View our current postdoctoral fellows
| Name | Supervisor | Research Interests |
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Celia Greenwood (McGill University) |
PhD in Molecular Biology/Genetics, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation MSc PhD in Molecular Biology/Genetics, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation BSc Biomedicine, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro StateDr. Ohanna Bezerra is a currently postdoctoral research fellow at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Having expertise in genetic epidemiology and genetics of infectious diseases, she is involved in projects on the evaluation of genetic variants and methylation patterns in the human genome related with disease prediction. Her work includes the investigation of sex-specific epigenetic signatures of venous thromboembolism recurrence. She is also leading a project granted by the CANSSI Ontario STAGE program to evaluate association of thrombosis-related variants with COVID-19 severity using next-generation sequencing data of COVID-19 patients (Hostseq). Her research interests include genetic epidemiology, (epi)genomics, evolutionary genetics, population genetics and infectious diseases. Ohanna loves sports and travelling. LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ohanna-cavalcanti-bezerra-7b6474a7/ ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ohanna-Cavalcanti-Bezerra |
| Alexandra Blair Twitter: @amsblair  |
Arjumand Siddiqi | PhD Public Health and Epidemiology, Université de Montréal MSc Psychiatry, McGill UniversityA former Vanier scholar, Dr. Alexandra Blair’s interests are in social epidemiology, health equity, and policy evaluation. She completed a PhD in Public Health and Epidemiology at the Université de Montréal and an MSc in Psychiatry, with specialization in psychiatric epidemiology, from McGill University. Her postdoctoral work explores the social determinants of substance use, Deaths of Despair and related syndemics in Canada. Having worked with the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and most recently with the Montreal Regional Public Health Office during the COVID-19 pandemic, she is particularly interested in studying the health equity impacts of health and social policies. Her recent work explores COVID-19 prevention and control efforts within prisons in Canada.Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Gblo9IEAAAAJ&hl=enOrchid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8555-0399LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-blair-402a467b/ |
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Ph.D., Sociology, Carleton University M.A., Sociology, Carleton University B.A., Political Science, York UniversityDr. Emerich Daroya is a postdoctoral researcher in the Division of Social and Behavioural Health Sciences at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. A sociologist by training, he draws on queer-feminist science and technology studies to study gay, bisexual, and queer men’s sexual health using qualitative methods. His research interests include queer theory, HIV/AIDS, new materialisms, sexuality studies, and race/racism. His research at DLSPH focuses on the impacts of COVID-19 on gay, bisexual, and queer men’s sexual and mental health; and the effects of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) on gay, bisexual, and queer men’s sexual lives.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emerich-daroya-14b87b210/ ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2024-4240 Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9JR0k8gAAAAJ&hl=en |
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Twitter: StaceyFisher_
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Laura Rosella | PhD Epidemiology – University of Ottawa MSc Epidemiology – University of Alberta BSc Cell Biology – University of AlbertaDr. Stacey Fisher was a post-doctoral fellow at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Public Health Ontario, supported by a CIHR Health System Impact Fellowship in equitable artificial intelligence (AI). She is also a postgraduate affiliate with the Vector Institute. Her research interests include population health, chronic disease prevention, the development of predictive risk algorithms, and the application of machine learning methods to public health. Her post-doctoral work involves supporting Public Health Ontario and public health units in building capacity for AI, developing population risk prediction models for chronic disease using machine learning methods and evaluating their utility to inform public health activities.Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=g8MFeoMAAAAJ&hl=enLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacey-fisher-76012495/ |
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Daniel Grace | Dr. Mark Gaspar’s specializations are in sociological theory and qualitative research methods. He examines health inequalities affecting sexual and gender minorities, with concentrations in sexual health, HIV, HPV, blood-donation policy, and mental health. His research investigates how biomedicine has influenced our understanding of the fundamental causes of social inequalities, focusing on how it operates as a dominant frame for organizing health research and advocacy for marginalized communities. |
Kelly Holloway |
