Profiles
Meet some current and alumni members of AGE-WELL’s EPIC training program:
Andrew Magnaye (Alberta)
Leaving a legacy is often on Andrew Magnaye’s mind – not of material goods or wealth, but of caring for others and being the best person you can be. It’s a promise he made to two family members, now passed – his grandmother and aunt, who came to Canada from the Philippines.
Dr. Armel Ayimdji Tekemetieu (Quebec)
Dr. Armel Ayimdji Tekemetieu, a conversational AI architect with Quantiphi Analytics Canada and alumnus of AGE-WELL’s EPIC training program, became well acquainted with the benefits of AI technology – especially for older adults – during his postdoctoral studies at McGill University.
Cathleen Edwards (Ontario)
Cathleen Edwards always assumed her career would be in academia, but her journey led to the non-profit sector where she thrives in the role of Research Manager at Family Councils Ontario.
Steve Iduye (Nova Scotia)
For Steve Iduye, nursing is a holistic vocation that must encompass compassion, communication and the use of data analytics to better determine and respond to the needs of each person. A nurse scientist and an assistant professor in the School of Nursing at Cape Breton University in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Iduye is a consummate builder of bridges with experience learned during the last 24 years he worked in the fields of mental health, long-term care and health informatics.
Dr. Andrew Chan (Alberta)
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” baseball legend Yogi Berra once quipped. For Dr. Andrew Chan, it was a choice between pursuing a residency after completing medical school and a career in engineering. Fortunately, he’s now in a position where he experiences the best of both worlds as senior program lead, research and innovation, at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton.
Rebekah Churchyard (Ontario)
Rebekah Churchyard’s grandfather was diagnosed with dementia at age 63. A former Christmas tree farmer, he found himself with little to do and increasingly confused in his environment. He’d sit on the stoop of his home, refusing to go to a day program designed for people living with dementia. His granddaughter vowed to find better options for Canadians with dementia, and for their caregivers.
Kelly Davison (British Columbia)
It’s difficult to define narrowly the work Kelly Davison does to advocate for the health of local communities and Indigenous people, including Métis like himself. It’s multi-faceted and spreads across multiple organizations, but health equity is always at the core.
Dr. Shital Desai (Ontario)
Dr. Shital Desai may have spent much of her academic life studying machines and robots, but she never forgets about the people who use them. In her role as an Assistant Professor, Interaction Design at the School of Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) and York Research Chair in Accessible Interaction Design at York University, her work depends on her ability to understand the needs of others. Her goal is to keep the human component of technology front and centre.
Swati Katyarmal (Ontario)
A first-year graduate student in the Design for Health (DHEA) program at OCADU, Swati Katyarmal is an architect from India whose work is largely focused on hospital design. Her research revolves around exploring the design elements (interior design and architecture) and their implementation to support long-term care (LTC) and aging in place settings.
Sofija Spasojevic (Ontario)
When Dr. Sofija Spasojevic chose to pursue postdoctoral studies in Canada, she fully anticipated returning to Europe at the end. After three years, she not only decided to stay but discovered a passion for data science that prompted her to leave academia for a career in this field.
Lawrence Ly (Ontario)
Lawrence Ly’s passion for supporting healthy aging started with his grandmother at the age of fifteen. He was a 2018 AGE-WELL scholarship recipient and now works at Healthcare Human Factors to design better healthcare experiences.
Sayeh Bayat (Alberta)
As a newly-minted Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary, Dr. Sayeh Bayat is already encouraging her students to become AGE-WELL trainees – an experience she calls “incredible” in her own advancement as a researcher in technology and aging.
Mashrura Tasnim (Alberta)
Coming from Bangladesh to Canada, adapting and growing as a researcher was difficult at first for Mashrura Tasnim. Luckily, her PhD supervisor introduced her to the AGE-WELL network and encouraged her to get involved.
Jesse Mastrangelo (Ontario)
Jesse Mastrangelo didn’t set out to become an entrepreneur. But things changed when he discovered “hackathons.” Soon enough, he had signed up for AGE-WELL’s EPIC training program.
Karen Lok Yi Wong (British Columbia)
Karen Lok Yi Wong’s role as an AGE-WELL affiliate trainee was a dynamic two-way exchange. Wong brought the perspective of a social worker, while AGE-WELL exposed Wong to an extraordinarily interdisciplinary team.
Dr. Peyman Azad Khaneghah (Alberta)
Dr. Peyman Azad Khaneghah realized that people might need help sorting through the often confusing array of health apps on the market. So he created an app rating system, which he’s now refining and putting online as part of a research project funded by AGE-WELL.
Benett Axtell (Ontario)
When Benett Axtell became an AGE-WELL trainee in 2015, her father had just inherited a massive collection of family slides. Watching as he digitized and struggled to organize myriad images spanning decades, she was determined to apply her research on human-computer interaction to help older adults browse pictures, share memories and manage such collections.
Lupin Battersby (British Columbia)
Only two years after graduating from AGE-WELL’s EPIC training program, Lupin Battersby is making good progress toward achieving her five-year career goal: a management role at a research centre or network, where she oversees and supports projects through knowledge mobilization and commercialization.
Howard Chiam (Ontario)
As an AGE-WELL trainee, Howard Chiam created computer games geared to stroke survivors—work, he says, that was key to getting his dream job at ATS Automation in his hometown of Cambridge, Ontario.
Dr. Mohamed-Amine Choukou (Manitoba)
When he graduated as a kinesiologist, Dr. Mohamed-Amine Choukou imagined his future as a researcher working to improve quality of life and increase the mobility and social participation of vulnerable populations.
Dr. Ayse Kuspinar (Ontario)
Dr. Ayse Kuspinar is putting her experience as an AGE-WELL trainee to work in her position as assistant professor of physiotherapy in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University.
Dr. Rita Orji (Nova Scotia)
Dr. Rita Orji says her experience as an AGE-WELL trainee while doing postdoctoral work at McGill University helped her to see the sheer scope of what could be accomplished in the field of technology and aging.
Dr. Patrick Plante (Quebec)
Dr. Patrick Plante’s role as an AGE-WELL HQP doing postdoctoral work in digital educational games for older people proved to be the perfect launch pad for his new career as professor and researcher at TÉLUQ University, North America’s only French-language distance education university.
Dillam Diaz Romero (Alberta)
In just two years, Dillam Diaz Romero’s passion for creating technology to improve the lives of older adults has taken him from Colombia to Canada and Germany. Born and raised in Colombia, the AGE-WELL trainee and MSc student in Computing Science at the University of Alberta is on his way to achieving his goal: to do work that has global impact.
Danette Starblanket (Saskatchewan)
Danette Starblanket’s goal is to improve the quality of life for Canada’s Indigenous People―and she believes her involvement with AGE-WELL will help her to succeed.
VIDEO
Why do so many young researchers and professionals take part in AGE-WELL’s EPIC training program? Watch these videos to learn more.