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We are a team of academic and community-based researchers interested in rural health services. The team is comprised of:
- Health researchers and care providers
- Sociologists
- Geographers and community planners
- Economists
- Policy analysts and health care administrators
We believe our diversity of expertise, backgrounds and interests enhance our ability to comprehensively investigate the complexity of challenges and opportunities for rural health services in B.C. Our team is continually growing, so if you are interested in getting involved, please visit the page entitled Opportunities for Involvement.
Core Team
Our core team is based in Vancouver, and works closely together to plan and implement the direction and strategies of the Centre. To see a detailed biography, click on the team member’s name.
Co-Directors
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Research Team |
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Students
Affiliated Organizations
The RM-NET research agenda is supported and enhanced by affiliation with several organizations:
Other Affiliated Agencies
The RM-NET team also partners with the following agencies to fulfill our research:
Core Team Biographies
| Jude Kornelsen , PhD, is a medical sociologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Practice at UBC who has a focused program of research on rural maternity care. As co-director of the Centre for Rural Health Research, her primary focus involves rural maternal health issues including the emergence and integration of midwifery in our health care system. In this position Dr. Kornelsen works toward creating productive research environments and coordinates and oversees student positions. She has undertaken numerous funded studies on rural women's experiences of care and additionally directs a program of research into the emerging social phenomenon of elective cesarean section. Dr. Kornelsen is a CIHR New Investigator and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar. |
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| Stefan Grzybowski , MD, CCFP, MClSc, FCFP, is a Professor in the Department of Family Practice at UBC and a family physician with many years of rural clinical experience. He was Director of Research in the Department of Family Practice at UBC for 10 years and currently holds a Michael Smith senior scholar award. He has an abiding focus on rural health services research and building research capacity, both of which are exercised through his current position as co-Director of the Centre for Rural Health Research. Specific research foci include the safety of small rural maternity services with and without cesarean section capacity and supporting primary care clinician investigators. |
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| Leslie Carty joined the RMNET Team in June2009. Her passion for maternal care and women's health has been lifelong, growing up with an inspiring mother who has spent her life teaching Nursing and spearheading the Midwifery Program at UBC. Recently, she lived and worked in Merritt, BC as a Radio Host, embracing life in a town of roughly 8,000, interviewing, informing, and entertaining the community. Before her time on the airwaves, Leslie completed a BFA at Concordia University. While in Montreal she produced, directed, and acted in a production of "The Vagina Monologues" that raised over $10,000 for three women's charities. |
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| Barbara Lai joined the Centre for Rural Health Research as a Research Assistant in November 2010. Shortly after graduating from UBC with a B.Sc. in Behavioural Neuroscience and Nutritional Sciences in 2007, Barbara joined an internship program that brought her deep in the issues of HIV/AIDS in Hamilton, Canada and New Delhi, India. Her involvement as a HIV/AIDS health educator helped her see first hand the impact of system level influences on community level health delivery. This experience reshaped Barbara's interest in improving preventive health care delivery from an individual level to a system and policy level. In 2009, Barbara completed her Master of Public Health degree at the University of Hong Kong, where she continued working as a research assistant until September 2010. Although rural health research is a new area for her, Barbara looks forward to exploring ways to improve rural health service delivery through her involvement in the provider payment project and willingness-to-pay project. |
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| Ashley Love is from Kelowna, BC where she completed an Associate of Science degree from Okanagan University College, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Honours Psychology and a Masters of Arts degree focusing on the subjective-well being of individuals high in psychopathy from the University of British Columbia. Areas of research interest and previous research experience include examining the relation between cortisol secretion and subjective well-being, personality disorders (specifically alexithymia and psychopathy),developing objective, computer-based measurements of subjective well-being variables, and the influence of various psychological factors (particularly stress) on actual and perceived health. She is excited to join the Center for Rural Health Research and looks forward to studying health challenges facing individuals in rural communities. |
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| Kaitlin Irving is a graduate of the University of Norther BC, where she studied Community and Population Health. Prior to joining the RHSRNbc, Kaitlin worked with the Youth Sexual Health team investigating access to sexual health services and contraception for rural and Northern youth. Additionally, Kailtin has worke d with the Youth Sexual Health team investigating access to sexual health services and contraception for rural and Northern youth. Additionally, Kaitlin has worked with the UNBC Nursing Program investigating child automobile passenger safety. |
