Dr. Stewart holds the Lillian Love Chair in Women's Health and is a professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Anesthesia, Surgery, Internal Medicine and Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is also a Director of the Women's Health Program at the University Health Network, Senior Scientist, Toronto General Research Institute, and a faculty member with the Institute of Medical Sciences, School of Graduate Studies, Joint Centre for Bioethics, Heart and Stroke/Lewar Centre of Excellence, and the Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto. Dr. Stewart has an international reputation in women's health behavioural research, education, policy and services, and is the author of over two hundred peer-reviewed papers and chapters, three books, and numerous consultations and reports on women's health policy and practice to government, universities, agencies and industries. She is Chair of the Section of Women's Mental Health of the World Psychiatric Association and past Chair of the Committee on Women of the American Psychiatric Association. She also serves on the Ontario Women's Health Council Executive and Health Canada Advisory Committee for Women's Health.
Dr. Angela Cheung is the Associate Director of University Health Network Women’s Health Program, the Director of University Health Network Osteoporosis Program, and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She obtained her M.D. degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1988, and her Ph.D. degree from Harvard University in 1997. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada, and is a board-certified internist in the United States. She has been in clinical practice for the past 12 years, and specializes in postmenopausal women’s health including cardiovascular diseases, breast cancer, and osteoporosis.
Dr. Cheung has received many honors and awards throughout her medical career for her excellence in clinical work, research and education. She currently holds a 5-year Ontario Ministry of Health Health Services Research Career Award. Other recent ones include the extremely competitive Agency of Health Care Policy and Research Fellowship Award in Health Services Research, the coveted Alfred P. Frechette Postdoctoral Fellowship Award from the Massachusetts Health Research Institute, and the Toronto Hospital Department of Medicine Young Attending Teacher Award. She holds full membership in a number of professional associations including the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons, the American College of Physicians, the North American Menopause Society, the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, the International Society of Clinical Densitometry, the Society of General Internal Medicine, and the Society of Medical Decision Making.
Paula Barata, B.A., M.A., is a Ph.D. candidate in Applied Social Psychology at the University of Windsor. In her work with the Women’s Health Program, she is examining domestic violence in the Portuguese community of Toronto. She has extensive knowledge in research design and analysis and has put this knowledge to work on a variety of applied research projects including program evaluations and needs assessments. Her research interests include women's issues and forensic psychology. Her master's thesis explored domestic violence survivors' evaluations of particular criminal justice policies, and her dissertation is further delving into survivors' use and experiences of the criminal justice system.
Dr. Kapral is a general internist at the Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network. She is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Ontario (ICES). She holds an MD degree and an MSc degree in Clinical Epidemiology, both from the University of Toronto. Her research interests include stroke health services research and stroke care in women, and she previously coordinated the Ontario Stroke Registry. She holds a research scholarship from the Canadian Stroke Network and is currently involved in coordinating the Registry of the Canadian Stroke Network.
Dr Emma Robertson is a post-doctoral fellow working within the Women’s health program researching ‘Women & Depression’. She holds a PhD in Psychiatry from the University of Birmingham, a Master of Philosophy entitled ‘Carer’s Illness Models of Schizophrenia’ and a Bachelor of Science degree in ‘Psychology & Communication’. Since graduating she has held research and academic positions within adult mental health, spending 5 years working within research and development in a large clinical and teaching hospital. This work focussed on the promotion of evidence-based practice as well as the identification, design and undertaking of empirical studies in key areas of clinical importance. She also co-developed a teaching program which provided practical advice to hospital and academic staff on any aspect of the research process through appropriate teaching methods. She was awarded the New Blood Research Fellowship from the Department of Health in 1998, which provided 3 year full-time funding and was based in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Birmingham working with Professor Nick Craddock & Dr Ian Jones. The fellowship provided the opportunity to undertake a novel large-scale project researching the clinical and genetic aspects of puerperal psychosis, which formed the basis of her doctorate. In her post-doctoral position at Birmingham she continued working on clinical and genetic aspects of bipolar disorder and puerperal psychosis, as well as conducting a unique qualitative study into women’s experiences of puerperal psychosis, with Dr Antonia Lyons. Her particular research interests are postnatal affective illness, mood disorders and women, the effects of illness on the individual and the family and the use of qualitative methods within psychiatry.
Dr. Farah Ahmad is a Research Associate in the University Health Network Women's Health Program. Dr. Ahmad is a public health researcher with a primary focus on preventive health behaviours and related social factors. Her recent projects on ethnic and mainstream women include cancer screening, partner abuse, health promotion, and gender preferences for family physicians. She has strong links with agencies serving South Asian and Southeast Asian immigrant communities. Her experience in health behaviours and health practices of immigrants stems from medical practice (Pakistan) and previous research on immigrant's health (Austria and Canada). Her expertise in immigrant's health issues and experience of collaborative health initiatives are strong assets for the success of the department.
In Canada, there are an increasing number of family members providing care and assistance in the community to individuals with chronic, disabling, and life-threatening illnesses. The impact providing this care can have on their health and well-being is the primary research focus of Jill Cameron. In her research of advanced cancer, stroke, congestive heart failure, and general medicine family caregivers, Ms. Cameron has been examining how providing this care has impacted upon their quality of life, specifically, their emotional well-being, ability to participate in valued activities and interests, and their physical health. Ms. Cameron is pursuing these ideas further in her dissertation research funded by the Canadian Stroke Network and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, where she hopes to determine the psychosocial factors associated with family caregivers' emotional well-being and their subsequent ability to maintain stroke survivors in the community. Stemming from this research, she will develop and evaluate programs to assist family members who are assuming the role of caregiver by providing information and teaching caregiving skills.
