About Us

Mike Allan, MD CCFP

Director, Program and Practice Support, College of Family Physicians of Canada

Professor, Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta

Mike has been in practice 20 years, given over 300 invited presentations and published over 100 articles. He is a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta and the Director of the Program and Practice Support at the College of Family Physicians.

Mike also participates in a weekly medical podcast on iTunes, roadshows, academic detailing visits, and writes Tools for Practice for the ACFP and the Canadian Family Physician journal.

Mike is happily married and has two teenaged daughters.

Tina Korownyk, MD CCFP

Professor and Interim Chair, University of Alberta

Director of PEER

Tina has worked as a Family Physician in Edmonton for over 15 years. She is a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta and currently serving as Interim Chair of the Department. She is the Director of PEER, an organization that seeks to empower primary care through the use of best evidence. She participates regularly in the development of Tools for Practice (one page evidence summaries that are distributed nationally every 2 weeks), Primary Care Guidelines and other knowledge translation activities. She is a frequent speaker at provincial and national conferences and has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals. She is the co-coordinator of the EBM program for Family Medicine residents at the University of Alberta and proud to be a part of the leadership team for Pragmatic Trials, searching to improve the care of patients through pragmatic randomized controlled trials. She is married with 4 children, and enjoys all things outdoors.

Mike Kolber, BSC MD CCFP MSC

PEIP Conference Chair, Professor, Family Medicine, University of Alberta

Mike is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta. He practices in Peace River, Alberta using his additional skills training in gastroenterology.

He contributes to Tools for Practice, medical podcasts and presenting at local, provincial, national, and international events. Mike enjoys helping organize continuing educational events including PEIP as Conference Chair, Endoscopy Skills Days, GI for GPs, PEER North and EBM Workshop for University of Alberta family medicine residents.

He is passionate about sports and has previously coached lacrosse, hockey and baseball and enjoys the outdoors with his wife and three great kids.  Contact Mike @ mkolber@ualberta.ca

Scott Garrison, MD PHD

Professor, Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta

Director, Pragmatic Trials Collaborative

Scott spent the first 20 years of his professional career as a full time fee-for-service family physician. He has a passion for evidence-based medicine and left full time clinical practice in 2013 intent on pursuing clinical trials that address important, as yet unaddressed, primary care questions. He is working to build a platform for large primary care trials in both BC and Alberta.

Adrienne Lindblad, BSP BSc ACPR PharmD

Clinical Evidence Expert Lead, College of Family Physicians of Canada

Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta

Adrienne received her pharmacy degree from the University of Saskatchewan, completed the hospital pharmacy residency program in Halifax, and earned her Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Toronto.  Throughout her career, Adrienne has been heavily involved in teaching and mentoring, and has received numerous awards for her work. She is passionate about evidence-based medicine and translating evidence into practice.  She is involved with a number of initiatives that empower primary care, including Tools for Practice and PEER’s Simplified Guidelines programs.

Adrienne enjoys hiking with her amazing family and taekwondo training.

James McCormack, BSC PHARM PHARMD

Professor, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, University of British Columbia

James received his undergraduate pharmacy degree from the University of British Columbia in 1982, completed a hospital pharmacy residency program at Lion’s Gate Hospital in North Vancouver in 1984, and received his doctorate in pharmacy (PharmD) in 1986 from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC.

Over the past 25 years, James has presented over 400 seminars and 100 publications within the fields of evidence-based medicine, rational drug therapy, and shared-informed decision making. His research focus in knowledge translation and critical appraisal.

Currently, James co-hosts one of the most popular family medicine podcasts in the world: Best Science (BS) Medicine podcast.

Danielle Perry, MsC BScN RN

Clinical Evidence Expert, College of Family Physicians of Canada, Assistant Adjunct Professor, Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta

Danielle has a background in nursing and epidemiology, with experience in acute, long-term and correctional nursing. Currently, she works full-time developing and providing physician education materials that utilize evidence-based medicine. She enjoys teaching and is actively involved in academic detailing to family physicians across Alberta.

In her “free time”, Danielle travels back to Prince Edward Island to see her family, works at the Edmonton Institution for Women and enjoys reading, biking and spending time with her friends.

Joey Ton, BSCPHARM PHARMD

Clinical Evidence Expert, College of Family Physicians of Canada

Academic Adjunct Colleague, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Alberta

Joey is a pharmacist who graduated with his Bachelors of Pharmacy in 2013 and Doctor of Pharmacy in 2015 both at the University of Alberta. Currently, his role focuses on developing and providing physician education materials that utilizes evidence based medicine. Additionally, he is involved with academic detailing providing education to family physicians around Alberta.

Betsy Thomas, BSC PHARM

Project Manager, Education and KT

Primary Health Care Opioid Response Initiative

Alberta College of Family Physicians/ PEER

Assistant Adjunct Professor, Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta

Betsy completed her pharmacy degree from the University of Alberta in 1995.  She recently worked as a pharmacist for many years at an independent community pharmacy and a Primary Care Network in Edmonton prior to joining the PEER team.  She has also previously worked in other settings including the University of Alberta Faculty of Pharmacy and the Institute of Health Economics.

Currently her role with the PEER team is focused on the Primary Health Care Opioid Response Initiative grant as a project manager.  She is involved in creating guidelines for opioid use disorder and chronic pain for primary care as well as developing tools for knowledge translation of those guidelines.

Betsy is married with 3 children and loves reading and being a soccer mom.

