Anne Caroline Braz is a physician trained in Brazil and a master’s student in Epidemiology at Université Laval. Her current research focuses on continuity of primary care and its relationship with health services utilization, particularly among populations experiencing vulnerability. Before beginning her master’s degree, Anne worked in primary care in Brazil, where she gained experience caring for diverse patient populations and developed an interest in access to care and health equity. Her previous research experience spans clinical and translational research, including studies on wound healing and neuroscience, as well as community-based surgical care in underserved coastal communities. She also completed a Mitacs research internship at Université Laval, where she worked with cellular models in neuroscience. Anne’s broader research interests include primary care, health services research, population health, and strategies to improve equitable access to healthcare.

Catherine George is a PhD Candidate in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Western University and a registered occupational therapist. Her research focuses on stroke rehabilitation, patient-oriented research, integrated knowledge translation, and improving health and community-based supports for people living with chronic neurological conditions. She works collaboratively with people with lived experience, researchers, and community partners to ensure that research priorities and solutions are meaningful, accessible, and responsive to the needs of the community.

Danah is an MA1 student in the Clinical Developmental Psychology Program at York University, co-supervised by Drs. Jennine Rawana and Jennifer Connolly. She previously completed a Specialized Honours BA in Psychology at York and an HBA at Ivey Business School. Danah’s research focuses on co-developing tools to support vulnerable populations in the community. Previously, she supported the development of a sex trafficking screener to help child welfare workers identify at-risk youth. In her graduate research, she will continue to partner closely with child welfare agencies to co-develop a social support intervention for youth transitioning out of care. Her research is guided by a youth participatory action research framework.

Hanna Conradi is a PhD Candidate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Calgary. Her dissertation project, The SEAMLESS Study, is a waitlist controlled randomized trial testing a clinician and expert-developed digital mindfulness-based intervention for cancer survivors based on the Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery program. Dr. Linda Carlson, Hanna’s PhD supervisor, co-developed the mobile-app intervention. Because in-person and synchronous mindfulness-based interventions are well-evidenced to improve a variety of psychosocial outcomes in cancer survivors, creating and testing new delivery formats is an important step in improving the accessibility and scalability of these interventions. Hanna researched emotion regulation during her undergraduate studies which she has integrated into her graduate work by also investigating emotion regulation as mediators and mechanisms of action accounting for the effects of mindfulness-based interventions. Through participating in CBITN, Hanna will advance her expertise in designing behavioural trials that are patient-centred, accessible, and targeting gaps in the literature, including testing mechanisms when appropriate.

Haranie Sivakumar is a Master of Science student in Health Systems Research at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. She is also completing a Graduate Diploma in Clinical Epidemiology at McMaster University and holds a BSc (Hons) in Kinesiology and Health Science from York University. Haranie’s research interests include chronic disease, health equity, patient engagement, and the development and evaluation of behavioural interventions. Her MSc research focuses on young-onset type 2 diabetes and the co-design of patient-facing visual tools to communicate important risk factors, including blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol. Working with people with lived experience, her research examines the usability, comprehension, acceptability, and actionability of these tools to support diabetes self-management and improve patient-provider communication

Isaac Bodnar is a clinical exercise physiologist working for and studying at Acadia University. Isaac’s work is focused on adding exercise in to everyday life, to help improve quality of life and maintain activities of daily living. Isaac’s research is focused on VO2 max uptake in people with coronary artery disease. The results from a VO2 test, or stress test are used for creating exercise programs and implementing new behaviours into people’s lives. This research will help to determine which protocol is the most accurate and enjoyable.

Isabelle Quintal is an occupational therapist and postdoctoral fellow at Université Laval. She completed an MSc in Rehabilitation Sciences at Université de Montréal and a PhD in Health Sciences at Université de Sherbrooke. Her research focuses on the development, feasibility, and implementation of behavioral rehabilitation interventions for people with chronic pain and sensory disorders. She is particularly interested in self-management, adherence to home-based interventions, and the integration and maintenance of health behaviors in daily life. Her current postdoctoral research focuses on rehabilitation for people with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy."

Liana is a PhD student in Human Nutrition at McGill University and a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor whose research focuses on intuitive eating and the development of eating behaviours across childhood. Under the supervision of Dr. Daiva Nielsen, her doctoral research within the CBITN investigates the associations between exposure to intuitive eating in early life and subsequent maladaptive eating behaviours. Her research further examines the development of eating behaviours among children, with a particular focus on developing and validating a child-specific intuitive eating scale and conceptual framework. Through this work, Liana aims to advance the understanding and measurement of intuitive eating in childhood and contribute to the identification of early-life factors that may reduce the risk of disordered eating.

