IAB Members - Biographies (September 2008 - August 2009)
Howard Bergman, MD (Chair)The Dr. Joseph Kaufmann Professor and Director
Division of Geriatric Medicine, McGill University
Director, Quebec Research Network in Aging (FRSQ)
Howard Bergman is the first Dr. Joseph Kaufmann Professor of Geriatric Medicine and Director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine at McGill University and the Jewish General Hospital. He is also an investigator at the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Community Studies and at the Bloomfield Centre for Research in Aging of the Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital. He is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Health Administration at the Université de Montréal. He is Director of the Quebec Network for Research in Aging (Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec - FRSQ). He was recently elected President of the Canadian Geriatrics Society.
Howard Bergman is co-Director of SOLIDAGE: the McGill University/Université de Montréal Research Group. He is co-PI on the Solidage CIHR funded Interdisciplinary Health Research Team (IHRT): "The Challenge of Understanding and Meeting the Needs of Frail Older Persons in the Canadian Health Care System." He presently leads the Canadian Initiative on Frailty and Aging funded by the Max Bell Foundation, bringing together Canadian and international investigators. He was co-PI in the development and evaluation of the SIPA model of integrated care for older persons. Dr. Bergman served on the Commission to review the health care system (Clair Commission) created by the Quebec Government in 2000.
Howard Bergman is founder and co-director of the Jewish General Hospital/McGill University Memory Clinic and a Past President of the Consortium of Canadian Centres for Clinical Cognitive Research (C5R).
Denise Cloutier-Fisher, PhD
Associate Professor
Depratment of Geography and Centre of Aging
University of Victoria
Denise Cloutier-Fisher is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and the Centre on Aging at the University of Victoria. She is a health geographer with over 15 years of experience working on qualitative and quantitative research projects in multiple health settings from family medicine to public health and health planning environments. Her primary research interest is ‘healthy aging’ in rural and small-town environments. Broader research interests focus on population health and the social determinants of health. At the community-scale she studies integrated health and social service delivery, the impacts of health sector restructuring and regionalization on service provision, social isolation, and palliative care. She has received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Her work has been recently published in the following journals: Social Sciences and Medicine, Canadian Journal on Aging, Health and Place and Gender, Place and Culture.
Dr. Cloutier-Fisher obtained her BSc from the University of Calgary, and an MA and PhD from the University of Guelph.
Max Cynader, PhD
Director
Brain Research Centre
Vancouver Coastal Health
University of British Columbia
Dr. Max Cynader is Director of the Brain Research Centre at Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, as well as Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of British Columbia (UBC). In addition, he holds the Canada Research Chair in Brain Development at UBC and is also Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada.
Dr. Cynader obtained his BSc at McGill University in 1967, and his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972. Following postdoctoral training at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, Dr. Cynader held positions at Dalhousie University in Halifax, and in 1979 was awarded the E.W.R. Steacie Fellowship of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council as one of Canada’s outstanding young scientists. He attained the rank of Professor of Psychology in 1981 and Professor of Physiology in 1984, and held the position of Killam Research Professor from 1984 to 1988 at UBC. He headed the Ophthalmology Research Group from 1988 to 1999, and then began his term as Brain Research Centre Director.
Dr. Cynader’s studies of brain mechanisms in cortical development are relevant to visual disorders and also to various neurological dysfunctions. He is the author of over 200 articles published in scientific journals, and is the holder of several patents. Dr. Cynader is one of the scientific founders of NeuroVir, a Vancouver-based biotechnology company which has developed gene therapy products to treat brain diseases. He is the co-founder of Wavemakers Research, a software company which has developed new and proprietary noise reducing technology.
Louise Demers, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Rehabilitation
Université de Montréal
Dr. Louise Demers is an Associate Professor in the School of Rehabilitation at Université de Montréal and a researcher at the Centre de recherche de l'Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal.
Dr. Demers obtained her Bachelor of Science degree with a specialization in occupational therapy at the University of Montreal in 1985, and worked as a clinician at the Centre d'acceuil Émilie-Gamelin and the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal, before obtaining her Master of Science degree with a concentration in biomedical science (1995), and her PhD in biomedical science with a concentration in rehabilitation (2000), also at the University of Montreal. She went on to conduct postdoctoral work in epidemiology at McGill University (2001).
Dr. Demers' research interests involve the development, applicability and study of the psychometric qualities of measurement tools used in rehabilitation and in aging. She takes part in studies that examine the social participation of elderly people deemed to be 'normal' and the impacts of the use of assistive technology on those who are physically incapacitated at home by collecting data from the living environment of the participants. Her work is assisted by a team of research assistants, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, as well as researcher and clinician collaborators.
