OUR TEAM

Please be advised that the HART Lab will NOT be accepting new students during the 2024-2025 academic year

COLLABORATORS AND STUDENTS

SARAH SCOTT, HBSC

Sarah C. Scott (she/her) is a PhD student in the Health, Adaptation, Research on Trauma (HART) Laboratory. Her interdisciplinary research interests include stress physiology and psychology, trauma (specifically psychosocial), intersectional identity and resilience interventions. She has performed research in a variety of fields, including behavioural neuroscience, anatomical biology, decision neuroscience, clinical neuropsychology and currently stress psychology. Her current research involves investigating the roles of sex and gender in a novel heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVBF) intervention to improve post-traumatic stress injury symptoms in first responders. Sarah also developed a therapeutic horticulture program at the University of Toronto Mississauga to improve mental and physical wellness of undergraduate students, and is a master instructor for the international Performance, Resilience and Efficiency Program (iPREP), in which she has travelled internationally to train frontline officers on physiological techniques to improve autonomic system activation in high stress situations. Sarah is an awardee of the Canadian Graduate Scholarship – Masters Grant.

Check out Sarah’s publication in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology: Berezuk, C., Scott, S. C., Black, S. E., & Zakzanis, K. K. (2021). Cognitive Reserve, cognition, and real-world functioning in MCI: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 43(10), 991–1005. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803395.2022.2047160

LORNA FERGUSON, PHD(C)

Vanier Scholar Lorna Ferguson is a PhD(c) at Western University and is the Founder of the Missing Persons Research Hub. She is an award-winning criminologist who has dedicated over ten years to studying crime and criminal justice and working in this field. Specifically, her research interests pertain to policing and developing evidence-based approaches to policing and crime prevention, including studying crime concentration, police data, cybercrime, police-community interactions, police search and rescue, police incident command, and police reform. Her specialization is police responses to missing persons cases. She has educated, trained, and partnered with over forty police services and several individual police officers to enhance police practices and policies and officer knowledge on missing persons, as well as the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains and various community and volunteer organizations.

Lorna’s research has been published in top peer-reviewed journals in her field and has been the subject of many local, national, and international presentations. Her recent research has appeared in Criminology & Criminal Justice, Crime and Delinquency, Policing & Society, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, Policing: An International Journal, and Deviant Behavior. She has also written three books, e.g., The Wicked Problems of Police Reform in Canada with Routledge, and Police Search and Rescue Response to Lost and Missing Persons, with Springer. Connect with Lorna on LinkedIn to learn more about her work: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lornajferguson/

RESEARCH ASSISTANTS

LORIDEE DE VILLA

Loridee De Villa is a recent graduate from the University of Toronto Mississauga where she majored in Health Sciences and double minored in Psychology and History of Religions. Her research interests involve investigating the intersection between physical and mental health, as well as visual neuroscience. She has previously worked on the Thought Suppression Immunity Project (TSI) with Dr. Jennifer Chan as a part of her research opportunity project (ROP) and the Autonomic Modulation Training Project (AMT) with Sarah Scott. She was a recipient of the 2024 University of Toronto Excellence Award and is currently performing qualitative analyses on Police and Protester interactions at Canadian protests.

LUCIA DI CENSO

Lucia is a recent graduate from the University of Toronto Mississauga where she specialized in Psychology. She is currently the lab manager of the HART Lab and is particularly involved in the Autonomic Modulation Training (AMT) project amongst other more general lab responsibilities. She intends to pursue further education in clinical psychology and, as such, is excited to be working in a lab that focuses on developing practical and accessible interventions to help reduce the development of psychological disorders in those who are exposed to stressful life experiences. Lucia is also the lab manager of the HEAL Lab at UTM.

PATRICK FAHIM

Patrick Fahim is a former thesis student in the HART lab. His thesis examined the potential of differing cardiovascular biomarkers to serve as markers of wellbeing in police. While with the HART lab, Patrick received various research awards including the UTM undergraduate research grant and the University of Toronto Excellence award. During his degree, he specialized in psychology and majored in biology for health science. As his undergraduate training would suggest, Patrick constantly pursues research that bridges the disciplines of biology and psychology. Currently, he is being training in Clinical Psychology at the University of Saskatchewan. Despite this move, Patrick will still be involved with the lab carrying out various projects with the team.

AMANDA JANI

Amanda is a recent graduate from the University of Toronto Mississauga where she double majored in Biology for Health Sciences and Psychology. She is currently working as a research assistant in the lab, where she is primarily responsible for data organizing/processing from the various studies that the lab has conducted. She has a wide range of research interests including: investigating the interaction between biological markers and mental health, neuroplasticity, and personality psychology. She was a recipient of the 2024 University of Toronto Excellence Award, whereby her project consisted of exploring sex and gender effects in psychobiological and psychosocial measures among police officers.

SILAS LIENING

Silas is a third-year undergraduate student studying Psychology at the University of Toronto Mississauga who is spearheading the lab's 'Therapeutic Horticulture Wellbeing Program' (THWP), the first of its kind at a Canadian university, which aims to promote the conscious interaction with plants and forests as an easy tool to relieve stress and to elevate participant's mood (amongst many other benefits). Being surrounded by like-minded lab mates, he intends to pursue further education in Therapy and Counselling with the end goal of studying and practicing Clinical Psychology. He is interested in mental health promotion, OCD, the relationship between stress and addiction, as well as the One Health approach that integrates human (psychological) wellbeing with the health of other living elements within our environment.

