October 22, 2025
Personnel changes: New faces and heartfelt goodbyes
At Myeloma Canada, we’re pleased to share some recent updates to our team and leadership.
- We extend our sincere thanks to Sophia Mendoza, outgoing Fundraising & Events Coordinator
- We welcome Ruben Riley, incoming Fundraising & Events Coordinator
- We’re also proud to welcome Dr Alissa Visram to our Board of Directors
Goodbye, Sophia!
Our dear colleague, Sophia Mendoza, has decided to move back home to pursue new opportunities in her career. Her last day with us was October 16th, 2025. While we are sad to see her go, we are incredibly grateful for the dedication, hard work, and positive energy she has contributed to both our team and the organization.
Welcome, Ruben!
We’re delighted to welcome Ruben Riley to Myeloma Canada as our new Fundraising and Events Coordinator. With extensive experience in event planning, guest services, and team coordination, he brings a strong background in delivering high-quality, impactful experiences with empathy and precision. His expertise in managing logistics, anticipating needs, and collaborating across departments will be instrumental in supporting our educational events and community fundraising initiatives.
[Photo: Ruben Riley, Fundraising and Events Coordinator, Myeloma Canada]
Ruben is an experienced leader with a strong background in guest services, community engagement, and team development, built over three decades across luxury hospitality, wellness, beauty, and retail. He brings a unique perspective to the non-profit sector, combining a deep commitment to service excellence with a passion for supporting people and organizations in meaningful, values-driven ways.
With strengths in relationship-building and program coordination, Ruben is well-positioned to support mission-driven organizations like ours. He is especially drawn to initiatives that promote social equity, health and wellness, and access to care, bringing a service-first mindset rooted in collaboration, dignity, and long-term impact.
Welcome, Dr Visram!
We warmly welcome Dr Alissa Visram to the Myeloma Canada Board member. Dr Visram brings extensive hematological experience, clinical insight, and compassion to the table. She is Assistant Professor in the Department of Oncology at McMaster University in Hamilton, where she is actively involved in educational activities, including the supervision of residents, clinical research fellows, and undergraduate medical students. Her research focus is clinical trials in myeloma and cellular therapies, along with translational research in natural killer cell immunology for treating multiple myeloma.
[Photo: Dr Alissa Visram, Director, Myeloma Canada Board of Directors]
Dr Visram earned her MD at the University of Toronto in 2014. She completed her internal medicine training at the University of Ottawa in 2017, followed by hematology training at Dalhousie University in 2019. She further completed fellowship training at the Mayo Clinic, including an advanced hematology clinical fellowship, followed by a research fellowship, focused on understanding the epidemiology of precursor plasma cell disorders. She also completed a Master of Public Health and Clinical Epidemiology at Harvard University. Prior to joining McMaster University, Dr Visram was a staff physician in the Division of Hematology at the Ottawa Hospital and Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa.
Dr Visram along with the other medical experts on our Board further ensure our decisions are grounded in both science and real-life experiences of people living with cancer. They help us better understand emerging therapies so together we can realize our mutual vision of a life uninterrupted by myeloma.
We look forward to Dr Visram’s valuable contributions and the positive impact her voice will have for our community.