Phase 1 Executive Committee

Dr. Marcia Anderson

AFMC Indigenous Health Lead | Member

Dr. Marcia Anderson is Cree-Anishinaabe and grew up in the North End of Winnipeg. Her family roots go to the Norway House Cree Nation and Peguis First Nation in Manitoba. She practices both Internal Medicine and Public Health as a Medical Officer of Health with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. She is the Vice-Dean, Indigenous Health and the Executive Director of Indigenous Academic Affairs in the Ongomiizwin Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba. She serves as the Chair of the Indigenous Health Network of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada. She is a Past President of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada and Past Chair of the Pacific Region Indigenous Doctors Congress. She was recognized for her contributions to Indigenous peoples health with a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in March 2011. In 2018 she was named one of the 100 most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network.

Dr. Mandy Buss

IPAC President | Member

Dr. Mandy Buss is Metis from the Red River Settlement in Manitoba. She is a family physician working in Winnipeg, Manitoba with Urban and those who are transient to Winnipeg from Northern First Nations, Metis and Inuit populations. She is the current President of the Indigenous Association of Canada.

Dr. Buss completed her residency in the Northern Remote Family Medicine program in Manitoba, training and working in various Northern and fly-in communities within Manitoba and Nunavut. In addition to her clinical work, she is holds two positions within the University of Manitoba: Director of the Undergraduate Medical Longitudinal Indigenous Health Curriculum, and the Indigenous Health Lead for the Department of Family Medicine. She also sits on the College of Family Physicians of Canada’s Indigenous Health Committee.

Dr. Michael Dumont

IPAC Vice President | Member

Bozhoo, my name is Michael Dumont. I am Anishinaabe (Marten Clan), and a member of Shawanaga First Nation. I am honoured to live as a guest on the unceded land of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples, where I raise my daughter Evie.

As a family physician, I am privileged to work both on and off reserve in community primary care. I helped to establish Lu’ma Medical Centre in 2016, where I currently serve as Medical Director. We incorporate traditional Indigenous and Western medical approaches in our two-eyed seeing model of care, with Elders and Traditional Healers working alongside Indigenous physicians, nurses, counselors and social navigators. We are a core learning site for the Indigenous Family Medicine Residency program at UBC, where I also do some teaching with the undergraduate and postgraduate medical programs. I am proud to partner with Musqueam First Nation to deliver primary care on-reserve, and I currently serve as spokesperson for the First Nations and Aboriginal Primary Care Network (a partnership of 8 Indigenous owned/operated clinics across Metro Vancouver).

I am honoured to serve as a board member for the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada, in the role of Vice President since July 2022. Our organization advocates for and represents Indigenous physicians, residents and medical students on a national level, with strong focuses on mentorship, wellness, anti-racism, medical education and Indigenous self-determination.

Dr. Sarah Funnell

MCC Indigenous Health Lead | Chair

Dr. Sarah Minwanimad Funnell is a First Nations Family Physician and Public Health Specialist. Sarah is an Associate Medical Officer of Health at Ottawa Public Health and Director of Indigenous Health within the Department of Family Medicine at Queen’s University. Previously Sarah offered Primary Care services for refugees, immigrants, the homeless and Indigenous people. Since March 2020, Sarah has directed her attention towards supporting the COVID-19 response and advancing Indigenous Health Medical Education.

After completing medical school at the University of Ottawa (U of O), Dr. Funnell pursued her dual interests in family medicine and epidemiology through the five-year Public Health and Preventive Medicine Residency Program at U of O. She received her Certification in the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CCFP) in 2015.

Her background is Algonquin and Tuscarora and grew up among the Mississaugas of Alderville First Nation. Sarah is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada and a current member of the Board of Directors of the College of Family Physicians of Canada. Sarah is co-Chair of the Indigenous Health Committee at the CFPC and also sits on the Indigenous Health Advisory Committee at the Royal College. She is currently working with both colleges to improve Indigenous Health Curriculum in all residency programs. She is lives in Ottawa with her husband and 3 daughters. In her spare time, she speaks to her plants.

