Biography

Dr. Leanne Ward is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa, and a Pediatric Endocrinologist in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. She received her MD degree in 1993 from McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario), and completed her Pediatric Residency in Halifax at Dalhousie University. She received her Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada certification in Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism following a clinical fellowship at St. Justine Hospital (University of Montréal). She then completed a research fellowship in Pediatric Metabolic Bone Disease, under the mentorship of Dr. Francis Glorieux, at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Montreal (McGill University).

Dr. Ward’s research interests span a range of topics in the burgeoning field of pediatric bone health. Her academic focus includes studies of the genetics of skeletal dysplasias and metabolic bone disease (particularly osteogenesis imperfecta and disorders of PTH resistance), osteoporosis in childhood secondary to chronic diseases and their treatment, vitamin D deficiency rickets, and the use of novel therapeutics for the treatment of pediatric osteoporotic conditions. She is the principal investigator of the “STOPP” research program (STeroid-induced Osteoporosis in the Pediatric Population), a pan-Canadian project funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to evaluate the effect of steroids on bone health in children with chronic illness.