April 4, 2025
The aim of this student-led conference is to expose current undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to a range of career paths, including research and practice related to public health. The conference offers an opportunity for the community to reflect on skills needed for health research and practice and provide graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with presentation experience.
The conference is open to all UݮƵ graduate students conducting research or working in public health, and all SPHS undergraduate students, faculty and staff.
All undergraduate thesis (HLTH 432) student poster presentations were automatically included in the conference.
Conference program
|
Time |
Activity |
|---|---|
|
8:30.. |
Registration, Breakfast,and poster viewing |
|
8:45 a.m. |
Land acknowledgment with ElderMyeengunHenry |
|
9:00 a.m. |
Opening remarks and oral presentations |
|
10:30 - 11:30a.m. |
Morning break and poster viewing |
|
11:30a.m. - 12:30p.m. |
WITHus, notONus: Community-driven knowledge mobilization Keynote Address by Dr. Melody Morton Ninomiya |
|
12:30- 1:45 p.m. |
Lunch and poster viewing |
|
1:30-2:30 p.m. |
Survey Methods Workshop: (hosted in Columbia Room B) Open to faculty, postdocs, and all graduate students Poster viewing for undergraduate students |
|
2:45 - 3:15 p.m. |
Afternoon break and poster viewing |
|
3:20 - 4:20 p.m. |
Careers panel |
|
4:30 - 5:00 p.m. |
Awards ceremony and closing |
Keynote
WITHus, notONus: Community-driven knowledge mobilization
is aJapanese and Swiss-German Mennonite (heritage and upbringing) researcher, educator, and mediator with experience in Indigenous health and wellness, critical public health, mental health and addictions, community-based and decolonizing research methods and methodologies, and knowledge mobilization. She currently holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Community-Driven Knowledge Mobilization and Pathways to Wellness. Dr. Morton Ninomiya’s research projects and interests lie in the areas of Indigenous health and wellness, community and culturally defined indicators of wellness, knowledge mobilization principles and practices in community-based research, mental health and addiction, critical public health, and decolonizing research methodologies.
Gillian Williams, MSc, PhD
Gillian is a Senior Epidemiologist in the Tobacco Control Directorate at Health Canada. In this role she conducts surveillance of tobacco and vaping product use in Canada using nationally representative surveys to support policy and regulatory initiatives. Prior to working at Health Canada, Gillian completed her PhD at the University of ݮƵ under the supervision of Dr. Scott Leatherdale. Her thesis examined the associations between poly-substance use and anxiety and depression among high school students participating in the COMPASS study.
Gertrude Omoro, MPH, PMP
Gertrude is a Project Management Institute (PMI) certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with over seven years of experience in developing, managing, and implementing development projects that promote equitable healthcare delivery, strengthen healthcare systems, and reduce health inequalities among vulnerable populations in low- and middle-income countries. Notably, she effectively coordinated efforts to reduce cardiovascular mortality across multiple World Health Organization (WHO) HQ departments and technical focal points in 12 countries through the Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL) initiative. In her previous role as a Regional Partnership Consultant for the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) in East Africa, Gertrude co-led and coordinated the development of gender-targeted proposals (GE-3), ensuring alignment with Global Affairs Canada’s funding requirements. Her efforts played a key role in securing the recent award of the STRIDES for SRHR through Resilient Health Systems Partner project, which is set to be implemented in Kenya and Mozambique. In her current role, Gertrude is focused on empowering women and girls to exercise their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Bangladesh.
As a firm believer of the adage, “think globally, act locally”, Gertrude has leveraged her affiliations to effect positive change in her community. Most notably, she co-founded the first Canadian Coalition of Global Health Research (CCGHR) affiliated student group while undertaking undergraduate studies at the University of ݮƵ. In subsequent years, she supported the development of 11 more CCGHR student chapters across Canadian institutions, championed the inclusion of marginalized voices in development, and contributed to the Canadian Society of International Health (CSIH’s) policy position on Canada’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) unveiled during the 25th annual Canadian Conference on Global Health. In her role as PEGASUS Institute Board Member, Gertrude hopes to contribute to the creation of a world whereby all people have the opportunity to lead healthy, fulfilled lives.
