Featured Members

Dr. Samuel Ogbeide is the Physician Lead and Medical Director of the Kalyna Country Primary Care Network, serving the Central Zone region of Alberta. He is also the Director of Medical Services at the Erin Ridge Medical Clinic in St. Albert, and the Sunrise Medical Clinic in Killam, both in Alberta. He practices both urban and rural family medicine in these clinics, where he also has a sub interest in chronic pain and opioid use disorder management. Dr. Ogbeide is a Clinical Lecturer in Family Medicine at the...

Dr. Rajesh Shukla is an Associate Professor at the School of Ethics, Social Justice and Public Service in the Faculty of Philosophy at Saint Paul University, in Ottawa, Ontario. Dr. Shukla was born and raised in India and came to Canada in September 1999, in the pursuit of his higher education and learning. Like many international students, he faced some challenges early on, but found Canadian life and society very open and welcoming and decided to build his life in this country. He applied for...

Dr. Josephine B. Etowa is a professor and Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN) Chair in Black Women’s HIV Care and Prevention at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Nursing, an N4 member, and a former newcomer to Canada herself. Dr. Etowa began her career as a registered midwife and registered nurse in Nigeria, immigrating to Canada nearly 30 years ago.

While working as a nurse, Dr. Etowa saw firsthand the barriers that newcomers to Canada faced when accessing the...

Reem Ali is the first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Officer for the City of Peterborough, Ontario, a student of the N4 and Saint-Paul University Online Program, and a member of N4. Reem brings to her role many years of experience as a community builder, both through academic and professional pursuits, as well as through her commitment to volunteerism.

Reem’s path to where she is today was not a direct one – she completed a Master of Science  in Biochemistry and went on to pursue a Ph.D. in...

Astrid Velasquez is a Program Manager in Immigration and Settlement Services at Catholic Social Services (CSS) in Edmonton, Alberta, and currently on secondment to lead the newly opened New Canadians Health Centre, as well as an N4 member. Astrid also has lived experience as a newcomer, having immigrated to Edmonton nearly two decades ago from Colombia. Astrid sees herself as, “one of the lucky ones, because when I came, I was younger, and I came with my mom, my dad, and my siblings...so we didn’t...

Dr. Annalee Coakley is the Co-Chair of the N4 Advisory Committee, the Physician Lead of the Mosaic Refugee Health Clinic, and the Medical Director of the Calgary Refugee Health Program in Calgary, Alberta. Dr. Coakley initially became interested in medicine by reading The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett, which piqued her interest in tropical diseases. After graduating as a family physician, she further pursued this interest by attaining a Diploma of...