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With expertise in injury epidemiology, health promotion and education, psychology, kinesiology, preventive medicine, biostatistics and public health, BCIRPU provides a breadth of knowledge and applied injury research, development, and leadership to support government, health authorities, and injury prevention stakeholders.
In 2022, Injury Prevention Leads were introduced to complement and support health authority injury prevention priorities and efforts. These are BC Centre for Disease Control positions and members of the BCIRPU. BCIRPU supports the leads by providing expertise and resources. Meet the Injury Prevention Leads.
Clinical Professor, Department of Pediatrics, UBC
Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Director, Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program, BC Children’s Hospital
Investigator, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, UBC
Shelina is the Director of the BCIRPU. She focuses primarily on sport and recreational evidence-based research and knowledge implementation, with a particular specialization in concussion/traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and their prevention, recognition, treatment and management. In 2013, Shelina created the Concussion Awareness Training Tool (CATT), a series of online educational modules and resources addressing concussion recognition, diagnosis, treatment, and management.
She is the Director of BC Children’s Hospital Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (BC CHIRPP), a Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, the University of British Columbia (UBC); and an Investigator with both BC Children’s Hospital and the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, UBC. Shelina is the chair and/or committee board member on numerous provincial and national injury and concussion advisory committees. In 2019, Shelina was nominated for a YWCA Women of Distinction Award. She is the recipient of the Brain Injury Association of Canada Prevention and Awareness Award (2014), BC Hockey Service Recognition Award (2019/2020), and the UBC Faculty of Medicine Clinical Faculty Award for Excellence in Research (Clinical or Applied) (2023).
Professor, Department of Pediatrics | UBC
Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Co-Director, E2i Theme, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Director, Prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome BC
Co-Executive Director, The Community Against Preventable Injuries
Ian is an Investigator and former Director of the BCIRPU; Professor of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia; Investigator and Co-Lead of the Evidence to Innovation Research Theme at the Research Institute at the BC Children’s Hospital; Director of the Prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome BC Program; and, Scientific Director, The Community Against Preventable Injuries. He holds adjunct appointments at York University, Vancouver Coastal Health, and Fraser Health Research Institutes, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Parachute.
Ian completed his PhD at the University of Alberta, and has held positions at the University of Regina, The Healthcare Benefit Trust, and the Canadian Red Cross, and was appointed Director of the BCIRPU in 2004. Ian’s research has been funded by CIHR, AUTO21, Transport Canada, and Public Health Agency of Canada, where he has co-led three national teams to conduct projects to develop and validate injury indicators for Canadian children and youth; injury prevention among First Nations and Inuit children and youth; child passenger safety; risky play; and the efficacy of social marketing to reduce preventable injuries.
He has published his research extensively and is a sought-after speaker and media spokesperson. Ian is the recipient of the UBC President’s Award for Public Education Through the Media (2017), the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs Researcher of the Year (2019), a UBC Faculty of Medicine Award for Service to the University and Community (2022), and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, Research Fellowship (2019 and 2023). His current research is focused on social and systems innovation to reduce preventable injuries.
Professor, Department of Pediatrics and School of Population and Public Health, UBC
Director, Human Early Learning Partnership, UBC
Adjunct Professor, School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa
Mariana is BCIRPU’s Academic Scientist, a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia, and an investigator with the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Mariana is a board member of the Child & Nature Alliance of Canada and on the leadership team of Outdoor Play Canada. Mariana completed her PhD in developmental psychology at UBC. She joined BCIRPU as Associate Director from 2001-2004, after which she went on to post-doctoral training in England. In 2007, she returned to BCIRPU as Academic Scientist. In 2021, Mariana was named the Director of the UBC Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP).
Mariana’s research foci include parenting attitudes related to risk and safety; developmental importance of children’s risky play; design of children’s communities and play spaces; and policy to support children’s outdoor play. She has published her research extensively and been widely featured in international media. Her work was featured in CBC’s The Nature of Things 2019 documentary, The Power of Play. Mariana was a Michael Smith Foundation Scholar and received the 2019 inaugural Dr. Mariana Brussoni Award from Outdoor Play Canada. In 2024, she received a UBC Faculty of Medicine Distinguished Achievement Award for Service to the University and Community.