Norma Drosdowech
Chair
Manitoba Council on Aging
Norma Drosdowech has served for six years as Chair of the Manitoba Council on Aging, an advisory committee to the Minister Responsible for Seniors. As a family caregiver, she became increasingly aware of seniors' issues, and appreciates the opportunity of addressing them.
Norma has represented the Council on the World Elder Abuse Awareness Committee, the Seniors and Elders Day Planning Committee, the Manitoba Committee of Seniors, and the University of Manitoba's Centre on Aging. She has appreciated opportunities to attend yearly CAG Conferences, and regional seminars and workshops, and is excited about working to support Age-Friendly Initiatives in Manitoba.
Norma holds a Master's Degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Manitoba. During her long career as an educator, she has served at all levels as a teacher and counsellor, as the Family Life Education Consultant of the St. Vital School Division, and as a sessional instructor with the Faculty of Education. Norma facilitated the development and implementation of ethical guidelines for handling issues of confidentiality for public school counsellors and teachers.
Since retirement, Norma’s interests have centered around volunteer service with the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg, and with GOGO Action Winnipeg, a support group for African grandmothers. Norma enjoys leading rites of passage - marriages, memorial services and child dedications, and her frequent role as a guest speaker on seniors issues.
Dr. Carole A. Estabrooks
Canada Research Chair in Knowledge Translation
Professor, Faculty of Nursing
University of Alberta
Dr. Carole Estabrooks is a professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Alberta, and is also a Canada Research Chair in Knowledge Translation. She received her bachelor of nursing degree at the University of New Brunswick (1977), as well as her master's degree and doctorate, both in nursing, at the University of Alberta.
In her clinical background, Dr. Estabrooks has concentrated on adult critical care, specifically in the surgical and trauma intensive care, and has held positions such as staff nurse, head nurse and clinical nurse. Her research focuses on knowledge utilization as it relates to health professionals, consumers and policy-makers. This research is made up of several components: the development of knowledge utilization theory, exploration of the evidentiary base of nursing, research synthesis, strategies for increasing the transfer and uptake of research, and the implementation of health policy.
Dr. Estabrooks has been the recipient of several awards and achievements among them, the Alumni Horizon Award (2002), and career scientist awards from CIHR/MRC (Health Scholar, 2000-2005) and AHFMR (Population Health Investigator, 2000-2003).
Russell T. Hepple, PhD
Associate Professor
Faculty of Kinesiology
University of Calgary
Dr. Hepple is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology with a joint appointment in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He is currently a CIHR Institute of Aging New Investigator and has been appointed an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Senior Scholar (effective July 1, 2007). Dr. Hepple received his PhD from the Department of Physiology at the University of Toronto in 1996, and conducted his Postdoctoral training in the Division of Physiology at the University of California San Diego.
Since joining the University of Calgary in 1999, he has developed a research program that focuses upon the regulation of skeletal muscle mass and aerobic function, with a particular focus on the impact of aging on these processes. Dr. Hepple supports his research program through operating grants from CIHR and NSERC. In addition to research, Dr. Hepple teaches a senior undergraduate course in Kinesiology (Physiological Aspects of Aging, Disease, and Physical Activity) and guest lectures for courses in Kinesiology, Medicine and Biological Sciences. He has been an invited attendee at stakeholder meetings with the Institute of Aging related to the Mobility in Aging initiative and with the Institute for Musculoskeletal Health related to developing a new focus area around skeletal muscle. Dr. Hepple is regularly involved in reviewing grants for NSERC, CIHR and the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR). He was also recently appointed as a member of the SPO grants review committee with CIHR.
Janice M. Keefe, PhD
Professor, Mount St. Vincent University
Canada Research Chair in Aging and Caregiving Policy
Dr. Janice Keefe received her PhD in Family Relations and Human Development from the University of Guelph in 1997 and is a Professor in the Department of Family Studies and Gerontology at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. In July 2002 Dr. Keefe was selected as Mount Saint Vincent University's first Canada Research Chair in Aging and Caregiving Policy.
Dr. Keefe's research on family caregivers and continuing care policy is critically important to our preparations for population aging and efforts to reform the health care system. She is a principal investigator on a number of research projects funded by national and international agencies including CIHR, SSHRC, Health Canada and U.S. Alzheimer's Association and participates as a co-investigator on a range of other interdisciplinary projects.
She was recently awarded funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to develop the Maritime Data Centre for Aging Research & Policy Analysis. This social science laboratory facilitates the mentorship of graduate students in the Master of Arts in Family Studies and Gerontology. Her dedication to translating her research into policy-oriented recommendations has resulted in invitations to speak at regional, national and international conferences and meetings.