Fiona A. Miller | Dr. Holloway is a medical sociologist with interdisciplinary training in feminist theory and political economy. Her doctoral work in Sociology at York University explored pharmaceutical industry influence in medical education in the United States and Canada. Following this, she did a CIHR-funded post-doctoral fellowship at Dalhousie University studying emerging health researchers and the commercialization of academic science. In her current post-doctoral work at IHPME she is studying the political economy of molecular diagnostics with Dr. Fiona Miller. |
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Dr. Sandra Juutilainen is a member of Oneida Nation of the Thames and also of Finnish Canadian heritage. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health at the DLSPH. She is working alongside Dr. Melanie Jeffrey on a mixed methods study: ‘Indigenous populations and spinal cord injury: utilizing an Indigenous lens to establish meaningful data’. Her focus is on the qualitative component of the study. Funding support for this study received from the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation and the Rick Hansen Institute. Sandra has experience working in the area of Indigenous health with First Nations at the community, provincial and federal level in Canada and with Sami communities in the Nordic countries. She currently holds an adjunct assistant professor appointment at the University of Waterloo. | |
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Twitter: @tesslanzarotta
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Anne-Emanuelle Birn | BA, McGill University MA, McGill University PhD, Yale UniversityTess is a historian of science, medicine, and technology whose work focuses on the relationships between Indigenous communities and researchers — biomedical, public health, and anthropological. Her current book project focuses on biomedical research and public health in Cold War Alaska. At the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, she is developing a new project on the role of Indigenous communities, particular in the circumpolar regions, in shaping Global Health knowledge, policies, and agendas. tesslanzarotta.com |
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Paula Braitstein | Dr. MacEntee’s research focuses on the use of participatory visual methodologies to address HIV and AIDS, gender-based violence, LGBTQ2S youth homeless and for the study of sexual and reproductive health. She is the postdoctoral fellow on the CIHR funded project “Adapting and Scaling-up “Peer Navigators” to Targeted Populations of Street-Involved Youth in Canada and Kenya to Increase Linkage to HIV Prevention, Testing and Treatment”, which is studying the adaptation and scale up of peer outreach workers to support youth who are experiencing housing insecurity in Canada and Kenya to access HIV testing, prevention, and treatment. Katie is also working with Dr. Sarah Flicker, at York University, on the the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research and SSHRC funded study, Celling Sex, which is using cellphilms (participatory video made using a cellphone) to investigate young women experiences of transactional sex in Toronto, Canada. |
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Kinnon Ross MacKinnon Twitter: @Kinnon_Ross
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Daniel Grace | BA (gender studies & history) BSW, MSW, PhD (public health sciences)Dr. Kinnon Ross MacKinnon is a community-engaged researcher who is curious about the social world, and how health and social care systems are organized. Stemming from interdisciplinary training in public health and social work, his research seeks to understand and respond to gaps in health and social services, emphasizing equity for LGBTQ2 people. As a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Sexual and Gender Minority Health Research, Kinnon is working alongside Dr. Daniel Grace on the GetCheckedOnline Ontario Contexts Study. This is a CIHR-funded project that uses institutional ethnography to investigate how the structural landscape in Ontario shapes the possibilties for digital STI testing for gay, bisexual, queer, and other men who have sex with men. Kinnon’s broad research interests include the social and structural determinants of healthcare, sociology of healthcare, and health professions education. In January 2021 he begins a new role as assistant professor in the School of Social Work at York University.https://utoronto.academia.edu/KinnonRossMacKinnon |
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Angela Mashford-Pringle | Dr. Tammy MacLean (RN, BA, MA, PhD) is a settler with mixed Western European ancestry and a CIHR Health System Impact Post Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for WISE Practices in Indigenous Health, Women’s College Hospital (WCH), and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (DLSPH). As a non-Indigenous ally, Tammy is working with Dr. Lisa Richardson (WCH and Temerty Faculty of Medicine) to lead several studies that apply collaborative, anti-colonial approaches to address anti-Indigenous racism and identify opportunities to promote Indigenous health and advance cultural safety in healthcare organizations across Canada. At DLSPH, Tammy worked with Dr. Angela Mashford-Pringle to co-developOshki M’naadendimowin New Respect Cultural Safety, a 36-hour course for Faculty, staff, and students of professional health programs at the University of Toronto, which aims to facilitate Reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Tammy is a Feminist and an interdisciplinary scientist with graduate degrees in Global Public Health (PhD) and International Affairs (MA) and a Liberal Arts Degree in International Studies (BA). She is also a Registered Nurse (RN) with over a decade of clinical experience with made vulnerable groups and communities in Canada, the United States and Australia.
