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Professor John Lavis
International Scientific Advisor, Geriatric Education and Research Institute
Director, McMaster Health Forum and WHO Collaborating Centre for Evidence-Informed Policy
Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Evidence-Support Systems
Professor, Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University
Advisor, Evidence Synthesis Infrastructure Collaborative, Wellcome Trust
Professor John N. Lavis supports efforts to address health and broader societal challenges using the best-available research evidence and experiences and insights from citizens, professionals, organizational leaders, and government policymakers. He led the development of the ‘SHOW ME the evidence’ features of an approach to reliably deliver research evidence to those who need it, he was co-lead of and lead report writer for the Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges, and he was co-lead of the COVID-19 Evidence Network to support Decision-making (COVID-END).
He holds an MD from Queen's University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a PhD (in Health Policy) from Harvard University.
Dr Charlene Lau
Senior Research Fellow, Geriatric Education and Research Institute
Dr Charlene Lau is a Senior Research Fellow at GERI. Her research focus is on physical activity and exercises for older adults. She is interested in examining ways to encourage uptake of physical activity among older adults and the implementation of community-based physical activity programmes.
Dr Lim Jun Pei
Senior Consultant, Department of Geriatric Medicine, Tan Tock Seng Hospital
Translation and Practice Lead, Institute of Geriatrics and Active Aging, Tan Tock Seng Hospital
Dr Lim Jun Pei is the Translation and Practice Lead at the Institute of Geriatrics and Active Aging, and Senior Consultant at the Department of Geriatric Medicine, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore. Her areas of subspecialisation are in cognitive and memory disorders in the elderly. She is the clinical lead of the Geriatric Monitoring Units of Tan Tock Seng Hospital and the co-lead of the Delirium Bundle Quality Improvement project in the institution. She is a co-investigator with the IGA GeriLabs study and published in peer-review journals on sarcopenic obesity.
She also holds a Master of Public Health with the Dartmouth Institute (USA) and had been inducted into the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health. She also holds education responsibilities as the Assistant Program Director for the Internal Medicine Residency Programme of National Healthcare Group. She is passionate about the knowledge translation of evidence to clinical practice through dissemination of evidence through effective, engaging and timely health-professional education.
Professor Sharon Straus
Adjunct Scientist, Geriatric Education and Research Institute
Executive Vice President, Clinical and Chief Medical Officer, Unity Health Toronto
Director, Knowledge Translation Program, St. Michael’s Hospital
Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto
Professor Sharon E. Straus is a geriatrician and clinical epidemiologist who trained at the University of Toronto and the University of Oxford. She is the Director of the Knowledge Translation Program; Executive Vice President, Clinical Programs and Chief Medical Officer, Unity Health Toronto; and Professor in Department of Medicine, University of Toronto. She authored more than 650 peer-reviewed publications and 3 textbooks in evidence-based medicine, knowledge translation and mentorship. Since 2015, she has consistently been in the top 1% of highly cited clinical researchers as per Clarivate and has an H-index of 126.
She holds more than $80 million in peer-reviewed research grants as a principal investigator. She has received national awards for mentorship, research and education. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Medicine, from the University of Montreal, is a Fellow in the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and a Member of the Order of Canada.
Dr Grace Sum
Research Fellow, Geriatric Education and Research Institute
Dr Grace Sum Chi-En holds a PhD in public health from Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, NUS. Her broad goal is to translate evidence to actionable changes in practice and policy on healthy ageing. She leads co-development and evaluation projects across community, primary care, and hospital settings. Her work involves Singapore’s three healthcare clusters from the outset to facilitate sustainability and scalability of interventions.
Dr Sum’s research interests include intrinsic capacity, frailty, geriatric syndromes, comprehensive geriatric assessment, and multimorbidity. Her methodological interests span implementation research, advanced quasi-experimental quantitative techniques, programme evaluation, behavioural science, rapid qualitative techniques, and evidence synthesis. Additionally, her work is rooted in collaborations with administrators, healthcare providers, community partners, and academics.
Dr Sum has published widely in international journals including the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS), BMC Geriatrics, BMJ Global Health, and The Lancet Global Health. She has presented at conferences and symposiums across the US, Europe, and Asia. She was recently awarded Gold for the Singapore Young Investigator Award (Health Services Research) at the Singapore Health and Biomedical Congress 2023.
Dr Tan Woan Shin
Deputy Director (Research) and Scientist, Geriatric Education and Research Institute
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Centre for Behavioural and Implementation Sciences Intervention, National University of Singapore
Dr Tan Woan Shin is currently the Deputy Director for research at GERI. She is an interdisciplinary researcher with a background in economics. Her research and programme evaluation work adopts a range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies to support evidence-based health services development and evaluation.
She is also Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Centre for Behavioural and Implementation Science Interventions (BISI) at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.
Prior to joining GERI, she was a researcher with the Health Services and Outcomes Research Group at the National Healthcare Group where she oversaw the department’s health systems research efforts. She received her PhD in Health Services Research from NTU as a NMRC Research Fellow, and holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics from NUS.
