Meet Our Team

Dr. Jennifer McWhirter (she/her), PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Medicine at the University of Guelph and the Director of the Health by Design Lab. Her research focuses on the design and assessment of health information and built environments, and the systems that shape them, to promote health and well-being at the population level. She completed her PhD in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo with a focus on health communication and has cross-training in Landscape Design from the University of Guelph and New York Botanical Gardens. As Principal Investigator, her research is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and she’s been recognized by Health Promotion Canada with a Rising Star Award.

Dr. Melissa MacKay (she/her), MPH, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Scholar with research and teaching interests in health, risk, and crisis communication, and health promotion. She applies qualitative methods and evidence synthesis in combination with knowledge mobilization to maximize research impact. Her dissertation focused on trust in public health communication during the COVID-19 pandemic and she is lead author on the Social Media Crisis Communication Guidebook for Public Health. Dr. MacKay is an Instructor in the MPH program at the University of Guelph and a past faculty member at Conestoga College teaching communication and research methods. She has professional experience managing knowledge mobilization programs within public health, government, and academia. She is currently a CIGI Postdoctoral Fellow working on Artificial Intelligence, trust, and public health.

Dr. Carrie McMullen (she/her), MSc, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Health by Design Lab with a focus on developing a climate change competencies framework for public health in Canada. She is skilled in combining knowledge synthesis and qualitative research methodologies to holistically understand complex problems. Her dissertation focused on developing One Health competencies and an evaluation framework for One Health training programs in higher education. Dr. McMullen is also a proud member of a cash-crop family farm business in Southwestern Ontario and also holds research ties to the farming community through other work.

Vayshali Patel (she/her), BSc, is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Population Medicine at the University of Guelph. Her doctoral research project focuses on evaluating public-facing risk communication information and products during multi-jurisdictional enteric illness outbreak investigations and is being conducted in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada. Vayshali previously completed a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science at the University of Guelph.

Caroline Bravo (she/her), MSc, is a PhD Candidate whose passion is in the application of behavioural science to solve complex health problems. Her PhD thesis combines her interests of behavioural science, cancer communication, and social media by exploring how to effectively educate cervical screen-eligible Instagram users about the upcoming transition to HPV testing for primary cervical screening in Canada. Her findings will help inform public health professionals and health communicators that will be tasked with developing communication materials to promote HPV testing for cervical cancer prevention. Caroline has six years of experience designing and evaluating Ontario’s cancer screening programs, products, policies, and processes and is currently Manager, Prevention at Ontario Health.

Devon McAlpine (he/him), BSc (Hons), MPH, completed a MPH in the Department of Population Medicine. Devon’s research areas in the lab are in public health communication competencies, for which he conducted a survey of the Canadian public health workforce as an MPH practicum student. Devon became interested in Public Health after working as a Health Promotion Assistant in the Community Health network and became further interested in Health Communication during his time working as a Summer Research Assistant in Long-Term Care. He holds an Honours Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in Psychology from McMaster University. He was an MPH Practicum Student in the lab and currently works as a Research Associate in the Health by Design Lab and at Sunnybrook Research Institute.

Sydney Gosselin (she/her), MSc, is a PhD Candidate and has been involved in health communication and policy research for over seven years when she first joined the Healthy by Design Lab. Her MSc thesis research investigated the comprehensiveness of Canadian indoor tanning legislation and indoor tanners’ perspectives of health warning labels for tanning equipment. She is currently focused on effective persuasive message design strategies, such as the use of images, correction of misinformation, and consideration of communication and behaviour theories, for a variety of public health areas. She is a Senior Research Analyst, Climate Change and Health at Health Canada, where she is involved in initiatives to protect Canadians from extreme heat.

Reed Ciarloni (she/her), BA (Hons.), is a MSc student in the Department of Population Medicine. Reed is interested in how features of the built and natural environment influence population health, with a specific interest in the role of climate change in this relationship. Her thesis research on shade explores these interests further, focusing on climate-resilient built environments through heat mitigation policy and design as factors in public health and environmental equity. She previously completed a combined honours degree in Sociology and Environment & Society from McMaster University. 

Abishaya Kodeeswaran (she/her), BScN, RN, is an MPH Practicum Student in the Health by Design Lab where she is contributing to research on public health climate change competencies. Her interest in public health stems from her nursing experience, which exposed her to the health inequities faced by diverse communities. Abishaya previously completed a Bachelor of Science in Nursing with a minor in Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Gilda Poovan (she/her), BMSc (Hons), is a MPH student in the Department of Population Medicine and a MPH practicum student in the Health by Design Lab where she is contributing to research on municipal level policies related to urban shade. She is interested in health communication and public health policy as well as learning about climate adaptation strategies to improve population health. 

Janette Wong (she/her), BA (Hons.), is a MPH student in the Department of Population Medicine. At Health by Design Lab, Janette is contributing to research on the use of generative AI in health communication messaging about extreme heat. Janette previously completed her Bachelor of Arts at McMaster University. She is passionate about addressing upstream barriers that perpetuate disparities in health outcomes through health promotion, policy, and advocacy.

Katie Sonier (she/her), MSc, is a PhD student in the Department of Population Medicine at the University of Guelph. Her research focuses on how generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used in public health communication and how it could be optimized to produce effective, ethical, and accurate public health messages. Her results will help inform public health professionals about the appropriate use of AI and the development of publicly available guidelines for the use of AI in public health. Katie holds an Honours Bachelor of Science in Biology and Psychology and a Master of Science in eHealth (Health Informatics) from McMaster University.