Dr. Shela Hirani, DOHaD Canada’s Council Member received the prestigious “CNPRM 2025 ECR Award” and was graciously invited to deliver a plenary session on “Dismantling Breastfeeding Barriers during Disasters and Displacement: Challenges, Opportunities and Way Forward”. The esteemed research event was hosted by the DOHaD Canada and Canadian National Perinatal Research Meeting (CNPRM) in Montreal, Canada. This recognition honors Dr Hirani’s research output, strong commitment to maternal-child health, and advocacy for supportive interventions in the most vulnerable settings.

Congratulations to Our Poster Presentation Winners!

We are thrilled to announce the winners of this year’s Poster Presentation Session at the 8th DOHaD Canada Annual Scientific Meeting! Your creativity, hard work, and dedication to advancing knowledge were on full display, and we couldn’t be more proud of the inspiring contributions from all participants.

Please join us in congratulating our top presenters:

• Jade Gamelin Kao – Best Oral Presentation
• Michelle Robb – Best Poster
• Dana Watts – 2nd Place Poster
• Flore Lavoie – 3rd Place Poster
• Maurya Hart – 3rd Place Poster

To everyone who presented: thank you for your enthusiasm and excellence. You’ve helped make this session a true highlight of the event. We applaud your efforts and look forward to seeing where your work leads next!

Congratulations to Dr. Maryam Kebbe

Dr. Maryam Kebbe at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) was awarded a prestigious Banting-Heaslip Foundation Discovery Award to study toddler diets – a rare and largely unexplored area of research. Dr. Maryam Kebbe also secured a Canada Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund that will equip her PEADS Lab (Perinatal Health & Developmental Support Laboratory) at the UNB with state-of-the-art body composition, metabolic, nutrition/human milk, and exercise equipment. See Maryam also featured in the ‘Recent Publications’ section below for her work studying the interconnection between human milk components and the infant gut microbiome.

Click the button to see the list of award winners on the Banting Research Foundation’s website.

Congratulations to Dr. Deborah Dewey

Congratulations to Dr. Deborah Dewey at the University of Calgary and co-applicants on their successful Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant entitled ‘The maternal and childhood chemical exposome may be associated with children’s neurodevelopment.

Congratulations to Dr. Shela Hirani

Congratulations to DOHaD Canada Council Member, Dr. Shela Hirani, for her ‘GQNR 2023 Best Paper Award’ in the the empirical category for her publication in Global Qualitative Nursing Research Journal. Click the button to see the award-winning publication.

Hirani SAA, Richter S, Salami B, Vallianatos H. Sociocultural Factors Affecting Breastfeeding Practices of Mothers During Natural Disasters: A Critical Ethnography in Rural Pakistan. Glob Qual Nurs Res. 2023 Jan 25;10:23333936221148808. PMID: 36727108.

Congratulations to Dr. Ashley Wezana

Congratulations to Dr. Ashley Wazana (Montréal-Jewish General) and his team for their 10-year CIHR grant on ‘Identifying pathways for the emergence of mental health functioning in young adults from prenatal adversity, genetic susceptibility, the early environment, and intervening life stress -Leveraging hypotheses generated from an international birth cohort consortium’.

Congratulations to Drs Meaghan Jones and Pablo Nepomnaschy

Congratulations to Drs. Meaghan Jones (U Manitoba) and Pablo Nepomnaschy (SFU) for their CIHR grant on ‘Influence of socioecological factors on the pace of reproductive aging and the risk of cardiometabolic diseases in peri- and post-menopause – A reproductive life course study.’

Congratulations to Olivia Wilding-Davies

Congratulations to Olivia Wilding-Davies, MSc student in the Connor Lab, who was accepted into the KT Canada Summer Institute (hosted in Halifax), where she presented her research on lessons learned, challenges, and opportunities for co-designing approaches to tackle iron deficiency in Benin.

Congratulations to Drs Kristin Connor and Stephane Bourque

Two of DOHaD Canada’s members, Drs. Kristin Connor (Carleton U) and Stephane Bourque (U Alberta) were elected by an international body of clinicians and scientists to serve on the council of the Society for Reproductive Investigation (SRI). SRI, which began in 1953, is an international society of nearly 1000 members in over 30 countries, with a mission to advance reproductive health for all, through: 1. outstanding basic, translational, and clinical science, 2. training and mentoring future generations of investigators, 3. embracing diversity, 4. advocacy engaging funding agencies, policy makers, donors and communities and, 5. promoting excellence in reproductive science globally. We are proud to have Canada well-presented on SRI Council with these DOHaD and perinatal health experts and champions!