Marianne has 43 years of nursing experience in neonatology, as a bedside nurse, in the neonatal follow-up clinic, subsequently the NICU parent resource nurse as well as the RSV nurse coordinator in the NICU, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto. Throughout her nursing career she advocated for parents, provided education and support created and co-led parent education programs and participated in international research on Family Integrated Care. Her experience has given her insight into the struggles parents encounter in the NICU as well as following discharge.

​

Since her retirement, she is the project coordinator for an ongoing research pilot, looking at improving the transition of families and infants to home and the community.  She is an active member on the national family integrated care committee. As a member of the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation, she is currently the Chair of the Family Ambassador program, a program to continue to increase the support for NICU families both in hospital and following discharge

Dr. Theo Moraes graduated from medical school in 1997 (Toronto) and then completed his paediatric residency (Kingston) and paediatric respirology fellowship (SickKids) before pursuing a PhD (Toronto) and postdoctoral fellowship (Immunology). 

He has been a Staff Respirologist at SickKids in Toronto since 2008.  In addition to the Severe Asthma clinic and the Aerodigestive clinic, Dr. Moraes also cares for ex-premature babies in the Chronic Lung Disease of Prematurity clinic.

Dr Paes is Professor Emeritus in the Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, at McMaster Children’s Hospital/McMaster University.

He has received several teaching awards and has been recognized for his academic contributions by the President at McMaster University and the Pediatric Chairs of Canada.    Dr Paes current research interests focus predominantly on RSV in children, and thrombosis and hemostasis in the neonatal population.

Paula Meier, PhD, RN, is a Professor of Pediatrics and Nursing at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Dr. Meier has worked as a practitioner, researcher, and educator in the area of human milk, lactation and breastfeeding for premature infants and their mothers since 1975. She currently leads the multidisciplinary Rush University NICU Human Milk Research Team that has conducted numerous externally-funded translational research and demonstration projects focused on the removal of barriers to high-dose, long-exposure mothers' own milk feedings for NICU infants. Dr. Meier's lifetime research focus has been concentrated in understanding and improving the initiation and maintenance of lactation in breast pump-dependent mothers of NICU infants, as well as development of clinical techniques to optimize the impact of human milk on health and cost outcomes in NICU infants.  Dr. Meier has published over 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts and parent educational materials and has mentored graduate students from a multitude of disciplines.  She is a former president of the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation (2012-2014) and has served for over 20 years as a member of the Health Advisory Council for La Leche League.  She has received Distinguished Alumna Awards from the University of Illinois and Rush University, and in 2013 received the Audrey Hepburn Award for Contributions to the Health and Welfare of Children from Sigma Theta Tau, International.  She serves as a member of the scientific advisory board for the Family Larsson Rosenquist Foundation, a global foundation dedicated to breastfeeding and human milk and was an invited member of the WHO task force on donor human milk, 2019.

Dr. Campbell is currently the Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit & Deputy Chief Pediatrics at St. Michael’s Hospital. He is cross-appointed at the Hospital for Sick Children where he works regularly as a Staff Neonatologist. His academic interests include resuscitation of the neonate and the use of simulation as a toolkit for healthcare organizations. He is the Medical Director of the Allan Waters Family Simulation Centre at St. Michael’s Hospital. His academic rank at the University of Toronto is that of an Associate Professor within the Department of Pediatrics. Furthermore, he has been appointed to as an Associate Scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital for his academic work in simulation.

He is a past member of the Canadian Pediatric Society National Resuscitation Program (NRP) Executive Committee and Past Chair of the Canadian NRP Research Committee. His simulation education and experience has formed a large part of his academic career as an educator, administrator and researcher. He received simulation training at Stanford University at the Center for Advanced Perinatal Education (CAPE).  He is also the Simulation Lead for the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine.  International recognition for his work in simulation has included election to the Board of Directors of the International Pediatric Simulation Society (IPSS).

Anna Cierpich is a  Registered Nurse working in the NICU at BC Women’s Hospital in Vancouver, BC.

In 2016  she graduated from Ryerson University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing. In her  final year of school she completed her clinical placement in the NICU at Mt Sinai Hospital in Toronto. That was where  she realised that the NICU was where she wanted to continue her nursing career. After graduation, she started working in the NICU at McMaster Children’s hospital where  she worked for 3 years.