Maddy McBay, BSc Health Studies
Maddy McBay is a Product Manager forhealth care technology companycoeus.health where she fearlessly leads product vision, strategy and execution for the product suite. Here, Maddy has played an integral role in building out a world class patient engagement solution usingartificial intelligenceand large language models (LLMs) to provide perfected, reliable, multilingual patient communication.
During her time in theHealth Studiesprogram (Health Informatics option) at University of ݮƵ, Maddy co-founded TAMVOES, a digital healthcare platform acclaimed as a top tech startup, earning her a well-deservedCo-op Student of the Year awardfor the Faculty of Health in 2021. Madison drove the company's mission and vision of empowering individuals to make more informed decisions about their care, while providing a platform to access their personal health information. Maddy has proven her commitment to innovation and herpassion for driving improvementsin patient experience, access and outcomes. She is excited to share more about her journey into health technology andprovide insight into the opportunitiesthat are available for other graduates in this sector.
Priya Iyer, MPH, PhD Student
Priya is a part-time PhD student in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of ݮƵ under the co-supervision of Drs. Kelly Skinner and Jennifer Yessis. She holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Simon Fraser University and a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Genetics from McMaster University. As a public health professional, she has 10+ years of work experience in policy, research and evaluation in areas including chronic kidney disease, long-term care, and education. Presently, as a Senior Advisor in the Ontario Public Service (OPS), her work supports the mental health of public safety personnel in Ontario. A freelance journalist since 2018, she has contributed stories to media organizations including Al Jazeera and TVO. Her PhD focus will explore factors impacting mental health among public safety personnel and first responders.
Oral presentations
Oral presentations were a maximum of seven minutes followed by a two minute question and answer period.
9:00 to 10:30 a.m.
|
Title |
Authors |
|---|---|
|
Synthetic Data to Enhance Replicability of Biomedical Research. A Use Case in Experimental Spinal Cord Injury. |
Simran Saggu, Abel Torres-Espin |
|
Patterns and Risk Factors of Alcohol Use Among Older Adults in Ontario's Home Care System: A Cross-Sectional Analysis |
Amy Ecclestone, Chris Perlman |
|
Impact of the sugar-sweetened beverage tax among adults in Newfoundland & Labrador: a pre-post study of drink purchases, and comparison of awareness, cost perception and policy support with other Canadian provinces in 2021 and 2022 |
Karen Hock, Rachel B. Acton, Vicki L. Rynard, Lana Vanderlee, Christine M. White, Gary Sacks, Martin White, David Hammond |
|
Examining the relationship between gender identity and patterns of cannabis consumption in Canada and the United States |
Anastasia Marquette, Lorraine Greaves, Maryam Iraniparast, Samantha Rundle, Ava Kucera, David Hammond |
|
A rapid ethnography examining the effects of the closure of Northern Ontario’s only supervised consumption site |
Lucas Tucker, Dr. Francisco Ibáñez-Carrasco, Dr. Geoff Bardwell. |
|
Developing an Evaluation Framework for Generative AI Chatbots in Public Health |
Nauman Shakeel, Edson Takei, Fahad Talebi, Genevieve Lee |
|
Exploring Well-being within More-than-human Foodscapes through the Seasons |
Josalyn Radcliffe,Dr. Kelly Skinner, Dr. Warren Dodd |
