Who we are

Dr. Albert Ng was a department chair at Windsor Regional Hospital for 14 years and is currently a medical director at two long-term care facilities. He is a past president of the Essex County Medical Society.   

Regionally, Dr. Ng has served on the board of the Ontario Medical Association from 2013-2017 and again from 2019-2021. At the OMA, he has served on almost all of the committees over the years. 

Dr. Ng served on the board of the Canadian Medical Association from 2016-2019. At the national level, he has served on the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools since 2018 and has chaired it since 2019. 

Outside of medicine, Dr. Ng has served as the president and chair of the board of a charity organization, the Essex County Chinese Canadian Association, and currently serves on the board of directors for the Essex Golf & Country Club in Windsor. 

To supplement his experience in leadership and administration, Dr. Ng obtained a master’s certificate focused on physician leadership from the Schulich School of Business at York University in 2015. Additionally, he has completed the Rotman School of Management, Governance for Not-For-Profit Organizations (2013) and Board Oversight of Strategy (2021) programs. He is a graduate of the Rotman School of Management/Institute of Corporate Directors, directors education program and received his ICD.D designation in 2018. 

Dr. Ng’s areas of passion include understanding strategy and innovation (especially disruptive innovation), complexity science and the development of social networks in health care. His vision is focused on the intersection of social responsibility and maximizing impact through innovation. His mission is to improve the lives of those around him.

Dr. Ng was reappointed in 2024 to serve a second term on the OMF Board of Directors.

Janet Lambert has been a health-care leader in the charitable sector as national director at Crohn’s and Colitis Canada, in trade associations as CEO at BIOTECanada, and in the not-for-profit sector as COO at Canadian Executive Service Organization. She started her career with progressive private sector experience in the pharmaceutical industry at GSK, Roche and Pfizer. 

Lambert’s board experience includes the Ontario Science Centre, the Canadian American Business Council, Queen’s University Council, Life Sciences Ontario and many local charitable organizations. She has board and advisory expertise in strategic planning, governance, government relations, fundraising, health research and Indigenous relations. Lambert received undergraduate degrees in biology and kinesiology from Queen’s University, an MBA from Ivey Business School and completed the ICD.D. designation from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Lambert is bilingual in English and French.

Lambert was reappointed in 2024 to serve a second term on the OMF Board of Directors.

Dr. Shobana Ananth has more than 23 years of experience working as an emergency physician at various hospitals in Ontario, with people experiencing homelessness during the COVID pandemic and most recently working with shelter populations. She has also volunteered providing care globally in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Guatemala, Ecuador and a variety of other areas.

Her "parallel career" has focused on health and human rights, and she acted as Amnesty International's health network co-ordinator for Canada for more than a decade. She has conducted workshops on health and human rights, presented at numerous conferences and provided rounds and teaching for medical students, residents, career physicians and other health-care workers. Her interests lie on the impacts of lack of access to care and other social determinants of health, sexual and reproductive rights, refugee rights and the care of marginalized and Indigenous communities.

She has also taken on leadership positions at the Ontario Medical Association acting as District 5 chair more than five years and served on several committees, including the OMA Womens Committee, Governance as well as Structure and Bylaws. She completed the Physician Leadership Development program under the OMA and is in the midst of completing her MPH at University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. In 2021, she received one of five grants from Public Health Canada’s Vaccine Innovation Challenge for her work to improve COVID vaccine uptake amongst shelter populations in Toronto.

Dr. Ananth also prioritizes time with her family including her young son. She enjoys numerous activities ranging from running to tennis, hiking, camping and travelling across the world.

Dr. Sharon Bal is an assistant clinical professor with the Department of Family Medicine, Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University, and the chair of electives of the UGME program. Dr. Bal is the lead physician of the Delta Coronation FHO in Cambridge and has held multiple leadership roles in health-system transformation at the CND OHT, Waterloo-Wellington LHIN and Ontario Health. Dr. Bal is a provincially recognized health equity and gender equity advocate, and served as OMA Women Committee Co-Chair from 2018-2022. She was re-elected in 2024 to serve a second term on the OMA Board of Directors, and is currently vice-chair of the Board. In June 2024, Dr. Bal joined the OMF Board of Directors as a representative of the OMA Board.

Dr. Sarah Bryson is originally from Halifax and resides in Toronto. She is a proud graduate of Dalhousie Medical School. Prior to medicine, she completed a master’s of science in global health at McMaster University and continues to have an interest in supporting vulnerable populations. 

Dr. Bryson completed her residency training in family medicine from McMaster University and is now practicing in Toronto. Outside of medicine, she is a fitness enthusiast and avid cook. 

Dr. Bryson looks forward to contributing to the fantastic work of the Ontario Medical Foundation. 

Dr. Bryson was reappointed in 2024 to serve a second term on the OMF Board of Directors.

Dr. Lisa Lefebvre practices addiction medicine across Ontario and is an associate medical director in the Ontario Medical Association’s Physician Health Program. She holds the rank of assistant professor in the departments of family and community medicine and psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Dr. Lefebvre completed her medical degree at McGill University and her residency and master’s of public health degree at the University of Toronto. 

