Laera is currently working in health analytics in healthcare planning, and has over 10 years experience in healthcare, research and epidemiology, focused mostly in Toronto and Southern Ontario.  Laera completed her Bachelor of Science with majors in Biology and Psychology at Sam Houston State University and her Master of Public Health specializing in Epidemiology at the University of Toronto.  

Vidhi Thakkar has completed her PhD in Health Policy from the Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation. Vidhi is a recipient of the CIHR Health Systems Impact Fellowship, where she is a leading a project on supporting caregivers in the BC Healthcare system. Vidhi also received a Masters of Science in Experimental Surgery from McGill University and her Bachelor of Health Sciences (Honours) at McMaster University.

She has worked for more than 7 years in the health system with organizations with provincial Ministries of Health, hospitals, several universities, and Cancer Care Ontario. Her research interests include evidence-informed policy making, health informatics, health data, patient engagement, and health care accountability.

Vidhi was actively involved with the Canadian Association of Health Services and Policy Research and was also a board member for the Justice Emmett Hall Foundation. She has also won the Gordon Cressy Leadership Award at the University of Toronto. Vidhi currently teaches HTH 110: Health Informatics Data Analysis, HTH 400: Epidemiology, and HDA 102 and HDA 103 in the Health Analytics program. She brings to the Department her expertise in student advising, student leadership development, and Health Data Analytics.