Outstanding KBHN Trainee Member Award
This award recognizes a trainee’s outstanding contribution and commitment to the KBHN community. This person dedicates large amounts of time and energy to our Network activities—including conferences, webinars, workshops, and more.
Ann Yang is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the advancement of the field of neurodevelopmental disability and research trainee development along with her incredible PART Committee teammates.
Outstanding KBHN Promising Researcher Award
This award recognizes a trainee’s outstanding research achievements, for bench or bedside research.
Dr. Samantha Noyek, studied and conducted research focused on child and family health and well-being in diverse fields across multiple institutions and provinces.
Outstanding KBHN Mentor / Supervisor Award
This award is presented to a researcher or a professional who provided outstanding supervision or mentorship, with the ability to inspire KBHN trainees.
Dr. Michelle Phoenix works closely with a variety of partners that include disabled children and youth, caregivers, clinicians, organizational leaders, policy makers, and interdisciplinary researchers to conduct research that aligns with community priorities.
Michelle is grateful for the students, partners, and colleagues that she is fortunate to work with in a collective effort to make children’s rehabilitation services and research more equitable, thereby improving access and engagement in care.
Dr. Sarah Munce is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy with cross-appointments at the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute (RSI), and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) at the University of Toronto.
Outstanding KBHN Leadership Award in Family Engagement in Research
KBHN celebrates the important contributions of individuals with lived or living experience, and/or their caregivers in neurodevelopmental disability research.
Amanda Doherty-Kirby
PhD, parent partner & lived experience trainee
College of Nursing, Mount Royal University
Dr. Amanda Doherty-Kirby was thrilled to be accepted to the KBHN/CanChild/McMaster Family Engagement in Research (FER Course) and has actively been partnering in research since. She is a member of the first group to complete the FER Leadership Academy and is the administrator for the Youth Engagement in Research (@youth_in_research) account on Instagram which started as a group project for the FER Course.
She is committed to helping connect those with lived experience to respectful, meaningful, and authentic partnerships with researchers recognizing that each has knowledge that the other may not have. She is thankful to KBHN for funding and co-creating the FER Course that has enlarged her world and connected her to many engagement opportunities that she did not know existed a few short years ago.
In her professional role as Family Engagement in Research (FER) Co-ordinator for CAMH, Connie Putterman facilitates partnerships and create opportunities for families and researchers to engage as partners in mental health research in a large hospital based research setting.
Connie was part of the visionary team that co-designed the Family Engagement in Research (FER) course at McMaster University/Canchild Research Centre funded by Kids Brain Health Network (KBHN). Together, they have trained over 300 researchers and families and grown the program to include a newly created FER Leadership Academy for champions of FER.
Previous Awardees
Behnaz Bahmei
Behnaz is a Ph.D. candidate in the school of mechatronic systems engineering at Simon Fraser University, Surrey, BC. During her academic studies, Behnaz has focused on addressing clinical problems using artificial intelligence techniques.
Dr. Andrea Cross
Andrea is a postdoctoral fellow at CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research and the Department of Pediatrics and an Assistant Professor (part-time) in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University. Patient-Oriented Research (POR) and Implementation Science are foundational to her program of research.
Dr. Genevieve Currie
Dr. Genevieve Currie is a family partner researcher, and nurse researcher focused on families’ experiences in caring for children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), as well as family engagement in health care and research.
Dr. Lucyna M. Lach
Dr. Lucyna Lach is an associate professor in the School of Social Work at McGill University.
Dr. Samantha Micsinszki
Samantha Micsinszki is a registered nurse with a PhD from the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. Her doctoral work examined factors associated with sleep quality in parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Dr. Sarah J. Macoun
Sarah is a Registered Psychologist and Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology (Pediatric Neuropsychology) at the University of Victoria (UVic) with expertise in cognitive rehabilitation, neuropsychological intervention/assessment, and neurodevelopmental disabilities.
Jeffrey McCrossin
Jeffrey McCrossin is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Social Work at McGill University where he also completed an M.Sc.(A.) in Couple and Family Therapy (2019).
Jessi Lewis
Jessi Lewis, M.Sc., is a doctoral student in the University of Victoria’s Clinical Neuropsychology program and received her B.Sc. in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience from the University of Michigan. Jessi's research interests include development and use of accessible, evidence-informed supports for youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDDs) as a way to improve health-related quality of life, equity, and inclusion.
Vanessa Tomas
Vanessa Tomas, M.Sc., is a SSHRC-funded Ph.D. candidate in the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute and Collaborative Program in Neuroscience.
Contact Us
We’re here to support you. If you want to learn more about accessing this and other opportunities as a trainee, please contact training@kidsbrainhealth.ca.