Professor Paulin Straughan
Director, Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA)
Dean of Students and Professor of Sociology (Practice), Singapore Management University
Professor Paulin Straughan is a Professor of Sociology (Practice) at the School of Social Sciences and the Dean of Students at the Singapore Management University. She is also the Director of the Centre for Research on Successful Aging (ROSA). She received the Bachelor of Arts from the National University of Singapore in 1985, the Masters of Arts (1988) and PhD (1991) from University of Virginia, USA. Her research activities focus largely on Sociology of health; well-being and Ageing, and work and Family.
She is Principal Investigator (PI) of four projects which have been awarded more than S$10 million by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Social Affairs (MSF) and AI Singapore, from 2018-2022. She was a Nominated Member of Parliament from 2009 to 2011, during which she argued for work-life balance and the nurture of a more pro-family social environment.
Associate Professor Angelique Chan
Adjunct Scientist, Geriatric Education and Research Institute
Senior Advisor, Centre for Ageing Research & Education
Associate Professor, Health Services & System Research, Duke-NUS Medical School
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore
Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Duke University
Oxford-Martin Visiting Professorial Fellow, Oxford University Institute for Population Ageing
Chair for Asia Pacific Rim Universities Population Ageing hub
Chair for International Association of Research Universities Aging, Longevity, and Health Initiative
Associate Professor Angelique Chan holds joint tenure appointments as Associate Professor in the Signature Programme in Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, and in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Singapore.
Associate Professor Chan currently serves as the Senior Advisor of the Centre for Ageing Research and Education at Duke-NUS Medical School. She is also Director of the Tsao Foundation Ageing Research Initiative which is housed within the Department of Sociology.
Associate Professor Chan has developed and nurtured a strong research portfolio in ageing research. This portfolio contains projects that are multidisciplinary and focus on the following themes: the social determinants of health, caregiving, long term care, dementia, and the evaluation of programmes providing health and community social services to the older adult community. She has led several major projects on ageing in Singapore including large-scale longitudinal national surveys which have led to recommendations in policy research and public policy making. Her work has been published in over 150 journal publications and she has co-edited 3 books related to low fertility (internationally) and population ageing in Singapore. She is extensively involved in international work related to ageing and health of older adults. She is currently Chair of the International Alliance of Research Universities Ageing, Longevity and Health Hub. She currently works with colleagues from the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia. She has worked as an international expert for the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the United Nations.
Associate Professor Ng Yee Sien
Lead Scientist, Geriatric Education and Research Institute
Senior Consultant, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Singapore General Hospital and Sengkang Hospital
Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Duke-NUS Medical School
Associate Professor Ng is currently Senior Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine at Singapore General Hospital and Sengkang General Hospital. He is also Associate Professor and the Associate Dean, Student Affairs at the Duke-NUS Medical School. He is further appointed as a Senior Consultant in Rehabilitation (PTPS), by the Ministry of Health in the Hospital Services Division and Co-Leads the National One-Rehabilitation Framework, which aims to improves outcomes in Rehabilitation in Persons with Disability.
He is active in many fields of research with a specific interest in neurorehabilitation, aging, and mobility in rehabilitation and population health. He also serves as Lead Scientist at the Geriatric Education Research Institute (GERI), Singapore as well as Senior Research Scientist at the Centre for Population Health Research and Implementation (CPHRI) in SingHealth. Finally, he is involved in many disability and rehabilitation support groups and societies. He served as a Board Member at SPD previously and is Chairman, Rehabilitation Task Force at the Singapore Cancer Society. He advocates strongly for the Active Aging movement and improving the quality of life of older persons and disabled in society.
Associate Professor Lim Wee Shiong
Lead Scientist, Geriatric Education and Research Institute
Director, Institute of Geriatrics and Active Ageing, Tan Tock Seng Hospital
Senior Consultant, Department of Geriatric Medicine, Tan Tock Seng Hospital
Adjunct Associate Professor, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
Faculty Advisor, Health Outcomes and Medical Education Research (HOMER), National Healthcare Group
Associate Professor Lim has an exemplary track record of scholarly work of over 100 peer-reviewed publications. He is also the Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging, as well as Guest Associate Editor for Frontiers in Medicine and Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. Furthermore, he is a reviewer for major national grants, international journals and conferences, and has research and teaching awards in the fields of geriatric medicine and health professions education. Associate Professor Lim has also received several competitive grants as Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator.
Associate Professor Emi Kiyota
Associate Professor, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore
Director, Centre for Environment and Ageing Well (ENgAGE), College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore
Advisor, Corporate Infrastructure Office, National University Health System
Founder of Ibasho
Dr Emi Kiyota, an environmental gerontologist with 20+ years of experience, founded Ibasho, creating elder-led community hubs in Japan, Nepal, and the Philippines. She specializes in person-centered care, resilient cities, aging in place, brain health design, and ageing-climate change intersections, with extensive publications and advisory roles in senior housing and hospitals.