Epidemiology Now!

Speakers’ bio:

Olivia Du, BKin 20’

Olivia completed her BSc Honours degree with a specialization in kinesiology at Queen’s University in 2020. Olivia is now a second year MSc student at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine Rehabilitation Sciences Institute. Her research examines sex and gender differences in exercise participation and depressive symptoms in the stroke population. By taking an integrated knowledge translation approach, she hopes that study results will fill a knowledge gap of sex- and gender-specific indicators of exercise participation and depressive symptoms in this clinical population and inform the remodelling of the stroke continuum of care by removing sex- and gender-specific barriers, improving access to stroke-related health services for men and women, and educating end knowledge users. Olivia’s research is funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the CIHR Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship Master’s Award. Olivia aims to defend her thesis next summer and aspires to pursue a career as a clinician-scientist.

Charlotte Lipin BA 22’ (Health Major)

Charlotte is in her fourth year of Health Studies at Queens University. She is currently working under Dr. Lee in the In Situ Lab as a UG Undergraduate Trainee. Her research is focused on the constitutional determinants of climate change mitigation efforts. In specific, looking at how adverse health effects caused by climate change are disproportionately impacting population health while simultaneously threatening human rights and social justice. Charlotte is hoping to pursue a master’s in Public Health after the completion of her undergraduate degree.

Dr. Angela Fong is an Instructor of Medicine in the Section of Behavioral Sciences at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey with a primary academic appointment in the Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Dr. Fong’s research program aims to understand the influence of physical activity and health behaviors on psychosocial outcomes among cancer survivors using innovative, remote-delivered interventions guided by dissemination and implementation science. Specifically, she is interested in developing, implementing, and evaluating optimized interventions that promote maintenance of physical activity and health behaviors among cancer survivors. Dr. Fong uses quantitative and qualitative methodologies in her research and has experience working in both community-based and cancer care settings.

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Dr. Nicholas (Corey) Kuzik is a post-doctoral fellow with the Healthy Active Living and Obesity (HALO) group under the supervision of Dr. Mark Tremblay. The goal of his research is to improve childhood development through 24-hour movement behaviours. This requires reaching a better understanding of movement behaviours through studying: measurement, analysis, associations with developmental outcomes, and associations with correlates/determinants. Dr. Kuzik completed his MSc and PhD on the topic of movement behaviours in early years children (0-5 years) under the supervision of Dr. Valerie Carson at the University of Alberta. In his spare time, he enjoys playing guitar, exercising, meditating, as well as exploring the outdoors (e.g., hiking, fishing, foraging) and city (e.g., breweries, coffee shops, urban trails) with his partner Ula and doggo Indy.

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Dr. Dong-Woo Kang is a postdoctoral research fellow at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston, US. Dr. Kang completed his BSc and MSc in Sport and Leisure Studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea and his PhD in Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada with a concentration in Exercise Oncology. He is a certified Clinical Exercise Physiologist and a Cancer Exercise Trainer from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and he worked at a cancer hospital between his MSc and PhD as an exercise physiologist. He is interested in the physiological and clinical impacts of exercise in various types of cancer patients mainly through clinical trials.

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Stephen Hunter is a PhD candidate in the Behavioural Epidemiology Lab at the University of Alberta and a Sessional Instructor at the University of Victoria. Hunter completed his BA in Physical Education from Vancouver Island University, British Columbia in 2012. After graduation, he remained involved with research as a member of the Behavioural Medicine Lab and volunteered with obesity prevention programs for children and adolescents. Stephen came to the University of Alberta in 2014 to pursue his MSc in Kinesiology under the supervision of Dr. Valerie Carson where his thesis focussed on how school policies, recreational programming, public health resources, and physical environments influence adolescent physical activity over time. Now pursuing doctoral studies under the supervision of Dr. Valerie Carson, his research interests include the correlates and determinants of physical activity and sedentary behaviour that are embedded within distal levels of the ecological model; and how these behaviours impact the health of children 0-18 years.

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Dr. Vanderloo has a PhD in Health Promotion, helping Canadians get moving as Knowledge Translation Manager for ParticipACTION. Dr. Vanderloo completed her PhD at the University of Western Ontario in Health Promotion and holds a Master’s of Science from the same university. As Knowledge Translation Manager for national non-profit organization ParticipACTION, she is interested in examining the physical activity and sedentary behaviours of Canadians. She produced some of the first national and international work looking at the variance in young children’s activity levels across different early learning environments as well as considerations for objective measurement approaches.

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Dr. Zhiguang Zhang complete her Bachelor of Science in Biology and Master of Education from Beijing Normal University, China. She is soon achieving her doctoral degree from University of Wollongong, with a thesis focussed on the relationships between childcare centres, movement behaviours and adiposity in toddlers. Zhiguang is currently a postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Dr. Valerie Carson at the University of Alberta. Her Research interests include environment, 24-hour movement behaviours and health in children.

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Dr. Taru Manyanga received his Doctorate degree in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health and soon-to-be an Assistant Professor at the University of Northern British Columbia. Taru is a licensed physiotherapist who has practised in a number of Canadian jurisdictions including most recently in the Yukon. He is interested in examining lifestyle behaviours (sleep, physical activity, sedentary time) and body weight among children and adolescents. He has been and currently involved with some research projects in Southern Africa (mainly in Zimbabwe and Mozambique).

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After graduating with a BSc in Kinesiology from Queen’s University in 2020, Laura is now a first year MSc student under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Tomasone in the Revved Up lab (Revved Up - A partnership bridging the gap between community and research (revvedupgroup.ca)). Laura is interested in investigating how community-based exercise programs like Revved Up can foster quantity and quality of exercise participation for persons with disabilities. Her Master’s project will utilize time series analyses to explore how the aspects of quality participation interact over time, using longitudinal data collected at Revved Up.

Link to YouTube Video