ACHRI Trainee Association
ACHRI Trainee Association (ACHRITA) is an association for all ACHRI trainees (graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and postgraduate medical and clinical fellows).
Our Mandate:
To foster a sense of community among ACHRI trainees and postdocs, enhance training experiences and represent the interests of trainees.
We Aim To:
- provide academic and professional development opportunities to gain expertise through workshops and collaborations with other research institutes
- encourage trainees to become active community members through outreach and volunteer opportunities
- foster strong relationships among trainees through social events and networking
ACHRITA Executive Team
Meghan Maiani
President
Meghan is a registered occupational therapist whose clinical practice has been primarily in the area of neuro-rehabilitation. Meghan is a PhD student in Dr. Adam Kirton’s lab. Meghan is studying the structural connectivity of the visual system in children with perinatal stroke, and how this correlates to functional vision in everyday life.
Bevin Wiley
Vice-President & Treasurer
Bevin is a second-year MSc student supervised by Dr. Kara Murias in the neuroscience program. Her research focuses on the use of non-invasive brain stimulation in children with ADHD.
Shefali Rai
Communications Director
Shefali is a PhD Candidate in Dr. Signe Bray’s lab. Combining her experience as an engineer with computational neuroscience methodologies, her research is focused on mapping the unique aspects of functional brain networks in adults and children.
Dr. Zahra Clayborne
EDI Co-Director
Zahra is a psychiatric epidemiologist and postdoctoral fellow with the All Our Families research team, supervised by Drs. Sheila McDonald and Suzanne Tough. Her research focuses on the measurement of flourishing and its determinants in the family context.
Jessica Youngblood
Social & Community Outreach Co-Director
Jessica is a PhD student in Neuroscience, supervised by Dr. Elizabeth Condliffe. She has a Bachelor's degree in health and physical education from Mount Royal University and an MSc in Kinesiology from UCalgary. Her PhD work focuses on family and physical activity outcomes following robotic gait training for individuals living with mobility impairments.
Paulina Hart
Social & Community Outreach Co-Director
Paulina is a second-year MSc student supervised by Dr. Adam Kirton. Her research explores motor cortex GABA and other metabolite levels in hemiparetic children with perinatal stroke.
Mohammad Ghasoub
Education Co-Director
Mohammad is a PhD student supervised by Dr. Catherine Lebel. His research focuses on brain and language development in children with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure.
Rumika Mascarenhas
Education Co-Director
Rumika is a second-year MSc student co-supervised by Drs. Karl Martin Klein and Maja Tarailo-Graovac. Her research focuses on using DNA derived from brain depth electrodes to identify somatic mutations in patients with focal epilepsy.
Areefa Alladin
Elected Rep: Clinical Fellow
Areefa is a second-year MSc student in Clinical Epidemiology in Dr. Susan Samuel’s lab. As a pediatric nephrologist, Areefa focuses her research on studying kidney disease in children. She is exploring Immunoglobumin A (IgA) Nephropathy in children in Alberta and developing a local guideline for the management of IgA nephropathy in children.
Tiffany Bell
Elected Rep: Postdoctoral Researcher
Tiffany is a postdoctoral associate in Dr. Ashley Harris’ lab. Her primary research involves using magnetic resonance imaging to study brain chemistry in children. Through her research, she hopes to further understand the contribution of altered brain chemistry to neurological disorders, informing novel targeted therapies to aid management of these conditions.
Alam Randhawa
Elected Rep: Graduate Student
Alam is an MSc/MD student in the Leaders in Medicine program, supervised by Dr. Michael Esser. She is interested in maternal-child health, especially neonatal health and surgery. Currently, her research is focused on the neurodevelopmental outcomes of infants with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE).
Founding Members
Areefa Alladin, Meghan Maiani, Conné Lategan, Anna MacKinnon, Bevin Wiley and Joanna Keough.
ACHRITA is a volunteer association comprised of ACHRI and Owerko Centre trainees and postdoctoral fellows. Their work is supported by generous community donations through the Alberta Children's Hospital Foundation.