Dr. Sarina Isenberg is the Chair in Mixed Methods Palliative Care Research at Bruyère Research Institute in Ottawa, Canada. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine and School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa.

Dr. Isenberg has a PhD in Social and Behavioural Sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a Masters of Arts in English Literature from Queen’s University, and a Bachelors of Arts in English Literature from McGill University.

Prior to pursuing her PhD, she worked as a management consultant for Deloitte’s National Health Services Team.

In her free time, Dr. Isenberg enjoys spending time with family and friends, and pursuing her ever growing lists of hobbies including hiking, cycling, rock climbing, stained glass making, collaging, and reading.

Dr. Lisa M. Boucher is currently a postdoctoral fellow with the Bruyère Research Institute and University of Ottawa. She has a PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health and a Master's in Cognitive Psychology. Her PhD was supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Doctoral Research Award, and for this work Lisa won Faculty of Medicine awards for Best PhD Thesis in Epidemiology and for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Champion, Graduate studies.

Lisa's health services research has focused on improving self-management supports for people with chronic conditions, especially those with complex health and social needs. Lisa has expertise in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research, as well as extensive experience conducting community-based participatory research that involves meaningfully engaging and amplifying the voices of people with lived experience. Her work has focused on people living with HIV or hepatitis C, people who use non-prescribed drugs, and people experiencing homelessness. Lisa’s research has contributed to understanding health and social inequities, with particular attention to socioeconomic marginalization, chronicity and multimorbidity, self-care and mutual care, primary and community care, and intersectionality.

Lisa's research interests continue to be centered around reducing health and social inequities for people with complex care needs. She is currently investigating how to better support people with opioid health harms at end of life, including those living in poverty and experiencing homelessness, as well as researching how social factors relate to long COVID.

Outside of work, Lisa enjoys relaxing activities, such as spending time in nature and with animals, yoga and traveling.

Madeline McCoy received a Master of Science in Health Sciences from Carleton University and was awarded the SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master's. Her master’s thesis was focused on barriers to and facilitators of access to public and community transportation for older adults in Ottawa and how transportation is a significant factor in reducing social isolation for older adults who are most “at-risk”. Madeline also holds an Honours Bachelor of Science in Health Studies and Psychology from the University of Toronto. Her independent research project resulted in a published scoping review exploring the association between public transportation and social isolation in older adults.

Madeline has been a research assistant since she began volunteering with the National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly (NICE) in 2017. Since then, she was a research assistant at Carleton University with the “Imagining Age-Friendly ‘communities within communities’: International Promising Practices” project and a Clinical Research Assistant with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. She is currently a Research Coordinator in the Isenberg Lab at Bruyère Research Institute. Madeline has experience supporting many qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research projects including assisting with grant applications, research ethics board applications, participant recruitment, data collection, data analysis, and knowledge translation.

For the past few years, Madeline has been passionate about improving quality of life for the aging population and using participatory action research approaches to learn from people who are impacted by research outcomes. These interests have merged into a focus on health care research, specifically in palliative and end-of-life care. Madeline’s research interests include transitions from hospital to home, palliative homecare and home visits, and the integration of arts-based methodologies and health care research.

In her free time, Madeline enjoys many art-related hobbies including painting, drawing, and DIY home projects. She enjoys getting outdoors, especially with her corgi, Perogi, who is always ready for an adventure. Madeline also spends lots of quality time with family and friends.

Aria Wills completed her HBSc at the University of Toronto with a double major in Human Biology and Psychology, concurrently volunteering as a neurodevelopmental research assistant and with the Hospital for SickKids.

She then moved seamlessly to the role of clinical trial coordinator at Princess Margaret Hospital, where she discovered a passion for improving the quality of care for older adults. Aria has since led and supported many projects investigating care across settings, with a strong focus on long-term care, her interests ranging from clinical to the health systems level.

Aria is proficient in mixed methods research and passionate about knowledge translation, to ensure her work’s impact reaches those who need it most. Aria has run with this passion working as a committee member for the non-profit Concerned Friends.

In her free time, Aria enjoys teaching ballet, attending hot yoga classes, and loving family and friends.

Taylor Shorting received her Bachelor of Arts (hons.) in psychology, a diploma in social services, and a certificate in addiction studies from Vancouver Island University (VIU). As an honour’s student, she was awarded the VIU REACH grant to carry out her year-long independent research study.

Concurrent with completing her undergraduate degree, Taylor served as a research assistant in the Environmental Psychology Research Lab for over three years. Her research focused on both natural and built settings, ranging from coastal and mountainous communities to hospital environments on Vancouver Island and surrounding areas.

Taylor has since developed a passion for exploring the impacts of built environments on human well-being, specifically how residential environments impact the psychosocial wellbeing of patients and caregivers who transact with the particular space.

In her free time, Taylor works alongside children and families navigating the foster care system, hiking with friends and family, and taking her boxer, Marvel, for adventures.

Ladees Al Hafi is a research volunteer with a BSc from the University of Waterloo and a current MSc candidate in Aging and Health at Queen’s university.

Her experience in research is diverse with a background that includes assisting with psychology recruitment studies, exploring the effects of antidepressants on fish behaviour through an independent research project, and currently working as a child mental health research student with SickKids Hospital.

Ladees’s research interests centre around palliative care and the experience of patients and their caregivers during the transition from hospital to home. Her focus is on helping to identify strategies that can optimize the transition process and improve outcomes for patients and caregivers.

In her free time, ladees partakes in painting, exercising, and volunteering with local community organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters.