Dr. Louise Parker
Dr. Parker is a Principal Investigator for Atlantic Path, holds the Canadian Cancer Society (Nova Scotia Division) Chair in Population Cancer Research, is a professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Dalhousie University and is Research Director for Cancer Care Nova Scotia.

Her major research interests include Investigation of the causes of childhood cancer, cancer outcomes and lifelong influences on adult health. She has published more than 180 peer-reviewed research papers, served on the editorial boards of several major journals, and was editor in chief of Pediatric Hematology Oncology from 2000 to 2006.  She chairs the board of the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute, is a member of the advisory committee on research for the Canadian Cancer Society, the Institute Advisory Board for CIHR and the Cancer Research Institute and the Management Committee of CYP-C, the PHAC national surveillance program for cancer in young people in Canada.

Dr. Sara Kirk
Dr. Kirk holds a Canada Research Chair in Health Services Research in the School of Health Administration, with cross-appointments in the School of Health and Human Performance and the IWK Health Centre.

Sara is a registered dietitian by profession, and worked in the UK Health Service for 10 years, specialising in the management of obesity and eating disorders, before moving into academic research. She moved to Canada in December 2006 to take up her CRC position at Dalhousie University, where she heads a research group called Applied Research Collaborations for Health (ARCH). Her research program uses a social-ecological approach to understand lifestyle factors influencing health status and health services utilization, particularly in relation to excessive weight gain (obesity).

Mr. Chris Skedgel
Mr. Skedgel is the research health economist with the Atlantic Clinical Cancer Research Unit (ACCRU) at Capital Health.  He also has an adjunct appointment with the Department of Medicine, Dalhousie University where he previously worked as a health economist.  He has conducted or contributed to a number of economic evaluations of diverse health technologies, including adjuvant therapies in breast cancer, community-based prevention of cardiovascular disease, disease-modifying drugs in multiple sclerosis, anti-thrombotic prophylaxis following orthopaedic surgery and maternal and infant vaccination strategies.  

Chris is currently pursuing a DPhil in Health Economics and Decision Science at The University of Sheffield, UK.  His research interests include economic modeling and evaluation, the societal value of health and health care and conjoint approaches to measuring preferences.

Dr. Devanand Pinto
Dr. Pinto is a Senior Research Officer with the National Research Council of Canada and leads the proteomics technology development group at the Institute for Marine Biosciences in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He joined the NRC in 2000 following the completion of an NSERC Industrial Research Fellowship with MDS-SCIEX, where he developed microfluidic devices for proteomic applications. His Ph.D. thesis was devoted to the application of laser-induced fluorescence coupled with capillary electrophoresis for trace analysis of proteins.

Dr. Pinto’s current research involves the development of novel technologies for proteomic analysis and the application of these technologies to cancer research. Dr. Pinto leads a team at NRC that works closely with clinicians at the QEII to develop more accurate methods for diagnosis and prognosis of cancer.