Her professional activities include Chair of the Social Science Division on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Association on Gerontology and an Advisory Board member for the CIHR Institute of Aging.
Peter Lansley, PhD
Professor of Construction Management
University of Reading, UK
Peter Lansley is Professor of Construction Management at the University of Reading which he joined in 1984 and where he has held a series of senior positions. Since 1997 he has been particularly involved with building national research programmes concerned with the needs of older and disabled people. He has guided the development of the EPSRC EQUAL (Extending Quality Life) initiative and now directs the EPSRC/BBSRC funded SPARC Programme (Strategic Promotion of Ageing Research Capacity). He is heavily involved with advising research councils, charities and professional bodies on the long term development of ageing research and the UK government on the value and application of aging-related research.
Peter Lansley has published widely on organisational behaviour, human performance, the management of change and, more recently, assistive technology, in which he has a particular interest. He has received several awards for his work in the fields of innovation and inclusive design as well as for championing the role of the occupational therapist.
He obtained his BSc in Mathematics from the University of Leicester in 1968, and subsequently an MSc in Statistics from the University of Newcastle and PhD in the Management of Innovation from the University of Reading.
Dr. Verena Menec
Director, Centre on Aging
Associate Professor
Department of Community Health Sciences
University of Manitoba
Dr. Verena Menec is the Director of the Centre on Aging and an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences with Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. She received a bachelor of arts degree, with a concentration in psychology (1989), a Master of arts, with a concentration in social psychology (1991), and a doctorate in social psychology (1995) all from the University of Manitoba. Her research interests lie in the areas of healthy aging and the factors that promote healthy aging, health care utilization, and the relation between health care and population health, particularly in the context of older populations. She is the recipient of a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Healthy Aging and previously held a CIHR New Investigator Career Award.
Ms. Gael P. Page
Past President
Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association
Gael P. Page is Past President of the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association. She sits on its Board of Governors, as well as the Executive Committee, and chairs the Organizational Development Committee. As a registered nurse, she currently serves as a clinical consultant in the continuing care field.
Ms. Page earned a nursing diploma from the Holy Family Hospital School of Nursing (1966) in Saskatchewan and conducted her postgraduate studies in psychiatric nursing at the Nova Scotia Hospital (1977). She has also received a certificate in gerontology from Mt. St. Vincent University (1991) and a Master's degree in Health Services Administration (1995) at Dalhousie University.
Ms. Page's nursing career has spanned the fields of pediatrics, community nursing (Victorian Order of Nurses), psychiatry, home-care and long term care. She has worked in the continuing care field for 20 years. In September 2005, she retired from her position as Director of Research and Clinical Development for Northwoodcare Incorporated & Northwood Homecare Limited in Halifax.
Ms. Page remains a strong advocate for hospice palliative care at the national, provincial and district levels. She is currently a member of Health Canada's Strategy on Palliative and End of Life Care, Best Practices and Quality working group, and recently completed her work on the Canadian Council of Health Services Accreditation's Advisory Committee for hospice palliative care standards development. She is a past member of the Quality End of Life Care Coalition of Canada, an organization of 29 national organizations interested in end-of-life care.
Christopher Patterson, MD, FRCPC
Professor
Department of Medicine
McMaster University
Dr. Christopher Patterson is a professor in the Department of Medicine at McMaster University, and Medical Director of the Rehabilitation and Orthopedics Program at Hamilton Health Sciences.
Dr. Patterson earned his medical degree at King's College Hospital Medical School (University of London, England) in 1970. He immigrated to Canada, where he worked as a general practitioner from 1971 to 1976. He then entered residency in internal medicine at Queen's University (1976-78), before subspecializing in geriatric medicine. He pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Western Ontario, Boston University and Guy's Hospital in London, and went on to complete his geriatric residency and fellowship at McMaster University in 1982.
Dr. Patterson's research interests include preventive health care for seniors, such as elder abuse and frailty, and various aspects of cognitive disorders. His publications have appeared in peer reviewed journals, supplements and textbooks.
Dr. Patterson is a member of the Canadian Task Force on the Preventive Health Care, serves on the Editorial Board of the Compendium of Pharmaceutical Specialties (CPS) and is theme leader of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention of the McMaster Health Sciences Research in Aging Group. He is an associate faculty position with the Institute of Health Promotion Research at the University of British Columbia. In 1998, he co-chaired the Canadian Consensus Conference on Dementia.
Some of Dr. Patterson's previous appointments include being Head of the Division of Geriatric Medicine at McMaster University and Chair of the Geriatric Medicine Committee of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
Dr. Hélène Payette
Professor
Department of Community Health Sciences
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
University of Sherbrooke
Dr. Hélène Payette is a professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Sherbrooke, and is also Director of the Research Centre on Aging of the Sherbrooke Geriatric University Institute.
