Dr. Sonia Anand, Associate Director, Population Health Research Institute, Director – Population Genomics Program, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Professor, Cardiology, has been appointed the inaugural Associate Chair, Equity and Diversity, in the Department of Medicine, McMaster University.
Dr. Anand will be responsible for developing and implementing policies and practices related to equity and diversity within the department, and will support the recruitment, retention and advancement of faculty by addressing any issues related to equity including gender, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. The Department of Medicine is comprised of 250 full-time faculty members, 226 part-time faculty members, 35 professor emeriti, eight clinical scholars, and 27 joint and associate members.
“I am excited to take on this new position and will lead the implementation of procedures to reduce conscious and unconscious biases both of which stifle equity in the advancement of women and diverse individuals in medicine,” says Dr. Anand. “Research from the business sector shows us that greater success in gender equality comes from changing environments and culture, and not only mindsets.”
Dr. Anand also holds the Canada Research Chair in Ethnic Diversity and Cardiovascular Disease, as well as the Michael G. DeGroote Heart and Stroke Chair in Population Health and Epidemiology.
Her active projects at the Population Health Research Institute includes the SouTh Asian biRth cohorT (START) of thousand mother baby dyads followed from pregnancy to 5 years of age, and the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Heart and Minds (CAHHM), a pan Canadian study designed to understand markers of early subclinical dysfunction of the brain and heart and to describe their relationship to the individual and contextual risk factors and outcome.
