Curious Minds WCHRI Annual Report 2021-2022
Research is critical to propel humanity forward. It’s fueled by curiosity and starts with asking questions.
Since 2006, each of the more than 2,200 projects led by WCHRI-supported researchers and trainees who wanted to find solutions for patients, families and communities began with a question. They immersed themselves in discovering answers and their progress has been critical in helping to close the gap in research focusing on women and children.
Their contributions are improving the health and lives of women and children not only locally, but impacting families around the world.
And it all started with curiosity and a question.
Messages
Message from the Directors
Research is critical to propel humanity forward–it’s fueled by curiosity and starts with asking questions.
Fifteen years ago we set out on a challenging, yet crucially important, journey—to build a brighter future for women and children through research excellence.
With humble beginnings, WCHRI is now a national leader in women and children’s health research. As one of the only institutes of its kind in the world, more than 440 dedicated members are driven by curiosity and immerse themselves in asking questions and finding solutions for patients, families and communities. Read full message
Sandra Davidge & Todd Alexander Women and Children’s Health Research Institute
Sandra Davidge & Todd Alexander Women and Children’s Health Research Institute
Message from the Executive Director and Associate Director
Research is critical to propel humanity forward—it’s fueled by curiosity and starts with asking questions.
Fifteen years ago we set out on a challenging, yet crucially important, journey—to build a brighter future for women and children through supporting research excellence.
With humble beginnings, WCHRI is now a national leader in women and children’s health research. As one of the only institutes of its kind in the world, more than 440 dedicated members are driven by curiosity and immerse themselves in asking questions and finding solutions for patients, families and communities.
In 15 short years, WCHRI has helped recruit 51 researchers to the University of Alberta, supported over 1,000 trainees and more than 2,200 projects through grant programs and research platforms. These WCHRI-supported researchers have harnessed the power of partnership and their progress has been critical in helping to close the gap in women’s and children’s health research.
But it’s not only our members who are leveraging collaborative opportunities to advance women and children’s health. At an organizational level, WCHRI partners with research institutes and networks across the country. Working together in a coordinated fashion enables us to build capacity and advance excellence in health research and knowledge mobilization, and provide training guided by the best science.
Thank you to our partners—the University of Alberta, Alberta Health Services, Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation and Alberta Women’s Health Foundation—for their vision in creating WCHRI 15 years ago, and for their continued support of research that transforms the health of children and women.
From exploring the cardiovascular health of children born to mothers with gestational diabetes to helping primary healthcare settings in Alberta develop an effective standardized response to family violence, our annual report highlights WCHRI-supported researchers whose contributions are improving the health and lives of women and children not only locally, but impacting families around the world.
And it all started with a question.
Sandra Davidge, Executive Director
Todd Alexander, Associate Director
Mike House Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation
Mike House Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation
Message from the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation
Investing in curious minds is an investment in children’s futures
It’s been said that critical thinking and curiosity are at the heart of creativity. The power of curiosity opens new doors, allows people to try and do new things, and sends us down exciting new paths to life-changing discoveries. To me, this defines the power of research.
A child is curious during all stages of development and our University of Alberta partners at WCHRI have never lost that curiosity. In fact, it’s a critical element to their growing success in the field of pediatric research and the world-renowned outcomes that are helping to transform children’s health.
As the primary funder of WCHRI, and the largest donor to the University of Alberta, we’re extremely proud to support the many talented and curious researchers who are changing how children’s health care is thought about, evolving and delivered throughout Alberta and around the world. Since 2006, our donors have proudly contributed $83.5 million for children’s health research in northern Alberta to fund sub-specialty training and more than 1,940 child health research projects. This includes $5 million to directly fund award-winning researchers at WCHRI through the Stollery Science Lab Distinguished Researchers program.
With continued donor investments in research, we give all kids the best chance to live a long and healthy life. Our board recognizes the power of research and its ability to transform children’s health in western Canada, and the thousands of Stollery families who benefit each year know first-hand that research means better outcomes for kids and teens from backyards across Alberta and beyond. If you’re curious to learn more, please visit stollerykids.com.
Albert Einstein once said, “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” Congratulations to our partners at the University of Alberta, at Alberta Health Services and at WCHRI for always questioning, immersing themselves in the science, and finding creative solutions that are helping more kids and their families get back to their backyards.
