Allison (“Allie”) Muniak is the Executive Director of Health System Improvement at Health Quality BC, where she leads provincial efforts to advance quality, safety, and patient-centred care. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Calgary and a Master of Applied Science in Human Factors Engineering from the University of Toronto. Prior to joining HQBC, Allie served as Executive Director of Quality & Patient Safety and Infection Prevention & Control at Vancouver Coastal Health. Throughout her career, she has brought human factors thinking directly to the frontlines—observing hundreds of surgical cases to understand how teams truly use safety checklists, and listening to frontline nurses whose insights ultimately contributed to a global infusion tubing recall. Allie is passionate about building cultures where people feel safe to speak up and helping healthcare systems move from policies to meaningful, sustained improvement.

 Dr. Curtis “Curt” Smecher is a specialist anesthesiologist and seasoned physician leader in British Columbia.  Over the past decade he has led the province-wide Physician Quality Improvement (PQI) initiative under Doctors of BC, and was the first to implement it in Fraser Health in 2014. He is known for emphasizing collaboration, rigor in problem-solving, and integrating physicians, patients and administrators in health-system change. His rural and suburban clinical experience gives him deep insight into the challenges of delivering care across varied communities. In 2019, he won the Fraser Health “Health Care Hero” award for his leadership in advancing physician-driven quality improvement. 

Dr. Sivjee attained an undergraduate degree in Health Care Organization and Policy from Brown University and went to The University of Connecticut for medical school.  He completed his Internal Medicine residency and was Chief Resident at Yale University and a then completed a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.  After working for Kaiser Permanente in California, he and his family moved to Toronto in 2005 when he became The Division Head of Respirology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

Dr. Khalil Sivjee now serves as Medical Director of Cleveland Clinic Canada.  He is also the Chief Medical Director of Royal Bank of Canada.  He holds an active teaching appointment as Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine.  

 Kimiyoshi Kobayashi, MD, MBA is Chief Medical Officer at UMass Memorial Medical Center (850-bed academic center, Central MA). He leads quality, safety, and capacity and oversees Hospital Medicine, eICU, Employee Health, and Palliative Care, and mentors physician leaders. He joined UMass in 2019 as Chief Quality Officer, founded the Center for Quality & Safety, and helped lift CMS from 1 to 4 stars in four years. His research covers handoff safety, patient transfers, and how capacity affects outcomes. National service includes the Vizient AMC CQO Network Steering Committee and SHM’s Quality & Patient Safety Committee. Previously, he held leadership roles in informatics, clinical operations, and capacity at Mass General and Johns Hopkins. MD Johns Hopkins; MBA Harvard Business School; Internal Medicine residency, Mass General. 

Dr. Lawrence Yang is a Surrey, BC family physician in practice since 2008.  He has served as Head of Family Medicine at Surrey Memorial Hospital and sits on the boards of the Health Data Coalition and the Surrey–North Delta Division of Family Practice. He earned his MD at Ross University School of Medicine (2005) and completed a Family Medicine residency at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY (2005–2008).  He has pursued leadership development through SFU Beedie, UBC Sauder, and Fraser Health’s Physician Quality Improvement program. Yang has also spoken publicly about his own experience with burnout and now leads physician-wellness and Joy in Work workshops across Canada as well as at the 2024 Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Annual Forum. 

Paul M. Lambrecht, FACHE, is Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety at Cooper University Health Care and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. With over 30 years of leadership experience, he leads Cooper’s efforts in quality, safety, and high reliability.

Previously, Paul was System Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety at Inspira Health, where he led initiatives earning consecutive Leapfrog “A” Safety Grades and Top Hospital Awards, and oversaw Inspira’s high-reliability journey, EMR transition, and COVID-19 response.

He holds degrees in Biology, Health Administration, and Health Law, and is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, Certified in Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety, and a graduate of the IHI Chief Quality Officer program.