Mariana spends her free time supporting her two children’s outdoor risky play so that she can take pictures for her presentations.
Learn more about Mariana’s work at brussonilab.ca.
Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine
Michelle is a research associate with the BCIRPU. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship in 2024 after 3 years in the Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, at the University of British Columbia. Her research is conducted with the goal of understanding how child, youth, and family exposure to high-risk environments, trauma, and injury, shape at-home safety practices and opportunities for healthful child and youth development through play. As a passionate qualitative methodologist, Michelle frequently works to develop and strengthen approaches researchers use to partner with families who experience disproportionate burdens of injuries.
Her research has been supported through the receipt of awards, including more recently the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute postdoctoral fellowship awards, a clinical and translational research seed grant, and a research methodology training grant for work overseas. In 2022, she was selected to join the Empowering Next-Generation Researchers in Perinatal and Child Health (ENRICH) national program, where she has since been involved in collaborative efforts across Canada to improve evidence-based pediatric safety communications. Her partnerships with the Middle-Eastern and North African Program for Advanced Injury Research in Lebanon, the University College Cork in Ireland, and local charities and NGOs in BC, have helped findings from her work reach a diversity of audiences.
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Therapy, UBC
Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Associate Member, Women’s Health Research Institute
Health Professional-Investigator, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research
Dr. Allison Ezzat is a physiotherapist and implementation scientist at the BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, University of British Columbia (UBC).
Her research applies implementation science methodologies to advance the primary prevention of knee injuries in adolescents in real-world settings. She has a focus on reducing gender disparity for girls/women in injury risk and decreasing the long-term injury burden (e.g., knee osteoarthritis). She prioritizes meaningful engagement with research users across the research process to maximize impact.
Dr. Ezzat completed her PhD in School of Population and Public Health, UBC in 2019, followed by post-doctoral training at UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research and La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. She obtained a Graduate Certificate in Implementation Science, University of California. She is a Fellow in the Canadian Academy of Manual and Musculoskeletal Physical Therapists (FCAMPT) and has practiced clinically throughout her academic training specializing in management of knee injuries across the lifespan.
In 2024, Dr. Ezzat received a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Health Professional-Investigator Award.
Anita joined BCIRPU in 2019 as a Research Assistant. She received her Bachelor of Sciences Degree from the University of British Columbia. As the Operations Manager, Anita is responsible for the operations of the unit, including administrative, HR and financial operations. She also coordinates the Brain Waves program, a national brain and spinal cord injury prevention program overseen by Parachute with Mojgan Karbakhsh.
When she is not working, she can be found scouting out a good sushi joint around Vancouver and often has a cup of hot milk tea in hand.
Fahra Rajabali has been at the BCIRPU since 2000. She is a specialist in injury data, epidemiology, visualizations, and evaluation. Fahra manages the data at the BCIRPU and is responsible for the data and interface for the Injury Data Online Tool (iDOT). She is the evaluation manager for the Period of PURPLE Crying program in BC. She wears many other “hats” in her work on injury surveillance and conference planning. She is also the BCIRPU’s liaison for Northern, Interior, and Island Health Authorities. Along with her co-workers, Fahra was a recipient of the UBC President’s Staff Award in 2014.
Jeanette has a BA (Hons) in psychology and an MPH in health promotion, completing her practicum in rural injury prevention and unintentional poisonings in children. She has been in the Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Lead role since April 2022, serving the Northern Health region.
Previously, Jeanette has worked in applied health services research, evaluation, and knowledge translation roles. She has trained health professionals in evidence-informed practice and quality improvement skills, and facilitated priority improvement projects in system quality and patient safety.
Jeanette brings over ten years of fall prevention experience into the role and has since gained new experience working in life promotion and suicide and self-harm prevention. She earned her Road Safety Professional 1 (RSP1) designation in 2024. Jeanette is dedicated to implementing socioecological health promotion approaches to achieve health equity and to reduce the burden of injury among rural populations.
Kate has been at the BCIRPU since 1999, following the completion of her Masters of Science in Epidemiology at the University of Ottawa. Her role at the Unit comprises supporting Dr. Shelina Babul’s concussion knowledge implementation program, as well as project management, grant and report writing, injury surveillance, program evaluation, and conference planning. Kate is the Unit Liaison for Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health, and she provides secretariat support for the BC Injury Prevention Committee. Along with her co-workers, Kate was a recipient of the UBC President’s Staff Award in 2014.
