IAB Members (As of September 1, 2012) - Biographies
Monique Gignac, PhD (Chair)
Associate Professor
Health Care & Outcomes Research
University of Toronto
Monique Gignac is a Senior Scientist with the Division of Health Care and Outcomes Research at the Toronto Western Research Institute and Associate Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Gignac received her MA and PhD in social psychology from the University of Waterloo, Ontario. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in social gerontology at the University of Guelph. She is also an Adjunct Scientist with the Institute for Work and Health.
In 2008, she became Co-Scientific Director of the Canadian Arthritis Network, a Networks of Centres of Excellence. She has served as a member of CIHR's Social Dimension in Aging (SDA) review committee and on CIHR Team Planning and Development grants. She is also an Associate Editor for Arthritis Care & Research.
Dr. Gignac's research expertise is in the areas of health and social psychology. Her research examines psychosocial factors like stress, coping, and adaptation and their importance in understanding the impact of arthritis and other chronic diseases in the lives of adults across the life span. In particular, her work focuses on ways to enable people with chronic disease to maintain involvement in employment and other valued roles and activities. She also conducts research related to social support and participation among persons with Alzheimer's disease, stroke, and glaucoma.
Jeff Dixon Professor
Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
The University Of Western Ontario
Dr. Jeff Dixon is a Professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology and Division of Oral Biology at The University of Western Ontario. He also serves as Co-Director of the multicentre Joint Motion Program – a CIHR Training Program in Musculoskeletal Health Research and Leadership.
Dixon received his DDS from The University of Western Ontario in 1977. After 3 years in general practice, he obtained specialty certification in Periodontics (1985) and a PhD in Oral Biology (1986) from the University of Toronto. He carried out postdoctoral research at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto (1985-1987). Dixon returned to The University of Western Ontario in 1987, supported by an MRC Development Grant (1987-1997).
Dixon's research focuses on cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the formation and destruction of bone. Goals are to understand the physiological regulation of these processes and to identify therapies to inhibit bone loss and stimulate bone formation. Dixon has supervised numerous graduate and undergraduate students, postdoctoral fellows and visiting scientists. Trainees under his supervision have won local, national and international awards for their research.
Dixon serves on the editorial board of the journals Purinergic Signalling and Bone, and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of The Arthritis Society. He is past-president of the Canadian Association for Dental Research and has served as member, scientific officer and chair of several committees for the CIHR. Dixon was a founding member of the Canadian Arthritis Network (CAN), one of Canada's Networks of Centres of Excellence. Within CAN, he has been a member of the Research Management Committee and Chair of the Training and Education Committee. From 2001-2009, Dixon served as Director of the CIHR Group in Skeletal Development and Remodeling, an interdisciplinary team focusing on basic and applied aspects of musculoskeletal and dental health research.
John Esdaile MD, MPH, FRCPC Arthur JE Child Chair in Rheumatology Research, and,
Professor of Medicine and Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary
Professor of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Scientific Director, Arthritis Research Centre of Canada
Dr. Esdaile completed his undergraduate medical training at McGill University and went on to post-graduate training in Montreal, Toronto, and London, England and New Haven, CT. He has been University Program Director of Rheumatology at McGill University and the University of British Columbia.
Dedicated to expanding Canada's role in arthritis research, Dr. Esdaile played a key role in establishing the Arthritis Research Centre of Canada in 2000, of which he was named Scientific Director. The Centre now has a faculty of 12 and includes rheumatologists, orthopaedic surgeons, doctoral level occupational therapists, physical therapists, biostatician, as well as an epidemiologist, a pharmacoepidemiologist and a specialist in knowledge translation. In 2010, the Centre expanded to include the University of Calgary, where he holds the Arthur JE Child Chair in Rheumatology Research.
Dr. Esdaile's areas of research interest include rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and osteoarthritis. He has authored more than 200 publications in refereed journals.
Dr. Esdaile received the Distinguished Investigator Award from the Canadian Rheumatology Association at its 2005 meeting. In 2006, he was named a Kirkland Scholar by the Kirkland Foundation in New York, NY, and in 2007 he was made a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. In 2009, he was awarded the University of British Columbia Killam Faculty Research Prize for Science. In 2010, he was awarded the Roger Demers Prize by the Laurentian Rheumatology Association.
Debbie Feldman Professor, School of Rehabilitation
Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal
Dr. Debbie Ehrmann Feldman is a Professor at the Université de Montréal, Faculty of Medicine, School of Rehabilitation and director of graduate studies in rehabilitation sciences at Université de Montréal. She is a member of the Institut de recherche en santé publique de l'Université de Montréal, the Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Réadaptation, and the Canadian Arthritis Network.