She received her bachelor degree in dietetics at McGill University (1982), her Master’s degree (1985) and doctorate (1989) in clinical at the University of Sherbrooke. Dr. Payette completed postdoctoral work in epidemiology and biostatistics at McGill University (1990).
From 1994 to 2000, Dr. Payette was Director of the Graduate Program in Clinical Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Sherbrooke. Since 1996, she has acted as joint Director of the ‘Nutrition and Successful Aging’ division of the Quebec Research Network on Aging. Her research interests include healthy eating and its determinants, body composition and functional capacities in the aging individual as well as screening for nutritional risks and evaluation of nutritional interventions in the community-dwelling frail elderly using randomized controlled design.
Dr. Payette is co-investigator for lifestyle theme in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, a national strategic initiative of CIHR’s Institute of Aging. She is also currently principal investigator for CIHR’s "Quebec Longitudinal Study on Nutrition as a Determinant of Successful Aging (NuAge)." From 1994 to 1999, she held a National Health Scholar Award from the National Health Research and Development Program (NHRDP) and, from 1999 to 2003, an Investigator Award from the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ).
Dorothy Pringle, RN, PhD
Professor
Faculty of Nursing
University of Toronto
Dorothy Pringle received her nursing degree from McMaster University and went on to do her MS at the University of Colorado and then her PhD from the University of Illinois. Much of her career has been spent in academic nursing, including two terms as Dean of Nursing at the University of Toronto. As well, she has worked as Research Director for the national office of the Victorian Order of Nurses for Canada (VON Canada) and in a number of clinical positions. Her clinical expertise and research interests are in the care of older people with dementia and the assistance needed by their family caregivers. She has led a caregiver support group for the Alzheimer Society for 12 years. She was a member of the Research Advisory Committee for six years and currently serves on the psychosocial research peer review committee of the Alzheimer Society of Canada. She has published and spoken broadly on the topic of aging and the health care system. She teaches a graduate course on designing long term care environments and supervises gradate students' research in the area of gerontological nursing.
Rebecca Jane Rylett, PhD
Professor of Physiology, Pharmacology and Toxicology
Department of Physiology
University of Western Ontario
Jane Rylett is Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of Western Ontario, and Scientist in the Cell Biology Research Group at the Robarts Research Institute. She received training in Physiology and Pharmacology at the BSc level, and the PhD in Pharmacology at the University of Western Ontario. This was followed by postdoctoral training in neuropharmacology at the University of London (England) and neurochemistry at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Germany). She was recruited back to the University of Western Ontario where she became the Rubinoff Scholar in Geriatrics and Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, as well as a member of the Alzheimer and Dementia Study Group.
Jane's laboratory addresses fundamental questions in regulation of cholinergic neuron function, and how neurochemical communication by these neurons may be altered in aging and disease. Cholinergic neurons control diverse physiological processes including learning and memory, sleep and movement, and their degeneration early in the development of Alzheimer's Disease accounts for much of the loss of cognitive function. Her research spans the development and acquisition of cholinergic neuronal phenotype, mechanisms by which growth and trophic factors maintain health of these neurons during adult life and aging, or promote repair in degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer disease. Jane's research has been funded by several agencies including the CIHR, Alzheimer Society of Canada, Ontario Mental Health Foundation, Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation. She has served on peer-review committees for CIHR, Ontario Mental Health Foundation, the Alzheimer Society of Canada, and the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund.
Gary Teare, PhD
Director of Quality Measurement and Analysis
Health Quality Council of Saskatchewan
Gary Teare joined the Health Quality Council of Saskatchewan in January 2005 as Director of Quality Measurement and Analysis. Before moving to Saskatchewan, he was employed as a Scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and was an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto (Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation and Graduate Department of Rehabilitation Sciences). He was also Adjunct Faculty at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto. Gary retains his affiliations with these Toronto academic centres due to ongoing research collaborations.
Gary's previous research has focused on health care performance measurement and reporting and on organizational learning, particularly in the continuing care sector. He is principal investigator for the Ontario Hospital Report for Complex Continuing Care, a publicly reported balanced scorecard for the hospital-based continuing care sector in Ontario. Gary also leads the evaluation of a quality improvement collaborative on incontinence care in that sector. In the field of organizational learning research, Gary is co-principal investigator on a study, funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, seeking to understand the multi-level factors that help and hinder the uptake and implementation of best practices (as outlined in clinical practice guidelines) by long-term care homes in Ontario.
Dr. Teare earned graduate degrees in Epidemiology (Doctor of Philosophy, University of Guelph) and in Immunology (Master of Science, University of Toronto) and a professional degree (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, University of Guelph).
