This webinar is presented by the Alliance for Healthier Communities.
Join the Alliance for Healthier Communities and a panel of people working in various healthcare settings as they discuss how they use social prescribing in their practice and how social prescribing can support primary care attachment.
Our panel will feature:
- Dr. Jennifer Rayner – Director of Research and Policy, Alliance for Healthier Communities
- Dr. Ritika Goel – Family Physician, St. Micheal’s Hospital
- Allison Hewitt – Registered Nurse, specializing in Geriatrics at Centretown CHC
- Margo Reilly – Executive Director, Windsor FHT
Jennifer Rayner is the Director of Research and Policy at the Alliance for Healthier Communities and supports 100+ community based primary care organizations in Ontario. She is an applied health services researcher with interests in primary healthcare, interprofessional teams, health equity and learning health systems. She is a research professor at Western University within the Centre for Studies in Family Medicine and an associate professor at University of Toronto in the Department of Community and Family Medicine, and the Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation. Jennifer works in collaboration with researchers, evaluators and policy makers to improve care for people with barriers. Her community based primary care experience includes leadership roles in research, policy, planning, performance, accountability and quality improvement. She received her PhD of epidemiology and biostatistics at Western and completed post-doctoral training at Ryerson University.
Dr. Ritika Goel is a Toronto-based family physician, writer, activist, and professor dedicated to advancing equity in medicine and medical education. She currently practices at St. Michael’s Hospital in downtown Toronto. Throughout her career, Dr. Goel has served as a family physician with Sistering, a multi-service agency supporting at-risk, socially isolated women and gender-diverse people, and at the FCJ Refugee Centre, as well as being part of the Inner City Health Associates team for over a decade.
She earned her Doctor of Medicine (MD) from McMaster University and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Johns Hopkins University. Beyond her clinical work, Dr. Goel is deeply committed to social justice, using her writing, teaching, and social media presence to address issues such as poverty, racism, and health inequity. Her dual identity as a physician and activist allows her to bridge clinical practice with advocacy, ensuring her work remains both compassionate and transformative, driven by the belief that health care must be equitable for all.
Allison Hewitt is a geriatric certified RN who on the Senior’s Outreach team at Centretown Community Health Centre in inner city Ottawa. This program promotes the safety, independence and dignity of high risk seniors whose preference it is to age in place. She also works some weekends as a geriatric emergency nurse, in the emergency department at the Ottawa Hospital. She is part of a committee representing the needs of palliative, vulnerably housed clients and also has worked closely with the Alliance for healthier communities promoting the benefits of social prescribing. Previous geriatric roles include working at the Pinecrest Queensway CHC, as the RN on their West End Integrated Falls Prevention Program. Throughout her nursing career of 16 years, she has been a solid organ transplant RN, a pediatric PACU RN, and a pediatric orthopedic RN, and a nurse in the emergency department. Outside of working hours, she has 2 wonderful, energetic kids; and 2 goofy dogs. For fun, she enjoys yoga and being outdoors
Margo Reilly has spent more than 20 years working in and around community health and has over 10 years of experience in executive roles for team based primary care organizations. She is currently based in Windsor as an Executive Director of the Windsor Family Health Team and boasts a diverse portfolio including work in business, health education and research, and alternative medicine. She has published several works on primary care and social prescribing in Ontario, reflecting her breadth of knowledge and expertise. Reilly was also recently noted as one of the Top 50 Women Leaders in Healthcare for 2025 by Women We Admire. Outside of work, she enjoys empowering women through volunteering as an Advisory Council Member at the Women’s Enterprise Skills Training of Windsor Inc. (WEST), among other advocacy-based volunteering roles.