Board of Directors
Learn about the OMA Board of Directors
The board of directors is responsible for the governance of the OMA and is the highest decision-making authority within the organization.
The board’s mandate includes oversight of management of the corporation and development of the OMA’s approach to governance. The board oversees all affairs of the OMA and exercises, as appropriate, its powers according to OMA bylaws, governance policies and applicable laws and regulations. Read more about the board charter and position descriptions.
There is a clear delineation between the board and executive management. Management is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the OMA, while the board provides strategic oversight of and direction to the organization.
Board size and composition
The board is comprised of 11 directors: eight physician directors and three non-physician directors. All directors are elected directly by the OMA membership. Directors are elected for a two-year term and may stand for re-election up to three times (six years maximum). All directors assume office immediately following the Annual General Meeting (AGM), typically held in May.
Observer positions are held by the president-elect, the immediate past president and the chair of the general assembly.
The board is broadly diverse with a good mix across clinical specialties, career stage and gender distribution, as well as governance, business and finance and industry expertise among the public members.
A graduate of Western University in 1986, Dr. Cathy Faulds received certification in family medicine from the College of Family Physicians of Canada in 1989, and she became a fellow in 2004. She completed her certificate of added competence in palliative care from the CFPC in 2016 and her American Board of Palliative and Hospice Medicine in 2010.
After practising in rural southwestern Ontario, Dr. Faulds continued her comprehensive family medicine practice within the city of London and formed the London Family Health Team, which she served as the clinical lead from 2010-15. She previously served as lead physician for the Shared Care Pilot Initiative, London Lambeth Family Health Organization and the Parkwood Palliative Care Unit at the Parkwood Hospital in London. Currently, Dr. Faulds serves as a palliative care physician with St. Joseph’s Health Centre and is a staff family physician at London Health Sciences Centre. Since 1996, she has served as a clinical professor and mentor to undergraduate and graduate medical students at Western University.
Dr. Faulds has filled roles as the vice-president of clinical and the quality lead in the SWLHIN, SW Nonhospital Pandemic committee lead and sat on the Provincial Primary Care Pandemic Advisory table, as well as, providing primary care leadership for the London Middlesex Alliance to the Ontario Health Team in London Middlesex. She was a founding physician leader in the London Middlesex OHT.
Dr. Faulds is a current faculty member of CPEP teaching the PROBE program of ethical remediation to regulated health professionals. She does consulting work on ethical frameworks for the governance of boards and organizations.
Dr. Faulds has participated on the board of the Ontario College of Family Physicians, serving from 2011 to 16. She was president of the OCFP from 2014 to 15. She has served as a director of the College of Family Physicians of Canada from 2013 to 17. Dr. Faulds has also participated as a reviewer for Canadian Family Physician, Health Quality Ontario, Cancer Care Ontario and the Canadian Diabetes Association. She was an investigator for the IRPC of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, and for 10 years she served as a disability assessor for the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.
In addition to her experience with the CFPC and OCFP, Dr. Faulds has served on numerous committees at Health Quality Ontario on quality improvement plans and primary care metrics. She has served as co-chair of the Family Medicine Alliance in Ontario and director of the Thames Valley Family Practice Research Team Board in London. Dr. Faulds continues to do primary care research in palliative care, chronic disease management and quality improvement.
Dr. Faulds previously served on the OMA’s Negotiation’s Task Force and the Primary Care Advisory Committee. She is currently the board chair of ARGI.Inc, a not-for-profit organization providing primary care research and chronic disease programs.
Dr. Faulds is a member of the Technical Committee for the development of primary care standards with the Health Standards Organization and Accreditation Canada.
Dr. Faulds is elected for a second two-year term as chair.
Dr. Sharon Bal, based in Cambridge, Ont., is the lead physician of the Delta Coronation FHO and staff physician at Cambridge Memorial Hospital, providing on-call coverage to area long-term care homes. Dr. Bal is an assistant clinical professor with the Department of Family Medicine, Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University and is the pre-clerkship coordinator at the Waterloo Regional Campus. Dr. Bal is a recognized physician advocate and champion of health equity for marginalized populations and has held multiple leadership roles. Dr. Bal currently serves as a member of the steering and joint board committees of the Cambridge North Dumfries OHT and is a clinical lead with Ontario Health. Dr. Bal was co-chair of OMA Women from 2018-2022.
