How did you come to be in your program?
During my undergrad at Dartmouth, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work in a molecular epidemiology lab and that work was the impetus for my growing interest in epidemiology.
Being from Kingston, I knew that Queen’s had a great master’s program and I wanted to come back home, so it ended up being a great fit. I came into the program knowing that I wanted to pursue a PhD and my experience working with Will King was excellent, so I decided to go the mini-masters route and the rest is kind of history.
What challenges have you had with the pandemic, and how did you overcome them?
I’ve been fortunate that I haven’t faced many obstacles during the pandemic, but it has certainly been stressful trying to finish my dissertation without direct contact with my supervisors, and the added difficulty with scheduling a defence.
My defence is going to be done online, which is not how I pictured it, but we must be flexible during this time and press ahead as best we can. At the end of the day, it will be an interesting situation to look back on when I’m older!
What are your hopes and plans?
I recently received a Robson Scholar Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Charbonneau Cancer Institute at the University of Calgary. Once my PhD is defended, I will be starting postdoctoral work in Calgary where my research will be focused on precision prevention of colorectal cancer – integrating lifestyle and molecular data to elucidate the etiology of early-onset of colorectal cancer (< 50 years of age) and to improve targeted screening for colorectal cancer.
I hope this post-doctoral work will eventually lead to the development of my own research program and a faculty position in a public health sciences department.
Research Grant
- Successful in a CIHR grant competition: Secondary Data Analysis for Cancer Prevention for $75,000, co-investigator on the grant with Dr. Will King
Post-secondary Awards
- In undergrad at Dartmouth, recipient of a Killam Scholarship
- Dartmouth College Fund Scholar
- Dean’s Honor List
- Athletic Director’s Honor Roll (Top Scholar-Athletes) – while running varsity cross country and track
- Received an academic citation in Public Health and was awarded recognition for high academic achievement in the field of sociology and for promotion of social justice
- During PhD studies, nominated for the Canadian Student Health Research Forum
Financial Awards while in PHS Program
- CIHR Fellowship
- Queen’s University Graduate Award
- Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship
- Empire Life Fellowship
- Ontario Graduate Scholarship
- Chen-Aronson Fellowship in Causes of Cancer
TA/RA Positions Held
- Lead TA for undergraduate statistics for three years for the departments of biology, psychology, kinesiology, nursing, politics, and geography
- Two semesters of online undergraduate statistics
- TA for EPID 804 in PHS, one semester
- Molecular epidemiology research assistant with Dr. Darren Brenner at the University of Calgary for one year
- Visiting scholar at the Occupational Cancer Research Centre in Toronto this past fall under the supervision of Dr. Paul Demers
Mentoring
Publications
Google Scholar
PubMed
Interviews
- Interviewed for the news section of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives (publication date TBA). The interview was conducted by Lindsey Konkel, an accomplished science journalist who has written for Newsweek, National Geographic, Huffington Post, Consumer Reports, Everyday Health, Science, Environmental Health Perspectives, UCSF Magazine, American Association for Cancer Research, and others.
- Interviewed by Phil Gaudreau for an SGS feature story Change your environment, combat cancer – Meet Dylan O’Sullivan