The Lillian Wright Maternal-Child Health Graduate Scholarship is awarded to graduate students in the Faculty of Health who have a minimum A average in their graduate courses, or for new graduate students in their first year of study and for incoming graduate students, a cumulative grade point average of 7.5 based on undergraduate courses.
Aread of research study may include, but are not limited to:
* Maternal-child health
* Maternal-child mental well-being
*Early child development
*Mother-infant relationships
*Mothers, stress and coping
*Developmental pathways in infants and young children
*Pre-natal and post-natal interventions
*Health promotion for mothers and children
*Environmental considerations in infant/child health and development
*Patient safety issues relating to maternal-child health
*Health policy and practice in relation to mothers, infants and children
*Other topics in maternal-child health
Dr. Nazilla Khanlou is the academic lead for the Lillian Wright Maternal Child Health Scholars Program. Among our past and present Lillian Wright Student Scholars are:
Email:amitint@yorku.ca Year of Study: PhD 1 Program Name: Clinical-Developmental Psychology Supervisor: Dr. Jonathan Weiss
Ami is a PhD1 student in the Clinical-Developmental Psychology
program. Her MA thesis aimed to identify variables impacting mothers' ability
to effectively access health services for their children with Autism Spectrum
Disorders. Ami is interested in applying her future research to critically
inform community practice and policy for children with developmental
disabilities and their families.
Email:bsahab@yorku.ca Year of Study: PhD 4 Year of receipt: 2008 Supervisor: Dr. Hala tamim
Ban is a 5th year PhD student at the School of Kinesiology and Health Science under the supervision of Dr. Hala Tamim. She has received her Master's degree
in Epidemiology from the American University of Beirut in 2004. All throughout her graduate studies, Ban's research has mainly focused on maternal and child health. She has several publications on areas relating to breastfeeding, smoking during pregnancy, intimate partner violence and postpartum depression.
Email:jlynn@yorku.ca Year of Study: PhD 2 Year of receipt: 2009 Supervisor: Dr. Yvonne Bohr
Jessica is a second year Ph.D. student in the Clinical Developmental Psychology program at York University. She earned her M. A. Degree, and Honours B.A. Degree at York University. Her main research interests lie in the study of maternal-child relationships and parenting from a cross-cultural perspective, and in the identification of best practices of child-rearing in different cultures. Her Master's thesis compared the parenting practices of Chinese-Canadian and European-Canadian mothers, and explored the influence of acculturation and immigrant status on parent and child variables such as caregiver stress, confidence, sensitivity, attributions, and child behaviour problems.
Email:bramilee@yorku.ca Year of Study: PhD 2 Year of receipt: 2008 Supervisor: Dr. Yvonne Bohr
Bramilee is a doctoral student in the Clinical-Developmental Psychology program at York University. Her research is embedded in an ecological-transactional framework, and focuses on predictors of resilience among parent-child dyads vulnerable to psychopathology. Her Master’s thesis examined factors that mitigate the risk of infant and child maltreatment among adolescent mothers exposed to cumulative adversity. She is passionate about community-based research, and works towards fostering resilience and promoting healthy relationships among high-risk mother-child dyads.
Email:ldin@yorku.ca Year of Study: PhD 4 Year of receipt: 2009-2010 Supervisor: Dr Rebecca Pillai Riddell
Laila is a doctoral student in the Clinical Developmental program at York University. Her research interests include how caregiver emotional availability and infant factors influence infant emotion regulation during distressing and painful events. To date, her clinical experience has involved conducting assessments and psychotherapy with children and families presenting with complex learning, behavioural, social and emotional difficulties.
Email:marina13@yorku.ca Year of Study: PhD 3 Year of receipt: 2010-2011 Supervisor: Jennifer Connolly
Marina, MA, is a doctoral student at York University in the Department of Psychology. She studies adolescent romantic relationships using the developmental framework. Her particular interests are in special adolescent populations at risk for maladaptive relationships, including pregnant and parenting teens and youth with developmental disabilities. Her latest project focused on the risk and resilience factors of pregnant and mothering teens from Child Welfare Services, a population that is at high risk for various difficulties.