Dr. Lefebvre has a long-standing passion for giving back to her community, previously serving as a delegate to both the Ontario Medical Association Council and the Canadian Medical Association. In her role as president of the Medical Staff Association, she acted as a board director at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health as well as for the Village Family Health Team in Toronto. 

Dr. Lefebvre has been involved in medical education throughout her career, previously holding the position of program director for the University of Toronto’s addiction medicine fellowship, and she continues to teach fellowship-level trainees. Dr. Lefebvre is the immediate past chair of the Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine’s Education Committee and is co-chair of the Ontario College of Family Physicians’ Practising Well Program. 

Outside of work and volunteering, Dr. Lefebvre is an avid hiker, snowboarder and needlecrafter who enjoys spending time outside the big city with her husband and two children near Georgian Bay. 

Dr. Lefebvre was reappointed in 2024 to serve a second term on the OMF Board of Directors.

Gilles LeVasseur is a university professor in business and law at the University of Ottawa. Over the past 30 years, he chaired several national organizations, including the Institute of Public Administration of Canada, Ottawa Chamberfest, the Co-op Movement in Ontario and the federal Court Challenges Program. He also has extensive experience in the world of foundations and fundraising, chairing and serving on four provincial foundations. For 25 years, LeVasseur served as a federal senior civil servant responsible for strategic policies, legal prosecutions and enforcement, including managing several complex projects and initiatives as well as the drafting of legislation and regulations.  

LeVasseur has published 14 books on law (Canadian Business and Constitutional Law), business (Leadership and Governance, Entrepreneurship) and social issues (Battle of Vimy, The Ottawa Senators: The Triumph of Determination). He was appointed by the Government of Ontario to serve on professional corporations involved in accounting, governmental regulatory bodies and enforcement of legislation. As a public representative of the Crown, he provided governance and legal perspective in the merger of three professional accounting professions in Ontario and transformed the board of funeral services into a new provincial public body. He was also appointed to the Human Rights Legal Support Centre Board and the Bereavement Authority of Ontario Board. 

LeVasseur received several awards for his contribution to Canadian society and leadership, including a Senate 150th Anniversary Medal, the Order of Ontario, the Order of Ottawa, the Queen’s Jubilee medal, the 50th and 60th Ordre de la Pléiade (Officier & Compagnon), the Ontario Lieutenant Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Heritage and Trust, and the Law Society Medal. Other awards are from professional regulatory bodies in Canada and the United States, including the Canadian Forces Decoration, the Minister of Veterans Affairs Commendation and the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers.

LeVasseur was reappointed in 2024 to serve a second term on the OMF Board of Directors.

Dr. Neil Maharaj is a respirologist who currently practices in Niagara Falls. He received his medical degree from the University of Ottawa and obtained his subspecialty training in respirology at the University of Saskatchewan. Currently, he is an adjunct professor of medicine at McMaster University Niagara Regional Campus, where he is also an active staff member at St. Catharine’s General Hospital at Niagara Health Systems. He maintains a very active respirology practice where he cares for patients with a wide variety of diseases of the chest, such as asthma, COPD, pulmonary fibrosis and tuberculosis. 

Dr. Maharaj is a strong advocate and serves as the chair of the Section on Respiratory Disease for the Ontario Medical Association. In this capacity, he is active in representing Ontario’s more than 300 respirologists in advancing improvements toward better patient care for patients with respiratory diseases. 

Throughout his 12 years of experience, Dr. Maharaj has worked in many different locales in Canada, ranging from northern Ontario to Saskatchewan to Nunavut. These diverse experiences have instilled a very strong sense of community and commitment towards better equity in health care for Canadians. 

Dr. Maharaj is committed to promoting and advancing the many strengths of greater equity, diversity and inclusion within the medical profession and society at large. Together, with the Ontario Medical Foundation, he looks forward to advancing these goals.

Dr. Maharaj was reappointed in 2024 to serve a second term on the OMF Board of Directors.

Jo-Anne Sobie is a graduate of the University of Guelph with a bachelor of applied sciences. She has dedicated her career to improving the health and wellness of Ontarians, through her many roles in the not-for-profit sector: as a change agent, advocate, spokesperson, fundraiser and chief motivation officer. 

Sobie has provided leadership to organizations focusing on a broad spectrum of health-care issues, including arthritis, asthma, muscular dystrophy, hemophilia and spinal cord injury. She has partnered with health-care professionals, researchers, patients and donors. 

Sobie was executive director of the RTOERO Foundation prior to her retirement in 2020. Working with the board of directors and partnering with the RTOERO and its membership of retired educators, she led the young foundation through a process of strategic partnership development and revenue growth that transitioned it into a more impactful partner and funder of aging-related research. 

Sobie looks forward to being a new member of the Ontario Medical Foundation board of directors, applying her experience in organizational development, along with a depth and breadth of knowledge in strategic planning, board development, financial planning, donor-centred fundraising and operational effectiveness to support the new strategic direction of the foundation. 

Sobie currently lives in midtown Toronto with her husband, daughter and their two dogs. During her career, Sobie spent some time working in the field of global security, which has resulted (now that she is retired) in her becoming a fervent student and follower of global geopolitics.

Sobie was reappointed in 2024 to serve a second term on the OMF Board of Directors.