Name: Jennifer F
erris
Program: Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD)
Graduated: 2022
Dissertation: Stroke and White Matter Hyperintensities: Investigating Lesion Impacts on Cognition and White Matter Structure
How would you describe your research in the UBC Rehabilitation Sciences program?
I worked in Dr. Lara Boyd’s lab during my PhD. My dissertation focused on using neuroimaging to measure patterns of vascular damage in the brain that occur in aging and after stroke. I also worked on projects using neuroimaging to find correlates of motor impairment of the upper extremity after stroke. I loved this work because it’s very interesting to think about how damage to the brain creates changes in behaviour, and also there is the potential to develop tools that clinicians could use to predict recovery after stroke.
Where and what is your current position?
I recently started a postdoc, funded through CIHR’s Health System Impact Fellowship (HSIF). The HSIF is a unique postdoc opportunity; fellows do embedded work with a health system organization in addition to doing academic research. My health systems partner is the BC Centre for Disease Control, and my project is developing methods to measure patterns of chronic disease across the BC population. The work I’m doing now is very different from my PhD, but a lot of the analytic skills that I developed in neuroscience thinking about patterns of activity in the brain translate to looking at patterns of disease in the population.
How do you like to spend your free time?
I love to run, and I especially love trail running in our beautiful BC mountains. I also love surfing when I have the opportunity. When I’m not outdoors, I enjoy reading a good fiction book and hunting for tasty food and coffee.
Congratulations Jennifer on being our featured Alumni of the Month for May!