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Twitter: @McGeeMeghan
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Laura Rosella | Bachelor of Arts and Science, BASc, McGill Master of Science, MSc, uOttawa Doctor of Philosophy, PhD, UofTDr. Meghan McGee is a CIHR Health System Impact Fellow at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and a data scientist within the Health AI team at Deloitte Canada. Meghan helps clients in the health and life sciences sector leverage AI tools and techniques to improve the health of their patients and populations. She has extensive knowledge and expertise in clinical and health science research, statistical analysis, and AI methodologies. She completed her PhD in collaboration with The Hospital for Sick Children to develop obesity reduction strategies for children born preterm. Meghan is a science communicator and actively promotes the importance of translation research.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSXVs0jBNUE Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=DBAJuxoAAAAJ&hl=en PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=McGee+Meghan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcgeemeghan/ |
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Flora Matheson | Ph.D., Sociology, McMaster University M.A., Sociology, University of Waterloo B.A., Sociology, University of WaterlooArthur McLuhan was a postdoctoral fellow at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto and the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto. He also serves as the Chair of the Theory Division in the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Broadly, his work emphasizes the study of generic social processes and patterns and engages the areas of sociological theory and research methods; self, identity, and culture; and social problems and moral regulation. |
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Erica Di Ruggiero | PhD Public Health (Global Health), School of Public Health, Université de Montréal MSc (Applied), Ingram School of Nursing, McGill University BSc Nursing, Ingram School of Nursing, McGill University Dr. Muriel Mac-Seing is a CIHR Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Global Health of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Her doctoral research project examined the relationships among legislation, health policy, and the utilisation of sexual and reproductive health services by people with disabilities in post-conflict Northern Uganda. Her postdoctoral research work investigates COVID-19- related global health governance and how it is redefining population health research priorities in Canada. Her areas of interest broadly include global public health, global health governance, equity and social justice, intersectionality-based policy analysis, disability rights and inclusion, sexual and reproductive health rights including HIV and AIDS, structural and social determinants of health, integrated knowledge mobilisation and exchange, qualitative research, and mixed methods. She was named among the Canadian Women Leaders in Global Health by the Canadian Association for Global Health.
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Whitney Berta | Health Policy Healthcare Management Health and Aging Frailty Dementia Home and Community Care Integrated Community Based Primary Healthcare Long-term Care Social Determinants of Health Environmental Design and Dementia |
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PhD (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) MPH (Master of Public Health) MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) Dr. Sharifa Nasreen is a medical epidemiologist with more than 10 years of public health research experience in low- and high-income countries. Her research interests include epidemiology of infectious diseases, including vaccine preventable diseases and vaccine epidemiology. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. In her current postdoctoral work, she is involved in COVID-19 vaccine safety and effectiveness studies.
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Erica DiRuggiero | Ph.D. in Health Economics – Maastricht University, Netherlands MSc Global Health – Maastricht University, Netherlands MSc Demography – Southampton University, UKDr. Segun Ogundele was a Postdoctoral fellow in Implementation Science at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Broadly, his research seeks to understand what will work in policy implementation, for who and under what contexts health strategies can be promoted. His research interests include global policy agenda-setting for health, health systems strengthening, population health (policies and outcomes), access to health care, and social determinants of health and related inequalities. |
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Carol Strike | Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies, University of British Columbia MPH, Social and Behavioural Health Sciences, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto BA, Anthropology and Gender Studies, McGill University Dr. Michelle Olding (MPH, PhD) is a postdoctoral researcher in the division of social and behavioral sciences at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Drawing on qualitative, ethnographic and participatory methods, Dr. Olding studies community-based and structural interventions to advance health equity for people who use illicit drugs. She collaborates with drug user-led groups and allied organizations to conduct research that responds to community needs and priorities related to health care, harm reduction, housing, and drug policy. Her current research focuses on harm reduction approaches to preventing overdose deaths and drug-related harms, including low-barrier supervised consumption sites, safer supply, and housing-based overdose response programs.