Poster presentations
Graduate and postdoctoral poster presentations (printed in-person)
|
Title |
Authors |
|---|---|
|
Trajectories of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Recovery: A ScopingReview |
Vladyslav Shein, Abel Torres-Espin |
|
Exploring Cultural Perspectives on Mental Well-Being and Support Services: Insights from African and Caribbean Black, Economic Immigrants in the Kitchener-ݮƵ Region |
Ehinomen Oko-Oboh, Charity Oga-Omenka |
|
Cross-sectional analysis of cannabis use at work in the United States: differences by occupational risk level and state-level cannabis laws |
Ava Kucera, David Hammond |
|
Exploring Menopause: Beliefs, Perceptions, and Experiences of Immigrant Punjabi Women in Peel |
Tanveer Randhawa, Elena Neiterman |
|
The Intersection of Embodiment and Healthcare Relationships in Women’s Emergency Care Decisions: A Scoping Review |
Ailin Jalili, Mya Clarke, Tithi Joshi, Elena Neiterman |
|
Exploring PT’s Clinic’s Management of Injured Workers Patients from the New MSK Program from Ontario. |
Peining Li, Ellen MacEachen |
|
SynPrivacy: A Privacy Evaluation Framework for Synthetic Data Generation Models in Healthcare |
Bing Hu, Asma Bahamyirou, Yixin Li, Helen Chen |
|
Bold Sky: Co-designing a Gender-Transformative Game for Intimate Partner Violence Prevention |
Veen Wong, Chris McNab, Laura Wallace Jarvis, James R. Wallace |
|
AI-Driven Suicide Detection: A Comparative Study of Logistic Regression, BERT, and Few-Shot Learning for Text Classification |
Saba Oji, Dr. Helen Chen, Dr. James Wallace |
|
Thematic Analysis Toolkit for Human-LLM Collaboration |
Ansh Sharma, James Wallace |
|
Socioeconomic Gradients and Psychopathology in Children with Chronic Physical Illness |
Jothi Khaira, Dr. John Mielke, Dr. Martin Cooke, Dr. Mark Ferro |
|
Exploring the link between functional social support, marital status and memory from the perspective of community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults: A qualitative study |
Paniz Haghighi, Samantha B. Meyer, Suzanne L. Tyas, Leilei Zeng, Mark Oremus |
|
Organismic Resilience Indicators as Predictors of Acute Infection and Post-COVID-19 Condition |
Elizabeth L. Wang &Peter A. Hall |
|
The nature and extent of migrants, immigrants, and refugees’ trust in the social institutions of their host countries: A scoping review |
Helena Godinho Nascimento, Sultan Abdulkarim, Geetika Arikati and Samantha B. Meyer |
|
Mental Health, Ill Health, and Perceived Changes in Health in Caregivers and Children with Physical Illness |
Saba Soltani, Samantha Meyer, Mark Ferro |
|
Examining the association between physical activity and sleep duration trajectories in a cohort of adolescents in Canada: a longitudinal study |
Nicole Nguyen, Scott T. Leatherdale |
|
Envisioning the impact of mass migration, geopolitical conflict, climate change, & trust on foodborne illness risk among refugees in Canada in 2045 |
Ashvini Gulasingam, Vanessa Schweizer, Samantha Meyer, Irene Lambraki, and Shannon E. Majowicz |
|
Exploring food insecurity as a risk factor for eight enteric infections in Ontario, Canada, 2019-2022: A Multilevel Ecological Study |
Jacob Hammond, Csaba Varga, Hannah Neufeld, and Shannon E. Majowicz |
|
Older Adults’ Views of Foodborne Illness and Food Safety |
Kanika Sarwal, Heather Keller, Ken Diplock, and Shannon E. Majowicz |
|
Investigating the integration of sustainable food initiatives in healthcare institutions in Ontario, Canada: A grey literature scoping review |
Lisa L. Blank, Alyssa D. Milano, Lesley Andrade, Sharon I. Kirkpatrick |
|
