Faculty of Engineering & Faculty of Science

Jean Marmoreo is a nurse, physician, writer, athlete, advocate and adventurer. After graduating from McMaster’s nursing program in 1965, Dr. Marmoreo began her career as a nurse in Hamilton before serving as the head nurse on the men’s unit at Lakeshore Psychiatric in Toronto. That move eventually led her to the role of head nurse at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry in Toronto, the antecedent organization of CAMH, the Centre for Addition and Mental Health. She then made a significant, but related career move by enrolling in medical school at the University of Toronto. She graduated at the top of her class in 1974.

As a practicing family physician and obstetrician in Toronto until her brief retirement in 2020 – a retirement that she interrupted by working as a fly-in-fly-out primary care clinician in the Northwest Territories – Dr. Marmoreo was a specialist in mid-life medicine and then end-of-life medicine. In 2016, she became one of Canada’s first practitioners to offer Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD). Her professional experience led her towards becoming an author and an advocate for the patients and issues at the heart of her practice. She was a regular contributing columnist for publications including the Globe and Mail and the National Post while her series of articles titled “This is what 70 looks like” for Zoomer magazine won a Silver Award at the 2014 National Magazine Awards. Her book The New Middle Ages: Women in Midlife was published by Prentice Hall in 2002 and two decades later, Dr. Marmoreo co-authored with Johanna Schneller The Last Doctor: Lessons in Living from the Front Lines of Medical Assistance in Dying, a book that was a national best seller and was shortlisted for the Balsillie Prize in Public Policy. Dr. Marmoreo is also an active volunteer advocate who serves, for example, on the Clinicians Advisory Council of Dying With Dignity Canada.

An avid hiker and adventurer, Dr. Marmoreo has hiked 1,000 miles of the Appalachian Trail; trekked in a list of nations including New Zealand, Australia, Bhutan and Tanzania; ascended to the Mount Everest base camp and, in 2019, circumnavigated the island of Manhattan by kayak. She is, fittingly, a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. She is also an accomplished marathoner who has placed first in her age group in the Boston Marathon a record-setting five times.

Dr. Marmoreo’s list of honours includes being named one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada and being invested as a member of the Order of Canada earlier this year after being named to the Order in 2023. Her citation reads, in part, “Jean Marmoreo has touched the lives of thousands of patients at all stages of life. Evolving her practice to focus on women and their challenging life transitions, she has become an advocate for the holistic care of this demographic among colleagues and the public alike.”

Shadman Khan recently completed his PhD in Biomedical Engineering under the supervision of Prof. Tohid Didar. His research focuses on the development of smart food technologies that seek to improve safety, increase accessibility, and reduce food prices.  

Over the past four years, Shadman was the Technical Lead in a partnership between McMaster University and Toyota Tsusho Canada Incorporated, where he led a multidisciplinary research team and trained over 20 researchers. His work has yielded over 20 scientific publications, six patents, and features on media outlets such as Global News and The National Post. He was also recognized as Food Scientist of the Year by New Food Magazine, a leading publisher in the food technology space. 

Shadman’s doctoral work was supported by an NSERC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. He is now completing his postdoctoral training at the California Institute of Technology under the supervision of Prof. Wei Gao, with the support of an NSERC Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship. 

Dr. Williams is a Professor of Earth, Environment & Society. She is a social and health geographer with research interests in the care economy, quality of life, policy evaluation, and therapeutic landscapes. A myriad of international organizations, such as UNWomen, have recognized her work as transformational, inviting her to provide keynote talks. Dr. Williams has led over 25 research projects and continues to serve on a range of national and international review committees. She has received various awards for her work, having had three 5-year Research Chairs funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. She was recently awarded a Canadian Academy of Health Sciences Fellowship – one of the nation’s highest honours. Dr. Williams currently holds a McMaster University Faculty of Science Research Chair and continues to lead large partnership research programs. Dr. Williams was the recipient of the McMaster Student Union 2020-21 Community Engagement Award for her community-engaged research.  

Dr. Williams has supervised more than 75 student trainees, many of whom are scholarship recipients. Dr. William’s experience working in the policymaking domain has positioned her student trainees to work across various levels of government, advocating for policy and practice improvements at the local, national and international levels. Other trainees have continued to work in research, with some moving into the health and legal professions. Allison volunteers on multiple Boards of Directors in her community and is a mother of two beautiful children. She cares for her 92-year old uncle and aging parents, both of whom are in their 80s.