Dr. Sherry L. Grace is a Fellow with the Women’s Health Program. Her research interests lie in referral and participation in secondary preventive services in women and men with heart disease. She earned her Ph.D. in Applied Social Psychology. She currently holds a training award through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. She also holds funding from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and Banting & Best Diabetes Center, in addition to her collaboration on other grants. She is an Executive Board Member of the Ontario Women’s Health Network, and enjoys teaching and public education. She has 5 peer-reviewed publications, 4 chapters, and numerous abstracts and presentations, and has collaborated on several government reports.
Ayse K. Uskul is a PhD candidate in the Social/Personality Psychology program at York University. She completed her applied practicum at the Women’s Health Program where she continues working on several research projects. Ms. Uskul's primary interest focuses on the how self and culture related characteristics influence health-related cognitions, affect, and behaviour. She has conducted research on proactive coping and psychological well-being, hypertension and compliance, hysterectomy and decision-making, women's attitudes toward menarche and menstruation, and socio-cultural determinants on ways and timing of seeking medical help regarding breast cancer symptoms. She is currently working on her dissertation project in which she examines self and culture related influences on illness concerns, responses to health messages, and health seeking behaviour. Her project is funded by the Women’s Health Scholar’s Award given by the Ontario Women’s Health Council.
Enza Gucciardi, MHSc, PhD Candidate
Enza Gucciardi is a Research Associate and a Community Health Epidemiologist at the Women’s Health Program. She has an undergraduate degree in nutritional sciences from Ryerson University, a master degree in Public health and epidemiology from the University of Toronto and is now pursuing a PhD in the Institutes of Medical Sciences at the University of Toronto. Her past work examined methodological issues in congenital anomaly surveillance systems and the impact of folic acid on neural tube defects. Her current research focuses on the secondary prevention of diabetes related complications, diabetes self-care management, diabetes education, determinants of diabetes education service use and education delivery systems, particularly across gender and multicultural groups. Other research interests include various women’s health issues and body image (lone-mothers, women with disability, rural women, teen pregnancy, eating disorders, STDs, and physical activity), attitudes and barriers towards health research participation, and research design features to improve health research participation in the general population.
Rachel Mitchell is a Master’s Candidate in the Institute of Medical Science and the Cardiovascular Sciences Collaborative Program at The University of Toronto. Her interest in Health Psychology, and in particular the Psychology of Chronic Disease, developed at York University in the Interdisciplinary Honours Science Program. Awarded two consecutive summer student research scholarships at the Cardiac Rehab and Prevention Centre at St. Michael’s Hospital, she examined the relationship between cognitive error and depressive symptoms in cardiac patients as well as the various modes of psychiatric intervention used to treat depression in the cardiac population. In her Master’s thesis, she will focus on depression in women after Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Surgery and the effects of co-morbid chronic illness such as diabetes. Rachel is looking forward to working in the enriching environment of the Women’s Health Program at the University Health Network.
Sarah Munce graduated from the University of Waterloo with a B.Sc in Health Studies, and a minor in Gerontology. At the University of Waterloo, she worked in the Health Behavior Research Group, in the area of smoking cessation. She has worked as a research assistant in both the Adolescent Eating Disorder Department at the Hospital for Sick Children and the Eating Disorder Program at Toronto General Hospital, whereby she was involved in the Price Foundation Study, an international, multi-site project looking at the genetics of anorexia nervosa. Most recently, she was a summer research student in the Women’s Health Program, working on the portrayal of women in psychotropic drug advertisements in medical journals. Sarah is now a Master’s student at the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. Her thesis project is investigating depression and its relation to cardiovascular disease and chronic pain.
Danielle Rolfe is a research assistant at the University Health Network Women’s Health Program. She recently completed her Bachelor of Physical Health and Education at the University of Toronto, earning a major in exercise physiology and minors in physiology and zoology. The impact of exercise training on the endocrinology of the female menstrual cycle formed the basis of her fourth-year thesis projects and a summer research award completed at the Faculty of Physical Education and Health’s Centre for Research in Girls’and Women’s Health and Physical Activity. She is a volunteer at Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Sciences Centre in the Women’s Cardiovascular Initiative program, and has developed a number of women’s exercise training programs and courses at the West End YMCA. She is currently a student at the Michener Institute of Applied Health Sciences in the Clinical Research Associate Program and intends to complete a Masters degree, in the areas of women’s health and health promotion, in the near future.
Sharon Scovil is the Toronto site study co-coordinator for a national study on Quality of Life funded by Canadian Stroke Network and SSHRC. She oversees recruitment and follow-ups of patients and family caregivers post-stroke, and works with healthcare teams to identify acute strokes. As a graduate of Psychology and Biology from the University of Waterloo, she is enthusiastic to continue gaining research and clinical experience at the University Health Network. At the University of Waterloo, she focused her studies on neuropsychology, doing a research project on apraxia and aphasia in conjunction with Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. Being awarded two undergraduate NSERC grants, she also has performed research in the areas of infant cognition, and recovery of function after brain damage. She has enjoyed opportunities to work with many clinical populations, from infants and their parents, to children with autism or cancer, or seniors dealing with the aftermath of stroke. She plans to continue augmenting her research skills in New Haven, Connecticut next year.
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