Dr. Brad Meisner
Brad was the first person to complete the Health Psychology Graduate Diploma Program in 2011. After conferring his PhD (KAHS) and Graduate Diploma, Brad was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Ryerson University and then the School of Health and Human Performance at Dalhousie University. In 2017, Brad returned to York University as a faculty member in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science, and he is actively contributing to the Graduate Diploma Program. Brad’s research focuses on the promotion of health and aging among middle-aged and older adults. This objective is achieved by supporting healthy aspects of aging and by challenging common misconceptions that ‘normal aging’ is associated with inevitable decline, disease, disengagement, and inactivity.
Dr. Yvonne Leung
Yvonne is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. She is a recipient of the CIHR Post-Doctoral Fellowship and Ontario Cancer Institute Knudson Post-Doctoral Fellowship. Her research focuses on investigating ways to enhance adjustment and meaning-making coping within the context of life-threatening illness, and developing and evaluating theory-driven interventions that promote positive coping, and lessen negative impacts on people who are faced with cancer. She has specialized in mixed-method research in the field of psychosocial determinants of health and disease and has authored 19 publications. She is also a sessional lecturer at University of Guelph Humber teaching Statistics and Research Concepts.
Dr. Sara Ahola Kohut
Sara is currently a health clinician scientist with the Medical Psychiatry Alliance at the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children. She has an externally funded program of research in the area of paediatric chronic illness and focuses in two areas, a) the access of peer support as well as b) mindfulness and acceptance based interventions. Clinically, Sara is working at the Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Program at the Hospital for Sick Children.
Dr. Caroline Reid-Westoby
Caroline is currently working as a researcher at the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University. She is part of the EDI team which is looking into kindergarten children's developmental health and school readiness. The Early Development Instrument (EDI) measures children's readiness to learn at school in five general domains: physical health and well-being, social knowledge and competence, emotional health/maturity, language and cognitive development, and general knowledge and communication skills. This research has particular meaning to Caroline as she is also the proud mother of two young boys.
Dr. Alina Cohen
After conferring her PhD (KAHS) and Graduate Diploma, Alina was a recipient of the inaugural York University Post-Doctoral Fellowship (YPDF) award. Her research focuses on investigating preventative measures for cognitive decline throughout the lifespan and informs the fields of neuroscience, kinesiology, psychology, and healthy aging. Currently, Alina is working as a part of the Health System Research team at The Canadian Institute for Health Information.
Dr. Gabrielle Pagé
Gabrielle Pagé is a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal under the supervision of Dr. Manon Choinière. She is the recipient of a 3-year CIHR postdoctoral fellowship. Her current research interests focus on 1) the identification of key biopsychosocial therapeutic targets associated with the transition from acute to chronic pain as well as the maintenance of chronic pain, 2) the impact of physical and mental health comorbidities on the maintenance of chronic pain, and 3) identification of facilitators and barriers to knowledge diffusion from tertiary to primary care with the aim of improving access to chronic pain treatment at the primary care level. Gabrielle is also a clinical psychologist working at the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit of the Montreal General Hospital.
Dr. Nicole Racine
Nicole is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Calgary and the Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute. She completed her PhD in 2016 at York University and her Residency in Child Clinical and Pediatric Psychology at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. Nicole’s research focuses child, family, and social factors that are associated with mental health in infancy and early childhood, with a particular interest in resilience and adaptation to adversity and illness. Her work is supported by a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship and a fellowship from the Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute.
Dr. Rosemarie Macchi
Rosemarie’s research interest is in the area of adolescent health. Using Structural Equation Modelling, she investigates eating behaviour and body mass index in teenagers, and is particularly interested in cognition--namely decision-making ability--and how it influences eating behaviour; her research spans the fields of kinesiology and health psychology. Rosemarie is a contract lecturer in the School of Kinesiology at Lakehead University. She has also been appointed as an External Adjunct Professor to the School of Kinesiology at Lakehead.
Dr. Noah Wayne
After completing his PhD in Kinesiology and Health Science (KAHS) and the Health Psychology Graduate Diploma, Noah finished a post-doc at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and the Ontario Kinesiology Association in Toronto. Noah is now the Director of Clinical Programs at NexJ Health, a Toronto-based software company that specializes in cloud-based population health management software. Noah is also a contract faculty member in KAHS where he teaches a fourth year undergraduate class on the historical and contemporary practice and science of mindfulness meditation.
Noah’s work focuses on health behaviour change for the prevention and management of chronic conditions including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, mental health, and cancer. To achieve this, he specializes in using technology to enhance health coaching, motivational interviewing, and cognitive behaviour therapy to improve the adoption and adherence to key health behaviours including physical activity and exercise, diet and nutrition, stress management, and smoking cessation.
Dr. Theresa Beesley
Theresa is the program evaluation lead for undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, and continuing professional development programs in Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. Following the completion of her PhD in Kinesiology and Health Science (KAHS) and the Health Psychology Graduate Diploma, Theresa went on to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship in medical education at Queen’s University.
Theresa’s research focuses on evaluating medical education program quality and effectiveness, and developing medical education programs. She currently is conducting a research projects that combines kinesiology and health psychology with medical education to explore the participation of youth living with chronic disease in sport and physical activity programs and the use of coaching skills in residency programs.