Supervisor: Catherine Backman
I am fortunate to be a part of both UBC’s Rehabilitation Sciences program (Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy) as well as Arthritis Research Canada (ARC), with an interdisciplinary team of over 100 scientists and trainees, the largest clinical arthritis research centre in North America. At ARC, I engage with an incredibly active patient advisory board, who have been so valuable in providing their insights and perspectives into my research.
I am currently finishing up my PhD and preparing for my final defense happening in April. My project explored the relationship between people’s everyday activities and health, and showed that people with and without inflammatory arthritis (IA) engage in similar activities. Participants without IA rated their balance of activities slightly better than people with IA; finally, we found that a satisfying mix of everyday activities is beneficial to mental health for everyone.
When I have some free time, I enjoy baking, paper crafting, and photography. During the first phase of the pandemic, my children and I folded and hung a line of 69 paper cranes in our window (a crane for each of the 69 days during Phase 1 of the pandemic in BC).