Mike House
President and CEO
Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation
Sharlene Rutherford Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation
Sharlene Rutherford Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation
Message from the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation
The Alberta Women’s Health Foundation was essentially created to answer the question, Why?
Why do disparities exist in women’s health outcomes? Why has research into women’s health issues been historically underfunded? Why do these gaps still exist for half the population?
And why are we, as Albertans, not doing absolutely everything in our power to close these gaps and help women and families?
In response, we created our new fundraising brand as an extension of the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation’s focus on women’s health, and to address these all-consuming questions with a single-minded gaze. Our very first goal at the Alberta Women’s Health Foundation was to better understand how we found ourselves in this situation—and to start asking the right questions to move us forward.
We have been fortunate enough to work with—and benefit from—the brilliantly inquisitive minds of organizations like WCHRI, one of our core research partners.
Together, we have been expanding our investigation from our initial Why? to many other types of questions. What are the most urgent topics in women’s health and women’s health research? Who else can we rally to our cause? How far can we spread our learnings across Alberta and beyond?
Along with the more than 160 researchers we support, we have been able to dig deeper to address other questions. Why has the pandemic disproportionately affected women? Why aren’t more people aware of common pelvic floor health concerns, or the challenges surrounding endometriosis, when these issues impact so many of our community’s women?
With WCHRI standing beside us, we are eager to see just how far we can expand our understanding of women’s health, and how long until we achieve our ultimate goal of women’s health equity.
It is my honour to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the WCHRI team on behalf of the Foundation, including our board of directors and our Chair George Coon, and all our donors and supporters. Thank you for staying curious, thank you for fearlessly asking the questions that need to be asked, and thank you for your diligence in seeking out the answers. And, as always, thank you to the many donors who support us.
Sharlene Rutherford
President and CEO
Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation
Aminah Robinson Fayek University of Alberta
Aminah Robinson Fayek University of Alberta
Message from the University of Alberta
The University of Alberta has been advancing knowledge and shaping the future through research, teaching and innovation for more than a century. Research and innovation are at the core of what we do. It is who we are.
Our support for WCHRI—in collaboration with Alberta Health Services, the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Alberta Women’s Health Foundation—enables excellence in an important area of research. In just 15 years, WCHRI has become a world leader in closing the gap in women’s and children’s health.
Through WCHRI, the best creative minds are provided opportunities to explore and to ask questions. As a result, they are making advances in critical areas of women’s and children’s research, including mental health, cancer treatment and cardiovascular health. By design, the Institute is shining a light on research for populations that are underrepresented.
The University seeks to explore, engage, empower and excel in its research and we applaud WCHRI for focusing on all of these visionary targets in its many activities and initiatives. As the partnership continues to strengthen, we witness the impact of research that directly improves the health of women and children, their families and communities.
Thank you, WCHRI, for leading the way and leading with purpose.
Aminah Robinson Fayek
Vice-President Research and Innovation
University of Alberta
Kathryn Todd Alberta Health Services
Kathryn Todd Alberta Health Services
Message from Alberta Health Services
As Alberta’s largest provider of care, Alberta Health Services is a proud partner of WCHRI. This 15-year-strong collaboration enables us to integrate health research and innovation into the delivery of care and helps us build a healthcare system that both delivers the highest quality of care for Albertans and improves health outcomes.
As we navigated the second year of the pandemic we were able to better manage and improve outcomes based on new research that transformed our practices in a relatively short amount of time. Seeing the immediate and direct impact that research can have emphasizes the importance of our commitment to research in all areas of care. Our partnership with WCHRI enables us to continue to close the gaps in research and innovation that will significantly benefit the lives of women, children and their families.
From understanding the long-term cognitive effects of perinatal stroke on children to studying molecular changes in aggressive ovarian and uterine cancer, and applying them to more quickly improve clinical practice, WCHRI-supported researchers ask important questions and seek actionable results.
With every research project undertaken, our partnership moves us one step further in our journey towards closing gaps in care and significantly contributing to a healthier future for Albertan women, children and communities.
Kathryn Todd
Vice President, Provincial Clinical Excellence
Alberta Health Services
Women and Children's Health Research Institute
We support research excellence dedicated to improving the health and lives of women and children. WCHRI is the only research institute in Canada—and one of the few in the world—to focus on both women’s and children’s health, including perinatal health.
WCHRI was founded in 2006 as a partnership between the University of Alberta and Alberta Health Services, with core funding from the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation. Thanks to our funders’ generosity, we are able to support a broad range of research programs focused on improving health for women and children.
Our vision
To harness the power of research innovation for a healthy future for children and women.
Our mission
WCHRI will foster the brightest minds to discover, innovate and ultimately transform the health of children and women through supporting research excellence.
Governance
- Finance and operations sub-committee
- Oversight board
- Brenda Hemmelgarn (Chair)
Dean, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, U of A - Dianne Balon
Board of Directors representative,
Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation - Jeff Bryson
Board of Trustees representative,
Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation - Janie Clink
Senior Operating Officer, Royal Alexandra Hospital & Sturgeon Community Hospital, AHS - Steven Dew
(Greta Cummings, Designate)
Provost & Vice-President Academic, U of A - Aminah Robinson Fayek
Vice-President, Research & Innovation, U of A - Sarah Forgie
Chair, Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, U of A - Mike House
President and CEO,
Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation - Shanthi Johnson
Dean, School of Public Health, U of A - Lawrence Richer
Vice Dean, Research (Clinical),
Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, U of A - Sharlene Rutherford
President and CEO,
Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation - Jane Schulz
Chair, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, U of A - Kathryn Todd
Vice President,
Provincial Clinical Excellence, AHS - Lorne Tyrrell
Director, Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology, U of A - Christine Westerlund
Senior Operating Officer,
Stollery Children’s Hospital, AHS - Ex-officio (non-voting members)
Sandra Davidge
Executive Director, WCHRI - Todd Alexander
Associate Director, WCHRI - Katherine Sweet
Director of Strategic Partnerships,
Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation - As of March 31, 2022
- Brenda Hemmelgarn (Chair)
- Associate Director
- Todd Alexander
Associate Director, WCHRI - Todd Alexander is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics, a pediatric nephrologist, Stollery Science Lab Distinguished Researcher, and Canada Research Chair in Renal Epithelial Transport Physiology. Since 2018, he has served as program director of the Kidney Research Scientist Core Education and National Training (KRESCENT) Program.
- He completed his medical training at the University of Western Ontario in 1999, holds a PhD in cell biology from the University of Toronto, completed in 2007, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in renal physiology in 2008 at St. Radboud University, Netherlands.
- Alexander has established a highly successful research program and been awarded more than $5 million in grant funding as a PI. Since 2006, he has published 91 journal articles and has 3,446 citations to date. He is also involved in clinical trials and is the site lead for a clinical trial for renal tubular acidosis—a condition that occurs when the kidneys fail to acidify the urine causing a person’s blood to remain too acidic.
- He has made significant contributions to WCHRI over the last decade, from his roles on the Program Advisory Committee and Trainee Advisory Committee to his extensive involvement with peer-review—including his recent role as chair of an Innovation Grant Panel.
- Executive director
- Sandra Davidge
Executive Director, WCHRI - Sandra Davidge received her bachelor of science from the University of Massachusetts, master of science from Washington State University and PhD from the University of Vermont. She then continued her training as a postdoctoral fellow at the Magee Women’s Research Institute in Pittsburgh before moving to Edmonton with her husband and two children in 1996. She is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Alberta.
- As a leader in pregnancy research, Davidge is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, as well as a former two-term Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Maternal and Perinatal Cardiovascular Health.
- She has published over 250 scientific articles on her pioneering studies that are focused on understanding the causes on pregnancy complications, such as preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction, in order to develop new therapies to improve pregnancy outcomes.
- Her work further explores strategies to prevent chronic cardiovascular diseases that can arise in children born from complicated pregnancies.
- She has received international recognition for her innovative research as she mentors the next generation of scientists and clinician-scientists.
- In 2012, Davidge was appointed executive director of the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute (WCHRI).