Liza Zvereva is a third-year PhD candidate at McMaster University's Faculty of Health Sciences, Mary Heersink School of Global Health and Social Medicine. She is supervised by Dr. Sujane Kandasamy. Her research project focuses on designing, implementing and evaluating a Food is Medicine intervention in primary care in Hamilton, Ontario. Liza is interested in better understanding and reducing disparities in the social and structural determinants of health to make community-based primary care more accessible and matched to the needs of the population being served. 

Madeline is a PhD student in the Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) program at Brock University under the supervision of Dr. Kimberley Zonneveld. She is a Registered Behaviour Analyst (Ontario) and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She previously received her Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto and her Master of Arts specializing in ABA from Brock University where her research focused on the application of behaviour analysis to increase physical activity in elementary school students. Madeline is a passionate and enthusiastic clinician who has worked in different clinical settings to support and empower neurodiverse children, youth, and adults and their families to achieve their individual goals. Her current research focuses on how caregiver-led gentle behaviour-analytic strategies can help address food selectivity in autistic children. With high demand for feeding support across Canada, Madeline’s work offers the opportunity to influence clinical practice and improve the quality of life for children and their families.

Nataly R. Espinoza Suarez, MD, is a Peruvian physician and PhD candidate in Community Health at Université Laval, Canada. Before beginning her doctoral studies, she completed a research fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where she gained experience in clinical and health services research within an interdisciplinary academic environment. Her research focuses on cancer survivorship, cancer-related pain, migration and health, and health equity, with particular attention to the experiences of immigrant and culturally diverse populations. Using qualitative, patient-oriented, and participatory approaches, her work seeks to advance culturally responsive cancer care and strengthen the meaningful involvement of patients and communities in research. As part of her doctoral research and commitment to knowledge mobilization and community engagement, she developed À travers nos yeux / Through Our Eyes, a public photographic exhibition co-created from the lived experiences of Latin American immigrant breast cancer survivors in Quebec. The exhibition brings research findings beyond academic settings and creates spaces for dialogue among survivors, communities, healthcare professionals, and the broader public. She is also actively involved in scientific communication and research leadership across provincial, national, and international networks.

Olha Svyntozelska is a PGY-3 Clinician-Scholar in Family Medicine at Université de Sherbrooke and a PhD candidate in Epidemiology at Université Laval. Her research focuses on treatment burden among people living with chronic conditions and multimorbidity. Her doctoral project explores how patients living with diabetes and their family physicians discuss the burden of managing healthcare, how this treatment burden is documented, and the role it plays in primary care. Building on this work, Olha’s upcoming research will focus on co-designing a clinical guide that integrates interprofessional perspectives into the assessment and management of treatment burden among patients with multimorbidity, alongside a screening algorithm to identify patients at greater risk of experiencing treatment burden. Through CBITN, she aims to strengthen her expertise in behaviour-change theory, behavioural intervention development and evaluation, clinical trial methodology, and implementation science.

Pablo Arrona Cardoza is a PhD Candidate in Human Nutrition at McGill University. His doctoral project, Exploring the interplay between exposures in the food environment, food‑cue reactivity, and consumer decision‑making, supervised by Dr. Daiva Nielsen, examines how stimuli in the food environment shape eating behaviour through a neurocognitive lens. By integrating measures of brain activity, visual attention, and mixed‑methods approaches, his work investigates how individuals respond to food advertising and how they make food‑related decisions in retail settings. Beyond advancing theoretical understanding of eating behaviour, this research has the potential to inform behavioral interventions aimed at improving food choices within contemporary food environments. Pablo’s broader research interests include public health nutrition interventions, food insecurity and the affordability of diets, and dietary behaviours related to health and sustainability.

Rachel De Barros Oliveira is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary, supervised by Dr. Nicole Letourneau and Dr. Catherine Lebel. She completed her PhD in Neuroscience at McGill University. Her research investigates how relationship-based parenting interventions may support neurodevelopment and biological systems in children exposed to adversity. Rachel leads the ATTACH™ Brain and DNAm study, a pilot randomized trial integrating behavioural, neuroimaging, and DNA methylation measures in preschool-aged children and caregivers recruited through Calgary community agencies. She is also Science Communication Lead at Curious Neuron. Through CBITN, she aims to strengthen her expertise in behavioural intervention development and trial methodology as she works toward establishing an independent research program in developmental neuroscience and relationship-based parenting interventions.

