Our Expert Team

Research Chairs

Leith Deacon, Chair of Rural Resiliency

Feng Chang, Chair of Rural Pharmacy

Ken Milne, Chair of Rural Medicine

Ryan Gibson, Chair of Rural Economic Development

Casandra Bryant, Chair of Rural Human Resources

Jay McFarlan, Chair of Rural Nutrition & Exercise

Scott Brown, Chair or Rural Organizational Development

Mohamed Gazarin, Chair of Rural Hospital Pharmacy Research

Erin Donald, Chair of Equity and Access in Rural Palliative Care

Erin Donald, PhD, RN, CHPCN(C) (they/them) is a graduate-educated nurse with a 15-year career in palliative care. Dr. Donald has practiced as a clinical nurse in community and hospice, as an educator at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and as a nurse researcher in palliative care and health systems. Their program of research focuses on access to palliative care and a palliative approach in rural settings, and for populations made vulnerable by social inequity. Having relocated to Goderich in 2022, Dr. Donald has joined Gateway with the aim of fostering local partnerships and supporting community-based initiatives focused on improving quality of life across the disease trajectory for those with life-threatening illness.

Wayne Caldwell, Chair of Rural Healthy Sustainable Communities

Alexandrea Peel, Chair of Rural Senior Care

Mike Beazely, Chair of Rural Substance Use

Michael Beazely is an Associate Professor at the School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo. He is a pharmacologist and neuroscientist interested in understanding brain cell function and dysfunction in psychiatric and neurological diseases. Prof. Beazely’s research also includes educating and evaluating interventions for substance use prevention, harm reduction, and treatment in pharmacy and other health professions. He joined Gateway in 2023 as a board member and Research Chair in Rural Substance Use.

Simon Berge, Chair of Rural Business & Co-operatives

Paul Gill, Chair of Rural Digital Health

Leslie Walker, Chair of Rural Artificial Intelligence