Email:rhorton@yorku.ca Year of Study: PhD 5 Year of receipt: 2009-2012 Supervisor: Dr. Rebecca Pillai Riddell
Rachel is a doctoral student in the Clinical Developmental program in the
Opportunity to Understand Childhood Hurt (O.U.C.H.) laboratory at York
University under the supervision of Dr. Rebecca Pillai Riddell. Through her
Master's thesis, Rachel investigated whether mothers' facial expressions of
fear and pain had an impact on infants' facial expressions of pain when
undergoing a routine immunization. The focus of Rachel's doctoral dissertation
is on infant-parent attachment within the context of paediatric pain. Rachel is
completing her pre-doctoral clinical internship at Surrey Place Centre in
Toronto.
Sheila's research interests concern the rights of severely disabled children.
While Sheila was at law school, family law and constitutional law were her
primary interests and for which she was awarded the Joseph Micaleff prize in
family law and the Wilson Memorial scholarship in constitutional law. Prior to
commencing her M.A. in Critical Disability Studies at York, Sheila practiced in
the family and child welfare courts in Toronto, and has published in peer
reviewed journals in the overlapping area of disability and family law. Her
major research paper for her M.A. centered on child related law and policy and
was entitled Paediatric home care of the child with complex care needs in the
context of human rights and provincial experiences. Her research supervisor was
Professor Raphael & her advisor was Professor Rioux. In the fall of 2011,
Sheila will commence work towards her PhD in Law, at Osgoode Hall Law School. At Osgoode, Sheila will be exploring questions of law and policy pertaining to
the right to support and funding of children with severe disabilities and their
caregivers, who are, most often, their mothers.
Email:yu254969@yorku.ca Year of Study: PhD 3 Year of receipt: 2008 Supervisor: Dr. Geoffrey Reaume
Michael graduated summa cum laude with his B.A., Honours degree in Psychology and a Certificate in Practical Ethics from the Department of Philosophy in 2005 and completed his M.A. degree in Critical Disability Studies in 2007, both from York University. His research interests focus on the ethical and social implications of new reproductive technologies such as prenatal genetic screening for persons with disabilities and women of child-bearing age and the underlying philosophical, political, economic and socio-cultural beliefs that undergird the widespread use of such technology.
Email:gpage@yorku.ca Year of Study: PhD 2 Year of receipt: 2009-2010 Supervisor: Dr. Joel Katz
Gabrielle's research focuses on paediatric pain. More specifically, she is interested in understanding how acute pain develops into chronic or recurrent pain. Her current research project investigates biological, psychological, and social factors that influence the transition from acute to chronic in children after major surgery.
Email:racinen@yorku.ca Year of Study: MA 2 Year of receipt: 2008 (undergraduate), 2010 (graduate) Supervisor: Dr. Rebecca Pillai Riddell
Nicole is currently completing her Master's in Clinical Developmental. Her broader research interest includes mother-infant dyads in contexts of risk. For her Master's she is specifically interested in examining the relationships between caregiver emotional availability, infant pain expressivity and parental soothing behaviours in a pain context.
Email:ctassopoulos@hotmail.com Year of Study: MSc Year of receipt: 2009 Supervisor: Dr. Hala Tamim
Christine recently received a Master's degree in Epidemiology under the supervision of Dr. Hala Tamim in the Kinesiology and Health Science program. Her thesis project was entitled 'Characteristics of weight gain in pregnancy among Canadian women'. She is fascinated with maternal-child health, and has previously worked as a clinical research coordinator for six years within the perinatal field.
Email:nwhit@yorku.ca Year of Study: PhD 4 Year of receipt: 2009-2010 Supervisor: Dr. Yvonne Bohr
Natasha Whitfield is a fourth year Ph.D. student in the Clinical Developmental
Psychology Program at York University. She earned her Honours B. A. at the
University of Windsor, and her M.A. Degree at York University. Her main
research interests lie in the study of parent-child relationships and social
functioning, particularly in immigrant families. Her M.A. thesis explored the
consequences of prolonged parent-child separation practices in Chinese Canadian
immigrant families. Her doctoral dissertation is exploring the needs of Chinese
Canadian, African/Caribbean Canadian, and South Asian Canadian families who are
separated and reunited with their children as a result of immigration, and
evaluating a community-based parent-child brief assessment/intervention for
families in these immigrant communities who are experiencing parenting and
child behaviour challenges post-reunification.
