Speakers

Cynthia Bruce is an Associate Professor of Music Therapy and Chair of the Department of Creative Arts Therapies at Concordia University in Montreal. As a blind activist scholar working at the intersection of Critical Disability Studies, Music Therapy, and higher education, she works to mobilize lived disability knowledge to expose systemic inequity and formulate more just approaches to research and practice. She focuses on accessibility in higher education and on self-advocacy as essential lived knowledge that can generate deep understandings of inequity and elucidate possibilities for progressive change.

Anan Chen has a bachelor degree from the School of Life Sciences at Peking University in China, with a major in biochemistry.

He earned his doctorate with Dr. Andrew Wilde at Department of Biochemistry at University of Toronto, focusing on mechanistic biology of key cytoskeletal factors in cell division. They discovered the unique and distinct roles of individual actin isoforms during cell division and how cytokinesis is driven by coordinated efforts of different actin arrays.

He did his postdoctoral training with Dr Timothy Mitchison and Dr Adrian Salic at Harvard Medical School, focusing on mechanistic and structural studies of human coronavirus RNA replication biology. They identified a pore-replicase complex at coronaviral double-membrane vesicles that links RNA synthesis and export from these viral-induced vesicles.

His current research focuses on deciphering the functions, mechanisms and structures of the replication complex of plus-strand RNA viruses, viral-host interactions, and broad-spectrum antivirals discovery

Laura Domínguez holds a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology engineering and entered the biochemistry PhD program after completing a MITACS Globalink Research internship under Professor Brandon Findlay. Her doctoral research focuses on the evolution of antimicrobial resistance and the evaluation of novel therapeutic strategies. She was selected as a Concordia Public Scholar in 2023, a competitive program supporting graduate researchers in communicating their work to broader audiences. She has received research funding from FRQNT, FRQS, MITACS, and Concordia.

Dr. Fariborz Haghighat is a professor at the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering – Concordia University, Canada. His current research focuses on the fundamental of heat and mass transport in the built environment, and on its applications in the design and analysis of energy-efficient, healthy/immune, and sustainable buildings/communities.

Professor Haghighat is a Fellow of the ASHRAE and an elected member of the International Academy of Indoor Air Science. He is the Editor of the International Journal of Sustainable Cities and Society.

Dr. Karina Lebel is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Université de Sherbrooke and a researcher at the Centre de recherche sur le vieillissement. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Biomechanical Movement Signature, with a research program focused on improving quality of life for individuals with mobility impairments, particularly those associated with aging and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's disease. Her interdisciplinary work integrates electrical engineering, clinical sciences, biomechanics, and neuroscience to develop innovative tools for assessing and monitoring human movement. Building on prior experience in the aerospace sector, where she developed expertise in advanced sensing and signal analysis, she now applies these engineering principles to the study of human movement. She combines a variety of sensors, including wearable inertial sensors, with advanced signal processing algorithms to characterize distinct movement patterns, referred to as "biomechanical signatures", that may serve as early indicators of mobility deficits. This approach supports the development of personalized interventions and treatment plans, enabling clinicians to detect and address mobility issues to optimize the patient’s quality of life. Anchored in an interdisciplinary development framework, her research emphasizes solutions that are both clinically relevant and impactful in clinical settings.

Juliette Lemay is a first-year PhD student in Psychoeducation at Université Laval. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in Nutrition and is a registered dietitian working in a clinic specialized in eating disorders. Her research focuses on the broader impacts of health interventions beyond weight-related outcomes, with particular interest in the psychological and social effects of obesity medications among youth.

Dr. Joyce Lui (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Co-Director of the Centre of Clinical Research in Health. She directs the Youth Behavioural Interventions (YBI) Lab, which focuses on improving mental health care for children and adolescents with externalizing behaviours, including ADHD and disruptive behaviour disorders. Her translational research integrates intervention science, implementation science, and health services research to examine how mental health interventions are developed, implemented, and sustained within real-world service systems. Dr. Lui received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Washington State University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Implementation Science at the University of California Los Angeles. Her research has been funded by CIHR, SSHRC, NIMH, and the American Psychological Foundation.

Panagiotis Margaris is an Assistant Professor at Concordia University. He is interested in Macroeconomics, Economics of Health and Public Finance.

Carrie Martin is a Mi’gmaq woman from Listuguj, who has spent the past 25 years working in the field of Indigenous women’s health, with a particular focus on HIV. She completed a B.A. in Applied Human Relations and a Graduate Diploma in Community Economic Development at Concordia University, and her B.S.W. at McGill University. Carrie’s leadership is well established; she was the Harm Reduction Coordinator at the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal for 12 years, and a tireless advocate for Indigenous women living with HIV. She was also a civil society member of the Government of Canada’s Delegation (CANDEL) at the 2016 United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting on Ending AIDS (HLM) and is an active member of the CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network as the Principal Knowledge User. From 2018 to 2023, she worked with the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network as the Indigenous Women’s Research Coordinator. In 2012 she became a founding member of the Indigenous Health Centre of Tiohtià:ke, was the first President of their Board of Directors and is now the Executive Director of the organization. She is also a PhD Candidate at Concordia University to formalize her role as an Indigenous academic researcher and is the recipient of Concordia’s Indigenous Graduate Scholarship and the Faculty of Arts and Science Graduate Fellowship, as well as the National CHIWOS Scholar Award. Engaging with many other Indigenous and allied researchers, she builds well-needed capacity in the Indigenous community for grant and research development.

