Tina Afshar
Research Assistant
Email: tina.afshar@alumni.ubc.ca
Tina assists with our return to work in the construction sector project, which aims to enhance understanding of the barriers and facilitators to early and safe return to work in Ontario’s construction sector. She is pursuing an MSc in Population and Public Health at the UBC School of Population and Public Health and holds a BSc in Chemistry, Life Science & Physics, also from UBC. Her MSc research is exploring the relationship between the external (air) and internal (airway) microbiomes in participants with COPD and healthy controls.
Robert Macpherson
Senior Research Associate
Email: robert.macpherson@ubc.ca
Dr Robert Macpherson leads comparative projects concerning work-related injuries and return-to-work across Canadian provinces using workers’ compensation data. Robert holds an MA (hons) and MSc from the University of Dundee, and a PhD from the University of St Andrews, all in human geography. Prior to joining the Partnership, he completed his doctoral research on the labour market integration and internal migration of immigrant populations in Sweden. He has also conducted research projects on topics ranging from geographical access to higher education in rural communities, residential segregation and mobility, and international student mobility. Robert’s key strengths and interests are in applying quantitative research methods to large administrative registry data.
Suhail Marino
Director, Privacy and Operations
Tel: 604-822-0200
Email: suhail.marino@ubc.ca
Suhail has many years of experience in public health research, program development and management. She is a Canadian-certified privacy officer with a very strong background in data access, privacy and security in population health research. In addition to Bachelor degrees in arts and science, she holds internationally recognized certification on Information Privacy Management and Research Law. She has initiated, coordinated, and facilitated evaluation studies, epidemiological studies and public health forums. Suhail has also worked at UBC with Population Data BC, the Department of Health, Safety and Environment, the Department of Health Care and Epidemiology, Pacific Parkinson’s Research Centre, the Faculty of Medicine’s Evaluation Studies Unit and for the CIHR/MSFHR Strategic Training Program to Bridge Public Health, Engineering and Policy Research “Bridge Program.”
Lydia Mikhail
Research Assistant
Email: lydia.mikhail@ubc.ca
Lydia provides administrative and financial support for PWHS. Prior to joining the Partnership, she worked as a Research Assistant for the School of Public Policy & Global Affairs, as well as the Vancouver School of Economics. She holds a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of British Columbia.
Dawn Mooney
Communications Specialist
Email: dawn.mooney@ubc.ca
Dawn is the Partnership expert in data visualization and information communication. She holds a Master of Public Health from the UBC School of Population and Public Health and a BA in Geography. She uses mapping to explore geographic variation in work-related health risks and outcomes and also teaches cartography classes in the UBC Department of Geography. Dawn is interested in methods of effective graphical communication of health data and statistics, and in using mapping to explore, communicate and address geographic disparities in health and health care.
Kimberly Sharpe
Research Assistant
Email: kimberly.sharpe@ubc.ca
Kimberly is leading the collection of information that will enhance understanding of the barriers and facilitators to early and safe return to work for a Partnership project on Ontario’s construction sector. She is also pursuing her PhD in the UBC School of Population and Public Health. Prior to joining the Partnership, Kimberly worked in injury research and neuroethics. She holds a BA in Anthropology and History and MA in Social Dimensions of Health from the University of Victoria.
Laksika Banu Sivaraj
Research Associate
Email: l.sivaraj@ubc.ca
Dr. Banu Sivaraj is working on a project evaluating the Health and Safety Excellence Program developed by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario. She completed her PhD in Applied Health Research and Evaluation in the College of Behavioral, Social, and Health Sciences at Clemson University, USA in 2023, where her dissertation focused on opioid prescribing among the pediatric population. During her doctoral program she worked as a research assistant in the Department of Public Health Sciences where she conducted quantitative research using 20 years of South Carolina Medicaid Claims data. She also worked as a data manager at the Addiction Medicine Center in one of South Carolina’s main health systems (Prisma Health–Upstate). Her research interests include occupational safety, substance use, substance use treatment and recovery, prescription opioids, and covid-19 vaccination.
Josie Stubos
Research Assistant
Email: josie.stubos@ubc.ca
Josie is working on qualitative analysis for a study focused on developing an occupational health and safety management strategy and tool tailored for small and micro construction firms. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Ontario where she completed the Honours Specialization in Political Science degree program.
Lillian Tamburic
Senior Programmer/Analyst
Email: lillian.tamburic@ubc.ca
Lillian provides programming and data analysis for various Partnership projects, including our work on gender, work, and health. She holds a BSc (Hons) in biochemistry from UBC and previously worked in virology research. Lillian also completed a second BSc degree in computer science, combined with statistics.