Our Amazing Team

Jelena Damjanovic is internationally trained physician, LMCC, with solid medical background. She has several years of experience working as an Infection Control Professional, CIC, in acute care and long-term care settings. She managed IPAC program and participated in managing outbreaks along with local Public Health Units.

Jelena is passionate about knowledge translation and pursued formal training in teaching effectiveness in addition to around 10 years of teaching experience in healthcare related courses.

She believes in importance of collaboration and team work in achieving the best outcomes, particularly in protecting the most vulnerable populations.

Kinnison Ma is a Registered Nurse with a background in infectious diseases, primary care, and harm reduction. Prior to joining the HNHB IPAC Hub, they were working as a Public Health Nurse in the Infectious Disease with a focus on tuberculosis case and outbreak management, and vector borne diseases. 

Kinnison is a strong advocate for reducing healthcare barriers for those who are disproportionately affected by infectious diseases due to systemic inequity. They are pursuing a CIC designation and are excited to foster new partnerships as a part of the HNHB IPAC Hub.

Iqra Ali is a registered Medical Lab Technologist with a background in Microbiology and Molecular Biology.

Iqra has always had an interest in infectious diseases and is passionate about infection prevention and control. She is excited to be a part of the HNHB IPAC Hub team to provide support and education to our communities.  Iqra is currently working towards her CIC designation.

Brian Beck is a Public Health Inspector at Niagara Region Public Health and has been working in this capacity since 2011. Working within the Environmental health division at Public Health, Brian has served in an IPAC focused role in various settings including congregate living, child care, personal services (ie tattoo/nail salons) and regulated health profession investigations. Brian is passionate about prevention and control of infectious diseases and brings an abundance of knowledge and experience from multiple settings.

Emily is a Registered Nurse with a background in pediatrics/NICU, surgical and clinical instructing. Prior to joining the HNHB IPAC Hub she was working as a Public Health nurse in the Infectious Disease program supporting the pandemic response. Emily has always had an interest in infectious diseases and infection control and is excited to be a part of the HNHB IPAC Hub team. Emily is currently working towards her CIC designation.

Dana has over 25 years of experience working in various healthcare sectors which include hospitals, long-term care, and public health. She is also a successful entrepreneur. For many years she worked as a Pharmacy Technician at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton. Following her dream to pursue a career in Infection Prevention and Control, she successfully completed the Queen’s University Infection Prevention and Control course. Dana continues to strive to educate herself to remain current in all areas of practice, and further building knowledge and professionalism. She continues to study and work towards her CIC designation. Dana has considerable knowledge in hand hygiene and has successfully implemented hand hygiene auditing tools in her previous roles with a focus on developing strategies to increase compliance rates. You may recognize Dana from when she was an Infection Control Consultant with Public Health Ontario where she provided assessments with the Just Clean Your Hands program. She has experience with the development and implementation of IPAC policies and procedures based on current best practices and legislative and/or program requirements. Dana is passionate about an approachable delivery of IPAC training and education focusing on basic, intermediate, and advanced principles and practices in IPAC. She is enthusiastic about Infection Prevention and Control, eager to support the community and looks forward to meeting you.

Dana also enjoys traveling and an active and healthy lifestyle which includes running, yoga and plans to start cycling in the near future.

Neeshta is a Public Health Inspector with the Infectious Diseases team at the Brant County Health Unit. She just recently completed an IPAC Canada endorsed infection control course. In addition to her work with reportable diseases, outbreaks management, IPAC assessments, inspections, and investigations, Neeshta also leads the vector-borne disease program at the health unit. 

Paige is a Registered Nurse with a background in critical care and long-term care. She also has a degree in Microbiology and has completed an IPAC Canada endorsed infection control course. Paige is passionate about infection prevention and control and is excited to provide support and education to our communities.  

Samantha is a Public Health Inspector with the Infectious Diseases team at the Brant County Health Unit. She brings background experience from public health, as well as experience from occupational health and safety. Samantha is passionate about infection prevention and control and is excited to support retirement and long-term care homes as well as congregate settings.

Dr. Mertz serves as the hub lead for HNHB. He is currently the Division Director in Infectious Diseases, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at McMaster University. He is a practicing infectious diseases physician and is serving as the Medical Director Infection Prevention and Control at Hamilton Health Sciences. He published >100 peer reviewed articles to date. He is an associate editor for the Journal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Canada, and served as the first-named editor for the 3rd edition of the book ‘Evidence-based Infectious Diseases’. 

He is the Vice-Chair and incoming chair of Ontario’s Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee (PIDAC), involved in the Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program (CNISP). He has been and is also serving on multiple provincial, regional and local taskforces and committees in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stephanie has been in the Infection Prevention and Control department at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton since 2009. After 5 years as the Administrative Assistant, she transitioned to the IPAC Analyst role. With the implementation of the IPAC Hub program during the pandemic, she was given the opportunity to join the HNHB team as the Hub Assistant. 

Trevor provides website development and technical support services.  He is currently an Infection Prevention and Control Practitioner for Hamilton Heath Sciences. Prior to becoming an ICP in 2012, he was a paramedic for thirteen years in a frontline capacity as well as management before leaving the profession as Deputy Chief with Rainy River District Paramedic Service.  

Passionate about infection control, he serves on multiple IPAC-Canada committees, including as chairperson for the Distance Education Advisory Committee, member of the Education Core Committee, on Chapter Council, and as an executive member with IPAC-CSO. Trevor lives with his family in Hamilton Ontario and enjoys travel and spending time with his loved ones.