Committees

All CCS committee members must be CCS members in good standing. Committees are balanced for equity, diversity and inclusion.

If you are a Trainee or Student member of CCS and are interested in being part of a committee, please contact trainees@ccs.ca to find out how you can participate. 

• Governance Committee
• Audit and Risk Management Committee
• Early Career Committee
• Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee
• Continuing Professional Development Committee
• Guidelines Committee
• Membership Committee
• Scientific Program Committee
• Trainee Committee
• Advocacy Committee

Governance Committee

Chair: Michelle Graham, CCS Past President

Members:

Anne Fournier
Paul MacDonald
Andrew Mackie, Secretary/Treasurer
Laurie-Anne Boivin-Proulx, Trainee Representative

The Governance Committee of the CCS is a Standing Committee of the Board of Directors (BOD) of the CCS. It was established to assist the BOD in carrying on the business of the Society in connection with all matters relating to governance. For the purposes of this duty, governance is defined as providing oversight on the CCS so as to be assured that the Society fulfills its commitments and obligations.

Two-year term – once renewable

Responsibilities:

• To assure the BOD that a measurable process of governance has been defined, documented, and operationalized in the Society.
• To gain assurance from Management that the aforementioned governance process is embodied in the Society’s internal controls.
• To make recommendations to the BOD on the improvement in governance practices and processes for the Society.
• To act as the Nominations Committee for all vacant positions on the BOD or Chairs of Committees of the BOD.
• To make recommendations to the BOD for vacant positions of President, Vice-President, Secretary/Treasurer and Committee Chairpersons.
• To prepare criteria for the recruitment, screening and selection of candidates for vacant positions on the BOD and Committees.
• To oversee the BOD orientation process.
• To recommend to the BOD the amendment of the Society’s by-laws, as and when, necessary.
• To recommend to Council the recipients of the CCS Recognition Awards: Achievement Award; Distinguished Teacher/Mentor Award; Women in Cardiovascular Medicine-Science Mentorship Award; Dr. Harold N. Segall Award of Merit; Exemplary Leadership in Clinical Cardiovascular Medicine and Surgery Award; Trainee Excellence in Education Award; Research Achievement Award; and, the Dr. Robert E. Beamish Award.
• To oversee and approve changes to the Society’s Delegation of Authorities.
• To undertake other governance duties as requested by the BOD.

Membership
The Governance Committee will be chaired by the CCS Past President, and includes five (5) other CCS members appointed by the BOD including the CCS Secretary/Treasurer and a Trainee member. The Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial and Governance Officer of the Society will be non-voting members of the Committee.

Frequency of Meetings
The committee will meet at least twice per year by video conference in Spring and Fall and more frequently as required.

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Audit and Risk Management (ARM) Committee

Chair: Andrew Mackie, CCS Secretary/Treasurer

Members:

Rodney Zimmermann, Past CCS Treasurer

The ARM Committee is a Standing Committee of the Board of Directors (BOD) of the CCS. It was established to assist the BOD with the fulfillment of its fiduciary responsibilities for financial oversight and accountability.

Membership
The ARM shall be comprised of three (3) members appointed by the BOD, at least one (1) of whom is a BOD member and one (1) of whom is past CCS Secretary/Treasurer. The CEO and CFO of the CCS shall be non-voting members of the ARM. The CCS Secretary/Treasurer shall be Chairperson. The CFO serves as the subject matter expert for the ARM.

Two-year term – once renewable
Each ARM member serves for a period of two (2) years and may be re-appointed for a second term upon completion of their first term.

Frequency of Meetings
The ARM shall meet at least twice per year, in January and June by video conference and in October in person, as feasible. Any member of the ARM may request a special meeting at any time.

For more information, please contact Andrea Lee, Controller at lee@ccs.ca.

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Early Career Committee

Chair: William F. McIntyre

Members:

Aws Almufleh
Sarah Blissett
Debraj Das 
Laurent Desjardins 
Andrew Fagan 
Jonathan Gale
Janine Eckstein
Shuangbo Liu  
Judy Luu 
Robert J. Miller
Steven Promislow
Michael Thibert
Darryl Wan

For more information on this committee, please visit: About Early Career Members or contact Linda Palmer, Director, Membership and Affiliate Services at palmer@ccs.ca.

