Dr. Vasanthi Srinivasan is the founding Executive Director of the Ontario Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) SUPPORT Unit. Until December 2013, Vasanthi was the Assistant Deputy Minister of the Health Systems Strategy and Policy Division. She was also the lead for the research program for the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. She has held several senior management positions at the federal and provincial levels of government.
Vasanthi holds a PhD from the University of Ottawa and has led several key policy and research initiatives. She has served at the national and international levels in social policy areas such as health and immigration, focusing on seniors, aboriginal peoples and women’s issues. During her tenure in the Policy Research Initiative of the Privy Council Office of Canada, she was seconded to the Cabinet Office in the United Kingdom to the Performance and Innovation Unit. While in London, she co-authored a white paper on Immigration and Integration Issues and created the Strategic Futures Group that led horizontal policy development for Whitehall, the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly and Northern Ireland. Vasanthi was awarded the prestigious Head of the Public Service of Canada Award for her work on the Metropolis Project established to conduct policy research on immigration and integration in cities lead by Canada and involving 18 countries. As Assistant Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, Vasanthi was the lead of two teams that won the coveted Amethyst Awards for the Ontario Mental Health and Addiction Strategy and the work of the Trilateral Committee addressing First Nations and Aboriginal issues.