Alex joined BCIRPU in October 2017 as a Biostatistician/Researcher. A graduate of the Master of Science in Biostatistics program at the University of Toronto, Alex brings over eight years of research experience from his time at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto and at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. His main role is to provide statistical support and analytical prowess to the many projects conducted at the Unit.
Member, Canadian Health Information Management Association (CHIMA)
Atousa is the Coordinator of the Canadian Hospital Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP) at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, and a member of the BCIRPU. CHIRPP is an injury and poisoning surveillance system that collects and analyzes data on injuries to people who are seen at the emergency rooms of 11 pediatric hospitals and 8 general hospitals in Canada. Atousa obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in Tehran, Iran, and completed a Health Information Management (HIM) program in Vancouver, Canada.
Hasana joined the BCIRPU in Fall 2024. She specializes in epidemiology and biostatistics, focusing on evidence synthesis and injury prevention, particularly among children, youth, and vulnerable populations. Her research aims to address health disparities and improve public health outcomes through rigorous methodology and actionable insights.
Hasana earned her MSc in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Aga Khan University in 2015, supported by the prestigious Fogarty Johns Hopkins University-Pakistan International Collaborative Trauma and Injury Research Training (ICTIRT) Fellowship. Her master’s thesis explored childhood injuries, and as a fellow of Johns Hopkins, she further deepened her expertise by completing elective courses on injury prevention. Prior to this, she completed a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D) in 2010 in Pakistan.
Before relocating to Canada, Hasana worked as a pharmacist and served as a research coordinator in the Department of Women and Child Health at Aga Khan University. In this role, she conducted systematic reviews, developed search strategies, analyzed data, and contributed to academic publications and student research projects.
Currently, she leads a rapid review of data-driven evidence to reduce residential fire risks in vulnerable communities and is conducting an umbrella review of sports to support evidence synthesis for injury prevention. Her work underscores her commitment to advancing injury prevention research and promoting health equity.
Karen is the Manager of Prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome BC (PSBSBC) a program at BC Children’s Hospital and a member of the BCRIPU. Traumatic Head Injury – Child Maltreatment / Shaken Baby Syndrome (THI-CM/SBS) is a preventable injury that can result in lifelong disability or death in Canada’s youngest and most vulnerable population, with the majority of victims under one year of age. With the goal to reduce THI-CM/SBS incidence through education and advocacy, PSBSBC administers an evidence-based injury prevention program (PURPLE) to all parents who deliver at all BC maternity hospitals and through public health/primary care/ community health units throughout the province.
Maureen holds a certificate in Office Administration from the British Columbia Institute of Technology and has been part of the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program team since 2009. She is responsible for injury data collection from the BC Children’s Hospital Emergency Department, as well as assisting with various ongoing injury and poisoning studies.
Member, BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit, UBC
Research Collaborator, Centre for Aging SMART at Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, UBC
Since 2016, Megan has been the Provincial Manager for Injury Prevention at the BC Centre for Disease Control and the BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit and has over 19 years of public health experience in Canada, Australia, Cambodia, Kenya, and Tanzania.
Megan provides Public Health leadership in the province of British Columbia, Canada, and currently chairs multiple committees including the BC Provincial Public Health Injury Prevention Committee and the BC Injury Prevention Alliance. Through her work Megan facilitates guidance and recommendations on injury prevention to the Ministry of Health, and the Provincial Public Health Executive Committee.
Megan holds an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a BHK in Exercise Science from the University of British Columbia.
Melody joined BCIRPU in April 2023 as a Research Assistant. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Master of Science degree in Resource and Food Economics from UBC. Her passion lies in utilizing data to inform injury costing and prevention strategies for BCIRPU. She is responsible for providing data support for many projects at the Unit. When she’s not working, Melody enjoys playing guitar on the beach.
