The Empire Club of Canada
Hybrid
Tuesday, November 4, 2025
Social determinants such as place of birth, where you live, employment, and education play a crucial role in health outcomes. For Black women and girls in Canada, systematic challenges, lack of research, and anti-Black racism compound health disparities including risks for various diseases, poorer perinatal outcomes and inequities in healthcare access and quality.
What are the best practices for how Canada’s health systems can improve the quality of Black women’s health? What lessons can other marginalized communities learn from this survey? What can sector leaders—particularly those in health and education, which employ many Black women—learn from this event to build healthier and more productive workforces?
On November 4th, The Empire Club of Canada, in partnership with the Black Women’s Institute for Health, will present: Whose Health Counts? Improving Health Outcomes for Black Women and Girls in Canada featuring expert panel:
This event will launch a first-of-its kind survey of Black Women in Canada entitled Voices Unheard presented by Kearie Daniel, Executive Director of the Black Women’s Institute for Health.
Get your tickets today.
Kearie Daniel is a national leader in nonprofit strategy, systems transformation, and equity advocacy, whose work centres the health, rights, and lived experiences of Black communities across Canada. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the Black Women’s Institute for Health, a national organization advancing the health of Black women and girls through community-led advocacy, disaggregated data, and culturally rooted programming that challenges and reimagines the systems that shape our well-being.
Kearie’s career spans healthcare, education, child welfare, and housing, reflecting a lifelong commitment to confronting institutional harm and building pathways to justice. As a Communications Lead at Cancer Care Ontario, now part of Ontario Health, she supported regional cancer centres and led province-wide communications for diagnostic and Disease Pathway Management programs. She has also held senior communications roles at Humber River Regional Hospital and within eHealth organizations, helping to make complex health systems more transparent and navigable for the people they serve.
In the child welfare sector, Kearie led communications for Phase II of the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies’ One Vision One Voice initiative, amplifying the voices of Black families and advancing systemic reform in response to the overrepresentation of Black children in care.
She was the inaugural Executive Director and co-founder of Parents of Black Children, where she transformed a community idea into a nationally recognized education advocacy organization, supporting Black families navigating Ontario’s school systems and fighting for equity in education.
Kearie is also the creator of Woke Mommy Chatter, a platform that uses storytelling, wellness, and intergenerational dialogue to honour the realities and power of Black motherhood. Her writing has been featured in Today’s Parent, Chatelaine, and CBC Parents, and her work continues to shape national conversations around Black motherhood, care, and systemic accountability.
Her leadership is grounded in anti-Black racism frameworks, trauma-informed care, and the belief that systems must be accountable to the communities they serve.
Nam Kiwanuka is an award-winning journalist and is the host/producer of TVO’s (MIS)Treated, a podcast on women’s health. She hosted The Thread with Nam Kiwanuka, The Agenda in the Summer and was the co-host of The Agenda with Steve Paikin. She also contributes to columns for TVO.org Originally from Uganda, Nam spent her early years in a refugee camp in Kenya before settling in London, Ontario. Her remarkable career in journalism includes roles as the first Black woman in Canada to host a magazine sports show with NBAXL and CFL Crunch on Sportsnet; as a VJ/Videographer at MuchMusic and writing a column for the BBC’s Focus on Africa. Beyond her professional work, she’s a passionate plant collector with a collection to rival Allan Gardens and is determined to perfect her chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Dr. Cindy Maxwell is an accomplished physician, researcher, and educator who has been recognized as a transformative health system leader. She is the Vice President, Medical Affairs & System Transformation and Lead Medical Executive at Women’s College Hospital at University of Toronto.
Dr. Maxwell co-leads The Black Reproductive Health Working Group in Ontario, N-ABL, the provincial network to support Black medical learners and is a past-President of the Black Physicians Association of Ontario. Dr. Maxwell co-leads the Black Village Leadership Circle of First Exposure with Dr. Roberta Timothy at the University of Toronto. Dr. Maxwell is a Director on the Board of Directors of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada. Dr. Maxwell leads the Obesity Stream of the FIGO Committee on Impact of Pregnancy and Long-term Health.
She is a Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital and Women’s College Hospital, and Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Toronto. Her clinical and research interests are focused on acute and chronic disorders of pregnancy with an emphasis on pregnancies affected by obesity, malignancy, and gastrointestinal disorders.
