Warren Dodd is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo and research group leader.
He completed his PhD in Epidemiology and International Development Studies at the University of Guelph and a CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.
Graduate Students
Staff
Graduate Students
Chantelle Ramsundar | PhD candidate | 2019-present
Chantelle Ramsundar is a PhD student in Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo. She holds an MA in Public Issues Anthropology and a BA in International Development from the University of Guelph. Chantelle's research focuses on the experiences of community health workers (CHWs) in Negros Oriental, Philippines, with a particular emphasis on mHealth and gendered experiences. Utilizing qualitative methods, her work highlights participant lived experiences and expertise. In addition to her PhD studies, she has contributed to research programs supporting community-based participatory action, including developing peer training and support initiatives for organizations such as The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and Community Food Centres Canada. Her research interests include community health, health system improvement and scaling, CBPAR, and critical qualitative methods.
Josalyn Radcliffe | PhD candidate | 2020-present
Josalyn is pursuing her PhD in Public Health and Health Systems at the University of Waterloo starting fall 2020 after fast tracking from the MSc program. She completed a BA in English and Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University ('05) and is a Registered Nurse with a BSc in Nursing ('12) through Conestoga College and McMaster University. Josalyn is also a mother and an avid gardener who dedicates time to advocacy, connecting with nature, and building relationships within her community. In recent years, she has researched online food markets in the context of COVID-19 and supported evaluation and collaborative priority-setting with food system partners in the Northwest Territories navigating a changing landscape. Her current research interests relate to the ecological determinants of health and the interconnections between biodiversity, food systems, and well-being. Under the supervision of Drs. Kelly Skinner and Warren Dodd, she works to apply a critical lens informed by One Health and Planetary Health approaches, to learn about, challenge, and re-envision today's ecological threats to well-being at multiple scales.
*SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship recipient
Emily Kocsis | PhD candidate | 2020-present
Emily is an interdisciplinary global health researcher and practitioner. She earned her Masters of Science in Global Health from McMaster University, and a Bachelors of Science in Biology from Western University. During her MSc, Emily focused on traditional food systems in Kenya, and the cultural, social and nutritional importance of fermented foods. Over the past five years, Emily has worked both locally and internationally on global health and development research projects in a number of different capacities, and currently works as a health research consultant. With plans to investigate the interplay between agriculture, gender, and rural livelihoods in Latin America with her PhD research, Emily hopes to continue exploring and contributing to the global effort to build more just and sustainable food systems.
*SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship recipient
Hannah Rayel | PhD candidate | 2023-present
Hannah is a PhD student in Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo. Hannah graduated with a BA in Psychology from the University of Ottawa and an MPH from North Dakota State University (NDSU). She worked on research projects pertaining to vaccine promotion amongst college students and the evaluation of the Health in All Policies approach at NDSU. Going forward, she wants to focus on global health with research interests in cardiovascular disease and access to health care services in the Philippines.
Minal Waqar | PhD student | 2024-present
Minal is a PhD student in Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo and began her PhD studies in Fall 2024. She completed her Master's degree at the University of Toronto, where her research focused on diabetic South Asian immigrants in Canada and their experiences of utilizing diabetes-related resources and services within the Greater Toronto Area. Prior to that, she earned her Honours Bachelor's of Science degree from the University of Toronto Mississauga, with a double major in Geography and Environmental Management. In her doctoral studies, Minal aims to leverage her background in environment and geography to address public health challenges at the local level in the Waterloo region. Her research interests focus on examining the impacts of climate stressors (extreme heat and wildfires) on vulnerable populations. Through this work, Minal hopes to contribute to the understanding and mitigation of climate-related health risks for vulnerable communities in the Waterloo region, as well as on a broader scale in Canada.
Silver Nanema | PhD student | 2024-present
Silver has academic training in Nutrition, Food Sciences, and Bioethics from the University of Ghana and is currently pursuing a PhD in Public Health at the School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. His research interests include food environments, food systems, and the commercial determinants of health. He developed these interests through collaboration with renowned experts in these fields, as well as in specialized areas such as corporate political activities. Since 2019, his professional activities have focused on generating evidence in food environment research, exploring its interlinkages with climate, equity, and ethics. He has presented some of his work at international conferences, including the International Congress of Nutrition (22nd IUNS-ICN), the African Food Environment Research Network (FERN) meeting, and the Ghana Research Ethics Network (GREN) Conference, most of which he helped plan, including the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Health (ANH) Academy Week.
Sabeen Abbas | MSc student | 2023-present
Sabeen is pursuing her MSc in Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo. She is an Ontario Certified Teacher and has a Masters of Arts from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (‘19). Her broad research interests include the social and ecological determinants of health, planetary health and global health. For her thesis project, Sabeen will be exploring community-based adaptation efforts to respond to extreme weather events and the health impacts of these interventions.
Zana Berisha | MSc student | 2024-present
Zana is an MSc Student in the Public Health Sciences program at the University of Waterloo. Zana is passionate about advocating and supporting the mental and physical health of newcomer and refugee populations in Canada.
