Killam winner sees UCalgary as a place to deliver research with real-world impact

As a mental health nurse, Alex Cuncannon has worked with individuals and families navigating adversity, distress and disrupted relationships. These experiences, paired with an interest in research that began during nursing school, sparked his fascination about how relationships shape the mind, brain and body. 

Now a PhD student in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary, Cuncannon studies how early life experiences and parent-child relationships shape children’s health through interconnected social and biological pathways.

Cuncannon is the first Nursing doctoral student since 2021 to receive an Izaak Walton Killam Pre-Doctoral Scholarship. He was also presented with the Donald N. Byers Memorial Prize for Best Statement of Program of Studies and Research at the UCalgary 2025 Killam Awards.

Psychosocial adversity — including exposure to family and gender-based violence, which have reached epidemic levels in Canada — as well as structural adversity, such as poverty, can shape children’s health and development in lasting ways because stress responses to these experiences become biologically embedded. 

Cuncannon’s studies and research draw on evidence showing these stress responses can fuel inflammation and even alter how genes are expressed, increasing the risk for mental and physical health problems later in life. Building on his clinical experience, Cuncannon is interested in advancing the understanding of how psychosocial supports and interventions promote early relational health and, in turn, modulate stress and immune responses, as well as the biological embedding of adversity.

Research with real-world impact

Cuncannon chose UCalgary for his graduate studies because he saw it as a place to undertake research with meaning and that tangibly improves the lives of children and families. Supervised by Dr. Nicole Letourneau, PhD, and Dr. Kharah Ross, BSc'08 (Psychology), BSc'08 (Biological Sciences), PhD, he is a trainee in the Child Health Implementation and Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Studies Program and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI).

His doctoral research focuses the Attachment and Child Health (ATTACH) parenting program, co-created by Letourneau and Dr. Martha Hart, BA'05, PhD, which supports parents and caregivers to build reflective functioning capacity through mentalizing, a process that encourages thinking about our mental states in relation to others.

“For parents, reflecting on their children’s inner worlds helps foster sensitive and responsive interactions, and deeply enriches these dyadic relationships” says Cuncannon.

ATTACH studies have shown improvements in parent-child relationship quality, parental reflective functioning and children’s developmental outcomes. Pilot findings also suggest reductions in biological markers of inflammation.

Cuncannon’s central doctoral research project expands on this evidence by studying a community-based cohort of 85 parents and children, examining children’s immune cell gene expression before and after participating in ATTACH. His project will also investigate mediating and moderating factors, such as parental reflective functioning and parent-child relationship quality.

Bridging research, practice and community

Transdisciplinarity and implementation science are central to Cuncannon’s doctoral training and research. He is interning with the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters as part of the Alliance against Violence and Adversity (AVA) Health Research Training Platform, also led by Letourneau, to strengthen his capacity to contribute to community-engaged research and advocacy that influence policy.

“It’s vital that we support the community sector to respond to violence and adversity through knowledge mobilization of evidence-informed programs," says Cuncannon. 

"Our work advances priorities in Canada’s National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence and Alberta’s 10-year Strategy to End Gender-Based Violence, by strengthening the evidence base for survivor-centred, relationship-focused and trauma-informed supports.”  

Cuncannon presented at the 17th International Family Nursing Conference in Perth in June 2025, sharing parents’ perspectives of how the ATTACH program can be integrated and normalized into community practice and families’ everyday lives. 

He plans to continue engaging in knowledge-mobilization activities, including attending and presenting at national and international conferences to share understandings of how relational interventions can support child and family health.

“Programs and supports that foster safe, stable and nurturing relationships are a public good," says Cuncannon. 

"This support from the Killam Trusts will bolster knowledge mobilization of this work. 

"By linking relational health and psychosocial supports with physical health, particularly immune health, we hope to advance preventive and equity-focused research, programs, and policy to support child and family health.”