Who’s Who?

The 2018 Knowledge Translation Team

By Carly Leggett

Each year we like to check in with an update on our Knowledge Translation (KT) family here at the George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation (CHI). As one of the seven platforms that make up CIHR’s Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) Manitoba SUPPORT Unit, our KT team has grown and evolved in a constant pursuit to advance both the science and practice of knowledge translation in health research. Read on for a sneak peek at the amazing and talented group of individuals that I get to work with on a daily basis:

Dr. Kathryn Sibley, KT Scientist & KT Platform Director

Working to advance the science of KT is our Director, Dr. Kate Sibley. A Toronto-to-Winnipeg-import, Kate is a Canada Research Chair in Integrated Knowledge Translation in Rehabilitation Sciences who has framed her research in the area of fall prevention using a KT lens. She joined us almost four years ago, and in that time has expanded her scope to include working to understand stakeholder perceptions related to KT and patient engagement in health research.

Carolyn Shimmin, Patient and Public Engagement Lead

Carolyn brings a background in journalism and rich communications, research and knowledge exchange experience. This experience, combined with a Master’s degree in gender studies, makes Carolyn well suited to her Patient Engagement (PE) portfolio. She leads all PE-related activities at our organization including the PE Lunchtime Learning Series, the PE Champions Program, the Funding Award for Patient and Public Engagement and the CHI Patient Engagement Collaborative Partnership (formerly the PE Advisory Group). As if that wasn’t enough, Carolyn also authors the PE Blog Series here on Knowledge Nudge.

Patrick Faucher, Creative and Strategic Services Lead

Spirited away from the world of advertising and marketing, Patrick helps distill complex ideas into messages tailored to resonate with our clients’ target audiences. He borrows strategies and theory from communications, behavioural economics, and design thinking (as well as his nearly 10 years of experience in the advertising industry) to develop KT tools engineered to influence policy, beliefs, and behaviours. He spends his days prototyping innovations alongside researchers and end-users, and developing educational and promotional content for video, print, web, and a variety of other media.

Patricia (Trish) Roche, Knowledge Broker

With formal training in basic biomedical sciences (a MSc in Physiology and a BSc in Biochemistry) and decades of experience as a visual artist, Trish combines creativity and critical analysis to advance the methods and science of knowledge translation (particularly for basic science) in health research. She has taken on a wide variety of roles in her time with the KT platform, including research coordinator, blog editor, cover for my last maternity leave, and most recently, patient engagement knowledge broker. She is a firm believer in the power of people & positivity, and her current life goal is to do all the things.

Amanda Osorio, Training and Events Coordinator for CHI

Each of the seven platforms at CHI offers various training and educational opportunities in their subject area. Exceptionally detail-oriented, and not afraid of a job that is broad and unprecedented, Amanda expertly coordinates them all. This includes planning, execution, evaluation and everything in between.

Rachel Carlson, Communications Specialist for CHI

Our newest team member Rachel comes from a background in Creative Communications, most recently with the College of Pharmacists of Manitoba. In her role at CHI, Rachel is responsible for connecting both internally and across the broader health and research communities to advance the communication strategy for our organization.

Masood Khan, Research Coordinator

Masood comes to our team with a background in qualitative research and an emerging interest in implementation health research. His work involves coordinating and administering activities associated with Kate’s research program in order to move research evidence into routine practice in health care.

Alex Korall , Post-Doctoral Fellow

Alex is working with Kate to examine barriers and enablers to uptake of patient, caregiver and clinician identified research priorities among health researchers in Canada. Her PhD research was focused on the prevention of fall-related hip fractures in residents of long-term care through wearable hip protectors.

Leah Crockett, PhD Student

When we hired Leah to cover my first maternity leave almost three years ago, we never dreamed we’d find a KT convert and future student for Kate. Leah brings with her an interest in health equity, neonatal & child health, global health and healthcare delivery in rural and remote Canada. She is currently completing her PhD in Integrated Knowledge Translation in Child Health at the University of Manitoba.

Alexie Touchette, Master’s Student

Alexie is doing her MSc in Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. Her project focuses on understanding current balance and fall prevention program design and decision-making factors in community-based exercise programs. Her long-term goals are to help create evidence-based treatment plans and programs to improve physical and cognitive health at the population level.

Carly Leggett, Manager & KT Practice Lead (Yours Truly)

Five years, four workstations and two maternity leaves ago, I came to CHI as a KT Coordinator with a background in epidemiology, public health and education. My knowledge of education theory and research training were immediately useful when working with stakeholders developing and implementing KT plans, budgets and timelines. Over the years, my role has grown to include not only my work as the knowledge broker with Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids (TREKK), but also the management of this fantastic KT group and lead of the KT practice stream within our platform.

We strongly believe that our KT team benefits from its diverse skill set, reaching beyond traditional health care and research training. What do you think are important KT skills for an individual or team?

Looking to connect?

Interested in learning more about the George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation? Visit our Knowledge Translation team page to see what specific services we offer.