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Gregory Marchildon | Dr. Peckham is a trained social worker, the senior research officer at the North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policy, and restricted graduate faculty member at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto. Dr. Peckham is a health services researcher who uses a variety of methods to conduct comparative policy analysis and explore health system design. Dr. Peckham’s research draws heavily from critical theories and explores the impact that formal systems and policies can have on the development and sustainability of formal and informal care networks. |
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Lori Ross | Merrick Pilling was a Postdoctoral Fellow working with Dr. Lori Ross on the Peers Examining Experiences in Research (PEERS) study, which examines peer involvement in community based research. His doctoral research used qualitative approaches to examine the impact of the biomedical model of mental illness on the lives of LGBTQ who experience mental distress. In general, his work employs intersectional, Mad Studies approaches to understanding mental distress. |
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Carol Strike | Dr. Katherine Rudzinski (HBA, MA, PhD) was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Division of Social and Behavioural Health Sciences at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. She currently holds a Mitacs Elevate Fellowship in partnership with Casey House Foundation. Katherine has 12+ years of experience working with marginalized individuals who use drugs in a variety of research projects and contexts. She has expertise in resilience research, social theory, addictions, gender and public health studies, and qualitative methods. Her current research examines the challenges and opportunities of providing harm reduction programs and services in a clinical care setting for people living with HIV/AIDS who use drugs. |
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Denice Feig | PhD (Global Health and Epidemiology), University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia MIPH (Master of International Public Health), University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia HBSc (Honours Bachelor of Science), University of Toronto, St. George, TorontoDr. Johanna Sanchez was a postdoctoral fellow in epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto and at the School of Occupational and Public Health at Ryerson University. Her research interests include investigating early child growth in vulnerable populations as well as enteric infection and the effect on health outcomes, particularly in the area of water, hygiene and sanitation. Her research at DLSPH focuses on child growth in children of women with type 2 diabetes. https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=xBs-2w4AAAAJ&hl=en https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Johanna-Sanchez-10 |
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Blake Poland | Martine Shareck was a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Trained in public health, social epidemiology and health geography, she is broadly interested in the socio-spatial determinants of urban health and in uncovering how to create more equitable and sustainable cities. She has 10 years of experience researching neighbourhood and activity space effects on the health practices of young people, such as smoking and diet, and social inequities thereof. Martine is currently involved in three mixed-methods intervention evaluation studies, one of which is based at DLSPH and is a community-based evaluation of built environment interventions implemented in two socially and ethnically-diverse tower neighbourhoods in Toronto. |
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Wei Xu | Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) in Computer Science Master of Technology (MTech) in Information Communication Technologies Doctor in Philosophy (PhD) in Computer ScienceDr. Divya Sharma has a PhD degree in Computer Science, with a specialisation in Computer Vision and Machine Learning. As a postdoctoral fellow at Dalla Lana School of Public Health, she is applying her expertise in advanced machine learning techniques, to combine human and artificial intelligence for solving important problems in the area of Health Research. Her postdoctoral research deals with developing novel neural network models in the area of disease prediction using microbiome data, under the supervision of Dr. Wei Xu (Princess Margaret Hospital) and Dr. Andrew D. Paterson (The Hospital of Sick Kids). She is also working with Dr. Claudia dos Santos’s group at St. Michael’s Hospital to identify distinct sub-phenotypes in sepsis and septic shock patients using machine learning tools. She aims to extend her research to medical image analysis along with genomic data analysis to aid interdisciplinary research in the areas of Computer Science and Health Research. |
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Twitter: @ShokoohiM
