Board of directors

Brad Urquhart, PhD (London, Ontario) - President

Brad Urquhart is Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology and Associate Dean, Basic Medical Sciences Undergraduate Education at Western University. Brad has previously served on the CSPT scientific program committee and is currently the treasurer of CSPT. His research investigates mechanisms for variability in drug response and toxicity in kidney disease.

Dylan Burger, PhD (Ottawa, Ontario) - President-elect 

Dylan Burger (PhD, ISHF) is a Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa (Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine). His research focuses on understanding the molecular underpinnings of diabetes and hypertension and their associated cardiovascular complications. In particularly he has been active in the study of extracellular vesicles as markers and mediators of vascular and renal injury for more than 10 years. He has authored more than 70 manuscripts and has received several awards including the 2016 Canadian Society of Nephrology New Investigator Lectureship and the 2018 University of Ottawa Department of Medicine PhD Scientist Award. He is the current Chair of Communications for the International Society of Hypertension. Dr. Burger is a founding member of The Lancet Commission on Hypertension and Associate Editor for the European Heart Journal and the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles.

Bruce Carleton, PharmD, FCP, FISPE (Vancouver, British Columbia) - Past-President

Bruce Carleton is Professor and Chair, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia. He is a Senior Clinician Scientist at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. He is also the CEO of the Canadian Pharmacogenomics Network for Drug Safety. He has a keen interest in advancing the safe and effective use of drugs, particularly in children. He is passionate about caring for kids.

Donald Miller, PhD (Winnipeg, Manitoba) – Treasurer

Don Miller is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics and Principal Investigator in the Kleysen Institute for Advanced Medicine at the University of Manitoba. Don is a member of the scientific programming and outreach committees. His research focuses on blood-brain barrier transport and drug permeability and on improving therapeutic outcomes for various neurological disorders.

Marianna Kulka, PhD (Edmonton, Alberta) - Scientific Program Committee Chair

Marianna Kulka obtained her PhD from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada where she studied the role of ion channels in mast cell activation. Dr. Kulka completed her research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA where she became interested in human mast cell differentiation and expression of pathogen recognition receptors. Dr. Kulka was a Research Assistant Professor at Northwestern University and investigated mast cells and their role in allergic inflammation until she accepted a research position at the National Research Council (NRC) Canada in 2007. At the NRC, Dr. Kulka has established an immunology research group that is interested in skin microenvironments, human mast cell biology and the use of nanotechnology to improve human health.

Kerry Goralski, PhD (Halifax, Nova Scotia) – ASPET Liaison 

Kerry Goralski is a professor in the College of Pharmacy, Dalhousie University. He has a cross-appointment to the Department of Pharmacology and Department of Pediatrics, Dalhousie University and an Affiliated Research Staff Appointment in the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the IWK Health Centre. He is a Senior Scientist in the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute. His research interests include obesity-associated cancers, multi-drug resistant metastatic breast cancer, and pharmacogenomics and precision medicine. He has been a member of the PSC/CSPT since 1996.

Rithwik Ramachandran, PhD (London, Ontario) – Awards Committee Chair

Rithwik Ramachandran is a molecular pharmacologist and an expert in the study of non-canonically activated G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Dr. Ramachandran’s work is highly interdisciplinary extending from the basic sciences into the clinical realm. Through understanding molecular features of various important drug targets, Dr. Ramachandran has been able to successfully develop precision pharmacology approaches for various diseases. In addition to conducting pioneering research, Dr. Ramachandran’s research program is also an outstanding training environment for the next generation of Canadian scientists. Dr. Ramachandran’s research trainees consistently produce high quality publications known for their experimental and conceptual depth and their work has been consistently published in the top-tier journals in his field.

Fabiana Crowley, PhD (London, Ontario) – Education Committee Chair

Fabiana Crowley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology and the Physiology and Pharmacology discipline lead of the Undergraduate Medical Program at Western University. Her responsibilities include teaching basic and clinical pharmacology to medical and dental students, directing courses and supporting/leading curriculum development for the medical program. Fabiana is passionate about pharmacology education and strives to create an integrated, learner-centered pharmacology curriculum. Her research interests include approaches to teaching prescribing skills, use of simulation to teach basic & clinical pharmacology, competency-based and case-based education.

Michael Rieder, MD, PhD, FRCPC, FAAP, FRPC (Edinburgh, UK) (London, Ontario) – History Committee Chair

Michael Rieder holds the CIHR-GSK Chair in Paediatric Clinical Pharmacology at Western University in London and is a Scientist at the Robarts Research Institute. He is the Past President of CSPT and a member of the Drug Therapy Committee of the Canadian Paediatric Society. His research focus is on mechanistic studies of serious adverse drug reactions and drug safety as well as for optimal drug therapy for children.  

David Juurlink, MD, PhD, FRCPC (Toronto, Ontario) – Director-at-Large & Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Liaison

David Juurlink is the head of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at both Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the University of Toronto, where he is a Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. He is also a consulting medical toxicologist at the Ontario Poison Centre at the Hospital for Sick Children and a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. Dr. Juurlink serves as Chair of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Examination Committee in Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology. He also maintains an active research program in the area of drug safety, with areas of special interest including medication safety, adverse drug events, drug-drug interactions and the epidemiology of suicide and deliberate self-poisoning.

Jill Rourke, PhD (Sackville, New Brunswick) - Publications Committee Chair

Jill Rourke is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Mount Allison University and Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Cell Signaling and Pharmacology. Her responsibilities include teaching undergraduate courses in biochemistry, signal transduction and pharmacology. She is passionate about creating empowering opportunities to advance undergraduate experiences in biomedical research. Her research interests include G protein-coupled receptor signaling, with emphasis on endocrine signaling and the interplay between classical receptor ligand signaling and modulators derived from metabolites and common food components.

Amit Bhavsar, PhD (Edmonton, Alberta) - Outreach Committee Chair

Amit Bhavsar is an Assistant Professor and Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in the department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Alberta. Dr. Bhavsar has a long-standing interest in anti-microbial resistance. His doctoral studies were in novel antimicrobial target discovery in Eric Brown's lab, and his postdoctoral training studied bacterial pathogenesis in Brett Finlay's lab. Dr. Bhavsar's lab studies the molecular mechanisms of how bacterial effector proteins subvert the immune system. This work will produce anti-virulence targets that exert less selective pressure for the development of resistance. This approach provides a precise alternative to antibiotic use.