Fatema Al Mazrouei, MD

Fatema Al Mazrouei is a PGY-1 Family Medicine resident at the University of Toronto and a graduate of the United Arab Emirates University College of Medicine and Health Sciences. Her interests include quality improvement, preventive care, lifestyle medicine, and sustainable healthcare in primary care. She is currently involved in initiatives exploring plant-based prescribing and practical approaches to integrating preventive health counselling into family medicine practice.  

Heather Fletcher, BASc

Heather Fletcher is the Senior Director of Support Services at Unity Health in Toronto with responsibility for Environmental Services, Patient Transport, Patient Clinical equipment, Patient Food services and Retail Food services at the 3 sites (Providence Healthcare, St. Joseph’s Health Centre, and St. Michael’s Hospital). Heather started her career as an administrative dietitian and joined St. Michael’s Hospital in 2001 as the Manager of Patient Food. She has also been an instructor for Food and Nutrition Management – MGMT 400 – at the Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Art at George Brown College.     

Teela Johnson, MSc, MD, CCFP-EM

Teela Johnson is a hospitalist with a keen interest in the intersection of health, nutrition, and the climate– and how they relate to equity issues.  Through her work as a member of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment Agri-Food Working Group and as a Food Committee member of the climate policy think tank Partnerships for Environmental Action by Communities within Healthcare Systems, she brings to bear the extensive scientific evidence on how a well planned transition to a plant-based food system can prevent and treat chronic disease, and simultaneously curtail the most detrimental greenhouse gas emissions that are propelling the climate crisis, while also giving voice and restoration to groups systemically oppressed across these intersecting realms.  

Zahra Kassam, MBBS, MSc, FRCPC, DipABLM

Zahra Kassam is a Radiation Oncologist at the Stronach Regional Cancer Centre and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. Certified in Lifestyle Medicine, she co-chairs the Canadian Lifestyle Medicine Group of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. She is Founder and Director of Plant-Based Canada, a nonprofit advancing evidence-based plant-based nutrition for human and planetary health. Dr. Kassam is co-author of Eating Plant-Based and co-editor of Plant-Based Nutrition in Clinical Practice, and promotes sustainable food systems through her roles in national healthcare organizations. 

Valerie Palda, MSc, MD

Valerie Palda is a General Internist at St. Michael’s Hospital (Unity Health Toronto), a Clinical Epidemiologist and the Faculty Lead, Planetary Health and Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Beyond the hospital, she is a regenerative farmer who has seen firsthand that how we grow food and what we eat is inseparable from human health and from the health of our planet.  

Nabha Shetty, MSc, MD, FRCPC

Nabha Shetty is an Associate Professor with the Department of Medicine at Dalhousie University, the Assistant Dean for the Office of Professional Affairs and scholarly activity director for General Internal Medicine. She completed medical school at the University of Ottawa, Internal Medicine residency at Western University, subspecialty training in General Internal Medicine at Dalhousie University and a Masters of Science in Healthcare Quality at Queens University. She practices clinically as an academic general internist, with a focus on QI and planetary health. Working with others from the Centre for Planetary Health and Sustainable Care, she leads the sustainable inpatient menus initiative at Nova Scotia Health.

Nabha is active in national planetary health leadership through co-founding the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine Planetary Health task force, developing Choosing Wisely Canada’s climate conscious recommendations for Internal Medicine, serving as an advisor for the Canadian Coalition for Green Healthcare, on the AFMC planetary health committee, the Royal Colleges national advisory for planetary health and on Health Standards Organization’s technical committee for acute care where she brought in plant-forward diets for inpatients as an upcoming accreditation standard.  

Amy Symington, MSc

Amy Symington is a nutrition professor, researcher and nutrition-focused chef in Toronto. She has over 12 years of teaching experience and 25 years experience in the food industry. Amy has a Master of Science in Applied Human Nutrition and is currently a PhD Candidate in nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto. She runs the culinary nutrition programming at Gilda’s Toronto, a not-for-profit cancer organization and is the culinary nutrition specialist for Canada’s Forward Food team where she trains executive chefs across Canada in large food service operations like hospitals and universities regarding the implementation of Canada’s Food Guide. She also works with the Toronto Vegetarian Food Bank (TVFB) as a chef, nutrition consultant, and culinary instructor. 

Amy believes in the evidence-based health and environmental benefits of plant-forward diets and has an award-winning cookbook called The Long Table Cookbook: Plant-based recipes for optimal health.