Co-President (English)
Stephanie Dean
Stephanie Dean completed her PharmD at the University of Toronto in 2017. She then went on to work at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, where she has been for the past 4 years. She currently works in General Pediatric Medicine and Pediatric Oncology. She is also the Pharmacy Team Lead for General Medicine at CHEO. Stephanie became involved in PSF Canada in 2019 when she went on a teaching mission to Warsaw, Poland. The first mission of its kind, Stephanie and her fellow PSF member Jaime Nead, created teaching material and ran seminars to teach the Pharmaceutical Care Process to Polish pharmacists. Stephanie was also recently involved in a PSF "Cross-Country Conversations” webinar discussing the impact of COVID-19 on pediatric care. Stephanie has been the PSF Secretary since February 2021.
Co-President (French)
Asma Mansuri-Kara
Asma Mansuri-Kara obtained her Bachelors in Science in Microbiology and Immunology from McGill university; with her interest in healthcare and business, she pursued a career in pharmacy. After obtaining her Doctor of Pharmacy from University of Toronto in 2016, she worked as a staff pharmacist and as an educator for the Pharmacy Technician program at Humber College teaching ‘Dispensing Lab Theory’ and ‘Pharmacotherapeutics’. She later took a leadership role in community pharmacy in which she trained students and was a PACE assessor for the Ontario College of Pharmacists while managing the front store retail and pharmacy operations. Asma currently works as a community pharmacist and provides consulting services to pharmacies to integrate the expanding scope of pharmacists in Ontario. With her passion for education, global health and pharmacy practice, she got involved with PSF as a National Recruitment Coordinator in February 2024; in this role Asma focused on recruiting more Provincial Leads and promoting the visibility of the organization across Canada.
Treasurer
Mark Zhou
Mark completed his BSC Pharm from UBC in 2013 and has worked in community pharmacy, operations consulting and most recently a tech start up. Early in his career, he participated in annual healthcare humanitarian trips with an interprofessional healthcare team in the Dominican Republic and that remains one of the highlights of his career.
Mark got involved with PSF in 2023 as a Provincial Lead, before taking on the role of Treasurer. He is currently completing a Diploma in Non-Profit Management at Simon Fraser University
Secretary
Shakanya Karunakaran
Shakanya Karunakaran completed her Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) at the University of Toronto in 2023. She currently works in community pharmacy. Shakanya is also the secretary for PSF International since 2022 and is now the secretary of PSF Canada as of 2023. She was also recently involved in the paper “Impact of medication health literacy workshop for newly arriving refugees” with The University at Buffalo, where she completed one of her rotations as part of the Certification in Global Studies in Pharmacy.
Director of Missions
Sabrina Sanzari
Sabrina Sanzari is the pharmacist in charge at Santa-Cabrini Hospital since 2007; Santa Cabrini hospital is part of the CIUSSS de l'Est-de-l'Île-de-Montréal since 2015. Between 2001 and 2007, she has worked there as a clinical pharmacist primarily in critical care and intravenous nutritional support. She’s responsible of the pharmacology committee and part of the regional pharmacist committee for the regrouped process of drug purchasing (Sigma Santé). Her transversal mandate in the CIUSSS is the optimal usage of medication. Sabrina has been a surveyor for Accreditation Canada since 2009 and has carried out reviews mainly for short term care programs. Sabrina has a Bachelor of Pharmacy, a Master’s of Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Montreal, a microprogram degree in management and organizational development from the University of Laval and a Diploma in Advanced Special Studies in public health from the University of Montreal.
She’s part of the PSF Canada team as vice president for memberships and partnerships and as mission lead for India.
Director of Recruitment
Nicole Lee
Nicole completed her Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Pharmacy at the University of Manitoba. She went on to complete her residency with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. Nicole has worked in a variety of hospital settings including family medicine, pediatrics, renal health and most recently dialysis. Nicole’s involvement with PSF began in 2020 as part of the Webinar Team. She has since transitioned to her position as VP Western Provinces.
Director of Marketing
Gloria Georget
Gloria joined PSF in June 2022 as the Marketing Director, a newly created role for the organization. She completed her undergraduate in pharmacy at the University of Montreal and obtained a Business Management diploma from McGill University. She relocated to Ontario to pursue her clinical practice as the University Health Network specializing in intravenous sterile compounding preparation and also worked as an ER pharmacist at Halton Healthcare. She then combined her clinical experience to her business acumen by joining the private sector where she held various progressing management roles in the pharmaceutical industry notably in marketing, clinical trials and patient support services. She also completed a Marketing Executive Program from Queen's University. More recently she held a National Director role leading a business development team with a private organization that specialized in community care access for patients with complex diseases and therapies. Gloria is passionate about putting patients first and providing access to the best possible pharmaceutical care independently of where patients live. She is thrilled to have joined PSF and humbled to be working with an outstanding group of volunteers.
Missions Coordinator
Jaime Nead
Jaime Nead is the mission lead for PSF-Canada’s mission in Bangladesh. Jaime completed her Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Ottawa followed by her PharmD from the University of Toronto. Jaime has worked in both community and hospital settings, and is currently a pediatric clinical pharmacist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) in Ottawa, ON.
Jaime’s involvement with PSF-Canada began in February 2019 with a mission to Warsaw, Poland, followed by an evaluation mission to Dhaka, Bangladesh in October 2019. Jaime is currently working on the virtual mission in Bangladesh and assisting in the virtual mission in Madagascar.