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Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee

Chair: Sharon Mulvagh

Members:

Alexandra Bastiany
Debraj Das
Margot K. Davis
Daisy Dulay
Isabelle Greiss
Tisha Joy
Marc Ruel
Kamal Sharma
Elizabeth Hillier

The EDI Committee is a Standing Committee of the CCS Board of Directors. The vision of the CCS is strong heart teams in a heart healthy Canada. Fostering equity, diversity and inclusion is one of our guiding principles. The success of the CCS Mission depends on people who provide a diversity of background, experience, ideas and perspectives as members and leaders. The EDI Committee supports the CCS in establishing the strategic priorities and action plans to uphold and advance our EDI values.

Two-year term – once renewable

The EDI Committee is responsible for:

• Supporting CCS in evaluating needs, offerings, processes, practices, and policies to assess strengths and shortcomings to facilitate improvements in what we do and how we do it;
• Using existing CCS membership and other data to inform current status on EDI within the Society, and advising CCS on improving data collection and analytics to support EDI activities and evaluation;
• Advising on CCS’s long term EDI strategy by supporting staff in identifying key priorities and activities to advance this work, informed by CCS baseline data;
• Championing the policies, processes, and positions the CCS adopts; and,
• Evaluating progress using an established list of key performance indicators.

For more information, please contact Kendra Pelland, Manager, Health Policy at pelland@ccs.ca.

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Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Committee

Chair: Anil Gupta

Members:

Chi-Ming Chow
Aws Almufleh
Laura Banks
David J. Bewick
Filio (Phyllis) Billia
Osama E. Elkhateeb
Jonathan Gabor
Nadine Gauthier
Andrew D. Moeller
Stephanie Poon
Jonathan D. Windram
Zachary Singer, Trainee Representative

The CPD Committee is a Standing Committee of the CCS Board of Directors (BOD). The CPD Committee promotes excellence in cardiovascular care by positioning the CCS as the National leader in cardiovascular knowledge translation and education. Members of the CPD Committee must be committed to ensuring the CCS’ continuing professional development program meets the learning needs of Canadian cardiovascular health care professionals. Representatives for this committee are selected from across Canada and from various areas of care.

Two-year term – once renewable

The CPD Committee provides the BOD with informed recommendations regarding CCS CPD programs for members and trainees, in consideration of best practices in medical education and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) accreditation criteria. This is a two to four-year term.

For more information, please contact Vanessa Richardson, Director, Continuing Professional Development at cpd@ccs.ca.

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Guidelines Committee

Chair: Jonathan Howlett

Members:

David Birnie
Kim Connelly
Yuchen Dai
Michael Khoury
Dennis Ko
Shuangbo Liu
Judy Luu
Tarek Malas
Scott McClure
Krishnan Ramanathan
Nariman Sepehrvand, Trainee Representative

The Guidelines Committee is a Standing Committee of the CCS Board of Directors (BOD). It is accountable for steering, supporting and approving the slate of Guidelines and Clinical Practice Updates (CPU) through to successful publication in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology (CJC), and directly supporting the CCS’s vision, mission and strategic operating plan.

Committee members commit time to functions that include, but are not limited to, participating in review and selection of the annual call for topics, peer review of final draft manuscripts and voting on eligibility for submission to the CJC, actively participating as a Guidelines Committee liaison on one or two Guideline / CPU panels, collaborating with other CCS Standing Committees (i.e., Scientific Program Committee, Continuing Professional Development), informing the BOD and Council on requests, and attending a minimum of four virtual committee calls, plus one Congress meeting (either in person or virtual) each year.

Guidelines Committee members embrace CCS’s Committee Member Core Competencies and bring an excellent cross-section of qualifications and interests including:

• Cardiovascular specialists and sub-specialists (pediatrics, surgery/transplant, interventional cardiology, imaging, electrophysiology, cardio-oncology, critical care, heart failure);
• Allied healthcare provider(s), pharmacists;
• Early-, mid-, and late-career members plus trainees;
• Cardiovascular specialist(s) with interest in systems change / optimizing care based on patient values / preferences
• Demonstrated experience in development and publication of Guidelines using GRADE plus clinical statements
• Enthusiasm to provide leadership, clinical and academic guidance to Guideline / CPU panels;
• Understanding of provider barriers to optimal cardiovascular health and care and knowledge of how Guidelines and related knowledge translation can help address these barriers;
• Awareness of needs of the broader cardiovascular care community, primary care providers, allied health care providers and patients; and
• Ability to connect the CCS with other content experts.

For more information, please contact Kiran Thapar Otto at guidelines@ccs.ca.