Dr. Feldman is a physiotherapist who also holds MSc and PhD degrees from McGill University in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She subsequently completed a post-doctorate at Université de Montréal in health services research.
Dr. Feldman's main research interests include health services research in patients with arthritis and other chronic diseases, rehabilitation and musculoskeletal health. She conducts much of her research in conjunction with the Montreal Department of Public Health, as a member of their research team in population health and health services.
She currently holds a salary award (senior award) from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Santé, serves on the editorial board for two scientific journals, has 195 peer reviewed articles and abstracts and has mentored more than 25 students. She has also served on several grant review committees (CIHR, NCIC, REPAR, CRIR, FRSQ).
Marc D. Grynpas, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology and
Institute for Biomaterial and Biomedical Engineering
Director, Bone and Mineral research Group
University of Toronto
Marc Grynpas, PhD is a professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology and in the Institute for Biomaterial and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. He is also a Senior Scientist at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital and the Director of the Bone and Mineral research Group at the University of Toronto.
Dr.Grynpas graduated from the Free University of Brussels with alicense and an aggregation in Physics. At the University of London (Birkbeck College), he did a PhD in Crystallography and Biophysics on the structure of bone. After a post-doctoral fellowship at Queen Mary College (University of London) on the relation between bone structure and bone mechanical properties, he joined the laboratory of Professor Melvin Glimcher at the Children's Hospital in Boston, part of Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Grynpas research is focused on: the nature of bone mineral, animal models of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, the effects of drugs and trace elements on bone quality and the determinants of bone fragility and bone fatigue. In addition Dr.Grynpas is part of a research team investigating tissue engineering of skeletal tissues. He has supervised numerous graduate and undergraduate students, postdoctoral fellows and visiting scientists. His trainees have won national and international awards for their research.
Dr. Grynpas is a reviewer for CIHR, NIH, NSERC and FRSQ and other granting agencies. He serves on a grant panel for NSERC and has served on grant panels for CIHR and NIH.He is a member of the scientific advisory board of the International Conference on the Chemistry and Biology of Mineralized Tissues and he was a member of the Research Management committee of the Canadian Arthritis Network. He is an associate editor of Connective tissue Research and he is on the editorial board of Calcified Tissue International.
Rashmi Kothary, Ph.D.
Associate Scientific Director and Senior Scientist
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
University Health Research Chair in Neuromuscular Disorders
Professor
Departments of Medicine, and Cellular and Molecular Medicine
University of Ottawa
Dr. Kothary is an Associate Director and Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. He was originally fascinated by physics, but his interests shifted towards biology, biochemistry, embryology and ultimately neuromuscular disorders. Dr. Kothary received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of British Columbia and pursued postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Janet Rossant at the Mount Sinai Hospital Research Institute in Toronto and in the laboratory of Dr. Azim Surani in Cambridge, U.K. It was during these formative years that Dr. Kothary developed his interests in the use of transgenic mice to model disease pathology. Dr. Kothary returned to Canada to begin his independent research career at the Institut du cancer de Montréal. In 1998, Dr. Kothary joined the OHRI as a Senior Scientist. He holds the University Health Research Chair in Neuromuscular Disorders and is a Professor at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Kothary's current research focuses on studying the fundamental role of a cytoskeletal linker protein important for intracellular trafficking, investigating signal transduction pathways important for oligodendrocyte mediated myelination and remyelination of the CNS, and understanding Spinal Muscular Atrophy pathogenesis and identifying novel therapeutics for this devastating children's disease.
Joy MacDermid, BScPT, PhD Professor
Rehabilitation Science
McMaster University
Joy MacDermid is a Professor in Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University (Hamilton, ON), and is the Co-director of Clinical Research at the Hand and Upper Limb Centre (London, ON).
She is a hand therapist/physical therapist/epidemiologist and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers, 20 chapters and two books that focus on measuring and predicting musculoskeletal disability. Her methodology expertise is in measurement, knowledge translation, clinical trials, systematic reviews, clinical practice guidelines, cohort studies/clinical prediction. She has developed outcome measures that are used internationally including self-report measures like The Patient Rated Wrist/Hand Evaluation; and impairment-based measures that assess the neuromusculoskeletal function of the upper limb. She has more than 25 years of clinical experience in treating patients with musculoskeletal pain and disability resulting from upper quadrant disorders. Dr MacDermid is co-editor of the book Evidence-based Rehabilitation which is used as a textbook internationally to teach evidence-based practice. Her research papers in open access are typically awarded "highly accessed" designation and the most downloaded /cited in print journals.
