Meet the WISHES team
The following are all members of the WISHES Advisory Committee, who have various roles in enhancing wellness amongst learners within the Cumming School of Medicine through scholarly inquiry, advocacy and innovation.
Aliya Kassam, PhD
Dr. Kassam is the founder and lead of WISHES. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences. She currently is the research lead in the Office of Postgraduate Medical Education where she has projects looking at fatigue management in residents, as well as multisource feedback. Her research interests include social responsibility, health advocacy, patient-centred care, quality improvement, psychometrics, and survey development.
Gretchen Greer
Gretchen is the administrator for both WISHES and the Office of Health & Medical Education Scholarship (OHMES), and has been with the Cumming School of Medicine since 2014. She is responsible for the daily operations for the units, and also serves in an education quality improvement role for the Faculty assisting with special projects. She has a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in business, and past work experience includes research administration and program management.
WISHES Advisory Committee Members
Allison Brown, PhD
Allison Brown is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine and Department of Community Health Sciences. She is a generalist, mixed methods medical education researcher whose interests include: social accountability; structural wellness; equity, diversity, and inclusion; and patient safety.
Kannin Osei-TuTu, MD, MSc
Dr. Kannin Osei-Tutu MD MSc is a clinical Lecturer and Hospitalist in the Department of Family Medicine with a long-standing passion for care transformation in health and wellness. He also serves as the Associate Director, Student Advising and Wellness in the Cumming School of Medicine. Dr. Osei-Tutu completed undergraduate studies at McMaster University in Kinesiology and a Masters in exercise physiology at Dalhousie University. His Masters thesis, which heavily focused on health and wellness, was the first to compare the American College of Sports Medicine and Center for Disease Control (ACSM-CDC) physical activity accumulation recommendation to the traditional recommendation, for impact on mood and physiological markers of fitness. His research demonstrated that accumulating short bouts of physical activity results in improved mental health outcomes. This work was featured on the Discovery Channel and is published in the Journal of Preventive Medicine. Dr. Osei-Tutu is passionate about the field of health and wellness. His current research interests include mindfulness, resiliency, and peak mental performance.
Shannon Ruzycki, MD, MPH
Shannon Ruzycki is a general internist with a research and advocacy interest in equity, diversity and inclusion and medicine.
Franco Rizzuti, MD
Franco Rizzuti is a PGY-4 & Co-chief Resident in Public Health & Preventive Medicine at the Cumming School of Medicine/AHS-Calgary Zone, and serves as the President for the Professional Association of Resident Physicians of Alberta (PARA) & the Canadian Association of Physicians with Disabilities (CAPD). Since 2010 Franco has held various leadership & board roles within the university, medical education, and healthcare/health systems. His scholarly work is in the area of positive work environments, mistreatment and accommodations.
Chidera Nwaroh
Chidera Nwaroh is a 2nd year Medical Student at the Cumming School of Medicine. She serves as the VP Marketing and Social Media for the Black Medical Students Association (BMSA) at the University of Calgary and is passionate about broadening the lens through which we view learner wellness when related to minority populations. Chidera is interested in developmental pediatrics and is involved in research investigating mental health changes in pediatric survivors of brain cancer.
Taelina Andreychuk, RN
Taelina Andreychuk is a Member of Metis Nation Alberta and moved from Edmonton to study medicine at the University of Calgary. She has a bachelor of psychiatric nursing and is a registered psychiatric nurse. Before medical school, she worked as a mental health therapist on reserve and in Edmonton’s inner city. She is currently a second year medical student and the senior officer of Indigenous health for the University of Calgary. Outside of school, she likes to get outside with her basset hound Remy or stay indoors and bake.
Mike Paget
Mike Paget is the manager of the Academic Technologies team at the Cumming School of Medicine. As a researcher, his focus is on clinical problem solving, assessment and cognitive load management. The Academic Technologies team focuses on system interventions that intersect student, faculty and staff needs specific to the MD program.
Kieran Steer, MD
Kieran Steer is a PGY-2 in Public Health & Preventive Medicine at the Cumming School of Medicine, and serves as the VP Community and Internal Relations for the Professional Association of Resident Physicians of Alberta (PARA). One of Kieran’s key interests is improving wellness in the workplace, with special focuses on mental health and equity.
Sean Bristowe, MSc
Sean (they/them) is a neurodivergent, queer and nonbinary human dedicated to their local community. They graduated from UCalgary’s Masters of Community Health Science in June 2020 and aspire to be a practicing family physician. During their Masters they were the Advocacy and Education executive member with Queers on Campus for 2018-2020 and were a member of the Graduate Students Association’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance from 2018-2020. Additionally, they have dedicated much of their community work, since 2016, to helping address the opioid overdose crisis and drug policy failings in Alberta and Canada. Because of their background and experience, they are passionate about advocating for drug and sex work decriminalization and social justice and equity for queer and trans people in medicine.
Nour Hassan
Nour Hassan is completing her final year of Bachelor of Health Sciences (Honours) at the Cumming School of Medicine, majoring in Health and Society with a concentration in Psychology. Her research and advocacy interests include refugee and immigrant health, social justice, and equity, inclusion and diversity. She is passionate about supporting and advocating for the well-being, integration, rights and needs of marginalized communities including learners from these communities.
Research Assistants
Benedicta Antepim
Benn joined the WISHES lab in February 2020. Benedicta is an MA student in educational research at the Werklund School of Education, where her research focuses on cultural competency education in the health sciences. She is working on various projects related to learner wellness at CSM.
Stephana Cherak
Stephana Cherak joined the WISHES lab in January 2020, and is working on wellness related research for the Office of Postgraduate Medical Education and WISHES. Stephana is a PhD Student in Epidemiology in the Departments of Community Health Sciences and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Calgary. Check out Stephana’s article in Nature on out-of-office replies and work-life balance: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00275-2