Dr. Shovita Padhi
MDCM, MPH, FRCPC
ASSOCIATE PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Dr. Shovita Padhi is a Public Health and Preventive Medicine Specialist currently working as an Associate Medical Officer of Health at Toronto Public Health. Prior to returning to Toronto she worked as a Medical Health Officer and Medical Director at the Fraser Health Authority where she was deeply involved in the overdose epidemic response, early childhood development and immunizations. She has also worked in Saskatchewan as a Deputy Medical Health Officer in the former Saskatoon Health Region. She has several years of experience in both postgraduate and undergraduate medical education and training and is currently an Associate Program Director for the University of Toronto's Public Health and Preventive Medicine residency program. Dr. Padhi is an alumni of the University of Toronto's Public Health and Preventive Medicine residency program and became a fellow of the Royal College in 2013.
Dr. Barry Pakes
MD, MPH, CCFP, FRCPC, PhD
PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Dr. Barry Pakes is a Public Health and Preventive Medicine physician with a practice focus in local public health, as well as public health and global health education and ethics. He is a graduate of the Public Health Preventive Medicine specialty training program at the University of Toronto and has degrees from McGill, Harvard, and the Gorgas Institute in Lima, Peru. He earned his PhD in Public Health Ethics at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Pakes’ recent Public Health leadership roles have included as Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Health in Nunavut, AMOH in London Middlesex, AMOH in Halton Region, and most recently as AMOH with the Region of Peel as part of the COVID response.
He has worked and taught in local and global public health settings including as a Senior Ethics Fellow at the WHO, in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Kerala and Israel. Dr. Pakes also practices emergency medicine and primary care in Northern Ontario communities, is a travel clinic medical director and supervises medical residents at Mount Sinai Hospital. He is currently the Global Health Lead for Postgraduate Medical Education, Program Director of the Public Health and Preventive Medicine residency program and Program Director for the Global Health Education Initiative at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (University of Toronto).
Dr. Alexa Caturay
MD, MPH, CCFP, FRCPC
ASSOCIATE PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Dr. Alexa Caturay works as an Associate Medical Officer of Health for Toronto Public Health specializing with the Congregate Settings Team focused presently on case and outbreak management, vaccination efforts, and recovery
in shelters, group homes, correctional facilities, mental health and addictions facilities, and post-secondary Institutions. She also works with a youth-focused mental health agency outside her public health role.
Outside of work, Dr. Caturay's joy is mentoring with GEM, a one-to-one mentorship program for young women in Toronto. She is also an avid but amateur gardener and a lover of all kinds of word puzzles.