Investigating the Extent and Moral Acceptability of Unhealthy Food Advertisements on Ghanaian TV Stations |
Silver Nanema & Amos Laar |
|
Functional social support as a mediator of the association between clinical anxiety and executive function in middle-aged and older adults: A moderated mediation analysis of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging |
Cindy Wang, Mark Oremus, Nancy E. Newall, Suzanne L. Tyas |
Graduate and postdoctoral posters (virtual poster presentation)
|
Title |
Authors |
|---|---|
|
A natural experiment comparing Canadian youth’s self-reported exposure to unhealthy food marketing by child-directed marketing regulation presence: findings from the International Food Policy Study |
Liza Boyar, Christine White, Vicki Rynard, Sharon Kirkpatrick, Lana Vanderlee, Jean Adams, Monique Potvin Kent,David Hammond |
|
“It’s not just the drugs. It’s the whole structure of your day, it’s the structure of your life”: The potential use of digital technologies to enhance opioid agonist treatment in rural and remote communities of British Columbia, Canada |
Amreetha Jayathilake, Kate Hodgson, Manal Mansoor, Kim Markel, Geoff Bardwell |
|
What is Known from the Qualitative Literature About Built Environment Factors That Affect Overdose? A Scoping Review |
Rachel A. Deshpande, Meya A. Jurkus, Geoff Bardwell |
|
Analyzing Public Discourse on Supervised Injection Site Closures in Ontario |
Nauman Shakeel, Fahad Talebi, Genevieve Lee, Carly Wheelans, Abu Yousha Mohammad Abdullah |
|
Evaluating the Feasibility of Large Language Models (LLMs) as Independent Coding Agents in Health Qualitative Analysis |
Mikayla Neeb, Edson Takei |
|
Esports Dataset (Reddit 2007-09to 2023-12) |
Ansh Sharma, James Wallace |
|
The mediating effect of depressive symptoms on the association between religious participation and memory in middle-aged and older adults |
Bonita Nath, Yeying Zhu, Colleen J. Maxwell, Charity Oga-Omenka, Mark Oremus |
|
Project summary: Addressing chronic disease challenges among seniors in Alberta’s Zone 5 |
Aimen Zehra |
|
Predicting Emotional States from Sleep Quality: A Data-Driven Analysis Using a Mobile Health App |
Francesco Zaffino, Jasleen Kaur |
|
Health system challenges faced by youth in foster care in Ontario, Canada: A qualitative analysis |
Dane Mauer-Vakil, Alana Butler, Claire Scruby, Suzie Brookes, Lindsay Morcom, Imaan Bayoumi |
|
Survey Development for Evaluation of Supervised Consumption Sites in Ottawa |
Abigail Law |
|
Public health profile of Singapore: Addressing aging, chronic disease, and health inequities |
Arya Joshi |
|
The Opioid Crisis in Vancouver, British Columbia |
Nuzhat R. Namiha |
| A scoping review of the association between the built environment and overdose mortality | Meya Jurkus, Sidney Hoolsema, Valorie A. Crooks, Nadine Schuurman, Amanda Slaunwhite, Geoff Bardwell |
Undergraduate poster presentations
|
Title |
Authors |
|---|---|
|
Examining the Protective Affects of Lithium Against Oxygen-Glucose Deprivation in Hippocampal Slices of Sprague-Dawley Rats |
Andrew Naoum, John G. Mielke |
|
Co-adaptation of the Dementia Lifestyle Intervention for Getting Healthy Together (DELIGHT) Program for South Asian Communities |
Anusha Kathiravel, Laura Middleton |
|
Assessing the Physical, Mental & Psychosocial Experiences of Women Diagnosed with Breast Cancer During Pregnancy: A Netnography |
Aruvi Kulamohan, Elena Neiterman |
|
Exploring the Effectiveness of Role-Playing Games in Youth Group Therapy: Clinicians’ Perspectives |
Averyl Bender, Jennifer Yessis |
|
Older Adults and Smart Home Devices: A Legal Critique of Terms of Service and Privacy Policy Agreements of Voice-Activated Smart Home Devices. |
