Dr. Marilyn Macdonald is a Professor and Associate Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Nursing, and Director of the Joanna Briggs Centre of Excellence in the conduct of systematic reviews, Dalhousie University. She has a varied background in clinical nursing including; general surgery, cardio-vascular surgery, public-health nursing, home care, and a decade as a clinical nurse specialist. The primary focus of her research is homecare with a focus on caregivers. Dr. Macdonald is an Affiliate Scientist with the Nova Scotia Health Authority. Research interests are in home care, patient/caregiver safety and qualitative inquiry.
Shelley Vanderhout is a registered dietitian and PhD candidate in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto. Shelley trained as a dietitian at the Hospital for Sick Children and undertook her Masters and PhD degrees with TARGet Kids!, a primary care research network focused on early life exposures and health outcomes across the life course. Her research is centred on dietary influences on child growth, development and nutrition, but also includes engaging parents of children participating in TARGet Kids! in the research process. Shelley is interested in determining creative and inclusive ways to partner with parents in 1) prioritizing research topics that are relevant to families, 2) conducting innovative clinical trials in children for chronic disease prevention, and 3) knowledge translation and dissemination to diverse communities.
Dr. Meghan Sebastianski (BSc, MPH, PhD) is the Program Coordinator for Knowledge Synthesis with the Alberta Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) SUPPORT Unit Knowledge Translation platform. Her research interests focus on bridging the gap between individual research studies and health practice. Dr. Sebastianski undertook her doctoral studies at the University of Alberta focusing on clinical epidemiology and research methodology with the Epidemiology Coordinating and Research Centre (EPICORE). In addition to her research experience she has also been involved in the use of knowledge synthesis in evidence-based decision making through her tenure as Project Manager in Health Technology Assessment and Innovation with Alberta Health Services (AHS). She has a growing interest in pedagogy relating to evidence-based medicine and has taught workshops on knowledge synthesis and systematic reviews at the Alberta SPOR Summer Institute, the SPOR Moving Evidence to Action (META) workshop series, the Campus Alberta Student Conference on Health (CASCH). She has also taught Cochrane Standard Author Training modules and is a member of the Cochrane Training Network.
Lisa Strifler (MSc, BSc) is a PhD candidate in health services research at the University of Toronto and trainee in the SPOR Evidence Alliance. Her thesis research involves developing and evaluating a decision support tool to help frontline implementers select an appropriate theory, model or framework to inform their knowledge translation activities. Her work is supported by a Canadian Institutes for Health Research Banting Doctoral Research Award. Lisa also has experience in knowledge synthesis methods including systematic reviews, scoping reviews and rapid reviews.
Dr. Meghan Elliott is a kidney doctor and health researcher at the University of Calgary. She completed a Master’s in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Toronto and has an interest in patient-oriented research. She engages with patients as partners in many aspects of her research program and uses primarily qualitative methods to better understand the experiences and needs of kidney health stakeholders.
Leah Boulos is a health sciences librarian specializing in evidence synthesis. At the Strengthening Transitions in Care (STIC) Lab, Leah is the Program Manager for the Emergency Department Patient Activated Transition from Care to Home (ED-PATCH) Project and helps manage the lab’s evidence synthesis projects. She received her Master of Library and Information Science from Dalhousie University (2016) and previously worked at the Maritime SPOR SUPPORT Unit as their Senior Evidence Synthesis Consultant. Leah also holds a Bachelor of Music in piano from Mount Allison University (2010).
She spends most of her free time chasing after her two young kids.
Dr. Keeping-Burke is Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Health Research in the Department of Nursing & Health Sciences at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John. She completed a PhD from McGill University in 2010 and Master and Bachelor degrees in Nursing from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1997 and 1987, respectively. Dr. Keeping-Burke conducts qualitative and quantitative research as well as systematic reviews using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology. Her current program of research focuses on chronic disease management for adult populations. Dr. Keeping-Burke is a certified trainer for the JBI Comprehensive Systematic Review Program and Director of the UNB Saint John Collaboration for Evidence-Informed Healthcare: A JBI Centre of Excellence. She is a member of the Graduate Academic Unit at UNB and supervises graduate students who are interested in chronic disease management.
Dr. Marilyn Macdonald is a Professor and Associate Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Nursing, and Director of the Joanna Briggs Centre of Excellence in the conduct of systematic reviews, Dalhousie University. She has a varied background in clinical nursing including; general surgery, cardio-vascular surgery, public-health nursing, home care, and a decade as a clinical nurse specialist. The primary focus of her research is homecare with a focus on caregivers. Dr. Macdonald is an Affiliate Scientist with the Nova Scotia Health Authority, and theme lead for Transitions in Care with the Canadian Frailty Network. Research interests are in home care, patient/caregiver safety and qualitative inquiry.
Ms. Kelly English is a 62 year old who has difficult to treat Rheumatoid Arthritis. Ms. English also has permanent neurological damage from one of her meds on her right side. This has made activities difficult and increased pain. Despite this, Ms. English has made Rheumatoid Arthritis research her passion and goal. Participation in research, attendance at conferences, writing about her disease and being interviewed or speaking about it has helped her and others with arthritis. Working with researchers on teams as also increased her knowledge as opposed to simply being a participant in the research project. Ms. English has been a member of Arthritis Research Canada’s Arthritis Patient Advisory Board for 6 years – 3 of which were co-chair of the board. Ms. English also holds a part time job as a bookkeeper – dependent on how she is feeling at the time. Currently, Ms. English is on the Training and Capacity Development Committee of SPOR Alliance as patient co-chair. The experience has opened her eyes to a new area of research.
Dr. Jennifer Donnan is an Assistant Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, in the School of Pharmacy. She is also a pharmacist and teaches in the areas of Pharmacy Practice and Evidence Based Medicine. Her research interests are in health policy, drug safety and effectiveness, and integrating patient preferences into health care decisions. She also loves to foster a passion for evidence based medicine with the undergraduate pharmacy students.
