Maureen Smith’s longstanding commitment to evidence-based medicine and patient/citizen engagement in research stems from her lived experience with the healthcare system subsequent to a rare disease diagnosis in childhood. Maureen was honoured to be a citizen member of the Evidence Synthesis Infrastructure Collaborative (ESIC) and looks forward to serving on the its newly formed Communities Council. She was a commissioner on the Global Evidence Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges (2021-2024) and co-led the Citizen Leadership Group of the Commission’s Implementation Council. She is the co-convenor of Cochrane’s Co-Production Methods group and chaired Cochrane’s Consumer Network Executive from 2019-2024. Maureen is involved in several global projects and advisory committees. In Canada, Maureen was elected to Canada’s Drug Agency as the first director with lived experience and an Officer of the Board of Directors of Ontario’s Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) SUPPORT Unit. Maureen served as a patient member on two health technology committees in Ontario from 2014-2025. She has been collaborating with Evidence Synthesis Ireland since 2019 on the Priority III project, the ESI International Advisory Board, and steering committees for the People’s Review, the INTREPid project, and the Patient/Public Evidence Synthesis course.