Dr. Bal is re-elected for a two-year term as director and is elected for a two-year term as vice-chair.
Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman (she/her) is an allergist and clinical immunologist practicing in the Greater Toronto Area mainly in Mississauga and at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton. Dr. Abdurrahman is an assistant clinical professor adj. of pediatrics and a staff member on the Clinical Immunology and Allergy Subspecialty Residency Training Committee at McMaster University.
This is Dr. Abdurrahman’s second year on the board of directors, and she is also the chair of the Governance and Nominating Committee (GNC). She comes with a strong background in governance with experience being on the OMA Joint Governance Transformation Task Force (GT20), the OMA Council Governance and Steering Committee and serving as the chair and delegate for the OMA Allergy and Clinical Immunology Section. She is also a strong advocate for equity and diversity with various leadership roles in this realm including, but not limited to, being a member of the Black Scientists Taskforce on COVID-19 Vaccination Equity and previously on the OMA Civility, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee. She is also a board director of OntarioMD where she was previously a physician peer leader and a member of the OntarioMD Educational Taskforce. Dr. Abdurrahman is completing her second year of a two-year term as director. In February she was acclaimed president-elect for the 2024-2025 term.
Denise Carpenter is an experienced board chair, director, C-suite executive, and executive coach with broad experience in several business sectors. She has spent her career advocating for companies and governments on issues that matter most to Canadians and acting as a trusted confidant to senior executives and governments.
Denise has worked within various complicated business and governance structures and has led numerous efforts to create critical alignment with executives, board directors, management, and other stakeholders. She has a strong track record in building shareholder value, and relationships that deliver value to multiple stakeholders in complex business, government, and not-for-profit environments. She is an early thought leader and advocate of ESG, social impact and corporation's purpose.
She works to help individuals and organizations deliver measurable outcomes. Denise’s most recent work focuses on renewable energy enterprises, utilities, (regulated and non-regulated) energy security, climate change, artificial intelligence, serving the underbanked, health insurance and health care. In addition to being a director at the Ontario Medical Association, she is also the Independent Chair of Blue Cross Canada, Board director of Cashco Financial Inc, Chair of the Board at Ronald McDonald House Charities Toronto, Chair of the board at EnerFORGE, Chair of the board at Oshawa Power and Utilities Corporation, board director Synergy North.
She has served as a guest lecturer and executive in residence at the University of Alberta’s MBA program and guest lecturer at the Fellows Program, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard. She has written and lectured widely on diversity of thought, governance as a business enabler and stakeholder relationships. In 2022 she was selected as a BMO Honouree at the BMO Celebrating Women on Boards event. In 2018 Denise was appointed to the Diversity 50 Cohort, recognizing Canada’s most diverse and eligible board candidates. She is an active and accredited member of the WGOB, Institute of Corporate Directors, The International Coach
Federation and the International Women’s Forum. She has been honoured by Global TV as a Woman of Vision; by the YWCA with a Woman of Distinction Award; and has twice been named one of Alberta’s 50 Most Influential People by Alberta Venture magazine. Her passion is exploring the world, its people, and its cultures. She lives in Toronto and continues to travel widely. Denise is in her second two-year term.
David Collie is the past president and CEO of the Electrical Safety Authority of Ontario. During his tenure, the ESA has been recognized as a leader in harm reduction outcomes, stakeholder and government collaboration and regulatory excellence. David holds an MBA, is a chartered professional accountant (an awarded “fellow”) and chartered director. He is a faculty member and the Energy Executive in Residence at the Directors College of Canada. He has written several articles and published two books on good governance and regulatory practices as well as presented at numerous conferences. He is also guest faculty at the Strategic Management of Regulatory and Enforcement Agencies executive program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. David has chaired the CPA’s National Certification Committee, the Electricity Distributors Association of Ontario, the United Way of Burlington-Hamilton and Plug ‘N Drive. He is currently the chair of the Governance Committee at Hamilton Health Sciences and a public member of the National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities of Canada. He has served on Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care working groups, conducted workshops for boards of health-care authorities and presented at numerous national and international conferences focused on health-care oversight. David and his wife live in Glen Williams and have two daughters who are both Ontario-based physicians. Mr. Collie is in his second two-year term.
