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Council Members

The HRSGSS council members for the 2023-2024 academic year will work hard to represent student needs and provide enriching academic and social opportunities for HRS students.

Meet your council members!

Saghar Soltanabadi

President

Research Interests / Specializations: PhD Student, Physiotherapy
Biography: Saghar is currently pursuing a PhD in Health and Rehabilitation Science at Western University. She received her BSc and MSc in Physical Education, Sport Sciences and Kinesiology from the University of Tehran, Iran. Saghar’s thesis is a transdisciplinary project based on the clinical use of virtual reality under the supervision of Dr. David Walton and Dr. Alison Rushton. The project aims to gain insight into how individuals respond to traumatic events by studying their reactions to virtually simulated trauma. Results of this research can contribute to the development of targeted interventions and support systems for trauma survivors.

George Philip

VP Finance

Research Interests / Specializations: PhD Candidate, Health and Aging
Biography: George Philip is a third year PhD candidate in the Health and Rehabilitation Sciences program, specializing in the Health & Aging stream. He obtained his MSc in Translational Medicine from Queen’s University and his BSc with Honours in Medical Sciences from Brock University. George’s research aims to understand dementia-related stigma among racialized persons living with dementia, their care partners, and community. Recognizing the expression of stigmatizing behaviour and language can provide insight into effective education, training, and knowledge translation efforts. George aspires to have his research findings contribute to the improvement of dementia care, diagnosis, and treatment.

Karen Pratt

VP Student Development

Research Interests / Specializations: PhD Student, Health Professional Education
Biography: Karen Pratt is a third year PhD student in the Health Professional Education stream supervised by Dr. Laura Brunton. Karen is a registered kinesiologist and works in a pediatric rehabilitation setting. Karen is interested in meaningful participation for people with childhood onset disabilities and how this can impact psychosocial outcomes including quality of life, mental health, and wellbeing. Karen completed her MSc. and BA (hons) degrees from Western University. You can find her on twitter @karenphdlife.

Cara Davidson

VP Internal & External Affairs

Research Interests / Specializations: PhD Candidate, Measurement and Methods
Biography: Cara is a PhD candidate in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Western University. Her research examines women’s health with an emphasis on gender-based violence, health equity, and trauma- and violence-informed care. Her doctoral research is exploring the biopsychosocial relationships between gender-based violence and breast cancer in the Canadian context. If you’d like to connect with Cara, you can find her on LinkedIn.

Temitope Osifeso

VP International Student Representative

Research Interests / Specializations: PhD Candidate, Physical Therapy
Biography: Temitope Osifeso is a third year PhD Candidate in Health and Rehabilitation Science, at Western University. During her MSc, she joined the FIREWELL (https://firewell.ca/about/) research team that focus on the health of firefighters under the supervision of Dr Joy MacDermid. She received a MSc degree for her research on the role of firefighter health on work limitations at McMaster University in 2018. Her PhD research work at FIREWELL continues to focus on understanding work-related shoulder injuries among firefighters and developing appropriate rehabilitation solutions. Temitope is a CIHR and OGS award scholar and she was recently awarded the outstanding poster award at the 2023 World Physiotherapy Congress for her research work on the quality of life of public safety personnel with mental health disorders. You can find Temitope's research here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qtaVQwMAAAAJ&hl=en

Varsha Vasudevan

VP Social and Media Relations

Research Interests / Specializations: PhD Student, Health Promotion
Biography: Varsha is a PhD student in Health Promotion at Western. She completed her Bachelor of Health Sciences with an Honours Specialization in Health Promotion from Western in 2021, and her Master of Science in Health Promotion from Western in 2023. Broadly, Varsha’s research interests involve promoting the well-being of university students, such as exploring the influences of mindfulness in graduate students, reducing sedentary time in undergraduate students, and using strengths-based approaches for campus thriving.

Alicom Ochere

VP Academic

Research Interests / Specializations: Master's Student, Physical Therapy
Biography: Alicom is a second-year MSc student in the Health and Rehabilitation Sciences program specializing in Physical Therapy, under the supervision of Dr. Joy MacDermid. Alicom's research aim is to focus on the reliability and agreement of pinch, grip, and thumb range of motion devices in upper limb injury patients and healthy individuals. Her research interest is investigating rehabilitative devices to provide consistency in device use therapists use on patients in the health sector specifically those with an upper limb injury or limitation. She completed her BSc. Honours in Biomedical Science from the University of Guelph. You can find Alicom on LinkedIn.

Zikra Nilam

Combined Student Representative

Research Interests / Specializations: MPT/PhD Combined Student
Biography: I am a fourth year combined student under the supervision of Dr. David Walton. My research focuses on exploring and understanding neck and back pain in women. There have been many hypothesized mechanisms proposed and explored to explain the disproportions in pain by sex with one under-researched potential mechanism being the differences in body habitus between men and women, one notable being breast weight. With the assistance of 3D scans from female participants, I will explore the relationship between women’s breast weight and measurements such as lever arms and spinal angles. Ultimately, this work may change the ways in which people think about the mechanisms of spinal pain (either it is related to posture and biomechanics or it is not) and may reveal new avenues for management of spinal pain in women that do not require major surgical procedures.

Julia Yates

PhD Student Representative

Research Interests / Specializations: PhD Student, Health Promotion
Biography: Julia Yates is currently pursuing a PhD in Health Promotion at Western University under the supervision of Dr. Tara Mantler. She previously received a Bachelor of Health Sciences and Master of Science in Health Promotion from Western University. Julia’s program of research focuses on health-promoting behaviours of equity-deserving populations, such as children, parents, and women experiencing gender-based violence. Her thesis is a longitudinal study exploring both internal and external protective factors among young children (aged 5 to 12 years) previously exposed to parental gender-based violence. Email: jyates23@uwo.ca

Grace Norris

MSc Student Representative

Research Interests / Specializations: Master's student, Health and Aging

Floriana Sherifi

Student Representative

Research Interests / Specializations: Master's student, Health Promotion