The Fourth Annual Healthy Cities Virtual Conference
November 12-13th, 2025
Session 3 – Nov 12th
| Shaping the Future of Healthy Cities: A Trainee Forum |
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| 3:45 pm-4:30 pm |
About the Session
This session offers trainees a dedicated space to reflect on the day’s keynote and panel discussions exploring the past, present, and future of healthy cities. Designed as an interactive forum, the session will encourage participants to coalesce their thoughts, share perspectives, and consider how they can actively contribute to these conversations as they shape their own careers.
To enrich the discussion, a mini-panel of invited experts will provide guidance and insights, linking career readiness and aspirations to the broader context of healthy cities. With many trainees pursuing paths in academia and beyond, this session aims to inspire and support the next generation of leaders in the field.
Recording
Guest Speakers
Dr. Katherine (Kate) Frohlich (Government)
Scientific Director of the Institute of Population and Public Health, CIHR
Katherine (Kate) Frohlich is the Scientific Director of the Institute of Population and Public Health, CIHR, since September 2023. She is also a Professor in the Département de médecine sociale et préventive, École de Santé Publique, Université de Montréal (ESPUM) as well as Research Associate with the Centre de Recherche en Santé Publique (CReSP). Her programme of research, funded for over 20 years by both CIHR and SSHRC, focuses on better understanding and reducing social inequities in urban youth health. A dedicated interdisciplinary scholar, her work straddles the boundaries of health promotion, social epidemiology, sociology of health and health geography. She also co-holds the Myriagone McConnell-UdM Chair on Youth Knowledge Mobilisation, an interdisciplinary, intersectoral Chair with colleagues from the Faculty of Arts and Science, UdM.
Dr. David Ma (Academia)
Professor, University of Guelph; Director, Guelph Family Health Study
Dr. Ma is a professor in the department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences (HHNS) and Director of the Guelph Family Health Study (GFHS) at the University of Guelph. His research has produced nutrition papers on a wide range of topics from cells and experimental models of cancer to family nutrition. As the Director of the GFHS, a longitudinal cohort study of families with young children, he leads a team of investigators and trainees to better understand determinants of health. The goal is to develop tools and approaches to support healthy behaviours for the prevention of chronic diseases. Beyond the lab, he is a member of the City of Guelph-Smart Cities team, which was awarded an Infrastructure Canada grant to develop, Our Food Future, Canada’s first circular economy. As a member he participates in the nutritious food workstream. Building on the work of Our Food Future, he is a co-lead of the SMART Training Platform, the first CIHR-NSERC-SSHRC shared tri-council training grant. This is a 6-year endeavour connecting 10 academic institutions across Canada and nearly 50 co-investigators and collaborators to build capacity in implementation science to advance healthy cities research and train the next generation of leaders.
Richard Aubry (Industry)
Redwood Properties
Richard Aubry is an Architect, urban designer, and LEED Accredited Professional with over 25 years of experience in multi-disciplinary projects worldwide. His expertise spans from land acquisition and programmatic planning to multi-family housing design and large-scale urban design interventions. Richard is focussed on all phases of design and construction, including conceptual design, construction documents, and project and construction management. With a decade in practice complemented by 15 years in land-use and intensification development, he strives introduce innovative, human-centered approaches to design and development.