Dr. Darlene Kitty

CFPC Indigenous Health Lead | Member

Dr. Kitty is a Cree woman and family physician practicing in Chisasibi, the largest of 9 Cree communities in northern Quebec, since 2006. She is the Director of the Indigenous Program at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine, leading the efforts to recruit, admit and support Indigenous students to become physicians. She is involved in the Indigenous health curriculum, including academic activities and Grand Rounds in Indigenous health as Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine. She has published and contributed to several articles in Indigenous health and has made presentations at many conferences over her career.

As a former President and Board member of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada, Dr. Kitty collaborates with their partners to advance Indigenous health and contribute to Indigenous-relevant advocacy initiatives, research and publications. These important stakeholders include the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada, College of Family Physicians of Canada Indigenous Health Committee, the Royal College Indigenous Health Committee and the National Indigenous Health Science Circle. She carries forward these collaborations and experiences as a member of the Executive Committee of the National Consortium on Indigenous Medical Education and AFMC Indigenous Health Network.

Dr. Kitty greatly values her clinical, academic and administrative work that are important avenues of care, teaching, advocacy to address and improve Indigenous health and social issues, including anti-racism and cultural safety, in the spirit of reconciliation.

Dr. Lisa Richardson

Royal College Indigenous Health Lead | Member

Dr. Lisa Richardson is a mixed-blood Anishinaabe (Shebahononing/Killarney) physician and clinician-educator. She practices General Internal Medicine at the University Health Network in Toronto. She is the Strategic Advisor in Indigenous Health for the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and for Women’s College Hospital where she founded the Centre for Wise Practices in Indigenous Health. She is an Associate Professor and Vice-Chair of Culture and Inclusion in the Department of Medicine. Dr. Richardson is a strong advocate for Indigenous health equity and Indigenous health education at the local, provincial and national levels.

Leslie Spillett

It’s an honour to support the National Consortium on Indigenous Medical Education as it works to fulfill its vision and mandate. I have taught my daughters that the most important role in our community is to serve the people (relatives) but also to remember to take care of their own spirit through ceremony and teachings of the pipe. I work on integrating these teachings into my own life knowing that it’s seldom what you say but what you do that matters.

My personal story is similar to that of many of our people and it has been through relationships formed over the years with community members sharing collective experiences through countless community activities that I have reclaimed identity, culture, history, space, family (kinship), and knowledge. I am fortunate to occupy positions (space) and to be in relationship with relatives that have been most impacted by the colonial violence including Indigenous women and 2Spirit folks, women living with HIV/AIDS, sex workers, sexually exploited youth and trafficked women, criminalized youth and families of MMIWG2S. In these relationships, I have worked from the fundamental principle that it is the systems that need to change – and not the people who are surviving them. It has helped me to be accepting, non-judgmental, trauma-informed and able to challenge colonial violence – white supremacy, racism, patriarchy, heterosexism and transphobia that are embedded in colonial institutions, legal frameworks, language, law and policy.

For the past two years, I have worked at Ongomiizwin Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing in the role of knowledge keeper (helper). Ongomiizwin is an Institute within the University of Manitoba’s Rady Centre of Health Sciences. In this role, I share cultural knowledge and ceremony, support Indigenous students who are enrolled in the 5 health sciences, facilitate Indigenous curriculum to students, participate in policy development (Rady Centre’s Disrupting All forms of Racism), review and advise on curriculum (Nursing and Medicine) and provide individual counselling to students seeking support. Throughout, I challenge colonial paradigms, pedagogies, structures and narratives that are harmful and hurtful and that diminish our collective spirit and wellbeing.

I continue to be engaged in the community sitting on the boards of the Manitoba Harm Reduction Network, University of Winnipeg and University of Manitoba Indigenous Advisory Circles and consult with Indigenous and community-based NPO’s on decolonization and anti-racism.