Dr. Kwame McKenzie is CEO of Wellesley Institute, which works in research and policy to improve health and health equity in the Greater Toronto Area. A practicing psychiatrist, he also holds positions as a full Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and as the Director of Health Equity at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).
As an international expert on the social causes of illness, Dr. McKenzie’s research and collaborations have been shaping local, national and international social policy and health systems for more than three decades. He has advised health, housing, education and social services ministers in Canada and the U.K. and has authored more than 260 peer reviewed papers and six books. He has worked as a consultant to the World Health Organization, and was a previous Member of the Executive and Council of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, U.K.
Nationally, he is Chair of Community Food Centres Canada and a member of the National Advisory Council on Poverty. He recently co-chaired Canada’s Expert Task Force on Substance Use.
Provincially, Dr. McKenzie is Co-Chair of the Ontario Black Health Plan. He has served as a Commissioner of Human Rights, an advisor to Ontario’s Basic Income Pilot Project and as a member of the Mental Health and Addictions Advisory Council to the Minister of Health.
In addition to his academic, policy and clinical work, Dr. McKenzie has worked as a columnist for The Guardian and The Times and as a presenter for BBC Radio. He is regularly published in the Toronto Star.
Among his many honours, Dr. McKenzie is the recipient of an African Canadian Achievement Award for Science, a Harry Jerome Trailblazer Award and the Dominican of Distinction Award. He holds a medical degree from University of Southampton and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, U.K.