Team

Celia Laur 

Celia is completing her PhD in the School of Public Health and Health Systems at the University of Waterloo. As part of the ‘More-2-Eat’ team, Celia’s work focuses on the education and evaluation of healthcare staff through questionnaires, focus groups and interviews regarding ways to improve nutrition care in hospital. Celia has a keen interest in knowledge translation, implementation science and converting research into practice. Celia is a Registered Public Health Nutritionist in the UK, Health Nutritionist in the UK, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a Visiting Scholar at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK. Celia is also joint lead of the UK Need for Nutrition Education/Innovation Programme (NNEdPro), Global Innovation Panel. 

Idevania G. Costa 

Idevania is a Registered Nurse with experience in Long Term-Care, a Teaching Fellow and PhD Candidate in the School of Nursing, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. Her research interests include strategies to improve health care for older adult living with chronic conditions, and her doctoral dissertation focuses on the development of a self-care model to enhance patient engagement in the self-care management of diabetes-related wounds. In addition to her doctoral project, she has been involved in research studies in Canada and Brazil to enhance health care for people with complex wounds. Ms. Costa’s strong interest in knowledge translation has led her to use social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Blog to share experience and communicate evidence-based practice to patients/families, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. We are glad that she kindly offered to use her knowledge and skills in social media to design our blog!

Clive Velkers 

Clive is currently a MSc. Epidemiology candidate at Queen’s University in the class of 2017. He obtained his Honours Bachelor in Health Sciences from the University of Ottawa and was involved with the Health Sciences Student Association as Vice-President of University Affairs. He is originally from St. Catharines, Ontario before moving to Ottawa, and then Kingston for school. Under the supervision of Dr. Dallas Seitz, he is investigating an association between anesthesia use in surgical procedures and risk change for development of dementia. His thesis projects aims to create new knowledge and support systematic change concerning surgical procedures for elderly Canadians. 

Josh Hathaway 

Josh Hathaway is a first year Master's student in the faculty of Public Health at the University of Alberta, Specializing in epidemiology. He holds a bachelor of science in psychology and biological sciences from the University of Alberta. During his bachelor degree he participated in research using artificial neural networks which culminated in a publication in the Eureka undergraduate journal. His current research interests are dementia and multimorbidity, specifically looking at the journey these vulnerable individuals take through the health care system.

Julia Kirkham 

Dr. Kirkham is a psychiatrist and fellow in the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.  She completed her medical training and residency at the University of Saskatchewan and a clinical fellowship in Geriatric Psychiatry at Queen's, where she is now enrolled in the MSc in Healthcare Quality program.  Her clinical and research interests include depression in older adults, non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions in long-term care, and quality improvement in mental health care. 

Mylene Michaud

Mylene is a second year Master student in Psychology, a research and clinical assistant working closely with vulnerable populations (with the elderlies suffering from dementia and individuals suffering from schizophrenia). Also as part of her training, she was able to work with psychiatrists, patients and their family/caregivers. Her interests regarding general health, mental health and our aging population led her to postulate for a PhD next year. Her research focuses on examining the use of the Frailty Index and to determine the health profile of the elderly in long-term care facilities in order to determine the appropriate health care plan for these frail elderly. 

Alison Schinkel-Ivy 

Dr. Alison Schinkel-Ivy is an Assistant Professor at Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario. She obtained her PhD in Kinesiology and Health Science from York University (2014). She then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (University Health Network) from 2014 to 2016, with partial funding from the Canadian Frailty Network.  Dr. Schinkel-Ivy’s current research program aims to quantify how movement characteristics and strategies change across the older years of the life span, as well as the effects of psychological, cognitive, and environmental factors on these outcomes.  The goal of this work is to develop strategies to better promote function and longevity, independent community living, and work capacity for older adults. 

Zara Bagheri 

Dr Zahra obtained her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Ryerson University (Toronto) with a focus on composite biomaterials. She did her postdoctoral fellowship in the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering at McGill University (Montreal) with a research interest in orthopaedic biomechanics. She is an associate editor and reviewer for several biomedical engineering and medical journals.