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Lori Ross | Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) in Computer Science Epidemiology (MSc) Epidemiology and Biostatistics (Ph.D.)Dr. Shokoohi was a CIHR Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. His research focuses on reducing disparities in health, clinical, social and behavioural outcomes among individuals living with HIV, as well as socially marginalized populations. Central to this focus is his consideration of how risk factors at multilevel of individual/behavioural, interpersonal, community, social, and structural/environmental influence care and treatment (e.g., the cascade of care), preventive care (e.g., harm reduction programs), access to health care, and quality of life. He completed his Ph.D. in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western University, Ontario, focusing on social and behavioural determinants of health among women living with HIV using the largest cohort of HIV among women in Canada (CHIWOS). His ongoing CIHR-Funded Postdoctoral research concentrates on multimorbidities, both physical and mental health outcomes, and mortality among Canadian sexual minorities. He is interested in focusing on novel theoretical, methodological, epidemiological and statistical approaches to health behaviours and health outcomes across the HIV care cascade and HIV prevention programs.Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RH1quLEAAAAJ&hl=en ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mostafa_Shokoohi PubMed:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Shokoohi%2C+Mostafa%5BAuthor%5D&ac=no&sort=relevance |
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PhD Health Policy – McMaster University GradCert in Global Health and HIV & STI Prevention – University of Washington MSc Public Health Policy & Management – National Taiwan University BSc Nursing– National Taiwan University Dr. Melodie (YunJu) Song is a mixed methods researcher who spends her time contemplating about health misinformation on social media and its effects on health equity. As a CIHR Health Systems Impact Fellow in Equitable Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Public Health Ontario (PHO), she conducted deliberative dialogues with interdisciplinary experts in AI, data science, bioethics, and immunization to identify stakeholder perceptions on AI-assisted immunization program delivery in Ontario. She led the development of an NLP-assisted real-time vaccine sentiment detection dashboard using longitudinal Twitter metadata, and published a review on AI-assisted technologies to support immunization delivery. A current postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases, she is supported by two CIHR grants to develop implementation best practices to engagement community and faith-based partners to improve vaccine confidence for ethno-racial and cultural minorities in Canada and select countries. She has conducted rapid reviews for the North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (NOA), IHPME (contracted by the Public Health Physicians of Canada), and lends her expertise in network analysis to the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) at McMaster University (pro bono). She has been a research collaborator of the Social Media Lab at the Toronto Metropolitan University since 2019.
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Lisa Forman | Dr. Uberoi (J.D., MPhil, LLM, PhD) is an international human rights lawyer and scholar with experience working with different international and national organizations looking into the protection of the right to health. Her research looks into accountability for health, especially with respect to the role national courts play in enforcing the right to health. |
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Xiaolin Wei Erjia Ge |
PhD in Population Geography, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Dr. Chenglong Wang is a health geographer at the Dalla Lana school of Public Health, University of Toronto. His interest includes spatial and environmental health with focus on health inequities associated with environmental exposures, particularly in migrants. Dr. Wang’s postdoctoral research investigates impacts of air pollution, climate change, greenness, and build environment on various childhood’s respiratory conditions using observational designs and health administrative data, including ICES/UK BioBank under the supervision of Dr. Erjia Ge (in Epidemiology). He also works with Dr. Xiaolin Wei at the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation (IHPME) to extend his area to interventional studies using various longitudinal survey data to promote Implementation Sciences in Environmental Health, aiming for a healthy city.
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Xiaolin Wei | PhD, National University of Singapore MPH, Columbia University BSc, Tulane University Dr. Shishi Wu is currently a postdoctoral fellow in implementation science at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Having expertise in both qualitative and quantitative methods, she is specialized in infectious disease epidemiology and implementation science to improve infectious disease control. Shishi has worked closely with international donors, frontline healthcare providers and national disease control officials in China, Singapore and United States, providing evidence from research and program evaluation to inform clinical and policy decisions on COVID-19, tuberculosis, and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Her current projects include examining the effectiveness of infection-acquired immunity and COVID-19 vaccines and developing an educational intervention to improve COVID-19 vaccine confidence in the Philippines.
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