Present

RESEARCH STAFF

Research Associates and Officers

Rasha El-Kotob, BSc, MSc, PhD

Fun Fact:
I attended a surf camp in Cascais, Portugal.
Favourite Quote:
“If you're always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” – Maya Angelou

Rasha completed her BSc in Kinesiology at the University of Waterloo, MSc in Rehabilitation Science at the University of Toronto, and PhD in Kinesiology at the University of Waterloo.
Rasha has multi-method and mixed method research experience. She joined the Optimizing Healthcare Experiences Lab in March of 2023 as a Research Associate. She is primarily supporting the development of a toolkit intervention to assist with medication self-management in everyday life for persons with a spinal cord injury.

Overall, Rasha is passionate about improving the health of our community. She was a member of the expert panel that was assigned to inform the most recent Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Adults aged 18–64 years and Adults aged 65 years or older: An Integration of Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour, and Sleep (2020).

Megan Bhalla, Registered Practical Nurse

Megan graduated in 2021 from Georgian College with a diploma in Practical Nursing with Honours and is currently registered to practice with the College of Nurses of Ontario. Megan is a current student at McMaster University in her 2nd year of her bridge program to a BScN. She has worked as a Research Assistant under the supervision of Dr. Marissa Bird at Sinai Health and has made the recent transition to the lab of Dr. Guilcher. Megan aspires to pursing a research career upon completion of her degree and has interests in mixed methods and qualitative research.

Fun Fact:
I am an extreme foodie and will try just about any food at least once.
Favourite Quote:
“It always seems impossible until it's done.” – Nelson Mandela

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Grace Liu, PT, PhD

Grace Liu achieved a BSc (Physical Therapy) & Case Management Certificate (University of Toronto), MBA (Wilfrid Laurier University), and PhD in Health Policy and Management (York University). As a physical therapist, Grace practiced in a variety of health sectors and developed an interest in working with the geriatric population and in health policy research. Grace's dissertation research was on health systems integration and transformation where she developed a policy framework on 'how to' build cross-sectoral collaboration among key local stakeholders and partners. In her post-doctoral fellowship, Grace will be evaluating the role of patient navigators across the continuum of care to improve seniors' care and experience. Grace is looking forward to networking and collaborating with other researchers in the Optimizing Healthcare Experiences (Opti-HEx) Lab to transform research into practical applied solutions.

Arrani Senthinathan, PhD

Arrani Senthinathan is a post-doctoral fellow jointly supervised by Dr. Karen Tu and Dr. Sara Guilcher. Her research currently investigates changes in healthcare utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic using health administrative and electronic medical record (EMR) databases. Arrani completed her PhD at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) at the University of Toronto. Her thesis work focused on outpatient antibiotic prescribing and susceptibility testing in adults with spinal cord injuries. She previously worked at the Sinai Health System - University Health Network Antimicrobial Stewardship Program implementing and evaluating a primary care stewardship program. She also has a Master of Science from the Department of Exercise Science at the University of Toronto.

Graduate Students

Lauren Cadel BSc, MSc, PhD Student

Fun Fact:
I have snorkeled between two tectonic plates.
Favourite Quote:
“It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen” ― Muhammad Ali

Lauren Cadel completed her Masters in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto in 2019, under the supervision of Dr. Sara Guilcher. Her thesis focused on exploring the attitudes, beliefs and experiences of community-dwelling adults with spinal cord injury/ dysfunction pertaining to prescribed and unprescribed medications.

Lauren is also a Research Associate at the Institute for Better Health at Trillium Health Partners. She has a passion for health services research and wants to continually explore ways to improve the delivery of health services and optimize patient experiences and outcomes.

Stephanie R. Cimino BASc (Honours),
MSc, PhD Candidate

Fun Fact:
I can make biscotti from scratch.
Favourite Quote:
"Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change." ― Jim Rohn

Stephanie is a PhD candidate in the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute at the University of Toronto. She is co-supervised by Dr Sander Hitzig and Dr. Sara Guilcher. Prior to completing her PhD, she received her Bachelor of Applied Science in Kinesiology and her Master of Science degree in Biomechanics. For her dissertation topic, she is working to develop a patient-reported outcome (PRO) on quality of life for people with lower limb loss. As well as being a student, she is a senior editor for rehabINK, a student led digital magazine that is dedicated to producing captivating research and stories of rehabilitation science through the publication of peer-reviewed student work.

Shenthuraan Tharmarajah, PhD Student

Fun Fact:
I’m actually from New York!
Favourite Quote:
“Today is your opportunity to build the tomorrow you want.” – Ken Poirot

Shenthuraan is a PhD student in the Pharmaceutical Sciences program at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. He is co-supervised by Dr. Mina Tadrous and Dr. Sara Guilcher. Previously, he completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology at New York University and Master of Science degree in Human Nutrition at Columbia University. Shenthuraan’s research interest lies in better understanding the safety of antirheumatic medications on pregnancy. His work aims to generate real-world evidence that will improve the care of pregnant individuals and optimize maternal and neonatal outcomes.

Undergraduate Students