Simon Matoori, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy atUniversité de Montréal (Quebec, Canada) since 2021. He holds an MSc inPharmaceutical Sciences from ETH Zurich, and is a board-certified clinicalhospital pharmacist in Switzerland. He did his PhD in drug delivery withJean-Christophe Leroux (ETH Zurich) and his postdoctoral studies inbioengineering with David Mooney (Harvard University). He is an AssociateEditor with ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science, and serves asPresident of the Canadian Chapter of the Controlled Release Society. Hisresearch interests are in formulation science and biomedical engineering withan emphasis on diagnostics development.

Altynai Pankratov is a PhD candidate in Economics at Concordia University specializing in aging and retirement. Her research examines how heightened health risks, caregiving responsibilities, financial wealth gains, and public policy influence retirement decisions among older workers.

Shirley Pien is a Naskapi from the community of Kawawachikamach, a small remote innorthern Quebec. She used to work at the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal and hasalways had a strong urge to help the Indigenous, Inuit and Metis community in the urbanarea. She is currently working as a Health Navigator at the Indigenous Health Centre ofTiohtia:ke. The main duties are as followed but don’t include accompaniments toappointments, provide advocacy as needed. She can also provide translation for clients inEnglish, French, Naskapi, Cree and some Innu. She also has access to interpreters forclients who need translation in Inuktiktuk. She enjoys doing outreach into the community toreach out to the vulnerable and let them know how she can help.

Cathy is a Métis therapist, researcher and academic working at Concordia University. She has Gwich’in, Cree, Metis and English/Swedish ancestry, with maternal ties to Fort Chipewyan, Alberta and Red River.

Cathy is a co-founder of the Centre for Response-Based Practice. She is a teacher, a supervisor, and a professor in First Peoples Studies and Creative Arts Therapies. She also holds a Concordia University Research Chair in Indigenous Healing Knowledges.

Cathy is interested in the broader and multi-dimensional aspects of healing, including social interaction, violence, resistance and dignity-promoting responses. She works with individuals, families and workteams.

Cathy explores various approaches to well- being on her substack podcast (Substack login for writings: https://catherinerichardson.substack.com), where she speaks with healers, activists and response-based therapists. She has numerous publications, including a recent co-edited book
entitled “Life course, missive and methodology: Conversations about health and wellness from the Indigenous collective.”

Sabrina is a fourth-year doctoral student in the department of Psychology at Concordia University. Her research is within the field of health psychology, with a focus on understanding eating- and weight-related conditions, like overweight, obesity, and eating disorders, from psychological and social health perspectives. Her current research examines the psychological and social health consequences related to participation in behavioral interventions for pediatric overweight and obesity.

Ali Asghar Sedighi is a Concordia University researcher in building and environmental engineering focused on indoor air quality and airborne infection risk. His work integrates probabilistic modeling and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), together with outbreak data and epidemic dynamics, to investigate how infectious aerosols spread in indoor environments and how ventilation strategies can reduce the estimated risk of transmission. He has proposed a risk-estimation framework that connects ventilation performance with epidemiological and outbreak information to estimate infection risk and inform risk-based indoor control strategies. His research contributes to healthier, more resilient indoor environments.

Natalya Watson is a PhD candidate in the Department of Physics at Concordia under the supervision of Dr. Mansbach. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto where she began her journey in biophysical research with modeled protein crystals under simulated electric fields under the supervision of Dr. Rauscher. She has received many awards including the Lorraine Gosselin Graduate Entrance Award and the La Bourse Françoise Bertrand for her academic achievements. Natalya’s current research focuses on the dynamics of small and large scale biorelevant polymer systems using molecular dynamics simulations. From tiny cone snail toxins to long mucus proteins, Natalya studies how these biopolymers behave when modified and explores how we can apply this knowledge to novel drug discovery. In addition to her studies, Natalya uses her passion for science communication as a Site Coordinator at the Concordia chapter of Let’s Talk Science, a volunteer organization that does science outreach to students through hands-on science activities.

Christopher Yee Wong is an assistant professor at Concordia University in the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering and the director of the Living with Assistive and Interactive Robots (LAIR) Lab. His research focuses on achieving safe, intuitive, and comfortable physical-social human-robot interaction by studying aspects such as increasing robot cognition by understanding implicit communication through touch, integrating the human emotional state into robot control, using virtual reality to study human-robot interaction, and developing novel robotic safety frameworks. He also serves on the Canadian Robotics Council Research and Training Committee and is the co-founder and vice chair of the Québec Chapter of US-Canada JSPS Alumni Association.