Dr. MacDermid is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, a past-President of the American Society of Hand Therapists (ASHT), has twice won its best scientific paper award, was awarded the Nathalie Barr Lecture in 2006; the Philadelphia Hand Meeting Honored Professorship in 2006 and 2012, and was awarded the IMHA/CIHR Quality of Life Award in 2007.
She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Hand Therapy and the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy; and on the editorial board of Open Orthopedics.
She has mentored more 3 Postdoctoral Fellows, 20 PhD students, 40 Masters students, 40 physicians/other health disciplines to complete their research training/research.
Debora Matthews
Professor, Department of Dental Clinical Sciences
Faculty of Dentistry
Dalhousie University
Dr. Debora Matthews is a Professor in the Department of Dental Clinical Sciences at Dalhousie University and a Research Associate of the Atlantic Health Promotion Research Centre.
Dr. Matthews obtained her D.D.S degree from the University of Alberta in 1980. She practiced general dentistry for 11 years, after which she obtained her Diploma in Periodontics from the University of Toronto (1993). She has a Master's degree in Health Research Methodology from the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University (1997).
Dr. Matthews' main research interests include: translating clinical research knowledge into clear and useful formats for clinicians and their patients, and addressing the deficit in oral health experienced by vulnerable populations. As PI of a number of projects over the past 10 years, she has worked with community collaborators, government policy advisors and researchers and has built a team at the forefront of geriatric oral health care research. Her team carried out the first epidemiologic survey measuring oral health status, quality of life and oral care needs of Nova Scotia adults, living in the community and in long-term care.
Dr. Matthews was a founding member of the Canadian Collaboration for Clinical Practice Guidelines in Dentistry, and is currently a member of the Critical Review Panel for the American Dental Association Center for Evidence Based Dentistry. She serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of the Canadian Dental Association, Evidence Based Dentistry Journal and the Journal of the Canadian Dental Association, and mentors a number of academic dentists in their writing of critical summaries of systematic reviews.
She is currently the President of the Canadian Association of Dental Research, and Director of the Network for Canadian Oral Health Research – both of which provide her with research networking potential crucial to advancing oral health research in Canada.
Alain Moreau (Vice Chair)
Associate Professor
Faculty of Dentistry (Stomatology Department) and
Faculty of Medicine
Université de Montréal
Dr. Alain Moreau is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Dentistry (Stomatology Department), cross-appointed to the Biochemistry Department in the Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Montréal. He is the Assistant Director - Academic Affairs of Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Centre and Co-director of the Dentistry Department. Dr. Moreau is also responsible for the development of the research program in pediatric rehabilitation at Marie Enfant Rehabilitation Center, which is part of Sainte-Justine University Hospital.
Dr. Moreau received his Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from the Université de Montréal in 1986, a Master's degree in Applied Microbiology from the INRS-Institut-Armand-Frappier/Université du Québec in 1989, and a doctorate in Microbiology and Immunology from the Université de Montréal in 1993. He did a first postdoctoral training at the Protein Engineering Center of University of Liège, Belgium (1992-1993), followed by a second postdoctoral fellowship at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Montreal, and affiliated with McGill University (1997). He is a recognized authority on molecular genetics of idiopathic scoliosis. He has published many peer-reviewed research articles, and his pioneer works allowed the development of the first tools for the early screening of scoliosis and design of novel therapeutic approaches to prevent and cure idiopathic scoliosis (2 patents and others pending). Dr. Moreau is the founder and scientific director of ICONS (International Consortium ON Scoliosis), an international collaborative consortium where he coordinates among others the clinical validation of innovative predictive scoliosis blood tests in Montreal (Canada), Milan (Italy) and Hong Kong (China). His research has been supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council Canada, The Yves Cotrel Foundation (Institut de France), Génome Québec and research contracts with the industry (Paradigm Spine LLC, USA). Dr. Moreau is a member of the MENTOR training program of Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and is a former member of the CIHR Dental Sciences Committee. He is past president of the Quebec Scoliosis Society, and the former Chairman of the Canadian Connective Tissue Conference of 2005.
Dr. Moreau's main research interests also include the genetic causes of osteoarthritis and the molecular mechanisms implicated in inflammation and pain as well as the normal and pathological regeneration of musculoskeletal tissues.
Marc Pouliot, PhD
Professor
Faculty of Medicine
Laval University
Dr. Marc Pouliot is a professor in the Department of Microbiology-Infectiology & Immunology at Laval University. He also serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee at The Arthritis Society.