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PhD Student Biographies
| Kathrin Stoll joined the RM-NET as a project manager for our Stress and Pregnancy Survey and the Maternal and Newborn Outcomes project. Kathrin immigrated to Canada in 1993. She completed a BA in Psychology in 1999 and a graduate degree in Family Studies in 2004. Between 2005 and 2008 Kathrin worked on a range of research projects, including a study of the umbilical cord clamping practices and attitudes of Canadian maternity care providers, a secondary analysis of predictors of successful external cephalic version, the psychometric evaluation of a fatigue scale for use with pregnant women and new mothers, predictors of good recruitment in obstetric randomized controlled trials, research on attitudes towards pregnancy and childbirth among postsecondary students, barriers to providing and accessing skilled birth attendants in low resource settings, and most recently a study of barriers towards planned home birth among maternity care providers. Prior to working in maternity care research, Kathrin was hired to conduct the baseline research and evaluation of a Health Canada funded anti-smoking media campaign for immigrant and refugee youth. Between 2002 and 2004 Kathrin conducted a study on the psycho-social adjustment of 185 Sudanese refugee claimants (as part of her graduate studies) and also worked with the Social Planning and Research Council of British Columbia and the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives on a national investigation of determinants of food insecurity among Canadians. Currently she is pursuing a PhD at the University of British Columbia with a focus on women’s health research. |
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| Sarah Munro joined the RM-NET as a research assistant in June 2007 after completing her MA (English Literature) at UBC. She later bridged her passions for language and childbirth in becoming the RM-NET 's Editorial Manager, where she worked collaboratively with the team to translate research into writing for rural communities, academia, and policy makers. Sarah has also actively participated in qualitative data collection in the field for a variety of projects in rural BC, including in Trail, Bella Coola, Tofino, and Port Hardy/Port McNeill. As a Doctoral Fellow with the centre, Sarah is continuing to provide writing support to the team while pursuing her PhD in Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, where she is investigating rural breastfeeding health services and skin-to-skin newborn care. She is also supported through the UBC NEXUS program and the Western Regional Training Centre for Health Services Research. Outside of the research setting, Sarah continues actively to participate in childbirth and women’s issues as a doula and breastfeeding advocate. |
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Masters Student Biographies
Student Biographies
| Michael Kehl born and raised in Vancouver and a fourth-year Sociology/Psychology student at the University of British Columbia. Work in the field of rural maternity research is somewhat of a new endeavour for him, as his academic interests in the past have been centered around discrimination and class-based differences in higher education. Initial impressions however suggest that many of these same sociological issues pervade maternity care in British Columbia, and he looks forward to exploring these and other issues with the rest of the RMNET team. |
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| Becca Fergusen: joined the Centre for Rural Health Research as a Research Assistant in May 2011. Becca hails from Vancouver, BC, where she recently completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History with a Minor in English Literature from the University of British Columbia. Her involvement with the UBC Cancer Association and Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children has piqued an interest in learning about how health care can shape the lives of individuals, families, children, and mothers. She is particularly interested in how health care practices influence families in rural areas. Becca is really excited to join the Centre for Rural Health Research team and she is looking forward to delving into an examination of the different birthing experiences of women in rural communities. |
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Erika Neilson joined the CRHR as a Research Assistant in September 2011. Born and raised in the small town of Saint Andrews, NB (population 1800) Erika’s interest in rural health is certainly natural! In 2009 Erika completed a BAH in International Development specializing in Agriculture and Rural Development at the University of Guelph before moving to Ayacucho, Peru. There Erika worked for the micro-finance institution FINCA Peru where her role was to monitor and develop various projects including an educational program for children, and a scholarship fund for adolescent girls. Erika has also been an employee of the University of Guelph in various capacities including liaison officer for admission services, and copy editor for an undergraduate course journal. After a brief hiatus from the real world working at a brewery in Australia, Erika is back in academia (but arguably perhaps not in the real world), beginning a Master in Public Health at the University of British Columbia. Erika’s research at CRHR is presently focused on rural hospital usage patterns in British Columbia. |
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