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Membership Committee

Chair: Parvathy Nair

Members:

Gopal Bhatnagar
Vincent Chan
Margot K. Davis
Daniel Esau
Jessica Forcillo
Angela H. McBrien
John Sapp
Luiz Fernando Ybarra
Molly Reginald-Thangaroopan
Laurie-Anne Boivin Proulx, Trainee Representative

The CCS Membership Committee is a Standing Committee of the CCS Board of Directors (BOD). The Committee provides overall expert advice for current, new and suggested products and services as required, and makes recommendations on member recruitment, retention and engagement strategies.

Two-year term – once renewable

The CCS Membership Committee has a mandate to:

1. Oversee the implementation of the programs and services outlined in the membership section of the Strategic Plan;
2. Provide overall expert advice for current, new and suggested products and services as required; and
3. Report to the Board and to engage Council of Committees to develop products and services that will benefit the membership and to encourage membership participation/engagement in CCS and Affiliate societies’ activities and growth by promoting the CCS and Affiliate societies.

For more information, please contact Linda Palmer, Director, Membership Services and Affiliate Relations at palmer@ccs.ca.

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Scientific Program Committee (SPC)

The SPC is a CCS standing committee of the CCS Board of Directors (BOD) responsible for the development of high-caliber CCS scientific programming at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress (CCC). The CCC program includes Plenaries, Workshops, Accredited Symposia, Trainee Sessions, Abstracts, Featured Research and integrative functions such as the Kick-off, and networking opportunities.

The SPC plans and selects all content for CCC with a focus on developing a high-quality scientific program and delivering education aimed at improving the quality of care provided by our membership and improving health outcomes for those who receive care.

Representatives from various areas of care and sub-specialization are selected to represent the CCS membership as part of this committee.

The SPC is responsible for:

1. Developing the overall CCS scientific program format and program content;
2. Inviting identified plenary speakers;
3. Liaising with the Congress Educational Partners (i.e. participating allied health organizations) and CCS Affiliates to inform them of overall CCC program content and cohesion.

Committee members are expected to:

1. Participate in 3-5 video conferences and one face-to-face meeting at CCC in October;
2. Participate in the CCS Members Needs Assessment;
3. Recommend and contact prospective speakers if required;
4. Be active members of sub-committees (Workshops, Featured Research, Young Investigator Award Selection, etc.); and
5. Be ambassadors for the meeting in their communities during their term.

Scientific Program Chair Qualifications

The complexity of the CCC and its organizational policy, as well as its resource and financial requirements benefits from strategic oversight from a designated, committed individual who is responsible for overall CCC integration.

A candidate for Chair of the SPC must possess the following qualifications:

• Have previous experience on the CCS Scientific Program Committee;
• Be a well established and highly respected cardiovascular health researcher and medical expert;
• Be a CCS member in good standing who represents both academic and community cardiovascular specialties as well as the basic sciences;
• Be an enthusiastic, results motivated cardiovascular medical practitioner, scientist and educator, or an established scientist with strong ties to the medical community, who is committed to developing and delivering excellent events and programming at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress; and
• Be well connected within the cardiovascular health network and possess strong leadership and communication skills that will serve in fostering collaboration among participating organizations in the interest of program integration.

Chair: Filio Billia

Leadership Members:

Atul Verma, Annual Meeting Chair
Filio Billia, Incoming Scientific Program Committee Chair, Education Chair
Jasmine Grewal, Outgoing Annual Meeting Chair
Anil Gupta, CPD Chair
Jonathan Howlett, Guidelines Chair
William McIntyre, Workshop Chair
Najah Adreak, TPPC Senior Co-Chair
Tara D’Ignazio, TPPC Senior Co-Chair

Affiliate Members:

Lori Albers, CCPN
Kevin Emery Boczar, CNCT
Robin Ducas, CSE
Eric Kaplovitch, CSVM
Michael Khoury, CPCA
Mina Madan, CAIC
Jaimie Manlucu, CHRS
Caroline McGuinty, CCTN
Dave Nagpal, CANCAREIdan Roifman, C
SCMRINegareh Mousavi, CCON
Paaladinesh Thavendiranathan, CCON
Subodh Verma, CSCS
Jonathan Windram, CACHnet

Annual Meeting Chair: Atul Verma

The Canadian Cardiovascular Congress (CCC) is a complex meeting with an extensive Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) program. The CCS program includes scientific education sessions and sessions from industry partners, an exhibit hall, and networking opportunities. The complexity of the CCC and its organizational policy, as well as its resource and financial requirements, benefits from strategic oversight from a designated, committed individual who is responsible for overall CCC integration.

