We build partnerships that connect passion on campus to needs in the community.

We are a motivated team that is weaving together a powerful network of entrepreneurs, students, community partners, mentors, and institutional partners.

In short, what is CHASM?

We’re an incubator for youth-led interdisciplinary health projects that focuses on creating an impact in response to the articulated needs of marginalized or underserved communities.

What is our unique approach?

CHASM’s unique approach is made up of 5 important ingredients.

We provide community-engagement and leadership training—so that passionate young people can approach marginalized communities compassionately and precisely.

We build and maintain community partnerships—so that young people can work with those who already know how to deploy programs sustainably.

We facilitate needs-assessment reviews—so that students can build and execute projects in direct response to the articulated needs of the community.

We fund projects—so that these initiatives have some capital to kick off or scale their operations.

We provide mentorship—so that those running these initiatives can access the knowledge and connections they need to scale.

Our Team

Meet the team that weaves this all together.

Andrew (he/him)
Executive Director

Andrew (he/him) is the Executive Director at CHASM. He is responsible for team support, vision, strategy, community partnerships and long-term strategy for CHASM. For him, CHASM is a way of fostering purposeful, creative, and innovative social engagement. He believes strongly in the idea that solutions must be built in partnership with the community, and that to find effective solutions, one needs to understand and be passionate about the problem first
Andrew is a fourth-year medical student at McGill, and holds a MSc in Neuroscience and BSc. in Anatomy and Cell biology, all from McGill.

Andrew’s health innovation hero: Atul Gawande

David-Dan (he/him)
Advisory Board

David-Dan (he/him) co-founded CHASM in 2017 and is currently on the CHASM Advisory Board. As a founding director, David-Dan played an important role in setting the vision for CHASM, bridging community health and startup culture, and establishing the initial network of mentors. He currently focuses on long-term strategy and knowledge dissemination.

David-Dan is a fourth-year medical student at McGill. During medical school, he took a leave of absence to obtained an MPH (Health Policy Concentration) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and completed a research fellowship at the Center for Surgery and Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

David-Dan’s health innovation hero: Atul Gawande

Anne Xuan-Lan (she/her)
Advisory Board

Anne (she/her) is leading the finance and fundraising portfolios, in addition to providing guidance on CHASM’s long-term vision. Since 2018, Anne has established partnerships with stakeholders in the fields of public health, business, arts and community development. She believes that facilitating knowledge-sharing with student leaders beyond Montreal will help foster connections with community partners, expand the CHASM curriculum, and make fundraising and mentorship opportunities more accessible.

Anne is a third-year medical student at McGill. During her spare time, she enjoys playing group sports (ultimate frisbee, flag football, hockey), visiting art exhibitions and discovering new restaurants in Montreal.

Anne’s health innovation hero: Dr Sanduk Ruit

Julie (she/her)
Founder

As Founder, Julie leveraged her global health experiences at McGill University. These included Vice-President of Global Health for the McGill Medical Students’ Society, researcher at McGill’s Center for Global Surgery, and Student Fellow for the Pulitzer Centre on Crisis Reporting. She helped CHASM’s teams develop adequate needs assessments and sustainable partnerships with local communities

Julie’s health innovation hero: Atul Gawande

Brianna (she/her)
Strategy Director

Brianna (she/her), our Strategy Director, has been strategically advising and supporting various aspects of operations, including people culture at CHASM since 2018.

With a MSc in epidemiology, her global health inquiry and volunteer work (e.g. with people who use drugs and those with disabilities) reinforces Brianna's desire to understand the populations she serves and the importance of context-specific solutions through grassroots-driven innovation. She aspires to leverage her creativity, communication skills, and penchant for relationship-building to strengthen institutional capacity for interdisciplinary collaboration.

Brianna’s health innovation hero: Community health workers worldwide

Owen (he/him)
Dir. of Curriculum & Cohort

Owen (he/him) is the Curriculum and Cohort Director of the Community Health and Social Medicine (CHASM) Incubator. In this role, he leads the development and execution of CHASM’s social entrepreneurship curriculum and oversees the cohort experience from start to finish of the CHASM program. Owen believes in the power of student voices to generate social change that takes action against long standing local health inequities, and builds healthier and more equitable communities.

Owen is a third-year medical student at McGill University. Prior to medical school, he completed a BHSc (Hon.) degree with a specialization in Child Health from McMaster University.

Owen’s health innovation hero: Dr Andrea MacNeill

Nareesa (she/her)
Operations

Nareesa (she/her) is a Dual Master student, completing a Master of Science in Public Health at McGill University and a Master of Public Health Data Science at the Université de Bordeaux. She is particularly interested in global health data science, gender data, and knowledge translation. Nareesa is also a practicum student with Cooper/Smith, through which she provides technical health data science assistance for HIV prevention in Malawi.

Nareesa’s health innovation hero: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed

Mercedes (she/her)
Communications Lead

Mercedes (she/her) is a bicultural Mexican-British family doctor, passionate about infectious diseases and finding ways to reduce the social inequities that can lead to them. Her passion for global health and her commitment to creating more equitable health systems led her to complete a MSc in Public Health at McGill. Her work has taken her from Canada to Brazil and across Europe, researching Tuberculosis. She currently works for the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force.

Mercedes’ health innovation hero: Raj Panjabi

Anna (she/her)
Advisory Board

Anna (she/her) is on the CHASM Advisory Board. She previously acted as a Curriculum and Cohort Director alongside Owen and coordinated the CHASM Mentorship programme. She is passionate about health equity and CHASM’s mission to support initiatives that co-create solutions to health challenges at the grassroots level. With an MSc in Public Health from McGill, Anna has research interests in HIV epidemiology, Indigenous health, and improving access to primary care. She enjoys being in nature, painting, and running whenever she can.

Anna’s health innovation hero: Rita Charon

Andrew (he/him)
Executive Director

David-Dan (he/him)
Advisory Board

Anne Xuan-Lan (she/her)
Advisory Board

Julie (she/her)
Founder

Brianna (she/her)
Strategy Director

Owen (he/him)
Dir. of Curriculum & Cohort

Nareesa (she/her)
Operations

Mercedes (she/her)
Communications Lead

Anna (she/her)
Advisory Board

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McGill University is on land which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg nations. We acknowledge and thank the diverse Indigenous peoples whose presence marks this territory on which peoples of the world now gather.

McGill University is on land which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg nations. We acknowledge and thank the diverse Indigenous peoples whose presence marks this territory on which peoples of the world now gather.

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