Executive Team

Danielle Claus

Executive Director

Danielle Claus joined SEAMO in 2011 after serving as interim Director of Integrated Cancer Screening at Cancer Care Ontario. She has over 20 years of experience in the health care sector and has worked at the Ministry of Health (MOH), as well as several other agencies, including Public Health Ontario and the Mississauga-Halton District Health Council. As a hospital consultant with the MOHLTC, Claus worked with hospitals in Southeastern Ontario, taking them through the early stages of restructuring. Claus holds a Masters of Public Administration from Queen’s University and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from the University of Toronto.

Dr. Diane Lougheed

Medical Director

In 1993, Dr. Lougheed joined the Queen's University Faculty of Health Sciences in the Department of Medicine, Division of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, where she became the Director and Medical Advisor for the Asthma Program and Adult Cystic Fibrosis Clinic. She served as Chair in the Division of Respirology and Sleep Medicine from April 2017 to November 2021. Dr. Lougheed is a respected researcher and clinician scholar, with more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and over $24 million in research funding throughout her career. She also founded the Asthma Research Unit within the KHSC Clinical Research Centre.  

Dr. Lougheed is also a highly-respected leader both in Canada and internationally. She has participated in more than 50 provincial and national boards and committees. Notably, she is a past Chair of the Canadian Thoracic Society (CTS), a past Chair of the of the CTS’ Asthma Clinical Assembly, responsible for developing the society’s national asthma management guidelines, and current Chair of the CTS’ Pan-Canadian Respiratory Standards Initiative for Electronic Health Records (PRESTINE) Steering Committee. She is also a past Co-Chair of the American College of Chest Physicians’ Scientific Program and a past CTS Representative to the European Respiratory Society.

Dr. Lougheed obtained a BSc in Human Kinetics from the University of Guelph, and an MD from McMaster University where she also completed her core internal medicine residency. She completed additional clinical and research training as a post-graduate scholar at the University of Western Australia, before completing her Respirology Residency and MSc in Community Health and Epidemiology at Queen’s.
 

Dr. Jane Philpott

Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Jane Philpott is the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Queen’s University. Jane has significant experience in medical administration, having served as Chief of the Department of Family Medicine at Markham Stouffville Hospital and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She was a family physician for 30 years and spent the first decade of her career in Niger, West Africa.  From 2015 to 2019 she served as federal Minister of Health, Minister of Indigenous Services, President of the Treasury Board and Minister of Digital Government. Recently, Dr. Philpott has been appointed as the Ministers' Special Advisor for the Ontario Health Data Platform.  

Megan Sheppard

Chief Financial Officer

Sheppard is a collaborative and strategic leader skilled in budgeting, data analytics, human resource management, strategic and capital planning, and finance. She has extensive experience working in higher education administration, most recently in the role of Senior Vice-President, Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer at St. Lawrence College (SLC), holding the same role at Loyalist College prior to that appointment. She joined SLC in February 2020 and was the executive lead for the college’s COVID-19 response related to risk, safety and security, financial management and facilities. As SVP Corporate Services she provided executive leadership and oversight of the finance, budgeting, IT, risk, facilities management and planning, sustainability and insurance functions. Notably, Sheppard spent 10 years (2008-2018) working at Queen’s in the Planning and Budgeting department in the roles of Associate Vice-Principal and Executive Director, where she was responsible for university budgeting, institutional research and planning, and university planning. Prior to that she was the Director of Budget & Planning where she was responsible for the University Operating and Ancillary Budgets.

Sheppard earned a Masters of Business Administration (Finance) from Dalhousie University and a Bachelors of Commerce from the University of Guelph. She is a Member of the Administrative Services Committee of Colleges Ontario (ASCC) and a Liaison for the Ontario Colleges Facilities Management Association to Colleges Ontario.