Heather Bryant, Chief Scientific Officer of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC) since 2017, joined CPAC in January 2008 as its first Vice President, Cancer Control. In that role, she developed and led a portfolio of pan-Canadian cancer control programs throughout the cancer continuum, including population-based prevention and cancer screening, diagnosis and care, patient centered reporting and palliative care, and research (including the launching of the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project). She has led in the development of cancer system performance reporting in Canada. Prior to joining CPAC, she was Vice President, Population Health and Information at the Alberta Cancer Board for many years.
Dr. Bryant was elected to the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) Board of Directors in 2012 and has been re-elected for two subsequent terms. She is also the chair of the International Cancer Benchmarking Program, an international comparison of cancer survival and its antecedents carried out by Cancer Research UK. She has also chaired many national cancer or research committees. She was the inaugural chair of the Institute of Cancer Research’s Advisory Board (Canadian Institutes for Health Research), the Canadian Breast Cancer Screening Initiative and the National Colorectal Cancer Screening Network. She has also served as a Board Member for BioCanRx, a Canadian Network Centre of Excellence in cancer immunotherapy.
Dr. Bryant studied medicine at the University of Calgary, followed by a fellowship in community medicine and a PhD in epidemiology. She is a Clinical Professor in the departments of Community Health Sciences and Oncology at the University of Calgary. In 2015, she was named one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network.