Vivek Goel

Vivek Goel is a professor emeritus in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. He is presently serving as the seventh president and vice-chancellor of the University of Waterloo.

Professor Goel is a distinguished scholar with an extensive background in teaching, research and university administration. He obtained his medical degree from McGill University and completed post-graduate medical training in community medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Goel obtained an MSc in community health from U of T and an MS in biostatistics from Harvard University School of Public Health. His research has focused on health services evaluation and the promotion of the use of research evidence in health decision-making.

Professor Goel joined the University of Toronto in 1991 as assistant professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics. He was chair of the Department of Health Administration in the Faculty of Medicine from 1999 until 2001, then served as vice-provost, faculty and subsequently was the University’s vice- president and provost from 2004 until 2008. He was a founding scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), where he continues as scientist emeritus. He served as founding president and CEO of Public Health Ontario from 2008 until 2014, where he was highly successful in building an academic public health services agency that provided scientific and technical advice to front-line practitioners. He then served as chief academic strategist with Coursera, a global platform that connects universities and learners with online courses. He returned to the University of Toronto as vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives and served in that role from 2015-2020.

He has extensive experience in governance and has served on many non-profit boards. During the COVID-19 pandemic he was a member of the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, chair of the Expert Advisory Group on the development of a Pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy, and scientific advisor for CanCOVID, the national research platform for COVID-19 research.

He is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and a member of the Order of Canada.