New Missions Development Coordinator
Jason Alessio
Jason graduated with a Bachelor in Pharmacy in 2016 from the University of British Columbia. He is currently the New Mission Development Coordinator with Pharmacists Without Borders. Jason has worked in a variety of community settings and has experience working with a range of populations. He became interested in humanitarian work early on his career and has been volunteering with another non-profit since 2020. He wanted to get involved with Pharmacists Without Borders to further support the international work that the organization is participating in. Jason is also currently working on his Masters in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He hopes to become further involved in pharmacist-led humanitarian work in the future.
Quality Improvement Coordinator
Vacant
Membership Operations Coordinator
Vacant
National Recruitment Coordinator
Vacant
Communications Coordinator
Lauren Tailor
Lauren Tailor is a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) graduate from the University of Waterloo (Rx2020) currently working as a clinical pharmacist in both a community and teaching setting. Lauren is also a second-year Epidemiology PhD student at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health (DLSPH), with research focused on perinatal and pediatric pharmacoepidemiology. She received a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology (with a Collaborative Specialization in Global Health) from DLSPH in 2022. Lauren hopes to combine her passions for pharmacy, global health, and epidemiological research in the future, and is excited to connect pharmacists globally through social media. Lauren has been part of PSF Canada since March 2020, and was the PSF Canada Social Media Lead from August 2020-August 2022. She now coordinates with the Social Media, Website, and Webinar team leads as Communications Coordinator, and has led global/public health campaigns such as a PSF Canada Cross Country Conversation on Racial Disparities in Healthcare.
Support Engagement Coordinator
Nina Pasricha
Nina joined PSF in 2024 and is excited to promote pharmacy’s role in improved global health. Nina graduated with honours from The University of Toronto, and has continued on the path of learning including a certificate of Healthcare Change Management from Cornell University. Nina spent over 15 years working in community pharmacy, working to improve the health of a varied clientele. The exposure of patients arriving at her pharmacy in varied states of health from all around the world inspired an interest to explore pharmacy from a global perspective. Nina is passionate about how pharmacists and pharmacies around the world can improve population health and she hopes to create meaningful change at home and abroad.
Past Co-President
Linda Carroll
Linda Carroll completed her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy at the University of Manitoba. She worked in Brandon, Manitoba in retail pharmacy and at the Brandon Mental Health Centre for two years. She then moved to Winnipeg, where she worked for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) for the next 31 years. The first 16 years in the 24/7 Adult Intensive Care Satellite pharmacy at the Health Sciences Centre. Next she moved into various management roles including; Regional Pharmacy Manager of Health Sciences Centre; Regional Pharmacy Manager of Grace Hospital & Clinical Pharmacy Manager of Medicine Program; and finishing as the Regional Manager of Drug Distribution – Inventory Management.
During this management time she worked on several regional projects; conversion of the drug distribution system from both traditional and cart fill systems to an Automatic Dispensing Unit (ADU) system, in all six acute care hospitals in the WRHA; implementation of an Anesthesia Operating Room ADU system; Pharmacy Project Lead for blueprinting and implementation of the Business Solution Design SAP Supply Chain for pharmacy; development and implementation of a Regional Drug Shortage Command Centre; and standardization of all pharmacy databases.
Linda retired from the WRHA, and joined BD Canada as a Pharmacy Performance Optimization Consultant & Clinical Consultant Manager the next two years. Linda is currently semi-retired, working as a casual front line pharmacist in rural Manitoba with the Prairie Mountain Health Authority. She is a member of College of Pharmacists of Manitoba and CSHP MB Branch.
Past-President
Julie Morin
Julie Morin is a past co-President of Pharmacists Without Borders Canada. She completed her PharmD in 2015 and her Masters in Advanced Pharmacotherapy in 2016 at the University of Montreal. Julie works for the CIUSSS de l'Est-de-Île-de-Montréal at Santa Cabrini Hospital in the intensive care and emergency sectors.
Julie joined PSF in 2013 as a student member following a presentation of the organization during her studies. She then went on a humanitarian mission with PSF in 2015 in Labrousse, Haiti. This first contact with the humanitarian was memorable and convincing for her future involvement with Pharmaciens sans Frontières Canada. She is also a conference speaker for Le Pharmacien et l’aide humanitaire course at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Montreal.
In 2018, Julie became the first Vice-President of the Quebec division of the organization, a new position created by Ms. Suzanne Lévesque, past president of PSF, allowing to increase the visibility and involvement of PSF in the various Canadian provinces, to pharmacy students and pharmacists. She has represented PSF at several Quebec conventions, organized presentations for pharmacy students at the University of Montreal and Laval University in Québec. Julie was also part of the first PSF events team by organizing with Noha Bestawros, Stephanie El-Chakieh and Andréanne Vincent the first event created by PSF in 2018, Marche en nature, in Mont-Royal Park in Montreal. Julie was subsequently part of the PSF Events Committee created in 2019 and which organized the first annual Pharmaciens sans Frontières Canada Gala the same year.
In April 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, Julie joined Shellyza Sajwani as co-President of PSF Canada. During this period when all missions were suspended, Shellyza and Julie created the COVID committee which made it possible to develop new opportunities for visibility and action for the organization, in particular through the creation of virtual missions, webinars, new positions and strategic sub-committees so that PSF can grow during and after the pandemic.
As one of the new co-President, Julie would like PSF Canada to be recognized by all pharmacists, pharmacy students, pharmacy technicians in Canada as the humanitarian organization linked to our magnificent profession. May we all unite to support the missions and programs of PSF Canada, so that ultimately, any community in need has access to optimal, autonomous and sustainable management and use of essential drugs.