- Scientific advisory committee
- Stephanie A. Atkinson
Professor, Department of Pediatrics, McMaster University
Associate Member, Department Biochemistry & Biomedical Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University
Special Professional Staff, McMaster Children’s Hospital - Paul Franks
Genetic Epidemiology, Lund University
Adjunct Professor, Harvard School of Public Health - Annette Majnemer
Vice Dean, Education, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University
Professor, School of Physical & Occupational Therapy, McGill University
Director, CHILD-BRIGHT Network - Patrick McGrath
Emeritus Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University
Scientist, IWK Health Centre
Adjunct Professor, Psychiatry, University of Ottawa - Charles Nelson
Director of Research, Developmental Medicine Center, Boston Children’s Hospital
Professor of Pediatrics and Neuroscience and Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Richard David Scott Chair in Pediatric Developmental Medicine Research, Boston Children’s Hospital - Paula Rochon
VP Research, Women’s College Hospital
Professor, Department of Medicine and Institute of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation,
University of Toronto
RTO/ERO Chair in Geriatric Medicine - As of March 31, 2022
- Stephanie A. Atkinson
- WCHRI operations
- Sandra Davidge
Executive Director - Todd Alexander
Associate Director - Michelle Bailleux
Director, Research Grants - Katie Buchanan
Program and Governance Lead - Louanne Campbell
Director, Operations - Breanne Fisher
Director, Stewardship,
Communications & Marketing - Bethan Kingsley
Research Associate - Laura Reyes Martinez
Clinical Research Program Lead, Women’s Health - Dory Sample
Clinical Research Director - Tanya Voth
Program Director - As of March 31, 2022
- Sandra Davidge
- Program advisory committee
- Sandra Davidge
Executive Director, WCHRI - Todd Alexander
Associate Director, WCHRI - Geoff Ball
Associate Chair, Research, Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Rhonda Bell
Professor, Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences
WCHRI Theme Lead for Pregnancy and Developmental Trajectories - Margie Davenport
Associate Professor, Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation - Greg Funk
Professor, Physiology, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry
Lead, WCHRI Shared Lab Space - Carla Hilario
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Nursing - Lisa Hornberger
Professor, Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Jacqueline Pei
Associate Professor, Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education - Lesley Pritchard
Assistant Professor, Physical Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine - Sue Ross
Cavarzan Chair in Women’s Health Research
WCHRI Theme Lead for Lifelong Women’s Health - Alexa Thompson
WCHRI Trainee Advisory Committee Chair
PhD candidate, Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry
- Lonnie Zwaigenbaum
Professor, Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - As of March 31, 2022
- Sandra Davidge
- Trainee advisory committee
- Alexa Thompson (Chair)
PhD candidate, Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Ehsan Misaghi (delegate chair)
MD/PhD student, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry/Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science - Lauren Higa
Undergraduate student, Psychology, Faculty of Science - Forough Jahandideh
Postdoctoral fellow, Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Brittany Mattenchuk
PhD student, Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport & Recreation - Vaishvi Patel
MD candidate, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Kaya Persad
MSc candidate, Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Nicole Rodriguez
MSc candidate, Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Matthea Sanderson
Postdoctoral fellow, Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - Adrianne Watson
PhD student, Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry - As of March 31, 2022
- Alexa Thompson (Chair)
Research stories
A tiny molecule could unlock the potential of inhalable vaccines
Researcher’s work seeks the key to allowing inactivated vaccines to be inhaled instead of injected
In the future, a simple sniff could provide pain-free protection from the viruses that cause respiratory infections like influenza or COVID-19.
Recognizing family violence as a serious public health issue
Edmonton project will measure readiness of Primary Care Networks to offer interventions and support
A tool being developed by an Edmonton researcher will assess the readiness of Alberta’s primary health care clinics to offer effective family violence interventions and support to their patients.
Accelerating precision health for ovarian cancers
A pathologist recreates disease in a petri dish to tailor cancer treatments
Cheng-Han Lee dedicated the first decade of his career to uncovering the genetic drivers for gynecological cancers—he even helped identify a new kind of cancer altogether.
Preventing mental health lessons from getting lost in translation
An online resource that teaches mental health literacy is getting a cultural makeover
In Indigenous cultures, health is a holistic state comprising both mental and physical wellbeing. In traditional Chinese cultures, mental illness can be a source of shame.
Exploring the impact of perinatal stroke on children’s cognitive abilities
New research focuses on mathematics difficulties and interventions that can help kids and their caregivers
A new study by an Edmonton developmental psychology researcher is leading to a better understanding of the long-term cognitive effects of perinatal stroke on children, especially functions that play a role in mathematics ability.