The project is managed from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto.
For general inquiries, please contact IRMHProject@camh.ca.
Our Team
- Our Team
Project Leads
Dr. Kwame McKenzie is CEO of Wellesley Institute, which works in research and policy to improve health and health equity in the Greater Toronto Area. A practicing psychiatrist, he also holds positions as a full Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and as CAMH's Director of Health Equity. Dr. McKenzie has advised health, housing, education and social services ministers in Canada and the U.K. and has authored more than 260 peer reviewed papers and six books. He is CoChair of Canada’s Expert Task Force on Substance Use, is a member of the National Advisory Council on Poverty, and has worked as a consultant to the World Health Organization. Provincially, Dr. McKenzie has served as a Commissioner of Human Rights, Co-Chair of the Ontario Black Health Plan, an advisor to Ontario’s Basic Income Pilot Project and a member of the Mental Health and Addictions Advisory Council to the Minister of Health. He is also a previous Member of the Executive and Council of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, U.K. Dr. McKenzie’s research and collaborations have been shaping local, national and international social policy for more than three decades and he has been credited with changing pandemic strategies in Canada. Additionally, Dr. McKenzie has worked as a columnist for The Guardian and The Times, as a presenter for BBC Radio, and he is regularly published in the Toronto Star. Among his many honours, Dr. McKenzie is the recipient of an African Canadian Achievement Award for Science, a Harry Jerome Trailblazer Award and the Dominican of Distinction Award. He holds a medical degree from University of Southampton and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, U.K.
Aamna Ashraf is the Senior Manager of Health Equity at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She is a well-known figure in the field of health equity and is an experienced professional in the areas of program and policy implementation, stakeholder development and partnerships. Aamna holds a Master’s Degree in Education (Counselling Psychology) and has worked in the not for profit sector for over 25 years. As an advocate for health equity, Aamna leads the award winning Immigrant and Refugee Mental Health Project and serves as one of Ontario's Health Equity Impact Assessment Champions. She previously worked as a Senior Program Advisor in refugee resettlement with the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration. Before this she was the Director of the Peel Newcomer Strategy Group -Local Immigration Partnership for Peel. Aamna has also worked at United Way Peel/York and has led service development for diverse populations at Canadian Mental Health Association Toronto. In her current role at CAMH she manages staff whose portfolios include interpretation services, research and evaluation, culturally adapted CBT, and health equity education and training. More recently Aamna collaborated with departments within CAMH and other key stakeholders to implement a hospital wide strategy Fair and Just CAMH and led the implementation of the Dismantling Anti-Black Racism strategy.