Email:brookeh@yorku.ca Year of Study: PhD 4 Year of receipt: 2010-2011 Supervisor: Dr. Yvonne Bohr
Brooke is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Clinical-Developmental
Psychology Program at York University. Her primary research interest lies in
early mother-child interactions. Brooke's dissertation focuses on atypical
maternal behaviours and their association with various maternal psychosocial
stressors. Her second area of research interest is in the provision of
evidence-based programs within community mental health settings.
Email:jennosew@yorku.ca Year of Study: MScN, 2nd Year Year of receipt: 2011 Supervisor: Dr. Christine Jonas-Simpson
Jennifer is in her second year in the MScN program. A resident of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, she has studied at York via the online MScN program. Her master's thesis is titled, Women's Experiences of Perinatal Loss in Labrador. She is about to begin data gathering, pending ethics approval.
Email:juliech@yorku.ca Year of Study: PhD 1 Year of receipt: 2011 Supervisor: Dr. Debra Pepler
Julie is a doctoral student in Clinical Developmental Psychology. She conducts her research on the mother-child relationship at Mothercraft's Breaking the Cycle program for substance-abusing mothers and their young children. Her primary area of research is the mother-child relationship as a mediator of familial risk on child outcomes, with particular focus on maternal relationship risks, such as domestic violence.
Email:margulis@yorku.ca Year of Study: PhD 4 Year of receipt: 2011 Supervisor: Dr. Robert Muller
Julie is a fourth year doctoral student in the Clinical-Developmental Psychology Programme at York University. She is a graduate student in Dr. Robert Muller's Trauma and Attachment laboratory. She is a manager of the Healthy Coping Project, a community-based initiative to evaluate the effectiveness of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Her role in the project has led to both research and clinical experiences working with school-aged children who have experienced trauma. Her research interests lie in the area of evaluating the effect of maternal factors on child therapy outcome following trauma.
Email:lc15@yorku.ca Year of Study: MA, 2nd Year Year of receipt: 2011 Supervisor: Dr. Rebecca Pillai Riddell
Lauren is currently completing her master's degree in Clinical Developmental Psychology in the Opportunities to Understand Childhood Hurt (O.U.C.H.) laboratory. Her broad research interests lie in pediatric health and illness in the context of the caregiver-child relationship. Her master's thesis will be examining the relationships between caregiver sensitivity and infant pain development over the infant's first year of life.
Lisa is currently completing her Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Lisa received an Honours B.Sc. at the University of Toronto in 2002. Lisa completed her community placement in a Maternal-Infant Health program and is currently completing her Integrated Practicum at a birthing centre in Toronto.
Naomi is a fourth year B.Sc. student majoring in psychology at York University. She is also a part time Elementary School teacher and is interested in intervetions to improve the mental health of young children with emotional and developmental challenges. Naomi is currently completing an independent study with Dr. Christine Jonas-Simpson investigating how children cope with the death of an infant sibling, as well as the role of teachers in this grieving process.
Email:tkim85@yorku.ca Year of Study: MSc, Year 1 Year of receipt: 2011 Supervisor: Dr. Hala Tamim
Theresa is a 1st year MSc candidate at the School of Kinesiology and Health Science, specializing in Epidemiology under the supervision of Dr. Hala Tamim. She earned her Honours BSc at the University of Toronto, and has worked for several years in the maternal-child health field at the Department of Family & Community Medicine as a research assistant/project coordinator for the PRIMA project. Currently, Theresa's research focus is on the effect of social support around pregnancy on postpartum depression in Canadian teen mothers and adult mothers.
Email:dkanter@yorku.ca Year of Study: PhD 1 Program name: Clinical-Developmental Psychology Supervisor: Dr. Yvonne Bohr
Deborah Kanter is a first year doctoral student in the Clinical-Developmental Psychology program at York University. Her research focuses on the prevention of aggression in children who are at-risk of developing behaviour problems. Her master’s thesis examined the relationship between maternal depression and child behaviour problems, and the different parenting behaviours that play a role in this association. In the future, Deborah plans to use her research to critically inform prevention programs and policy.
Upcoming Events
September 27, 2013: Lillian Wright Maternal-Child Institute *more info coming soon
To view the full line up of 2012 - 2013 Speakers for the Women's Mental Health and Wellbeing Speakers Series, please visit us here.
Post Doc Opportunity
We are delighted to announce the launch of the inaugural Lillian Wright Postdoctoral Fellowship in Maternal Child-Health at the Faculty of Health at York University. Please click the link for information on the fellowship and application process.
Upcoming Events 