Dr. Paul Conte is a family physician practicing at urgent care and walk-in clinics in Kitchener.
Dr. Paul Hacker is a general practitioner with a focused practice in palliative medicine. Dr. Hacker is the lead physician of the Community Palliative Medicine Associates and a clinician teacher with the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa.
Dr. Dominik Nowak is the Ontario Medical Association’s president and a family doctor at Women's College Hospital.
Dr. Nowak trained at McMaster University, where he specialized in family medicine and served as chief resident. He went on to the University of Toronto to finish a master of health administration at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation as well as the ICD-Rotman Directors Education Program at the Rotman School of Management.
Dr. Nowak is a faculty member in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. He is a recipient of the College of Family Physicians of Canada Award of Excellence for his leadership in Canadian health care.
Jennifer Quaglietta currently serves Professional Engineers Ontario as their CEO & registrar, where she is leading the organization through a historic enterprise-wide transformation towards becoming a modern regulator that serves and protects the public interest. She has worked across several sectors including pharmaceutical, health care, banking, insurance and government.
A transformational leader, Jennifer combines an empathic and authentic style with expertise in strategy development, governance, enterprise risk and change management to steer private and public sector organizations through complex change while enabling sustainable operations.
Her achievements have been recognized provincially and nationally. She is a recipient of the 2023 Canada's Most Powerful Women Top 100, 2022 Robert Zed Young Health Leader Award, 2021 Not-for-Profit CIO of the Year Award among others.
Jennifer holds a bachelor of applied science and engineering, a master of business administration and an institute of corporate directors designation from the University of Toronto and is an industry affiliate with the Centre for Healthcare Engineering. She is on the board of directors at Holland Bloorview Rehabilitation Hospital and has served on many advisory boards. Jennifer is a passionate advocate for women in engineering, gender equality, diversity, and mental health.
Dr. Cynthia Walsh is a radiologist working at The Ottawa Hospital. She attended medical school at the University of Western Ontario, followed by a residency in medical imaging at the University of Ottawa and a fellowship in abdominal imaging at Stanford Hospital. She has been on staff at the Ottawa Hospital as an abdominal radiologist since 2006. Her experience in the OMA includes two years as a board director, chair of the Diagnostic Assembly, and a D8 delegate. She is honoured to be re-elected for another term as a board director and pledges to work tirelessly to advocate for all Ontario physicians. Dr. Walsh is serving in her second two-year term.
Dr. Hirotaka Yamashiro, based in Toronto, Ont., is a community pediatrician with a special interest in pediatric respiratory medicine. He is medical director of the Yamashiro Pediatric Clinic and is assistant professor and clinical adjunct lecturer with the department of pediatrics at the University of Toronto, as well as adjunct professor with the division of family medicine at Queen’s University. Dr. Yamashiro has served previously in many OMA leadership positions, including Pediatrics Section chair from 2004-2014 and 2020-21, executive member of the Academic Medicine Forum, and a member of the Education and Prevention Committee. He is also a pediatrics peer reviewer for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Dr. Yamashiro is serving his second two-year term.
The officers of the board are the board chair, president, president-elect and immediate past president. Here are other officers of the board not pictured above.
OMA past president Dr. Andrew Park is an emergency physician practicing at London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph’s Healthcare in London, and St. Thomas and Elgin General Hospital in St. Thomas. Dr. Park is an assistant professor of medicine at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine, where he has developed a novel course for resident physicians in emotional intelligence and leadership. In his spare time, Dr. Park enjoys being active, playing sports and travelling.