Mojgan Karbakhsh is a public health expert passionate about reducing the burden of injuries on individuals and communities. With a background in clinical medicine, public health, and injury prevention, she has contributed to initiatives focused on improving safety and advocating for policy change. Her areas of expertise include evidence-informed, equity-focused strategies for safety promotion and injury control, including youth suicide and self-harm prevention. She is also focused on exploring the role of deprivation in injury risk, with a particular interest in interventions that influence injury outcomes among marginalized communities. Mojgan is passionate about leveraging data and evidence to drive sustainable change and contribute to reducing the societal impact of injuries.
Dr. Karbakhsh joined the BCIRPU in 2021, and is responsible for mobilization and coordination of the BC injury prevention network by working with various injury prevention partners across the province. She also serves as a coordinator for BCIRPU’s Brain Waves program, a national brain and spinal cord injury prevention program overseen by Parachute.
Olivia Aguiar (she/her) is an Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Lead with the BC Centre for Disease Control, embedded in Island Health Authority and member of the BCIRPU. She has a PhD in Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, from the Injury Prevention and Mobility Lab at Simon Fraser University, and a certificate in Biomedical Visualization and Communication. Olivia is a multidisciplinary researcher with experience inquantitative and qualitative methods and analyses, science, and scholarly communication, data visualization, and community outreach. She brings expertise in sport-related head impacts and concussions, fall prevention, and fall-related injuries.
Phoebe received her Bachelors in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, minoring in Statistics from UBC. She joined BCIRPU in 2018 as a Work Learn student with the Canadian Hospital Injury Reporting & Prevention Program (CHIRPP) supporting injury surveillance in the BC Children’s Hospital Emergency Department. Currently, she splits her time between the British Columbia Vision Zero in Road Safety Grant Program and the Evidence to Innovation Theme at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute.
Program Manager, The Community Against Preventable Injuries (Preventable)
Samantha has led the BCIRPU’s communications and knowledge translation activities since 2017. She supports a variety of projects through strategic planning, content creation, media relations, social media, and promotion. In her role as Program Manager for The Community Against Preventable Injuries, Samantha oversees the development and execution of a province-wide social marketing campaign.
Samantha obtained her Bachelor of Arts from the University of British Columbia and holds a certificate in Public Relations and Marketing Communications from the British Columbia Institute of Technology. She has over ten years of experience specializing in health care communications, having held positions at Pain BC and the Centre for Advancing Health Outcomes.
In her spare time, Samantha loves running, eating good food, playing board games, and watching movies.
Shazya joined the BCIRPU team in December 2019 as a Research Manager. She completed her PhD in Health Promotion at Western University in February 2020, where she studied healthy behaviours within the family unit, specifically focusing on physical activity and nutrition behaviours of parents with overweight/obesity and their children. Shazya’s role at the Unit involves project management, grant writing, and program evaluation. She is also coordinating the SHRed Concussions Study, a pan-Canadian research study in investigating the prevention, recognition, and treatment of concussion in high-school athletes who play sports associated with a higher risk of concussion.
Shianne is the Injury Prevention Lead for Interior Health Authority. Prior to joining the BCCDC, Shianne was the Coordinator for the Fall Prevention Team at Fraser Health where she led the Mobile Clinic. She completed her BSc in Health Sciences from Simon Fraser University in 2018, and is currently working towards her MA in Community Development from the University of Victoria. Among other extracurriculars, Shianne is a Board Member for the Canadian Red Cross Council for First Aid Education. Outside of work, Shianne loves to go on outdoor adventures, travel and play soccer.
Tobin has a MA in Medical Geography from McMaster University. Prior to coming to Fraser Health in 2015, Tobin had been a career-long population health researcher with a focus on prevention, both at UBC at the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research and later spending over a decade running his own applied social research firm.
In his role as Injury Prevention Lead for Fraser Health, Tobin works with the Fraser Health Environmental Health Services & Healthy Built Environment Program, as well as provincial, local, and regional key partners.
Tobin lives in Vancouver. He lives to be active and outside. Tobin has spent decades riding bicycles for transportation, recreation and competition, and supporting youth high performance athlete development. He used to be fast. He also enjoys skeleton, and skate skiing badly.
The BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit is a leader in the production and transfer of injury prevention knowledge and the integration of evidence-based injury prevention practices in the daily lives of those at risk, those who care for them, and those with a mandate for public health and safety in British Columbia.
