Speakers

Dr. Natasha Blanchet-Cohen is a Professor in the Department of Applied Human Sciences at Concordia University. She is co-director of the Quebec Youth Research Network Chair. Her research focuses on community youth development, child rights and participation, ecocitizenship, and developmental evaluation. As an interdisciplinary scholar, she explores the opportunities and limitations for youth in being change agents of change in their schools, homes, and communities. She holds a particular interest in promoting indigenous youth’s voices, the provision of rights-based and culturally-safe services and programs.

Jessica Bleuer is a Registered Drama Therapist and assistant professor in the MA Drama Therapy Program at Concordia University in Montreal. Her research focuses on geopolitical mental health ; how mental health and wellbeing are impacted by geopolitical factors such as (xenophobic policy and law, climate change, and various forms of systemic oppression). She frequently uses Theatre of the Oppressed, Playback Theatre and Metabolizing Minutes methods to organize opportunities for dialogue on geopolitical factors that influence our health and wellbeing.

Suparna Choudhury is an interdisciplinary researcher and writer, positioned between academic and community-based research, as well as experimental arts and healing. She trained in neuroscience, history and philosophy of science and creative writing in London, Paris, Berlin, and Vermont. She is based in Montreal, where she established Critical Neuroscience at McGill University, a research program which examines the social, cultural and political contexts of neuroscience and its implications for society. She is currently co-director of Uncertainty Academy, Affiliate Professor at Concordia University and a Berggruen Institute fellow of the Future Humans program. She is co-founder of the Poetry Clinic and directs the research program at the Family Care Collective, a Montreal-based community organization. She is working on a hybrid fiction manuscript about wild things — flowers, brains, hearts and cities. 

Taylor Kann is a PhD Candidate in Concordia University’s Individualized Program in Humanities. Taylor's doctoral research examines how media coverage of the clinical applications of synthetic biology (namely the mRNA vaccines for coronavirus) impacts the ways that Canadians think and feel towards using synthetic biology tech in medicine both currently and moving forward. Taylor also earned a master’s degree in Concordia’s Journalism Department focused on issues of hype in science journalism about synthetic biology. Prior to pursuing graduate studies, Taylor earned a Bachelor of Science in journalism at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts and worked at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard Medical School.

Lynn is a PhD student in Biology at Concordia University conducting research in the Kuzmin Lab. Her research focuses on mapping the synthetic lethal network of chr4p loss in basal breast cancer to understand the evolution of chromosome arm aberrations and shed light on novel targeted therapies in TNBC.

Rafik Naccache obtained his PhD (2012) in Chemistry at Concordia University in Quebec, Canada working on lanthanide-doped upconverting nanoparticles for imaging applications. There, he was the recipient of the Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Prize and the Governor General Gold Medal in the area of Technology, Industry, and the Environment. He subsequently carried out his NSERC postdoctoral training in nanobiophotonics at l’Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique developing Terahertz sensing applications in nanobiophotonics. In December 2015, he accepted a tenure track faculty position as a strategic hire in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Concordia University. Shortly afterwards, he was named a University Research Fellow and a Petro-Canada Young Innovator. He is currently an Associate Professor, the Director of the Centre for NanoScience Research and a Concordia University Research Chair. His group’s research focuses on the study of the fundamental properties of fluorescent carbon nanomaterials and hybrid nanosystems for the development of sensing, imaging and catalysis applications. To date, he has published >75 manuscripts garnering ~9,000 citations. He has also delivered more than 85 conference presentations, including invited, keynote, and plenary lectures, and holds seven patents and disclosures of invention. In addition to his academic career, Dr. Naccache has 10 years of experience in pharmaceutical R&D, having worked at Merck & Co. (1998–2008) in materials characterization and drug development. He continues to consult for pharmaceutical companies, leveraging his extensive expertise in the field.

Dr. Paez is a clinical epidemiologist and sleep neuroscientist with expertise in brain-health, ageing and complex interventions in healthcare. He is a post-doctoral fellow in the School of Health at Concordia University, a Senior Lecturer in Neurorehabilitation in the Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University, Boston, and an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine and Skills Training with the NAPCA foundation, Los Angeles, CA.

Nhat Pham is a cell biologist studying mechanisms regulating cytokinesis in the Piekny lab, at Concordia University. After completing his Master’s degree in 2020, he decided to continue his research in the Piekny lab as a PhD researcher. Fascinated by optics, Nhat combines molecular biology and confocal microscopy to answer fundamental questions in the field of cell division.

Alex is a Graduate Student in the Clinical Psychology program at Concordia University under the supervision of Dr. Nicole Alberts. He completed his B.Sc. (Hons.) in Psychology and M.Sc. in Psychiatry Research at Dalhousie University. Broadly, Alex is interested in pain in youth undergoing cancer treatments, chronic pain in childhood cancer survivors, pain in children living with sickle cell disease, fear of cancer recurrence in pediatric cancer survivors, and health anxiety.

Dr. Silva is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Health, and Applied Physiology at Concordia University. He completed his postdoctoral training at the Aging, Mobility, and Cognitive Health Lab under the supervision of Professor Teresa Liu-Ambrose. He received his PhD in Kinesiology from Western University in London, Ontario. Originally from Brazil, he earned a BSc in Physical Education from Nove de Julho University in São Paulo. The overarching goal of Dr. Silva’s research is to investigate the impact of physical exercise on health outcomes in aging individuals at risk of dementia. His research has been funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Michael Smith Health Research BC (MSHR BC), Canadians for Leading Edge Alzheimer Research (CLEAR), StrokeCog, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.

Andrea Sandstrom is a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Concordia University. Her program of research is broadly focused on investigating cognitive mechanisms in OCD and anxiety-related disorders to identify novel treatment targets. 

Sarah Taylor is a second-year master’s student in Professor Pat Forgione's lab, specializing in organic chemistry. Her research focuses on developing a library of Anillin inhibitors as potential treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma. She is particularly interested in organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry, and green chemistry.

Dr. Tremblay is a postdoctoral researcher in the Geddes Lab for Motivational Neuromedicine at McGill University, where she focuses on the role of social determinants of health in aging and dementia. Her doctoral research, funded by CIHR, investigated white matter abnormalities in the preclinical stages of dementia using advanced multi-modal neuroimaging techniques. Building on this foundation, her goal is to bridge research and policy by generating the evidence needed to inform policy changes and engaging in knowledge translation to improve brain health for all Canadians.