As the Director, Dr. Chris Carlsten MD MPH is responsible for providing overall leadership for LAH, particularly through the development and execution of our Strategic Plan, mentoring and supervising key team members, and cultivating relationships with key partners such as UBC and other academic institutions, local and provincial government leaders, non-profits including the BC Lung Association and, most importantly, patients and community advocates.

Dr. Carlsten attended undergraduate and medical school at Stanford University before training in internal, occupational, pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Washington. He is Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of Respiratory Medicine at UBC, and an active respirologist with Vancouver Coast Health. He holds both the Canada Research Chair in Occupational and Environmental Lung Disease and also the Astra-Zeneca Chair in Occupational and Environmental Lung Disease at the UBC. He is the Director of the Air Pollution Exposure Laboratory, the lead for the UBC Faculty of Medicine’s Personalized Health initiative, and holds adjunct positions at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, the UBC School of Population and Public Health and the UBC Centre for Heart Lung Innovation.

The Carlsten laboratory focuses on the respiratory and immunological health effects of inhaled environmental and occupational exposures, using diesel exhaust, western red cedar, wood smoke, and phthalates as model inhalants, in order to inform public health interventions and policy.

As Director of the Occupational Lung Disease Clinic at The Centre for Lung Health (Vancouver General Hospital), Dr. Carlsten welcomes patients with concerns regarding occupational or environmental exposures contributing to respiratory disease — particularly asthma and COPD, but also upper airway disorders, interstitial lung disease, cancer, and pleural disease.

Dr. Carlsten is thrilled to have called Vancouver home since 2007, and is grateful to this vibrant community for fostering an unparalleled setting not only for his professional pursuits but moreover for his family and their passion for engagement within a healthy environment.

Dr. Patricia Daly is the Vice President, Public Health and Chief Medical Health Officer for Vancouver Coastal Health. She is also a Clinical Professor in the School of Population and Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia.

As a public health physician, her primary mandate is to improve the health of the population that Vancouver Coastal Health serves through prevention and health promotion. She is responsible for communicable disease control including management of outbreaks, health protection and environmental health, community care facilities licensing, population health and public health surveillance within Vancouver Coastal Health.

Dr. Daly obtained her medical degree from the University of Toronto in 1985. She worked as a family and emergency physician in Ontario before undertaking further specialty training at McGill University and the University of Toronto. She obtained a fellowship in Community Medicine from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 1992.

After moving to Vancouver in 1993, Dr. Daly worked for two years at the BC Centre for Disease Control before moving to Vancouver/Richmond Health Board as a Medical Health Officer and Director of Communicable Disease Control. Dr. Daly continued in this role after the formation of Vancouver Coastal Health in 2001. She assumed her current position in September, 2007.

In addition to providing consultation to a wide variety of health professionals and advising the public on important public health issues, Dr. Daly also teaches medical students and residents within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Joshi is responsible for functional operations at LAH including strategic planning, budgeting, reporting, partnerships, and partner engagement. Prior to joining LAH, Dr. Joshi was the Managing Director of Program Operations at the Rick Hansen Institute (Praxis Spinal Cord Institute) where he was responsible for strategic and operational planning, reporting, performance evaluation, risk management, and regulatory compliance related to translational research and best practice implementation. Dr. Joshi received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of British Columbia and has published in diverse areas including genomics, gene therapy, drug discovery, and parasitology across several positions in academia and industry. Dr. Joshi has a passion for promoting and ensuring impact of research on patients and priority populations through collaborations and inclusion of diverse perspectives and voices.