Current Fellows:
Billy Vinette, PhD
2025-Present
Billy Vinette is a registered nurse (Université de Montréal, 2014) specializing in oncology and continuing professional development. He holds a PhD in Nursing Sciences from the Université de Montréal (2025) and a graduate certificate in health sciences education. His dissertation focused on developing and evaluating a digital educational intervention designed to influence oncology nurses' behaviors regarding cannabis use, framed within andragogy and harm reduction principles. Currently, Mr. Vinette is undertaking a postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Aliki Thomas' Laboratory (K.E.E.P. Laboratory) at the Institute of Health Sciences Education, where he is dedicated to developing a tailored and theory-informed capacity-building initiative to support oncology nurses in the uptake of evidence-based practices by integrating continuing professional development with Implementation Science frameworks. Billy is being supervised by Institute of Health Sciences Education Associate Member, Professor Aliki Thomas.
Pamela Lamb, PhD
2024 - present
Pamela Lamb is a qualitative health researcher and former registered nurse with specializations in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery and community health. She received a PhD in Educational Studies from McGill University (2023). Her dissertation examined the impact of participatory arts-based research on audiences, focusing on affective engagement as a key factor in shaping attitudinal and behavioral change. She developed a practice framework for affective reflexivity—a discursive approach that parses affect and emotion to better understand ‘knowing differently by feeling differently.’ Her current research interests in medical humanities, applied to health professions education and practice, is informed by her interdisciplinary background in nursing, women’s studies, communication studies, and educational studies. Her postdoctoral research explores the values-practice gap in compassionate care; specifically, what encourages and what inhibits clinicians’ capacity to demonstrate compassionate care towards themselves and their patients. She is supervised by Dr. Yvonne Steinert, Professor of Family Medicine and Health Sciences Education at the Institute of Health Sciences Education.
Anita Slominska, PhD
2023 - present
Anita Slominska is a qualitative health researcher with a PhD in Health Information Science from the University of Western Ontario (2022). Her dissertation explored waitlist death in liver transplantation, interweaving a personal narrative with exposition in the history of liver transplantation and scholarly inquiry on narrative and biomedicine and sociocultural constructions of illness and identity. Her current project investigates graft loss from the perspective of kidney transplant recipients to better comprehend and address strengths and limitations in current practices of care. She is interested in how narrative-based inquiry and analysis deepens insight into patients’ lived experience and enriches critical reflection and dialogue about best practices to support patients. At the IHSE, she is co-supervised by Dr. Anne Kinsella and Dr. Shaifali Sandal in the Department of Medicine.
Louis-Pierre Auger, PhD
2023 - Present
Louis Pierre Auger is an occupational therapist (Université de Sherbrooke, 2013) and has worked as a clinician for more than five years in intensive functional rehabilitation with clients with neurological health conditions, especially individuals with stroke. He completed a master's degree (2019) and a doctorate (2023) in rehabilitation sciences at the Université de Montréal on the subjects of sexuality, neurology, knowledge translation and improvement of clinical practices. Mr. Auger is doing a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Aliki Thomas at the Institute of Health Sciences Education and is interested in the sciences of education and the sciences of implementation in a university context, with the objective of improving Canadian university occupational therapy programs in relation to training about sexuality. Louis-Pierre is being supervised by Institute of Health Sciences Education Associate Member, Professor Aliki Thomas.
Past Fellows:
2022-2024
Allison Odger, PhD
Supervisor: Yvonne Steinert, PhD
Project titles: Being reflective: A qualitative study of researcher reflexivity in health sciences education | Students as near-peer mentors: An exploratory study of co-leaders' experiences in a physician apprenticeship
2021-2023
Catherine Giroux, PhD
Supervisor: Aliki Thomas, PhD
Project title: Social media as a dissemination and knowledge translation strategy among health professions educators.
2019-2021
Dr. Sara Mortaz Hejri, MD, PhD
Supervisor: Yvonne Steinert, PhD
Project titles:
National Culture in International Faculty Development Programs: Influences and Consequences
Feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness potential of a novel faculty mentorship program
Faculty Developers’ Teaching Perspectives and Competencies: A Mixed-Methods Study
2018
David Lemay, PhD
Supervisors: Yvonne Steinert, PhD & Aliki Thomas, PhD
Project title: Understanding Teaching Approaches in Clinical Supervision in Health Professions Education
2016
Lerona Dana Lewis, PhD
Supervisor: Yvonne Steinert, PhD
Project title: Faculty Development and Culture
2014
Mandip Basi, PhD
Supervisor: Yvonne Steinert, PhD
Project title: How Physicians Learn to Teach in Clinical Settings.
2013
Claire Trottier, PhD
2008
Kevin Chin, PhD
Project title: A Faculty Development Workshop on Narrative Medicine: Assessing the Impact on Teaching.