Board of Directors
Shelagh Ross
Born in 1962 with Tetralogy of Fallot, Shelagh helped found the CCHA in 2004. Since then, she has worked on the CCHA Board, serving as vice president and now president. She holds an honours B.A. in English from the University of Toronto and works as a medical writer, editor and website manager. Her work with CCHA includes developing and managing the CCHA website, writing promotional and educational materials, handling administrative tasks, and developing alliances with a variety of community groups and stakeholders to improve the standard of care for Canadians with CHD. She lives in Oakville with her husband Bob, Border Collie April, and Lucy and Ricky the cats. She has a son Graham at university.
Paula Andrade
Paula was born with Tetralogy of Fallot and is a founding member of the Canadian Congenital Heart Alliance. She is a registered nurse and worked at Hospital for Sick Children for 11 years. Currently she works for the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) educating small business employers about their responsibilities for health and safety in their workplaces. As a CCHA board member, Paula has been actively involved in the development of a mentoring program for congenital heart patients. She is married and has two teenaged children.
William G. Williams
Bill is the Director of the Congenital Heart Surgeons’ Society (CHSS) Data Center and Emeritus Professor of Surgery, University of Toronto. His professional interests cover all aspects of pediatric congenital heart surgery, adult congenital surgery, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, post-graduate teaching, and clinical outcomes research. He graduated from medical school at the University of Western Ontario in 1964 and then completed post-graduate training in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at the University of Toronto. From 1972 he held a cross appointment in the University and at both the Hospital for Sick Children and Toronto General Hospital. He was University Chair of Cardiac Surgery and Division Chief of Cardiac Surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children. He retired from the clinical practice of congenital heart surgery in July 2006, but continues his interest in database development, clinical research and teaching at the CHSS Data Center. He is a past president of the Congenital Heart Surgeons’ Society and a recipient of the TSRA-AATS Dwight McGoon Surgeon-Mentor Award. He and his wife Gail have 3 married children and 5 grandchildren.
David Edgell
David Edgell is a Staff Perfusionist at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and worked at the Montreal Children’s Hospital in Perfusion and Experimental Surgery. David received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and recently completed a Master’s degree at the Joint Centre for Bioethics of the University of Toronto. He is a member of the Canadian Society of Clinical Perfusion and American Board of Cardiovascular Perfusion certified. He has served on the board and as President of the Canadian Society of Clinical Perfusion, the Ontario Society of Clinical Perfusion and the Association des Perfusionnistes du Quebec. David is committed to advancing patient care through research and teaching. His interests include the ethics of transplantation, the complexities of human technology interfaces and team ethics. He was recently elected to the Ethics Committee of the American Society of Extracorporeal Technology and serves on the Cardiovascular Perfusion Curriculum Committee of the Michener Institute, and the International Consortium on Evidenced-Based Perfusion (ICEBP).
Ted Thaler
Ted was born with tetralogy of fallot. He is a senior communications consultant with Eckler Ltd. He holds an M.A. (Journalism) from the University of Western Ontario and an Honours B.A. (Political Science) from McMaster University. A Tetralogy of Fallot patient, he has a keen interest in helping to improve the quality of life and care of congenital heart patients. His recent volunteer experiences include work with the Canadian Congenital Heart Alliance and Camp Odayin (a cardiac camp for kids in Minnesota). He lives in Toronto with his wife, Marg, and has a 20-year-old son, Mike.
Executive team
Shelagh Ross
Paula Andrade
Jennifer Graham
Ted Thaler
Toby Cox
Jamie O’Hanlon