Rey has a background in Nutrition and holds a PhD in Behavioural Science. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at SickKids in Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Farid Mahmud. Her work focuses on patient-centered research, with an emphasis on understanding the psychosocial determinants of health behaviours and designing, implementing, and evaluating behaviour change interventions to improve health outcomes and enhance quality of life for people living with chronic conditions. In her current project, Rey is developing and implementing lifestyle interventions for children living with Type 1 diabetes. As a member of the CBITN cohort, she aims to strengthen her expertise in behaviour change research methodology while expanding her professional network and fostering meaningful collaborations.

Rheann Quenneville is a doctoral student in the MA-PhD Clinical Psychology program (French-language stream) at the University of Ottawa, supervised by Dr. Justin Presseau, and a Clinical Research Assistant at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. Her doctoral research examines trust in behavioural trials. Whether people enroll, stay, and feel able to speak openly often rests on trusting the people asking, yet trust is rarely specified or evaluated as part of an intervention. Drawing on clinical psychology's work on the therapeutic alliance, Rheann aims to treat trust as something that can be named, measured and delivered with fidelity, distinguishing who or what is trusted, by whom, at which phase of a trial, and to what end, with the goal of well-calibrated trust rather than simply more of it. Across a scoping review, an embedded qualitative study, and co-design with community partners, patients, providers and trialists, she will develop a practical method to help trial teams become more worthy of trust, particularly for equity-seeking and Francophone communities. Rheann brings a background in evaluation, social finance research and community-based work. Through CBITN, she looks forward to refining her protocol with researchers who run the kinds of trials this work is meant to serve.

Samuel Ramos-Acevedo is a postdoctoral fellow at McMaster University and early career researcher at Population Health Research Institute, Hamilton, ON. Samuel is a Registered Dietitian and Clinical Epidemiologist, trained in the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México). Samuel’s work has focused on increasing food and nutrition security in people living with kidney disease, and more recently integrating the Social Determinants of Health into the clinical field. The team Samuel works with is interested in increasing food and nutrition security by potentially improving behavior (i.e. cooking workshops) and systems environment with increased access to healthy diet options (i.e. food pantry at hospital). This is often times referred to as the "Food is Medicine" framework. 

Thomas is a second-year PhD student in Clinical Psychology at the University of Calgary, supervised by Dr. Fiona Schulte. His doctoral research engages patient partners in co-designing and testing a mobile health intervention to support psychosocial well-being and health behaviour change among adolescent and young adult survivors of childhood cancer. Thomas is passionate about centering patients’ voices in their care and advancing theory-driven, patient-partnered interventions that are relevant, accessible, and responsive to patients’ needs. 

Tochi Omah is a Master’s student in Applied Health Sciences at Brock University under the supervision of Dr. Michelle Vine. She previously completed her BSc (Hons) in Medical Sciences at Brock University, where her undergraduate research explored the relationship between dietary habits and mental health among university students. Her current research examines school food environments and secondary school students’ experiences with the implementation of Canada’s National School Food Program. Her research interests include nutrition policy, implementation science, and food environments. Beyond her research, Tochi is involved in undergraduate teaching and developing her pedagogical practice, serves as a Student Senator, and has presented internationally at the University of Oxford on the implications of social media overuse among adolescents. Her research aims to inform policies and practices that promote equitable and supportive food environments.

Yamini Bhatt is a PhD candidate in the Urban Health program at Toronto Metropolitan University. and and a researcher whose work focuses on women’s cardiovascular health. Her research explores how migration, culture, food practices, and social contexts shape health behaviours and access to prevention strategies. She is particularly interested in developing culturally responsive and community-informed behavioural interventions that promote cardiovascular health and advance health equity among immigrant and racialized populations. Yamini holds a PhD in Human Nutrition and has research experience in traditional food practices, maternal and child nutrition, and public health nutrition. She is also a contract lecturer in the School of Nutrition at Toronto Metropolitan University and has contributed to interdisciplinary research projects focused on community engagement, data analysis, and knowledge mobilization. Through the CBITN Mentored Training Program, she aims to strengthen her expertise in behavioural intervention development, evaluation, and implementation.

Yashika is an MA student in the Clinical-Developmental Psychology program at York University, co-supervised by Dr. Jennine Rawana and Dr. Jennifer Connolly. Yashika previously completed her BA (Hons) at the University of Waterloo in Psychology with a minor in Addictions, Mental Health and Policy. Her research focuses on co-creating a social support intervention tailored for youth transitioning out of child welfare in a Canadian context. This work is essential for youth in the welfare system as they face financial and social strains, instability, and an abrupt transition to independence at age 18. This program will aim to address the significant gap in interventional services tailored to the social-emotional needs and intersectional identities of these youth.