The goal of the CCS Annual Meeting (AM) Chair is to coordinate the development of an integrated, enriched, and expanded educational opportunity for CCS Members. In addition, the CCS Annual Meeting Chair provides all stakeholders with counsel, advice, and direction resulting from ongoing CCC evaluation, performance measurement, and quality improvement efforts.

The AM Chair sits on the Scientific Program Committee (SPC) and SPC Executive, and works very closely with the Scientific Program Chair and CCS Staff.

The term of appointment is 4 years: 1 year as incoming (vice) chair, 2 years as chair and 1 year as past chair.

Annual Meeting Chair Qualifications 
A candidate for Chair must possess the following qualifications:

• Is a Canadian cardiovascular clinician and/or scientist, currently residing and practicing in Canada.
• Be a well established and highly respected cardiovascular health researcher and medical expert;
• Be a CCS member in good standing who represents both academic and community cardiovascular specialties as well as the basic sciences;
• Have previous experience on the CCS Scientific Program Committee;
• Can evaluate the effectiveness of the CCC and its ability to support CCS in achieving its mandate and strategic goals.
• Be an enthusiastic, results motivated cardiovascular medical practitioner, scientist and educator, or an established scientist with strong ties to the medical community, who is committed to developing and delivering excellent programming at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress;
• Be well connected within the cardiovascular health network and possess strong leadership and communication skills that will serve in fostering collaboration among participating organizations in the interest of program integration;
• Has an understanding of the relationships that CCS has with other groups such as HSF; Educational Partners (ie. CSCT) and CCS affiliates.
• Provides all stakeholders with counsel, advice and direction resulting from ongoing CCC evaluation, performance measurement and quality improvement efforts.
• Understands the complexity of the CCC and its organizational policy, as well as its resource and financial requirements.

For more information, please contact Gillian Bentley, Scientific Program Manager, Congress, at congress@ccs.ca.

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Trainee Committee

Chair: Laurie-Anne Boivin-Proulx

Members:

Charlotte C. McEwen
Chang (Nancy) Wang
Nafisa Absher
Léa Berbach
Ychen Dai
Hugo De Larochellière
Tara D’Ignazio
Josiane Dion
Tony Fang
Nicholas Joseph Grubic
Elizabeth Hillier
River Jiang
Yoshito Kadoya
Maria Agustina Lopez Laport
Kailin McGrath
Yuan Qiu
Tammy Ryan
Nariman Sepehrvand
Zachary Singer
Christopher Spence
Dominique Vervoort
Karen Ho, CACHNET Representative
Robert Kay, CAIC Representative
Kenza Rahmouni El Idrissi, CSCS Representative
Zachary Singer, CANCARE Representative
Jeffrey J. Yim, CSE Representative

For more information on the Trainee Committee, please visit: About Members in Training or contact trainees@ccs.ca.

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Advocacy Committee

Chair: Harindra C. Wijeysundera

Members:

David Messika-Zeitour
Isabelle Nault
Stephanie Poon
Nafisa Absher

The Advocacy Committee is a Standing Committee of the CCS Board of Directors (BOD). The Committee supports the CCS in influencing policy and advocating for the heart health of Canadians. Specifically, the committee guides the CCS in identifying priorities that are representative of and in the best interest of the cardiovascular specialist community to advance heart health for all.

Two-year term – once renewable

The Advocacy Committee is responsible for:

1. Advising on the development of CCS’s advocacy plans by supporting staff in identifying national-level policy and advocacy issues and priorities;
2. Evaluating how to respond to issues;
3. Guiding the CCS in developing policy documents, and contributing to CCS submissions to federal or provincial consultations;
4. Representing the CCS to the public and the media, and championing the policies and positions the CCS adopts;
5. Participating and attending annual federal government lobby activities, as required; and
6. Evaluating success using an established list of key performance indicators.

Issues in the cardiovascular field that this committee may work on in the next two years could include (but are not limited to) the following: Cardiovascular care quality; Access to real-time data; Value Based Health Care; Improving Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Cardiovascular medicine; Vaping; Pharmacare; and Virtual Care

For more information about this position, please contact Kendra Pelland, Manager, Health Policy, at pelland@ccs.ca.

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