Jessica Kirkwood, MD CCFP (AM)

Assistant Professor, Family Medicine, University of Alberta

Jessica joined the team in September 2019 as an Assistant Professor with the University of Alberta.  She has been a family physician at the Boyle McCauley Health Centre since 2012, providing primary care to patients dealing with houselessness, mental illness and substance use disorders. She is very passionate about helping educate primary care providers and learners to care for marginalized patients in a way that is empathic as well as evidence-based. She attended medical school and residency at the University of Alberta and Dr. Korownyk was her faculty advisor in residency.

She has 2 children, an active dog and a very patient husband.

Samantha Moe, BScPhm ACPR PharmD

Clinical Evidence Expert, The College of Family Physicians of Canada

Samantha Moe is a Clinical Evidence Expert with the College of Family Physicians of Canada since 2018. Trained as a pharmacist, Samantha worked in family medicine, ICU and general medicine for over 15 years prior to joining the CFPC. She completed her BScPharm and PharmD at the University of Toronto and hospital residency in London, Ontario. Samantha is mom to three kids, and can be found trying to get that yoga pose just right.

Nicolas Dugré, PharmD MSC

Assistant clinical professor, Faculty of pharmacy, University of Montréal

Pharmacist, CIUSSS du Nord-de-l'Ile-de-Montréal

Nicolas received his Doctor of pharmacy in 2011 and his Master degree in advanced pharmacotherapy in 2012 from the University of Montréal.  He has since been sharing his time between teaching at the university, co-hosting a French medical podcast and working as a clinical pharmacist at the Sacré-Coeur Family medecine group in Montréal.

Nicolas contributes to Tools for practice, guideline development and other knowledge translation projects.

Jamie Falk, BScPharm PharmD

Associate Professor, College of Pharmacy

Pharmacist, Department of Family Medicine

Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba

Jamie received his pharmacy degree from the University of Manitoba and his Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of British Columbia.

His clinical and teaching activities revolve around evidence application in the management of chronic diseases, with a research focus on drug utilization, prescribing patterns and knowledge translation. He currently practices as an Extended Practice Pharmacist in family medicine at the Kildonan Medical Centre in Winnipeg. He is the co-chair of the Medications, Evidence, and Decision Support (MEDS) Conference in Winnipeg. 

Jen Potter, MD CCFP

Assistant Professor, University of Manitoba

Jen has been in practice as a family physician since 2005, and at Kildonan Medical Centre in Winnipeg since 2012 where she participates in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education.

She also has a research interest in vaccine hesitancy. Jen has three daughters and enjoys knitting, playing guitar, and going to the lake.

Allison Paige, MD CCFP

Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine, University of Manitoba

Site Medical Lead, Kildonan Medical Centre

Associate Director of Quality Improvement, Department of Family Medicine

Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences

Alli works as a Family Physician and clinical preceptor at Kildonan Medical Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She also is the Associate Director for Quality Improvement in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Manitoba where she oversees the resident Quality Improvement curriculum and participates in quality improvement related projects.

Alli is married with two children. She loves going to the lake and Disney World with her family and is a proud hockey mom.

Ricky Turgeon, BSc(Pharm), ACPR, PharmD

Assistant Professor (tenure-track) - Greg Moore Professorship in Clinical & Community Cardiovascular Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of British Columbia

Ricky received his BSc(Pharm) from Dalhousie University in 2012, completed a hospital pharmacy residency with the Lower Mainland Pharmacy Services in Vancouver in 2013, received his Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) from UBC in 2015, and completed a 2-year post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry (Division of Cardiology) in 2018.

Ricky’s clinical practice is as a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in cardiology, and his research interest is in integrating high-quality observational studies and meta-analyses of randomized trials to develop decision support tools to facilitate shared decision making in the pharmacological management of cardiovascular disease. His research is centered on implementation science, with a focus on antithrombotic agents, lipid-lowering therapies, pharmacotherapy for heart failure, and on the cardiovascular safety of medications.

Tony Nickonchuk, BScPharm

Alberta Health Services (AHS) Provincial Drug Utilization and Stewardship

Tony obtained his pharmacy degree from the University of Alberta in 2006 and spent 8 years working as a community pharmacist.

Tony transitioned to becoming a pharmacist at the Peace River Hospital and now currently is involved with creating recommendations for the AHS drug formulary that is based on the highest level of evidence. Tony also performs data analysis of provincial drug utilization and develops drug stewardship programs.

You will see Tony at the Practical Evidence for Informed Practice (PEIP) conference as he has been a longstanding planning committee member. Tony is a regular contributor to Tools for Practice and is a member of the Alberta Health Expert Committee for Drug Evaluation and Therapeutics.

In Tony’s free time he enjoys swimming, biking, running, and snowshoeing. He also loves camping with his wife and three kids.

Karenn Chan, MD CCFP CAC COE

Associate Professor, Dept of Family Medicine, University of Alberta

Jennifer Young, MD

Comprehensive family physician in Collingwood, Ontario including teaching, hospitalist, obstetrics and just retired from part time emergency medicine.

Emélie Braschi, MD, PhD

Emélie is a Family Physician working as a hospitalist in a stroke rehabilitation unit. She enjoys helping physicians making sense of clinical evidence.

Roni Kraut, CPA, MD, CCFP, MSc

Assistant Professor, Family Medicine, University of Alberta

Roni is a family physician/researcher based in Edmonton. She has a family medicine practice at Shifa Medical Clinic and is a long-term care physician at Benevolence Care Centre. She has been involved in primary care research ever since her first research project with Mike Allan as a medical student. Roni’s research is based on questions highly relevant and impactful to primary care, with a focus on deprescribing, preventing overdiagnosis, population screening, and women’s health. Roni enjoys spending time with her awesome family.