Previous CITF Governance Structures & Members
We wish to thank all Executive Committee, Working Party, Leadership Group and Indigenous Advisory Circle members for their tireless volunteerism, spending countless hours steering the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) to help Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Executive Committee
The Executive Committee (EC) was the CITF’s final decision-making body and it advised and oversaw governance of the CITF. The mandate of the EC concluded on December 31, 2022. The Executive Committee comprised two Co-Chairs, the Executive Director, a PHAC representative, the Chief Scientist of Canada, and four additional members of the original CITF Leadership Group (LG). An important condition for membership was that the individual had no intent to hold or seek funds from the CITF, either as a Principal Investigator or as a Co-Investigator on a project being funded by the CITF.
Members
Working Parties
The CITF established Working Parties (WPs) in Field Studies, Vaccine Surveillance, and Immune Science and Testing. Their mandate concluded on December 31, 2022.
Field Studies Working Party
The Field Studies Working Party (FSWP) focused on research related to COVID-19 public health, surveillance, epidemiology, and modelling in Canada. Members were chosen from across Canada based on their expertise in the aforementioned areas or other relevant disciplines.
Working Party Leads
Vaccine Surveillance Working Party
The Vaccine Surveillance Working (VSWP) focused on research related to the safety, efficacy, and immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccines in Canada. Members were chosen from across Canada based on their expertise in the areas of infectious diseases, vaccinology, immunology, epidemiology, public health, and other relevant disciplines.
Working Party Leads
Immune Science and Testing Working Party
The Immune Science and Testing Working Party (ISTWP) focused on research related to COVID-19 immune science and antibody testing in Canada. Members were chosen from across Canada based on their expertise in the areas of immunology, infectious diseases, laboratory medicine (testing), and other relevant disciplines.
Working Party Leads
Leadership Group
The CITF Leadership Group included experts from across Canada in matters related to serologic surveillance, immunology, virology, infectious diseases, public health, and clinical medicine. It also included ex-officio members representing agencies of the Government of Canada, including the PHAC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and the office of the Chief Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister, as well as representatives of Provincial-Territorial Ministries of Health, and McGill University (host of the Secretariat).
The CITF Leadership Group played an active role in the leadership of the CITF from the Task Force’s inception in April 2020 and concluded activities in June 2022.
Government of Canada representatives
Leadership Group members
Provincial & Territorial representatives
Indigenous Advisory Circle
The work of the Indigenous Advisory Circle (IAC) was initiated in 2020 and formally came to a conclusion in 2021. As results from CITF-supported studies emerge bearing on Indigenous communities, the CITF will continue to make efforts to engage Indigenous policy, community, and scientific leaders in discussion of their implications.