Catherine Maddock, Cosmin Munteanu |
|
Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Interviewer Training Program |
Cathleen Blanchard, Kelly Anthony |
|
Barriers to Accessing Primary Care Among Immigrant Older Adults in Canada and the United States |
Chessie Li, Elena Neiterman |
|
Who is Eating at School? Trends in Canadian School Food Program Awareness and Participation Between 2019 and 2023 |
Emily Sakai, David Hammond |
|
Understanding the relationship between depression and smoking cessation measures among adults who regularly smoke cigarettes: Findings from the 2023 ITC Korea Survey |
Hanna Kang, Geoffrey Fong |
|
Investigating the quality of RCTs studying nutritional interventions of frailty |
Malak Tawfik, Mark Oremus |
|
Exploring the Potential of Vitamin E to Alleviate Symptoms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Scoping Review |
Manal Abbasi, Jennifer Yessis |
|
Investigating Pregnant Persons’ Knowledge of Placental Complications and Its Influence on Their Confidence in Prenatal Care |
Naomi Skye Clarkson, Diane Williams |
|
Factors Shaping the Well-Being of South Asian International Students in the Kitchener-ݮƵ Area |
Rajnandini Ganguli, Elena Neiterman |
|
The Social and Cognitive Impact of Assistive Robotic Devices on Children |
Rawan Miznazi, Brandon J DeHart |
|
Cops and Youth Community Ownership Program Evaluation and the Impact of Participant Mental Health |
Simone Douglas-Blaize, Kelly Anthony |
| Impact of Remoteness on Cardiovascular Health in Older Adults: The Role of Health Behaviours Across the Remoteness Spectrum in Canada | Sukhman Sandhu, Martin Cooke |
| The Traits of Healthy Childhood Development | Sayyam Shah, Kelly Anthony |
| Health beliefs about cannabis before & after legalization in Canada | Wilson Tong, David Hammond |
Presentation award winners
Best Overall Graduate Oral Presentation Award Winners
First Place:Karen Hock
Runner Up: Lucas Tucker
Honourable Mention:Anastasia Marquette
Best Overall Graduate Poster Presentation Award Winners
First Place:Lisa L. Blank
Runner Up:Cindy Wang
Honourable Mention:Vlad Shein
EDI-R Presentation Award Winners
Nuzhat Namiha, Amreetha Jayathilake, Helena Godinho Nascimento and Sultan Abdulkarim, Veen Wong, and Ehinomen Oko-Oboh
Organizing committee
Co-Chairs: Grace Okusanya and Sanaa Hussain
Financial Officer: Helena Godinho Nascimento
Peer Review Coordinators: Makenna Nunes Gomes and CarlyWheelans
Logistics Officers: Nuzhat Namiha and IfunanyaModebelu
External Communications Officer: Tara Chen
Internal Communications Officer: Elizabeth Wang
Logo Designer: Bea Rivera
Career Panel Coordinators: Ava Kucera, Syntheya Leslie, &Neha Dhanvanthry
Event Co-op Students: Philippa Crerar (F’24), Evelyn Mahand Thanh Le (W’25)
Acknowledgements
Thank you to our generous peer reviewers:
- Anatasia Marquette
- Ava Kucera
- Dane Mauer-Vakil
- Dipika Shankar Bhattacharyya
- Emma Littler
- Karen Hock
- Kiran Dhuga
- Labiqah Iftikhar
- Lucas Tucker
- Melissa Elgie
- Seun Adegboyega Adejumo
- Silver Nanema
- Taronish Kotwall
Thank you to our Conference Faculty Advisory Committee: Dr. Williams, Dr. Morita, Dr. Kirkpatrick, and Dr. Yessis.
Thank you to Dr. Yessis and Ashley King for assistance with the Careers Panel.
Thank you to the School of Public Health Sciences, theGraduate Studies Endowment Fund, theSPHS Graduate Students' Association, theHealth Dean's Advisory Committee on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism,and theApplied Health Sciences Endowment Fund (AHSEF)for their generous support of this event.