Hometown: Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Program: PhD in Women+ and Children’s Health Sciences (WACH)
Year in Program: 5
What inspired you to pursue your program?
My ambition is to help improve health outcomes, particularly for marginalized individuals, subsequently helping to mitigate health and research disparities. Therefore, I sought a program aligned with this ethos first. I was also interested in a program that would facilitate my growth as a scientist in a multidisciplinary research environment, allowing me to incorporate my experience in laboratory medicine while garnering new skills in data science. The PhD in WACH program, and research environments headed by my supervisors, Dr. Paul Yong and Dr. Aline Talhouk, have enabled me to realize these elements while working on endometriosis research.
Why did you choose UBC?
I chose UBC for multiple reasons. First, its robust research environment and high-ranking status as one of the top universities globally. Additionally, geographically, British Columbia is stunning, so the prospect of living in Vancouver during my tenure and being close to the ocean and mountains was quite attractive.
Tell me about your research.
My research focuses on predicting pain-related outcomes after endometriosis surgery. For this work, I am interested in identifying clinical and biological factors that influence poor pain-related outcomes, such as persistent or recurrent pain, or the need for additional endometriosis-related surgery in the future. The goal is to develop a predictive tool to support clinicians and patients during the surgical decision-making process by calculating the risk of whether or not an individual will benefit from surgery.
What are you most looking forward to this year?
By far, I am most excited to defend my PhD research and complete my program this year. The last four and a half years have been an exciting journey of learning and researching, and I looking forward to concluding this chapter of my academic journey.