Meet The Team

I have been teaching in higher education for over 35 years in the health field, with particular focus on nutrition, exercise and health promotion. My longstanding interest and research in disordered eating and student wellbeing, including the incidence rates and poor recovery rates of disordered eating, made me aware of the lack of curriculum on this topic in the health professions...and so the EMPHAsize project blossomed! I feel fortunate to lead this project alongside a team of interdisciplinary experts in the field, and a strong group of dedicated students. I actively and regularly teach this content and advocate for adoption of these education modules by any professionals, leaders and community members who may have an opportunity to influence awareness and recovery actions for those experiencing disordered eating.

I am an Associate Professor of Psychology and the lead investigator of the PLAN Lab at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. I am also a registered clinical psychologist (#2167) with the College of Psychologists of British Columbia. I completed my Bachelor of Science at the University of Alberta and received my Ph.D. in clinical psychology from McGill University. I completed clinical residencies and practica at a number of major hospitals including the Montreal General Hospital, the Montreal Neurological Institute, the Jewish General Hospital and the Douglas Hospital. Following my Ph.D., I completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, through the department of psychiatry. I am a Livingston fellow and have been honoured with a number of awards including the Adam Corneel Award and a NARSAD Young Investigator Award. I am trained as both a clinical psychologist and a neuropsychologist; my research interests similarly fall into these two domains. With respect to neuropsychology, I am interested in concussion, traumatic brain injury, functional outcome following stroke and the development of new assessment measures for hemispatial neglect. With respect to clinical psychology, I am interested in the role of cognitive bias in psychopathology. Specifically, my recent research has focused on the development of cognitive bias modification techniques for clinical and subclinical eating disordered populations. My research has been supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Brain and Behaviour Research Foundation. In addition to my research, I am a practicing clinical psychologist, providing psychotherapeutic and neuropsychological assessment services to members of the community.

I am an Associate Professor of Teaching in the Psychology Department at the University of British Columbia Okanagan and a member of the PLAN Lab. I am a Registered Psychologist (#2507) with the College of Health and Care Professionals of BC (CHCPBC). Clinically, my work focuses on the interplay of clinical, developmental, and neuropsychology across the lifespan. My areas of focus include neuropsychological assessment of memory and neglect, eating disorder education modules (Project EMPHAsize), the psychosocial functioning of loved ones impacted by the overdose epidemic, and the impact of grief and loss on psychosocial functioning. Through clinical work, teaching and research, I aim to support building resilient children and communities.

My research focuses on leveraging energy balance concepts to manage chronic diseases through evidence-based nutrition strategies. Specifically, my lab’s work aims to: 1. Utilize energy expenditure data to better define energy requirements and their determinants in individuals with chronic disease 2. Investigate how factors like weight loss, exercise, and ovarian sex hormones affect appetite, energy intake, and energy expenditure, with the goal of informing more effective health interventions 3. Translate research on energy expenditure into clinical practice My laboratory employs a variety of advanced techniques to assess multiple aspects of energy balance, including doubly labeled water, body composition analysis, hormonal regulators of appetite, and diverse dietary intake measurement methods. Through collaboration with researchers, trainees, and health professionals, I seek to improve health outcomes through targeted nutrition assessments and interventions.

I graduated with a BSN in 2000 from Okanagan University College and started working at KGH in mental health that year. I held a position there for 12 years. During this time I worked on the general acute mental health floor and the mental health ICU unit managing patient care for a wide variety of mental health needs. I also provided mental health assessments for the emergency department. In 2010 I started as a clinical teacher in mental health for the School of Nursing at UBC Okanagan. In 2011 I was hired as a Full time Lecturer and also started my MSN program here at the UBC Okanagan campus. I graduated with my MSN in 2017. While Lecturer I have developed our 2nd year Mental Health in Nursing course, its corresponding Mental Health clinical course, and the Advanced Mental Health elective course offered in 4th year. I have also started teaching on of the sections of the 3rd year Relational Practice course. This has afforded me the privilege of learning along with my students the history and challenges of the Syilx Nation delivered by Knowledge Keepers from the Westbank First Nation and designed to promote cultural safety in nursing practice.

I am a recent Honours graduate in Psychology from UBC Okanagan, and I am passionate about bridging gaps in health education to foster more informed, equitable, and stigma-aware clinical practice. As a member of the EMPHAsize research team, I contribute across multiple facets of the project, including module development and design, website creation and maintenance, participant recruitment, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, manuscript preparation, and presentation development. My work is driven by a commitment to ensuring that health professionals are better equipped to recognize and address the psychological and physiological dimensions of eating disorders and weight-related stigma.

I am a Master's level graduate student in the clinical psychology program at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. I have been involved in the EMPHAsize project from the beginning, becoming associated with it through the MURPH Scholars program. The project's aims helped shape my clinical goals, leading me to work as senior support staff for a local intensive inpatient eating disorder recovery program. My Master's thesis explores how to enhance the safety and therapeutic efficacy of psychedelic assisted psychotherapy for Indigenous populations. In the future, I hope to expand this research to include clinical populations, such as those impacted by eating disorders. My work has been shared in national and international settings, notably at the American Psychological Association convention (2025) and the Chacruna Psychedelic Culture conference (2026).

I am a fourth-year Dietetics student and research assistant with the EMPHAsize Project. I am passionate about supporting individuals with eating disorders and recently gained hands-on experience shadowing in the Eating Disorders unit at BC Children's Hospital. Through EMPHAsize, I am excited to contribute to research that empowers healthcare students to better understand and address weight stigma in their future practice. Outside of academics, I enjoy exploring matcha spots around Vancouver and capturing the moments through photography.

I am a Taiwanese immigrant joining EMPHAsize as an MSc student in UBC-V's Population and Public Health program. Using qualitative and arts-based methods, my thesis explores the eating disorder experiences of gender-diverse Asian Canadians through an intersectional lens. The goal of my research is to share verbal and artistic eating disorder stories that illuminate our next steps toward creating equitable, compassionate, and affirming health experiences for gender-diverse Asian Canadian populations. I completed my BSc in Food, Nutrition, and Health at UBC-V and bring critical public health nutrition perspectives to the EMPHAsize team.

I am a fifth-year student at UBC Vancouver studying Food, Nutrition and Health with a major in Dietetics. As a member of the EMPHAsize research team, I contribute to the development and refinement of educational tools aimed at equipping future healthcare professionals with a deeper understanding of eating disorders. My work involves analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data and identifying key themes to inform ongoing improvements to the project. My research interests are rooted in a curiosity about metabolic diseases and the ways in which dietary modulation, through the biochemical properties of nutrients, can influence long-term health outcomes.

I am a fourth-year Biochemistry student specializing in Medical and Molecular Biology at UBC Okanagan, where I completed an honours thesis in collaboration with the EMPHAsize project. My research focused on the oral complications and implications of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and overeating, and helped inform the development of the project's targeted module on this topic. Alongside this module, I created a practice guide for positive oral hygiene, designed to support individuals at any stage of their experience with disordered eating. I am passionate about sharing my findings to raise awareness and educate others on this important topic.