Inclusion. He takes a keen interest in mentoring and supporting students and physicians from minority and underrepresented groups. His team conducts workshops on Inclusion and talent development across North America. His mentoring of minorities and philanthropic initiatives have been recognized with May Cohen Equity, Diversity and Gender Award of National Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, the Global Humanitarian Award of the American College of Radiology and Tamgha-i-Imtiaz from Government of Pakistan. He is a signed author with Bloomsbury for a book series on leadership and also signed author with Elsevier for a book series on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
Vice-Chair, Leadership Development and Talent Management, Dr. Jeff Hu
Dr. Hu is a Clinical Instructor, and a radiologist with subspecialty interest in musculoskeletal and neuroradiology at Royal Jubilee Hospital and Victoria General Hospital in Victoria, BC. He completed his MD and radiology residency at the University of British Columbia, and fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. He is currently the Medical Imaging Physician Lead for IHealth at the Island Health Authority, and has been extensively involved with teaching at UBC and internationally, including with UBC undergraduate and residency radiology curriculum development, and with the National Imaging Informatics Curriculum. His passions include building mentorships and enabling others in pursuit of their interests and dreams.
Nuclear Medicine Residency Co-Director; Director, Undergraduate Program, Dr. Kathryn Darras
Dr. Darras is a Clinical Assistant Professor as well as the Director of UBC Undergraduate Radiology Education and Co-Program Director of the UBC Nuclear Medicine Residency Program. She completed medical school and residencies in Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at UBC and works at Vancouver General Hospital. Dr. Darras holds several educational research grants, including the The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Robert Maudsley Fellowship for Studies in Medical Education (2019-current) and Radiology Society of North America Education Scholar Grant (2017-current). In addition, she has received awards for her teaching including, UBC Medical Undergraduate Society Dr. David Hardwick Teaching Award (2019) and The Resident Doctors of Canada Mikael Award For Medical Education (2017). With her team, Dr. Darras created the UBC Radiology Teaching Mobile App, with the goal to enhance the delivery of radiology education worldwide.
Nuclear Medicine Residency Co-Director; Division Head, Nuclear Medicine, Dr. George Sexsmith
Dr. Mike Sexsmith is a Clinical Professor and works in Nuclear Medicine at a number of hospitals in the lower mainland. He completed his MD at the University of Alberta, and after trying Emergency Medicine and graduate studies for a while, he decided that Nuclear Medicine was far more interesting. He has been the UBC Nuclear Medicine Program Director for over 25 years, but now is more than happy to share this task with Dr. Kathryn Darras. He is the Head of Nuclear Medicine in Fraser Health, the LMMI Medical Practice Lead for Nuclear Medicine, the Physician Representative to the LMMI Radiation Safety Committee, and the Academic Head of the UBC Division of Nuclear Medicine. He sits on several committees for the Diagnostic Accreditation Program,and is an advisor to the Royal College International.
Neuroradiology Residency Program Director, Dr. Farahna Sabiq
Dr. Farahna Sabiq is a Clinical Assistant Professor and Program Director of the UBC Neuroradiology Residency and Fellowship of the UBC Neuroradiology Residency and Fellowship Programs. She completed her medical degree at the University of Montreal, Radiology Residency at McGill University and Neuroradiology Residency at the University of Calgary. She is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada in both Diagnostic Radiology and Neuroradiology. She is involved in all aspects of the Neuroradiology clinical practice but her main interests lie in head and neck imaging and cancer staging. She is leading the Head and Neck Multidisciplinary Tumor Boards at VGH in collaboration with Head and Neck surgeons, Radiation Oncologists and Pathologists.