Pouliot received his PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Laval University (1994). He conducted post-doctoral studies in Australia at the University of Adelaide (1994-1996), then pursued specialization in inflammation and pain at Harvard Medical School (Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston) supported by an MRC Centennial Fellowship (1997-1999).
In 2005, Pouliot became co-chair of the Training and Education Committee and a regular member of the Research and Management Committee at the Canadian Arthritis Network (CAN), one of Canada's Networks of Centres of Excellence. He is a member of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Leading Edge and New Initiatives Funds review committee. He has also served as a member of CIHR's Biological and Clinical Aspects of Aging (BCA) review committee (2005-09), and of Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Senior Scholarship review committee (AHFMR; 2007-2010).
Pouliot has supervised numerous graduate, undergraduate students and postdoctoral trainees. He publishes papers in the area of arthritis, inflammation and pain; current focus includes the development of biomarkers for chronic conditions and the delineation of pro-resolution properties of adenosine. He is a member of the editorial board of: Journal of Immunology; International Immunopharmacology; Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes & Essential Fatty Acids and Mediators of Inflammation.
Stephen Robinovitch Professor, Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology
Professor, School of Engineering Science
Simon Fraser University
Dr. Stephen Robinovitch is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, and the School of Engineering Science, at Simon Fraser University. He currently holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Injury Prevention and Mobility Biomechanics. As Director of the CIHR-funded Technology for Injury Prevention in Seniors (TIPS) program, his research focuses on the cause and prevention of falls and fall-related injuries, especially hip fractures in older adults.
Robinovitch received his B.App.Sc. in mechanical engineering from the University of British Columbia (1988), his M.Sc. in mechanical engineering from M.I.T. (1990), and his Ph.D. in medical engineering from the Harvard/M.I.T. program in Health, Science, and Technology (1995). Between 1995-2000, he was an Assistant Professor, In-Residence in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco.
Robinovitch is a past recipient of a New Investigator Award from CIHR (2001), and a Scholar Award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (2001). He has been principal investigator on operating grants from CIHR, NSERC, NIH, and CDC, and has served as a member on various peer review panels for CIHR. He has supervised numerous graduate students, several of whom are now successful faculty members at universities in Canada and abroad.
Allan Stordy President & Chief Executive Officer
Arete Human Resources
Allan Stordy has more than 25 years of experience in the human resource industry in senior management and leadership positions, consulting with the Organizing Committee for the 1988 Calgary Olympic Winter Games and at the University of Calgary.
His early roles as a counsellor and his involvement in education led the way to a progressive 18 year career in the provision of professional health services at a highly regarded international health services organization. His interest in excellence and strong belief that there is a better way to deliver workplace health services led him to found Arete Human Resources Inc., in 2009. Allan is recognized as a leader in the creation and management of effective human resource solutions for insurance companies, group insurance advisors and individual employers across Canada.
He has been involved with the Canadian Skin Patient Alliance in various capacities for several years and in 2010 he became the Chair and President.
Youwen Zhou Associate Professor
Faculty of Medicine
University of British Columbia
Dr. Youwen Zhou is an associate professor of dermatology in the Faculty of Medicine of University of British Columbia and a dermatology consultant for the Vancouver General Hospital. He is the director of Molecular Medicine Laboratory and Chieng Genomics Centre at Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. He is also a skin oncologist at the British Columbia Cancer Agency.
Dr. Zhou received an undergraduate degree in biology in Nankai University in China in 1983 and a PhD in molecular genetics in State University of New York in 1990. After completing post-doctoral training in developmental neural biology under Dr. Joseph Culotti and Dr. John Roder in Mt Sinai Hospital 1991, Dr Zhou underwent medical training in University of Toronto and received an MD degree in 1995. He completed dermatology residency (2000) and dermatologic oncology fellowship (2001), both at University of British Columbia, before joining the Faculty of Medicine at University of British Columbia to become a clinician scientist in dermatology. His research focuses on how gene mutations and genomic aberrancies cause skin diseases such as hyperhidrosis, vitiligo, rosacea, and skin cancers.
Dr. Zhou has served as the president of Canadian Society of Investigative Dermatology, and has been the Curriculum Director of the CIHR Strategic Skin Research Centre. He is on the editorial board of Journal of Cutaneous Medicine and Surgery and has been a reviewer for many journals and granting agencies. He was awarded Young Investigator Award of the Banting Research Foundation, the Canadian Dermatology Foundation Lectureship Award, and the Established Clinician Scientist Award from the In-It-For-Life Foundation.