Calling all KITE trainees, post-docs and early career investigators! Are you interested in joining in for an online group discussion about women in science? We are hosting a first 1-hour web session, and will get your feedback and input to inform possible subsequent group discussions. Our goal is to create an informed and supportive community for women starting out in their scientific careers at the Kite Research Institute. During the hour we will discuss an issue pertaining to women in science, and a different female senior scientist will join us to discuss the topic each session. I am pleased to share that Dr. Andrea Furlan has agreed to lead us in our inaugural discussion (if you are a scientist in mid or late career and are interested in getting involved in a future session, please contact Sherry. (sherry.grace@uhn.ca) I have a list of potential topics we could consider!). Our first session will be on the promotion gap – how we can ensure junior scientists such as yourself proceed through the ranks of academia with great success.

The articles we will be discussing during the first session are: 

https://www.idrc.ca/en/stories/world-needs-more-women-scientists

https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k5232

http://healthydebate.ca/opinions/sexism-in-medicine

Join the discussion here: https://yorku.zoom.us/j/6943025592.

Sherry L. Grace, PhD, FCCS, FAACVPR, CRFC holds her primary appointment as Full Professor in the Faculty of Health at York University. She is also appointed at the University Health Network, University of Toronto, as Sr. Scientist with KITE-Toronto Rehabilitation Institute’s Cardiovascular Rehabilitation & Prevention Program, and is Director of Cardiac Rehabilitation Research with the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre.

Prof. Grace’s research centers on optimizing post-acute cardiovascular care globally, as well as outcomes (including mental health). She has published ~250 papers which have been cited ~6,000 times (h-index=39), and authored clinical practice guidelines internationally. She led the development of the Canadian quality indicators for cardiac rehabilitation, as well as policy positions on systematic referral and utilization interventions.

Prof. Grace has earned awards from the American and Canadian Associations of Cardiovascular Rehabilitation, among other societies. She has worked with the World Health Organization. Finally, she was instrumental in the development of the International Council on Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, serving on the Executive Board since inception.

Dr. Andrea Furlan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto and a Staff Physician and Senior Scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. She is also a Scientist at the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto. She obtained her PhD in Clinical Epidemiology from the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Furlan has extensive experience in reviewing the scientific literature for the Cochrane Collaboration and for clinical practice guidelines. She received a CIHR New Investigator Award, and her research focus is on treatments of chronic pain including medications, complementary and alternative therapies, and rehabilitation. She was the team leader for the development of the Canadian Opioid Guideline, and is now involved with Guideline's National Faculty in the dissemination and implementation of the guideline across Canada. 

She developed the Opioid Manager™, a point-of-care tool for physicians prescribing opioids to help manage chronic pain, which is available in many EMR platforms and as an App for iPad/iPhone. She is the author of the My Opioid Manager, a book and App for patients using opioids for chronic pain. Dr. Furlan is a co-Chair of Echo Ontario (link is external) for Pain and Opioid Stewardship.

Dr. Jennifer Campos is CEAL's Chief Scientist and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Multisensory Integration and Aging. She is also Academic Associate Director at Toronto rehab and an Associate Professor in the department of psychology at University of Toronto. 

She examines how the human brain integrates different sensory signals (visual, auditory, proprioceptive, vestibular) by studying several different populations (eg, younger adults, older adults and high-level athletes), and by using behavioural measures and computational models. Using Virtual Reality and motion simulation technologies, her research understands how multisensory processes are affected by locomotor challenges and how multisensory training tools can be used to improve performance.