Annual Carol Buck Lecture and Graduate Scholarship

2011 Winner
Assistant Professor
Interdisciplinary Centre for Health & Society
University of Toronto Scarborough

Dr. Hilary Brown is an Assistant Professor in the Interdisciplinary Centre for Health & Society at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She holds cross-appointments in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and is also an Adjunct Scientist at Women’s College Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. She holds a PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Western University and an MSc in Community Health & Epidemiology from Queen’s University. She also completed a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Postdoctoral Fellowship at Women’s College Hospital and the University of Toronto, Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Brown’s research interests lie at the intersection of maternal and child health and chronic disease epidemiology. She is particularly interested in the influence of maternal chronic medical conditions and maternal disabilities on preconception, pregnancy, and postnatal health outcomes.

2013 Winner
Decision Support Associate
St. Michael’s Hospital

Samantha Davie took a less traditional route to her MSc, working for a number of not-for-profit agencies, research groups, and industry before arriving at Epidemiology and Biostatistics. During her MSc, she was fortunate to work in a research group focusing on mental health, which sparked an interest in using data to improve patient care. After graduation, she moved from London to Toronto for a quality improvement role at the St. Michael’s Hospital Academic Family Health Team. In this role, she developed a passion for using data to drive change in primary care and hospital settings, and partnering with patients on improvement work. Recently, Sam transitioned to a Decision Support role at the hospital, where she analyzes data from larger and more complex datasets to make financial decisions, as well as glean insights into how we can improve patient care in different areas of the hospital. Her time at St. Michael’s has also solidified an interest in health equity, and she regularly works on analyses that not only assesses the care we’re providing to patients, but also whether our most marginalized patients are receiving the same high-quality care.

2015 Winner
Research Analyst
IC/ES, Toronto, ON

Christoffer (Chris) Dharma first did his BSc in statistics and psychology from Simon Fraser University before completing his MSc in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western University in 2016 under the supervision of Dr. Greta Bauer. His primary work at Western mainly dealt with survey measurements for assessing health inequities by sex, gender, and sexual orientation. Currently, he is working as a research analyst at IC/ES since March 2018; prior to that, he was working as a statistical analyst for the CHILD Study. Ever since graduation, he has been involved in numerous publications from primary data collection studies and administrative health records. Over the years, he has continued to work in sexuality and relationship research, as well as in more clinical areas such as asthma, allergies, and depression.

2009 Winner
Cardiology Chief Resident, PGY-6
University of British Columbia

Dr. Michael Diamant is currently a sixth year resident completing his Cardiology residency at the University of British Columbia. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Life Sciences from Queen’s University, a Master’s of Science in Epidemiology from the University of Western Ontario, and completed both medical school and Internal Medicine residency at the University of Calgary. He plans on continuing his training in Advanced Heart Failure and Transplantation at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville, Tennessee. His research interests include outcomes in health services delivery and heart failure.

2010 Winner
Senior Population Health Strategist
London Health Sciences Centre

Dr. Matthew Meyer holds a Bachelor’s degree from Queen’s University in Biology and Human health and a PhD from the department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University. His graduate research was awarded the Carol Buck Graduate Scholarship in Epidemiology, a CIHR Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship (Declined), a Lawson Health Research Institute Leadership award, and a 2012 CIHR Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. Dr. Meyer is currently a Population Health Strategist at London Health Sciences Centre and holds adjunct professorships in the departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry (Western University), the Ivey Business School (Western University), and the school of Rehabilitation Sciences (Ottawa University). He is also a founding partner in WorkHORSE Research Consulting Group. Dr. Meyer has served as an advisor to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Health Quality Ontario, the Rehabilitative Care Alliance, the Canadian Institute for Health Information, CorHealth, and the Southwestern Ontario Stroke Network. His primary research interests include population health, health systems research, and health economics.

2012 Winner
CIHR Postdoctoral Fellow
University of California San Diego

Dr. Ayden Scheim is a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and an Associate Scientist in the Centre on Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Ayden received his PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Western in 2017. He is a social epidemiologist who conducts community-engaged health equity research with stigmatized populations. He is currently leading the evaluation of three supervised injection sites in Toronto, and is co-PI of a new national transgender health study with Dr. Greta Bauer.