In the July of 2019 she decided to move from Ontario to British Columbia where she began working in the NICU at BC Women’s.

Dr. Paige Terrien Church is the director of Neonatal Follow Up Program at the University of Toronto.  She is also the medical director of the Neonatal Follow Up Clinic at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the Developmental Behavioral Physician Lead in the spina bifida clinic at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital.  She is is an Assistant Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto. 

Dr. Church received her medical degree at the University of Vermont, College of Medicine.  She completed pediatric training at the University of Chicago Children’s Hospital and went on to complete dual training in Neonatology and Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics at Tufts-New England Medical Center.  She is board certified through the American Board of Pediatrics in Neonatology and Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics.

Dr. Narvey began his training in Pediatrics at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg where he completed a year of further training in Neonatology. This was followed by two years of Neonatal fellowship at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Afterwards he began his career as a Neonatologist in the same city and over the 6 years he spent there, his career included both clinical and administrative duties including 4 years as the Fellowship Program Director and two years as the Medical Director for a level II unit.

In late 2010 he accepted a position in Winnipeg to become the Section Head of Neonatology and continues to hold this post.

In 2016 he took on the additional role of Medical Director of the Child Health Transport Team.

In 2015 he became a member of the Canadian Pediatric Society’s Fetus and Newborn Committee and in 2019 took over as Chair of the same. His interests predominantly lie in the use of non-invasive technology to minimize painful procedures during an infants stay in the NICU.

He is active on social media and has a passion for fundraising and is an active board member of the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba.

Marianne has 43 years of nursing experience in neonatology, as a bedside nurse, in the neonatal follow-up clinic, subsequently the NICU parent resource nurse as well as the RSV nurse coordinator in the NICU, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto. Throughout her nursing career she advocated for parents, provided education and support created and co-led parent education programs and participated in international research on Family Integrated Care. Her experience has given her insight into the struggles parents encounter in the NICU as well as following discharge.

​

Since her retirement, she is the project coordinator for an ongoing research pilot, looking at improving the transition of families and infants to home and the community.  She is an active member on the national family integrated care committee. As a member of the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation, she is currently the Chair of the Family Ambassador program, a program to continue to increase the support for NICU families both in hospital and following discharge

Aruna Boodram is the autonomous parent of Surya Amaris, a lively, thriving and resilient 6 month adjusted (9 month actual) baby.

Surya is a micro-preemie who spent exactly 90 days in a level 3 and level 2 NICU.

She was discharged at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March. Aruna is currently on parental leave from her position as a Community Legal Worker at the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario. 

Rebecca Pearce is the mother of Maren, who was born at 25 weeks gestational age in 2009.

She is a long-time member of the équipe Partenariat Famille (PAF) Sainte-Justine, a team comprised of a group of veteran parents at CHU Sainte-Justine in Montreal, Québec, who act as a resource for families new to the NICU and who contribute to improving clinical care, research, and teaching by offering a critical parental viewpoint.

Rebecca has published several opinion pieces about how existing outcome research fails to meet the needs of parents or preterm children.

Rebecca is a secondary science teacher in Montreal and is a third-year Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University, where she is studying preterm children as mathematical learners and doers.

Dr. Banihani is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Paediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and holds an academic position in both the Division of Neonatology and Developmental Paediatrics in the university. She holds a staff position in the Department of Newborn & Developmental Paediatrics, at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre; providing clinical care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and Neonatal Follow-up clinic

At the University of Toronto, she completed dual fellowship training in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine as well as Developmental Paediatrics at Holland Bloorview. After her general Paediatric training.

Dr. Banihani also holds a Master’s degree in Health Professions Education from Maastricht University. She also finished a Research Training Program through the Harvard Medical School “Global Clinical Scholars Research Training (GCSRT) program,” which provides clinicians and clinician-scientists advanced training in the methods and conduct of clinical research.

Dr. Banihani has had a long-standing interest clinically and academically on understanding, evaluating and optimizing developmental outcomes of premature infants as well as children with brain injuries, brain malformations and genetic syndromes that are identified in the neonatal period.