Gary H. Gibbons
Director, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Prof. Gibbons’ research program is recognized for its discovery science related to cardiovascular health of minority populations. His laboratory is currently focused on discovering novel, ancestry-specific mediators of vascular disease. Originally from Philadelphia, he earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School. He completed his residency and cardiology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Throughout his career, Prof. Gibbons has received numerous honors, including election to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences; selection as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Minority Faculty Development Fellowship awardee; selection as a Pew Biomedical Scholar by the Pew Charitable Trusts; and recognition as an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association.

Sarita Verma
Deputy Dean, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Sarita Verma is a Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Associate Vice Provost Health Professions Education at the University of Toronto. She is a family physician who originally trained as a lawyer at the University of Ottawa (1981) and later completed her medical degree at McMaster University (1991). She has been a Diplomat in Canada’s Foreign Service and worked with UNHCR in Sudan and Ethiopia for several years.

Dr. Verma is the 2006 recipient of the Donald Richards Wilson Award in medical education from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the 2009 co-recipient of the May Cohen Gender Equity Award from the Association of Faculties of Medicine in Canada. At present she is the Co-lead for the Canadian Interprofessional Health Leadership Collaborative (CIHLC) at the Institute of Medicine’s Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professions Education.

Jorge Kalil
Director, Laboratory of Immunology, University of São Paulo

Jorge Kalil is Professor of Medicine, head of clinical Immunology and Allergy, Director of the  Laboratory of Immunology, Heart Institute, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, Director of Instituto Butantan and Chairman of Butantan Foundation. He is also chairman of the board of Zerbini Foundation.

Prof. Kalil was founder and first President of the Brazilian Association of Organ Transplants and he acted as President of the Latin American Association of Immunology and President of the Brazilian Society of Immunology. He was deputy Clinical Director of the Hospital das Clínicas and Chairman of the Department of Clinical Medicine.  He is President of the International Union of Immunology Societies. Prof. Kalil is dedicated to the study of the mechanisms of immunological recognition and distinction of self and no self.