Hateem Noor | MSc student | 2024-present
Hateem is pursuing her MSc in Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo, where she also received her Bachelors of Public Health in 2023. Her research interests include global health, women’s health and climate health. She is also passionate about the implementation of digital public health interventions and how they may improve health outcomes. As part of Dr. Dodd’s research lab, Hateem is eager to develop her qualitative research skills and apply them to her future MSc research.
Staff
Laura Jane Brubacher | Postdoctoral Fellow | 2023-present
Laura Jane Brubacher is a SSHRC Post-Doctoral Research Fellow and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo, interested in the use of community-based qualitative methodologies for applied health research. LJ's PhD in Population Medicine and International Development (University of Guelph, 2021) focused on the maternal healthcare system in Nunavut. LJ has previously worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, investigating the health systems response to COVID-19 (UBC), for the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research (CAMH), and with the Climate Change & Global Health Research Group (University of Alberta). Her past work has been based in Iqaluit, Nunavut, southwestern Ontario, Kenya, and Uganda.
*SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship recipient
Caroline Whidden | Postdoctoral Fellow | 2024-present
Caroline Whidden is a 2024 CIHR Health Systems Impact Postdoctoral Fellow. She is partnering with the Canadian Red Cross, to develop evidence-based recommendations to strengthen climate-resilient health systems in their health programming in fragile and resource-constrained global settings. Caroline has a PhD in Global Public Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, focused on a multi-method evaluation of a complex community health system intervention. She spent eight years in Mali with a non-governmental organization, Muso, where she was the Director of Research, Monitoring & Evaluation. Caroline has a decade of experience pursuing equitable partnerships and impact-oriented research that address health inequities.
*CIHR Health Systems Impact Postdoctoral Fellowship recipient
Bridget Beggs | Research Coordinator | 2024-present
Bridget Beggs completed her MSc in Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo, where she also received her BSc in Health Studies. Her MSc research explored the experiences of community health workers (CHWs) amid extreme weather events in the Philippines, and underscored the complexities in recognizing CHWs as both health leaders and community members in disaster risk management practices. She has supported research projects across different topics, but is particularly interested in the impacts of the climate crisis on healthcare accessibility, health equity, and health systems resilience.
Team Alumni - Graduate Students
Bridget Beggs | MSc | 2022-2024
SSHRC Master’s Scholarship recipient
Joshua Garcia-Barrios | MSc | 2022-2024
SSHRC Master’s Scholarship recipient
Megan Delamere | MSc | 2021-2024
Monica Bustos | MSc | 2020-2022
CIHR Master’s Scholarship recipient
Shoshannah Speers | MSc | 2019-2022
Profile on Master’s research: Shoshannah Speers
SSHRC Master’s Scholarship recipient
Dr. Steven Lam | PhD | 2017-2022
PhD thesis: Enhancing Evaluations of Complex Food Security Programs Operating Under Climate Change
CIHR PhD Scholarship recipient
Kathy Luu | MSc | 2018-2021
Profile on Master’s research: Kathy Luu
CIHR Master’s Scholarship recipient
Sara Wyngaarden | MSc | 2018-2020
MSc thesis: The Freedom to Choose: Sustainable livelihoods and (im)mobility decisions among youth in rural Honduras
Profile on Governor General’s Gold Medal: Impactful research is not always flashy
SSHRC Master’s Scholarship recipient
Governor General’s Gold Medal and Alumni Gold Medal recipient
Team Alumni - Undergraduate Students
Kobisha Rajeswaran | BSc (Health Studies) | 2023-2024
Undergraduate thesis project: Examining the role of lived experience in co-creating community-based mental health and substance use supports
Zana Berisha | BSc (Health Studies) | 2023-2024
Undergraduate thesis project: Examining the process and outcomes associated with the co-design of community-based mental health services
Nilusha Rattansi | Bachelor of Public Health | 2022-2023
Undergraduate thesis project: Assessing the interactions between a fresh food prescription program and the broader social welfare system in Guelph, Ontario
Ally Suarez | BSc (Health Studies) | 2022-2023
Undergraduate thesis project: The use of mHealth in community health worker programs
Satveer Dhillon | BSc (Health Studies) | 2021-2022
Undergraduate thesis project: Mapping the internal migration-climate-health nexus in low- and middle-income countries: A scoping review
Taylor Harris | BSc (Health Studies) | 2021-2022
Undergraduate thesis project: Evaluating complex community-based interventions to address acute child malnutrition in low- and lower-middle income countries
Monica Bustos | BSc (Health Studies) | 2019-2020
Undergraduate thesis project: Addressing tuberculosis through complex community-based socioeconomic interventions in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic realist review
Vinussa Rameshshanker | Bachelor of Public Health | 2019-2020
Undergraduate thesis project: Health system resilience to extreme weather events in Asia-Pacific: a scoping review
Kruti Patel | BSc (Health Studies) | 2019-2020
Undergraduate thesis project: The role of community health workers in providing services in the context of extreme weather events in low- and middle-income countries: A scoping review
Thevahi Nagaarudkumaran | BSc (Health Studies) | 2018-2019
Undergraduate thesis project: The role of social support in tuberculosis treatment and care in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic scoping review