Grants for Women 2023
a.retta@mail.utoronto.ca
University of Toronto Aida Retta (she/her) is a first-year student in the Master of Education in Counselling Psychology program at the University of Toronto. She has been working with survivors of gender-based violence for over six years. Currently, she is employed as a counsellor and advocate at a transitional housing program for survivors of domestic abuse and other forms of intimate partner violence (IPV).
Aida’s anti-violence work experiences have increased her awareness of the systemic barriers to safety that IPV-survivors face during or immediately following separation particularly within the legal system. She is passionate about producing research that both elucidates and informs strategies to reduce such barriers. She is eager to contribute to the body of literature calling for the improvement of legal practices known to re-traumatize and disempower survivors of IPV, especially those from marginalized communities.
Currently, Aida is engaged in a project examining the relation between IPV, legal abuse, and legal outcomes for court-involved mothers under the supervision of Dr. Ellen Gutowski at the University of Toronto. She has recently joined the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children at Western University where she hopes to continue to make contributions based on her experiences doing community-based anti-violence work.
cassandra.defreitas@mail.mcgill.ca
McGill “Choose to be a social worker because you believe that already within every individual are the strengths to overcome adversity. Choose to be a social worker because you want to bear witness to the courage, the resiliency, the trials, and the triumphs of fascinating individuals” this is a quote from American social worker Natalie Tuffield. This quote encapsulates my desire to support people throughout my practice and, specifically, my commitment to the success and empowerment of women and girls.
My social work education, research, and volunteer work has revolved around the advancement of gender equity, women’s rights, and maternal and newborn health.
My passion has proven time and time again to be with issues concerning women and girls; I also see this as my career trajectory. Aside from social work, as a Certified Fitness Instructor and researcher, I hope to be able to prove a correlation between fitness interventions, traditional social work interventions, and healing from trauma caused by intimate partner violence to then be the pioneer in the field of this work and research. Women have been at the forefront of my advocacy, research, writing, and praxis for over ten years. I plan on dedicating my career to the pursuit of women, their health, well-being, and empowerment through social work.
laura.meng@mail.mcgill.ca
Laura Meng is a third-year medical student at McGill University. She is passionate about equity, diversity and inclusion in surgery, academic research, and the medicine admissions process. During medical school, she has worked on several academic research projects, including investigating the epidemiology of orbital injuries in a Taiwanese population, which aims to help inform and refine healthcare delivery in multicultural settings. She has also served on the Faculty of Medicine for several years as a student ambassador, Osler co-leader, multiple-mini-interview events director and most recently, as an evaluator in the admissions process. She hopes that her work in these settings will help to address the intrinsic barriers involved in pursuing a career in healthcare, especially for gendered minorities, racial minorities, and individuals from low-income backgrounds who may have limited guidance on the process.
As a future physician, she aims to become an independent clinician researcher who dedicates a portion of her future clinical practise specifically toward the needs of women. Throughout medical school, she has developed an interest in surgery and ophthalmology. She aims to provide ophthalmic services to women of all ages and backgrounds – from cataract surgeries which are the leading cause of preventable blindness in individuals with low income, to blepharoplasties which are necessary for individuals with various eyelid conditions. She hopes to further opportunities for women to gain confidence, empower their health, and live positively.
I have been a Registered Nurse for the past 5 years. I am now completing my first year of graduate studies in the Nurse Practitioner (NP) program at the University of Victoria. This 2-year program will prepare me to serve as a primary care provider, which I hope to do in my hometown of Nelson, BC.
Since entering healthcare, I have felt drawn to women’s health issues.
I plan to focus my future NP practice on women’s health, recognizing transgender health and gender-affirming care as an integral part of serving all women.
My aim is to develop an NP practice that centers on creating a safe space for women and gender-diverse people to discuss sexual and reproductive health.
Making my patients feel safe and authentically cared for is what makes me most proud of my nursing practice. I am endlessly grateful for this award!
Laura Woodman is a PhD student at the University of Alberta, where her research focuses on supporting quality and longevity in family day homes.
As a mother and former educator who ran an accredited family day home with a licensed agency in Alberta for ten years, Laura deeply believes in the value of children and families.
Family day homes are almost exclusively run by women, and the child care deserts evidenced across Canada require these programs to increase licensed childcare options for mothers and children.
Although family childcare is a unique field requiring targeted support, it is frequently excluded from research.
As a result, there is a lack information needed to provide targeted support to the women in family childcare. Laura’s research aims to amplify the voices of family childcare educators, increase knowledge about their experiences, and learn which supports are needed for them to thrive.
Her goal is to increase capacity within the family childcare field, which can improve educator life satisfaction and ability to offer high-quality early learning and childcare, while also benefitting the many children and families seeking care in family day homes across Canada.
Chloe White is a master’s student in Clinical Psychology at Simon Fraser University. Chloe is passionate about improving access to mental health care, with a specific focus on improving efficacy and accessibility of interventions for eating disorders. While eating disorders affect an alarming proportion of women and girls, little research is dedicated to understanding how to prevent and intervene with those at risk for eating disorders. Thus, Chloe’s master’s thesis will investigate how gender-specific risk factors can influence the development of eating disorders, with the hopes that findings can improve eating disorder prevention efforts.
Chloe has held positions at Nellie’s Shelter, Stronger than Stigma McGill Student’s for Mental Health, Kids Help Phone, the McGill University Biopsychosocial Examination of Eating Pattern’s Lab. Currently, Chloe is a graduate student in the Weight and Eating Lab at Simon Fraser University as well as a teaching assistant and member of the Psychology Graduate Caucus. Chloe’s research training has been supported through several grants including the PressStart CoLab Program (to develop One Stop Mental Health), the Judith Mappin Award for Research in Women’s Health and the Joseph- Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship.
Chloe aims to confront the intersectional issues that disrupt women and girls from achieving their goals and will continue to pursue this goal after graduation as an eating disorder researcher and clinician. Ultimately, Chloe’s work will fill a much-needed gap in Canadian mental health care.
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