Advisory Board Chair
Public Health Physician, Environmental and Occupational Health, Public Health Ontario
Jin Hee obtained her B.Sc in kinesiology at Simon Fraser University and MD at the University of British Columbia. She completed her MPH (Epidemiology), residencies in Family Medicine and Public Health and Preventive Medicine at the University of Toronto. Following her training, she worked briefly at Toronto Public Health as an Associate Medical Officer of Health, working in communicable disease control. Since 2014, JinHee has been a Public Health Physician with the Environmental and Occupational Health team at Public Health Ontario. She works on a variety of environmental public health issues and projects on the team spanning environmental burden of disease, food safety, environmental exposures and risk communication. In addition, JinHee (co-)supervises the many residents and students who cycle through the team, and is involved more broadly with educational efforts at Public Health Ontario, including offerings to practising public health professionals and resident rotations. She is also active on the program committee of The Ontario Public Health Convention, an annual conference for public health practitioners.
Medical Officer of Health, Manitoba
Dr. Peter Benoit has served as a medical officer of health in Manitoba since October 2022. Having always lived in Manitoba, Dr. Benoit holds a medical degree, a master's degree in public health, has received Certification in the College of Family Physicians and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada. Initially interested in clinical medicine, Dr. Benoit expanded that scope to include broader population health work and chose to complete specialty training in public health and preventive medicine. Prior to his role as a medical officer of health, Dr. Benoit worked in specialized vaccine clinics. In his current role, Dr. Benoit works as a regional medical officer of health on broad population health issues. He is also involved in a wide scope of work within environmental health and has an interest in approaching environmental health issues, including risk assessment and risk communication.
Professor and Program Coordinator, Bachelor of Environmental Public Health, Conestoga College
Dr. Ken Diplock is the coordinator of the Bachelor of Environmental Public Health (BEPH) program at Conestoga College, where he is devoted to the education and training of future environmental public health professionals. Ken’s areas of focus include food safety, public health inspection and investigation practices, and environmental health. Before joining Conestoga, Ken was a certified public health inspector with the Region of Waterloo Public Health, where he was involved in several multijurisdictional foodborne outbreak investigations. Ken has been strongly engaged with the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors (CIPHI), serving as the Ontario Branch Food Safety Councilor (2006-08), Branch President (2010-2012 and 2024-Present).
National President of the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors
Natalie is a certified public health inspector and is currently the National President of the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors (CIPHI). She has served as the National President-Elect (2023-2024), National Director of Advocacy (2022) and Manitoba Branch President from 2019-2020. During her time as National Director, she led the first national public awareness marketing campaign for CIPHI in 2022, advocating for the Institute, Environmental Public Health Professionals, and the field of Environmental Health. Natalie is also a member of the International Federation of Environmental Health (IFEH) Working Group, participating in initiatives to increase global awareness on what is the field of Environmental Health and the environmental public health professionals that contribute to improving and protecting public health.
Natalie is the regional manager for the Winnipeg Health Protection Unit with Manitoba Health, Seniors and Long-Term Care. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Manitoba, a Bachelor of Environmental Health (after-degree) from the Concordia University of Edmonton, and certified in 2007. She has over seven years of experience in leadership roles within the Environmental Health Branch, and values transparency, continuous learning, adaptability, shared vision and collaboration. Her more recent experience has included contributing to the development of legislation, policies and inter-agency collaborations and partnerships. During her free time Natalie enjoys spending time with her daughters, the outdoors, travelling, and with family and friends.
Public Health Medical Physician, Public Health Institute of Québec
Dr. Caroline Huot is a physician specialized in public health and preventive medicine. She has been practicing at the « Direction de la santé environnementale, au travail et de la toxicologie » of the « Institut national de santé publique du Québec » since 2018. Her areas of interest are water and indoor air hazards as well as environmental health surveillance and emergencies. Previously, she practiced for 8 years at the “Direction de la santé publique de la Capitale-Nationale” in infectious diseases and environmental health. She is also a clinical professor at Laval University and in this capacity she supervises medical students in environmental health. She also collaborates in research initiatives conducted by researchers in environmental health and other related fields.
Resident Physician
Alex Petiquan is Anishinaabe from Wabauskang First Nation. He graduated from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and is currently in residency, specializing in public health. His work spans Indigenous public health, health policy, governance, epidemiology, and data sharing agreements, both as a Senior Analyst in the Federal sector and as a member of the Health Expert Advisory Panel for Grand Council Treaty #3.
Regional Manager, Environmental Public Health Services
Indigenous Services Canada, First Nations and Inuit Health, Alberta Region
Simon is the Regional Manager for Environmental Public Services with the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (FNIHB) of Indigenous Services Canada in the Alberta Region. Simon is a Certified Public Health Inspector with a Master Degree in Public Health from the University of Alberta, School of Public Health (Environmental and Occupational Health). Simon has been with FNIHB for over 19 years at field level and in the regional management role for over 15 years. As the Regional Manager, Simon is responsible for overseeing the service delivery of Environmental Public Health services to Alberta First Nations with a dedicated team of public health professionals. Prior to joining FNIHB, Simon worked with the provincial health authorities in both Calgary and Edmonton.
Simon has over 20 years of experience in dealing with various emergency management events, including wildfires, industrial releases, floods and various outbreaks, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Most recently, Simon was covering a dual role as the Regional Manager for Environmental Public Health, as well being the Operations lead for the FNIHB COVID-19 response in Alberta First Nations.
Simon has a passion for public health surveillance data and evidence based practice and has lead numerous initiatives and developed information systems to improve environmental public health related data collection, analysis and reporting to support evidence based decision-making and improving health outcomes. Simon continues to collaborate with various agencies and departments to further enhance public health information systems and ultimately, health outcomes. Simon remains actively involved in prompting the field through ongoing activities with the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors, as a member of the Concordia University of Edmonton Professional Advisory Committee, and as a mentor to upcoming public health professionals .
While outside work, Simon spends as much time outdoors with his wife and two children. Simon enjoys down hill skiing, camping and more adventurous activities such as white water rafting and any zipline he can find.
Director of Population Health, Department of Health and Social Services
Government of Northwest Territories
Peter’s focus has been working in and supporting communities through Environmental and Public Health (EPH) by encouraging practitioners and contributing to improving legislation, systems, resources, and tools by advocating for rural and remote areas of Canada.
With 26 years of experience in EPH, Peter has grown in a variety of EPH roles over the years. He began his career as a Public Health Inspector in Ontario, delivering general EPH programs in both rural and urban areas for 8 years. He then moved North for “the experience” and has enjoyed living and working in Canada’s Arctic ever since. Peter spent 10 years in Iqaluit, Nunavut working for the Department of Health as an EH Officer, an EH Consultant and a Health Emergency Planner. He then spent 8 years in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (NWT) as Chief Environmental Health Officer in the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS).
As a territorial representative, Peter has been a member of the Canadian Drinking Water Committee for most of the last 18 years (a Federal/Provincial/Territorial group), as well as a past member of Committee on Health and Environment and other FPT committees.
During the state of public health emergency in the NWT during the COVID-19 pandemic, Peter played a significant role in the response in collaboration with the NWT’s Office of the Chief Public Health Officer. In August 2022, Peter became the Director of Population Health for DHSS. He is eager to fulfill the responsibilities that come with this new leadership role.