Professor Bukola Salami is a Registered Nurse, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Black and Racialized People’s Health and a Full Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary. She previously held the rank of Full Professor in the Faculty of Nursing and was Director of the Intersections of Gender Signature Area in the Office of the Vice President Research, both at the University of Alberta.
Professor Salami’s research program focuses on the well-being of Black, immigrant, and racialized people. She has been involved in over 90 funded studies totalling over $230 million. She recently received a $2.5 million SSHRC Partnership Grant titled Transforming the Lives of Black Children and Youth in Canada.
She founded and leads the African Child and Youth Migration Network, a network of around 50 scholars in four continents. In 2020, she founded the Black Youth Mentorship and Leadership Program, the first university-based fully interdisciplinary mentorship program for Black youths in Western Canada. This program seeks to socially and economically empower Black high school youths to meaningfully contribute to Canadian society. Her work on Black youth mental health informed the creation of the first mental health clinic for Black Canadians in Western Canada (which was founded by Africa Centre and the Alberta Black Therapist Network). She has presented her work to policy makers (including the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health). She has trained over 100 undergraduate and graduate students, including many (~10) who are now Assistant or Associate Professors.
Professor Salami is Vice President of the Canadian Nurses Association and board member of Black Opportunity Fund. She is a former Board member of Africa Centre (the largest Black organization in Western Canada), the Alberta College of Social Workers, Black Health Alliance, Edmonton Local Immigrant Partnership, National Association of Nigerian Nurses of North America, International Nursing Interest Group of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, and Project Esperance (a housing unit for women in Toronto). In addition to being an Editor for the Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, she is an Associate Editor of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) and on the Editorial Board of Nursing Inquiry, Nursing Philosophy, and Qualitative Health Research. She is a board/council member of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, an advisory board member of the CIHR Institute for Human Development, Child and Youth Health, and on the Scientific Advisory Committee on Global Health to the Government of Canada.
Dr. Salami has received several awards for research excellence and community engagement: 100 Accomplished Black Women in Canada; Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing Emerging Nurse Researcher of the Year Award; College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CARNA) Award for Nursing Excellence; Rosalind Smith Professional Award from the National Black Coalition of Canada – Edmonton Chapter; Alberta Avenue Edmonton Top 40 under 40; Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame; Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Nursing; Killam Accelerator Award (a $225,000 value for research); Top 25 Canadian Immigrants; Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal; Health Research Foundation Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Award; and Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.
Dr. Modupe Tunde-Byass is the president-elect of the Federation of Medical Women of Canada. She was the inaugural and Past President of Black Physicians of Canada. She is the Chair of the Governance Committee of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.
Dr. Tunde-Byass is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada and the UK. She completed her OBGYN training in the UK and Canada. She received special interest training in Maternal and Fetal Medicine at King’s College, London. UK. She has been an active staff at NYGH since 2004. She is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Toronto and a graduate of the New Evolving Academic Leadership (NEAL) program at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Tunde-Byass has held major administrative positions like Residency site coordinator and Interim Chief of OBGYN at NYGH. She is involved in key quality initiatives at the Local and Provincial levels. She was the Co-chair for the Quality Standard on Increasing access to Vaginal Birth After Caesarean section and an expert panel member for Early pregnancy complications and loss (Joint projects of PCMCH and HQO). She is the Co-Chair of Maternal Newborn Outcome Committee at Better Outcome Registry Network (BORN). She has received numerous teachings and innovation awards.
She is involved in medical education and research. She is passionate about EDI, Anti-Black Racism as reflected in maternal mortality, morbidity and birthing experiences in the Black population. She has made many media appearances including a CBC documentary series For the Culture with Amanda Parris exploring Black maternal deaths. She is the co-author of Achieving equity in reproductive care and birth outcomes for Black people. CMAJ 2024.
Her research interest is in Early pregnancy complications and Quality improvement and patient safety initiatives like decreasing CS rate by increasing access to trial of labour after Caesarean section. She has presented some of her research at international conferences and has publications in peer review journals and made several media showings on these related topics. She was the recipient of the 2022 Postgraduate medical education, University of Toronto Social responsibility award, SOGC mentorship award, NYGH president’s award and The Black Physicians of Ontario Healers legacy award. She is co-founder of Women Health Education Made Simple (WHEMS).
