Meet the Just Can Ethics Lab team.
Our team.
LAB DIRECTOR
Jennifer Bell
Jennifer A.H. Bell is the Director of the Just Can Ethics Lab. She is a senior bioethicist in the Department of Clinical and Organizational Ethics and research scientist within the Department of Supportive Care at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network. She is also an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry (primary) and Dalla Lana School of Public Health (cross-appointment), and member of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics.
Jennifer received a bachelor's degree in philosophy specializing in bioethics from the University of Toronto, a master's degree in philosophy and biomedical ethics from McGill University, and a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies (bioethics and psychosocial oncology) from the University of British Columbia. She is an alumna of the CIHR Psychosocial Oncology Research Training (PORT) and Ethics of Health Research and Policy Training Programs.
In 2020, Jennifer received the CIHR - Institute of Cancer Research - Early Career Investigator Award from the Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology.
CLINICAL RESEARCH ANALYST I 2022 - PRESENT
Alison Stere
Alison Stere is a qualitative researcher in the Department of Supportive Care at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Following the completion of her Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in bioethics, history, and classics at the University of Toronto, she enrolled in an Master of Arts program at the University of Leeds specializing in Biomedical and Healthcare Ethics. During her studies, she completed an internship at the Ethics Quality Improvement Lab at William Osler Health System under the supervision of Dr Paula Chidwick, Dr Jill Oliver, and Dr Angel Petropanagos. As an intern, she assisted on the development and analysis of a WHO-sponsored survey of healthcare professionals and the ethical issues they encountered working in long-term care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her ethics research interests focus on MAiD, moral issues surrounding psychiatric disorders, and allocation strategies of scarce medical resources. In addition to her ethics work at the JustCan Ethics Lab, Alison also contributes to multiple mixed methods clinical research projects focusing on MAiD and caregiver bereavement with Dr Rinat Nissim and Dr Sarah Hales at the Department of Supportive Care at PMH.
GRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT I 2022 - PRESENT
Lauren Honan
Lauren Honan (she/her) is a graduate student enrolled in the Master of Health Sciences in Bioethics program at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. She is interested in research involving women’s health, reproductive health, and health equity conducted with an intersectional lens. Lauren previously earned her Honours Bachelor of Health Sciences from Western University, where she enjoyed teaching swimming lessons to children with disabilities through SWAM London. Her practicum placement at Women’s College Hospital with Dr. Ruby Shanker has allowed Lauren to initiate learning opportunities that bridge ethical theories with practical applications relevant to clinical, organizational, and research ethics. Lauren is currently working on a capstone project under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Bell, Director of Just Can Ethics Lab, that seeks to explore the ethics of implementing human papillomavirus (HPV) testing by self-sampling as an alternative to Pap smears in cervical cancer screening.
UNDERGRADUATE SUMMER STUDENT I 2023
Vivian Deng
Vivian Deng is an upcoming fourth year undergraduate student enrolled in the Department of Philosophy with a specialization in Bioethics at the University of Toronto. While she is still developing her research interests, her current interests include MAiD, the ethical implications of the pharmaceutical industry, as well as the ethical issues surrounding the use of experimental therapies. Recently, she has also developed an interest towards ethics and genetics, particularly towards the usage of genetic technologies such as CRISPR and polygenic scores.
Vivian is currently working on a project under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Bell, with the goal of developing a research program that focuses on the professionalization of practicing health care ethicists.
GRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT I 2020 - 2022
Caroline Variath
Caroline Variath is a PhD candidate in nursing with a collaborative specialization in bioethics at the University of Toronto. She has worked clinically in acute and critical care settings for over 15 years. The end-of-life care challenges she encountered in her practice, especially while caring for those with a loss of decision-making capacity, made her passionate about improving end-of-life care. Her PhD thesis focuses on experiences with the loss of capacity to consent and access to medical assistance in dying in Canada. She aims to normalize the concept of death and dying. Her work focuses on improving end-of-life care planning and the experience of patients, their family members and healthcare providers with death.
GRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT I 2021-PRESENT
Marina Salis
Marina Salis is a teaching assistant in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto and a graduate student in the Master of Health Sciences in Bioethics program at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health in collaboration with the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. She received her Honours Bachelor of Arts in Bioethics (Maj), Philosophy (Maj), and Equity Studies (Min) in June 2020. During her undergraduate studies, Marina completed a three-year internship under the supervision of Dr. Paula Chidwick, Dr. Jilll Oliver, and Dr. Angel Petropanagos at the Ethics Quality Improvement Lab within the Clinical and Corporate Ethics Department at William Osler Health System and is currently the President of the University of Toronto Bioethics Society. She has a special interest in intersections of ethics, policy, and neurodegenerative disease with a focused interest on elderly populations, long-term care, and quality improvement research and methodologies.
POST DOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW | 2016-2019
Jonathan Avery
Jonathan Avery is a qualitative health researcher with a background in psychology (BA Honours, York University, 2005) and communication (MA, University of Ottawa, 2009). Jonathan found his way to the field of rehabilitation serendipitously by working in cancer survivorship care for a number of years.
He then gained the opportunity to pursue his doctorate in the field at the University of Ottawa. Jonathan has always been fascinated with health, illness and disability.
As a non-clinician, his multi-disciplinary background brings a unique perspective to the field by utilizing his knowledge of psychology and communication to advance our knowledge in rehabilitation. He is currently a post-doctoral research fellow in the School of Nursing (University of British Columbia) and continues to contribute in the Department of Supportive Care at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (Toronto, Canada).
RESEARCH ASSISTANT | 2018-2019
Khotira Baryolay
Khotira Baryolay is a graduate of Biomedical Science (BSc Honours, York University, 2016) and Clinical Research (Oxford College, 2017).
Khotira’s passion for clinical research stated when she first joined Princess Margaret Cancer Centre as Research volunteer at Department of Supportive Care (Research Division).
This opportunity allowed her to gain and develop the fundamental knowledge and skills in assisting with both quantitative and qualitative research as well as statistical methods.
Current graduate students.
Akosua Nwafor
Akosua Nwafor (she/her) is a graduate student in the Master of Health Sciences in Bioethics program at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include equity in and access to cancer care, decolonization of health research and decision-making in clinical research. Akosua received her Honours Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science with a Minor in Applied Ethics from the University of Ottawa in 2021. Her previous work as a research assistant with The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute focused on international travel outcomes of cancer patients and the experiences of Nunavummiut patients undergoing treatment for advanced lung cancer. Akosua currently works with the Centre for Ombuds, Resolution and Ethics at Health Canada in the field of Values and Ethics.
Past graduate students.
Laura Dragoi I 2020
Greg Jeffries I 2020
Kaleigh Johnson-Cover I 2019
Tran Truong I 2019
Catherine Virelli I 2019
Paige Gilbrank I 2019
Tim Mt. Pleasant (undergraduate) I 2018
Sarah Abu-Jazar I 2018
Giovanni (Gio) Piza I 2017
Tieghan Killackey I 2016
Research volunteers.
Eryn Tong I 2020
Dilpreet Matharu I 2020
Claire Chiang I 2020, 2022
Victoria Forcina I 2017
Surabhi Sivaratnam I 2020
Zoe Schmilovich I 2016
Our funders and collaborators.
