At the 124th Annual Meeting held in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island on 31 May 2024, IODE Canada announced the winners of three IODE War Memorial Scholarships for doctoral study. The value of the awards are $15,000 each for 2024-2025.
IODE Canada instituted the IODE War Memorial Scholarship program in 1918 to commemorate Canadians who sacrificed their lives or were permanently disabled while fighting for Canada. Today, applicants must be Canadian citizens, in their second year of a doctoral program at a Canadian or Commonwealth university and are selected for academic achievement and potential.
IODE Canada instituted the IODE War Memorial Scholarship program in 1918 to commemorate Canadians who sacrificed their lives or were permanently disabled while fighting for Canada. Today, applicants must be Canadian citizens, in their second year of a doctoral program at a Canadian or Commonwealth university and are selected for academic achievement and potential.
Kate Bourne, University of Calgary
Kate Bourne is a PhD and MD student in the Leaders in Medicine program at the University of Calgary. Kate’s research focus is postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a debilitating cardiovascular autonomic disorder that primarily impacts young women. Her interest in POTS stems from her personal experience living with this condition. She experienced a 12-year diagnostic delay resulting in significant educational challenges.
Kate’s career goal is to become a clinician-scientist focusing on women’s cardiovascular health including POTS. In this role she will aim to improve the quality of science and care for patients with POTS so that other young women do not face the challenges she experienced.
Kate is supervised by Dr. Satish Raj, a cardiologist and world expert in POTS. Kate’s research focuses on the significant impacts of POTS and non-pharmacological treatments including compression garments. Kate has published research on the employment and economic impacts of POTS, the role of biological sex differences in POTS, and the impacts of pregnancy on POTS symptoms. Her compression garment research has been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, a top cardiology journal. In 2020, Kate was selected as a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Vanier Scholar for her leadership, academic excellence, and research potential.
Prior to her graduate work, Kate completed her undergraduate degree in microbiology at the University of Victoria. Outside of academics, Kate is an active volunteer. She has been a member and volunteer with Girl Guides of Canada for 17 years and has volunteered over 2,200 hours as a medical first responder in the community.
Kate’s career goal is to become a clinician-scientist focusing on women’s cardiovascular health including POTS. In this role she will aim to improve the quality of science and care for patients with POTS so that other young women do not face the challenges she experienced.
Kate is supervised by Dr. Satish Raj, a cardiologist and world expert in POTS. Kate’s research focuses on the significant impacts of POTS and non-pharmacological treatments including compression garments. Kate has published research on the employment and economic impacts of POTS, the role of biological sex differences in POTS, and the impacts of pregnancy on POTS symptoms. Her compression garment research has been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, a top cardiology journal. In 2020, Kate was selected as a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Vanier Scholar for her leadership, academic excellence, and research potential.
Prior to her graduate work, Kate completed her undergraduate degree in microbiology at the University of Victoria. Outside of academics, Kate is an active volunteer. She has been a member and volunteer with Girl Guides of Canada for 17 years and has volunteered over 2,200 hours as a medical first responder in the community.
Erica Qureshi, University of British Columbia
Erica Qureshi began her academic journey at the University of Waterloo where she completed her Bachelor of Science in Health Studies. Through co-op placements at Sunnybrook Hospital and The Hospital for Sick Children, Erica developed a profound interest in health services research. Within her undergraduate years, Erica led a study investigating community-level marginalization's impact on emergency department wait times, showcasing her commitment to addressing healthcare disparities. This early research experience laid the groundwork for her pursuit of a Master of Science degree, specializing in epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Waterloo. Her thesis work, which was awarded a CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarship, delved into the comparison between youth self-report and parent proxy-report of mental health assessments.
Driven by her passion for pediatric health and emergency medicine, Erica is currently completing an MD/PhD at the University of British Columbia. Under the guidance of Dr. Quynh Doan at BC Children’s Hospital, her doctoral research focuses on the pediatric emergency department. By designing and evaluating programs to better connect pediatric emergency medicine and community healthcare, Erica aims to improve patient outcomes while optimizing emergency department resources.
Erica’s research to date has resulted in numerous publications and earned her several awards recognizing her academic excellence, collaboration, and leadership skills. With a vision for a career as a clinician-scientist, Erica is driven to integrate clinical practice with cutting-edge research and is well positioned to become a leader in the Canadian Healthcare System.
Driven by her passion for pediatric health and emergency medicine, Erica is currently completing an MD/PhD at the University of British Columbia. Under the guidance of Dr. Quynh Doan at BC Children’s Hospital, her doctoral research focuses on the pediatric emergency department. By designing and evaluating programs to better connect pediatric emergency medicine and community healthcare, Erica aims to improve patient outcomes while optimizing emergency department resources.
Erica’s research to date has resulted in numerous publications and earned her several awards recognizing her academic excellence, collaboration, and leadership skills. With a vision for a career as a clinician-scientist, Erica is driven to integrate clinical practice with cutting-edge research and is well positioned to become a leader in the Canadian Healthcare System.
Christina Robillard, University of Victoria
Christina Robillard received her Bachelor of Science in Honours Psychology from McGill University in 2018 and her Master of Science in Clinical Psychology from the University of Victoria (UVic) in 2020. She is currently a fourth-year PhD student in Clinical Psychology at UVic. Christina has received rigorous training in both research and clinical practice. Her research focuses on understanding when and why some adolescents engage in self-damaging behaviours, including self-injury, suicidal behaviour, substance misuse, and disordered eating. She is particularly interested in identifying shared risk and maintenance factors of these behaviours, with the ultimate goal of using this knowledge to inform clinical interventions. Thus far, her research has revealed that different self-damaging behaviours fulfill similar functions (e.g., to regulate emotions or get social needs met), which might explain why these behaviors often co-occur. Christina is also interested in understanding how families navigate the disclosure of adolescent self-injury, which she is investigating through a SSHRC Insight Development Grant. She hopes to use the knowledge from this project to develop psycho-educational resources and workshops for parents. Christina is dedicated to ensuring that her research has a real-world impact, and as such, she has disseminated her work through academic journals, conference presentations, community talks, and blog articles. She has also used her research knowledge to evaluate and improve the delivery of suicide prevention programming at UVic. Clinically, Christina has extensive training in providing Dialectical Behavior Therapy to adolescents and young adults who struggle with severe emotion dysregulation. Christina aspires to work as a tenure-track professor at a Canadian university, where she can continue developing her research program and provide clinical services to young people with complex mental health challenges.
