2025 Alberta Innovative Trials and Health Research Methods Symposium

Justin Presseau - Keynote Speaker

Justin Presseau, PhD, is Director of the Methodological and Implementation Research program and Centre for Implementation Research at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and Associate Professor in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. He also co-leads knowledge mobilization and implementation science committees within Accelerating Clinical Trials (ACT) Canada, the IMAGINE SPOR network and the Chronic Pain Network (CPN). His research program draws from behavioural and implementation science to support the health and well-being of patients, the public, and supporting health providers in the health care system to provide high quality care. 

Khara Sauro - Keynote Speaker

Dr. Khara Sauro is an Associate Professor and Ohlson Professor of Head & Neck Health Services Research in the Departments of Surgery, Community Health Sciences and Oncology at the University of Calgary. Dr. Sauro’s research focuses on improving the quality and safety of care for patients, especially those who undergo major surgical treatment. She is interested in using routinely collected administrative data to assess healthcare quality and in applying knowledge translation and quality improvement methods to enhance health care delivery.

Maoliosa Donald

Dr. Maoliosa (Mo) Donald, PhD is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. She is trained as a health services researcher, implementation scientist, and physical therapist. Her research interests include interventions that support person-centered care, and innovations that address the evidence-practice gap. Mo has extensive experience in partner engagement in the implementation of health innovations. She is interested in applying theories, methods, and frameworks to determine factors that promote or impede implementation, adaptation, and sustainability in ways that are effective and practical for various contexts.

Amity Quinn

Dr. Amity Quinn is a health economist and an Assistant Professor of Female and Women's Health at the University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine. She received her PhD in Social Policy from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and postdoctoral fellowship in health economics at the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on designing & evaluating services & policies with health system partners to improve access to high value care for women and other marginalized groups.

Tyrone Harrison

Dr. Tyrone Harrison is an assistant professor of Medicine at the University of Calgary, where he works as a health services researcher and nephrologist. His current research program is funded by the Kidney Foundation of Canada, CIHR, and Alberta Innovates, and is focused on integrating person-centredness within risk prediction strategies, population-based cohort studies for people with chronic disease, and integration of clinical decision support within pragmatic clinical trials. He is an investigator on the UPTAKE series of pragmatic clinical trials, which are embedded in various degrees within Connect Care.

Maria Dalton

Raised in quiet Prince Edward Island, Maria Dalton brings her unique rural insight to all the work she does. Currently in the first year of her PhD program, Maria is embedded within the APPROACH Research Group investigating the role of patient reported outcomes and experience measures in cardiac care. She is passionate about community/patient engagement, teaching, and mentorship and her research interests include healthcare system quality improvement, geospatial analysis, and the intersection of scientific misinformation and public health.

Sarina Aryal

Sarina Aryal is a recent MSc graduate from the Community Health Sciences program at the University of Calgary. Currently, she is working as a Research Associate under the supervision of Drs. David Campbell and Khara Sauro. Her research interests include improving access to healthcare, enhancing patient experiences, and engaging communities in knowledge mobilization and integrated knowledge translation.

Richard Oster

Dr. Richard Oster is the Scientific Director of the Indigenous Wellness Core of Primary Care Alberta. Dr. Oster is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at both the University of Alberta in the Department of Agricultural, Food & Nutritional Sciences, and in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary.

Kienan Williams

Kienan Williams is a member of Sandy Lake First Nation (ON) that is passionate about health equity with Indigenous people. He is currently the Program Lead for Innovation and Research within the Indigenous Wellness Core of Primary Care Alberta. In this role he uses strength-based Indigenous Worldviews to address health inequities from a systems thinking approach, specifically using a data-informed lens privileging Indigenous Data Governance.

Marc Leduc

Elder Jackie Bromley

Elder Jackie Bromley also known as Iminii’akii, is a member from the Kainai Blood Tribe located in southern Alberta. Jackie currently serves as a Rural Communication Outreach Support Worker and Cultural Advisor with the Awo Taan Healing Lodge Society in Calgary, Alberta. Jackie also works in various capacities with 113 Pathways to Justice: Alberta Joint Working Group on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirited peoples, Alberta Health Services, Calgary Board of Education and the University of Calgary. She is also currently working on the creation of the Indigenous Elder’s Lodge, the first urban Indigenous seniors living facility in Calgary.