Dawn Bowdish is professor at McMaster University, holds the Canada Research Chair in Aging & Immunity, and she is executive director of the Firestone Institute of Respiratory Health. Her lab studies how age-associated inflammation alters monocyte and macrophage development and function and how this ultimately increases susceptibility to respiratory infections while decreasing the effectiveness to vaccines for pneumonia and COVID-19. Her team also studies how the aging immune system and the microbiome interact, and how this can contribute to healthy or unhealthy aging. She runs the Preclinical Studies in Aging Laboratory and is on the Board of Directors of the Lung Health Foundation.  

Rachel Bartholomew is the founder and CEO of Hyivy Health. Hyivy Health is focused on creating a medical device for women with pelvic-based cancers and diseases. She has worked as a lecturer in entrepreneurship for quantum computing, an analyst for a venture capital firm, an innovation manager at a large Canadian financial institution, and helped restart Laurier University’s startup incubator program. Rachel founded and serves on the Advisory Council for FemTech Canada, and she is a host of the White Coat Warrior podcast. 

Vass Bednar is executive director of the Master in Public Policy Program and an adjunct lecturer in political science at McMaster University. She has held leadership roles at Delphia, Airbnb, Queen’s Park, the City of Toronto, and University of Toronto. She chaired the federal government’s Expert Panel on Youth Employment, and was the co-host of “Detangled,” a weekly pop-culture and public policy radio show and podcast. She writes a newsletter about Canadian startups and public policy called “regs to riches.”  Recently Vass was recognized as an outstanding alum with a McMaster “Arch” award. A graduate of McMaster University’s Arts & Science Program, she also holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Toronto and successfully completed Action Canada and Civic Action DiverseCity Fellowships. 

Eva has worked as a journalist for more than a decade, and she is a journalism instructor at Mohawk College. In addition to working for The Times and the BBC (UK), she was managing editor of the award-winning foreign affairs site OpenCanada.org from 2014 until early 2020, editor of Chile’s English-language newspaper The Santiago Times, columns editor for This Magazine, a communications officer for Athletes for Africa, a trainer with Journalists for Human Rights, and a reporter for the Globe and Mail Vancouver bureau. As well she is the author of Latin Americans Thought Of It. Eva holds an MA from  McMaster University’s Institute on Globalization and a BA in journalism from X University in Toronto.