Chairs Appointed

Proactive Approaches to Reducing Risk for Violence Among Children and Youth, SFU – Dr. Robert McMahon

Dr. Robert McMahon , an internationally renowned clinical child psychologist, has been appointed as the B.C. Leadership Chair in Proactive Approaches to Reducing Risk for Violence Among Children and Youth. This is the first chair of its kind in the province, with a goal of establishing B.C. as a national and international leader in the development of effective intervention strategies to reduce and prevent violent and aggressive behaviour in children and youth.

The chair will develop preventative and treatment interventions for children and youth with conduct problems, built on evidence-based good practices. Conduct problems include significant levels of disruptive, aggressive or violent behaviour.

The chair will also establish a new Institute for the Reduction of Youth Violence, at both SFU and the Child and Family Research Institute. The institute, supported by a $500,000 grant from the Ministry of Children and Family Development, will conduct research on risk and protective factors and developmental pathways of youth violence and other conduct problems, as well as evidence-based preventive and treatment interventions. It will bring together SFU researchers in psychology, criminology and health sciences, researchers in the developmental neurosciences and child health research group at the Child and Family Research Institute and researchers at other B.C. universities

Aboriginal Early Childhood Development - VIU - Linda McDonell

The goal of the chair is to strengthen the cultural relevance of training for early childhood education and development practitioners. This will be achieved through a new collaborative approach that combines research with community-based practice to help create innovative and culturally relevant programs and services. The research and innovation agenda will be collaboratively set, actively involving Aboriginal practitioners and educators in research and curriculum development.

Linda McDonell is a dedicated researcher in early childhood development. McDonell has been involved in groundbreaking work in Aboriginal and Indonesian communities with students and early childhood educators to enhance the connections between practitioners, family, community and culture.

The chair will be in VIU's faculty of health and human services, and will have links to faculties across the institution such as the faculty of social sciences, the department of First Nations studies in the faculty of arts and humanities and the faculty of education. External links with the University of Victoria, the University of British Columbia, the University of Northern British Columbia and Thompson Rivers University will be expanded to promote collaboration and information-sharing.

Addiction Research - UBC - Dr. Michael Krausz

Drug addiction causes people to experience overdoses, develop infectious diseases, and become involved in drug-related crime. At present, treatments for addiction to injection drugs are limited in effectiveness. On December 13, 2007, Dr. Michael Krausz was appointed to the BC Leadership Chair in Addiction Research with matching fund from St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation. This program is designed to be a leader in translational research and to be a catalyst for the development and evaluation of entirely new approaches to addiction treatment. 

Dr. Michael Krausz, a noted psychiatrist and researcher, who will also hold a clinical appointment at St. Paul’s Hospital, part of Providence Health Care, is a world authority on addiction treatment and led the world’s largest addiction trial, carried out in Germany using heroin-assisted therapy. Examples of the research he will conduct in his new role will involve gaining a better understanding of the impact of life experiences like violence and sexual abuse on addiction, as well as looking at medications and other therapies that can improve people’s lives.

Cognitive Neuroscience in Early Childhood Development – SFU - Dr. Urs Ribary

World-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Urs Ribary has been appointed as the B.C. Leadership Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience in Early Childhood Health and Development at Simon Fraser University. Over the past twenty years, Dr. Ribary has built a track record as one of the leading researchers in magnetoencephalography (MEG) and its application for neuroscience diagnosis and treatment in Switzerland and the USA.

The BC Leadership Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience in Early Childhood Health and Development will provide a research network that will encompass numerous institutions at the provincial, national, and international level. The principal aim of this network is to develop a research program and brain imaging infrastructure that will place BC (British Columbia) at the leading edge in this discipline. A world-class cognitive neuroscience research community within BC with access to state-of-the-art infrastructure will provide a stimulating environment for researchers to study and understand normal brain development as well as cognitive disabilities, and to develop innovative diagnostic procedures and therapeutic intervention strategies.

This initiative will bring together existing research facilities in cognitive neuroscience at both the behavioral and the neurophysiological levels. The existing facilities include – but are not limited to – those currently available at Simon Fraser University (SFU), the Down Syndrome Research Foundation (DSRF), BC Children’s Hospital (BCCH), and the University of British Columbia (UBC). The Chair will bring these and related resources together into a complementary and coherent research environment that will provide scientists and clinicians alike with access to non-invasive brain imaging and analysis procedures across institutions.

By providing the focal point for a coordinated team effort, the Chair will spearhead a coherent multidisciplinary research program in developmental cognitive neuroscience. The immediate target will be the development of new research strategies and intervention procedures for a range of genetic and acquired cognitive disabilities, including Down syndrome, dyslexia, autism, and traumatic brain injury among others. The Chair will be instrumental in expanding international expertise and collaborations, leading an international research community in the study of brain development and cognitive disabilities, and promoting the effective translation of empirical research into objective diagnostic markers relating to specific intervention strategies.

For additional information visit the Child and Family Research Institute and the Down Syndrome Research Foundation

Early Childhood Development - UBC - Dr. Thomas Boyce

BC Leadership Chair in Early Childhood Development recipient Dr. Thomas Boyce is a pediatrician and a recognized leader in the field of psychobiology, researching how different social experiences affect early human development and influence health, learning and behaviour.

He will lead these studies within the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) based at UBC, a unique network of researchers at UBC, SFU, UVIC, UNBC, TRU and UBC Okanagan which conducts cross-disciplinary research to help children thrive.  The Chair is supported by the Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children Foundation and the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation.

The chair’s research program will examine interactions among social, environmental, genetic and neurobiological elements in the pathogenesis of early biomedical and mental health disorders. The goal will be to translate epidemiologic and laboratory research findings into promising early interventions in childhood populations (what, when, ethical considerations, policy implications).

Proposals Receiving Preliminary Approval
The following institutions have been invited to submit full proposals for Leading Edge Endowment Fund chairs.

Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk – UVic
The connection between cultural well-being and ecosystem health is often made by people indigenous to an area who possess traditional and local knowledge. This chair will concentrate research on ethnoecology, the study of interactions between human societies and their ecosystems, to better understand the issues and seek solutions for cultures and ecosystems at risk.