COLLEEN LITTLE

Colleen Little holds an Honours BSc in Kinesiology with a minor in psychology from Wilfrid Laurier University. She works as a research assistant in the HART Lab, primarily focusing on the Autonomic Modulation Training (AMT) project, where she is responsible for research recruitment and recruitment event coordination. In addition, Colleen contributes these responsibilities and efforts in recruitment to the Critical Incident Command project.

FORMER TRAINEES

PAULA M. DI NOTA, PHD

Dr. Di Nota was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Health Adaptation Research on Trauma (HART) Lab at the University of Toronto Mississauga. She investigated the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying training and complex motor learning in police populations, as well as the influence of occupational stress on the mental health and well-being of police and other first responders. Her dissertation research examined learning-induced changes to brain activity using behavioral, fMRI, and EEG measures.

Check out Paula’s first author publication in Frontiers Psychology: Di Nota, P.M. and Huhta, J.-M. (2019), Complex motor learning and police training: applied, cognitive, and clinical perspectives, Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 10 No. 1797, pp. 1-20. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01797

JENNIFER F. CHAN, PHD

Jennifer F. Chan, Ph.D. (she/her) is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the HART Lab. Her dissertational research focus involved measures psychophysiological stress dysregulation (e.g., cortisol and cardiovascular), biofeedback and mental health (e.g., PTSD, depression, anxiety) in public safety personnel (PSP). Her current research focuses on developing heart rate fragmentation algorithms to identify burnout and adverse mental health from chronic stress, and the online application of an autonomic modulation training intervention to improve functional wellness capacity and resilience among PSP.

Jen is also involved in education and science communication throughout the greater Toronto area. She is a course instructor at UofT, and co-founder of UofT SPRINT (Summer Psychology Research Initiative – a program dedicated to providing underrepresented high school students free and accessible hands-on experience in Psychology research). She has also collaborated with and is an invited speaker for groups including the Royal Canadian Institute for Science, the Story Collider, and the Canadian Multicultural Inventors Museum.

Check out Jennifer’s publication in Psychoneuroendocrinology that received editor’s choice: Chan, J. F., Di Nota, P. M., Planche, K., Borthakur, D., Andersen, J. P. (2022). Associations between police lethal force errors, measures of diurnal and reactive cortisol, and mental health. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 142, 105789. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105789.

MONICA GHABRIAL, PHD

Monica Ghabrial, Ph.D. (she/her) is a Health Psychologist, currently working as a CIHR Postdoctoral Fellow in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western University Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. Dr. Ghabrial is a former student of Dr. Andersen and they continue to collaborate on a number of important projects. During her time in the HART Lab, Dr. Ghabrial’s dissertation research primarily examined stress, health, and resilience among Queer and Trans People of Color, with additional projects on biculturalism, visibility, and wellbeing among plurisexual/bisexual People of Color and community and resource development for women with HIV. Through an intersectional, strengths-based framework, she developed and validated the first measure of positive attitude toward identity for Queer People of Color, the Queer People of Colour Identity Affirmation Scale, and used that scale to investigate the link between identity affirmation and cardiovascular adaptivity to stress. Dr. Ghabrial’s dissertation was selected as a top 5 finalist for the 2022 CAGS/Proquest Distinguished Dissertation Award.

In her current position, Dr. Ghabrial is working on two studies of trans health across Canada. She also runs a website dedicated to reporting research on Queer and Trans health, www.queercarekit.com. You can learn more about her work and find information for consulting and public speaking services on Dr. Ghabrial’s personal website: www.monicaghabrial.com

Check out Monica’s publication in the leading journal in the field of Counseling Psychology: Ghabrial, M.A., & Andersen, J.P. (2020). Development and initial validation of the Queer People of Color Positive Identity Measure. Journal of Counseling Psychology

KONSTANTINOS PAPAZOGLOU

Konstantinos Papazoglou, MA, is a psychology PhD (2018) and Vanier CIHR scholar at the University of Toronto supervised by Professor Judith P. Andersen. After obtaining his master’s degree in mental health counseling at New York University (NYU) as Onassis foundation scholar in 2010, he worked as a clinician with military personnel (2006-2008) and police cadets in Athens, Greece (2010-2012) and inmates in correctional facilities of the State of New York (2009-2010). He served as a uniformed police officer in Athens, Greece for almost 14 years (1998-2012) eventually obtaining the rank of police captain.

His work focuses on the conceptualization of complex police trauma, first respondents’ resilience, police health promotion, and community-based trauma prevention through culturally relevant interventions. He has presented his work throughout North America and Europe (e.g., American Psychological Association, Canadian Psychological Association, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, etc.).

CHRISTOPHER ZOU

Christopher Zou, MA, is a psychology PhD (2017) at the University of Toronto. He completed his undergraduate and Master’s degree at the University of Toronto, and is in his senior year of the doctorate program. He is currently working on multiple research projects with Dr. Judith P. Andersen at the HART lab, which includes (but not is limited) to the following:

Bullying and Health. Chris’ first line of work with Professor Andersen involves exploring the effect of experiencing adverse childhood events (e.g., parental divorce, bullying) on long-term health and well-being. He is especially interested in examining how minority membership (particularly sexual minority membership) can influence the impact of bullying on health.

Coming Out Project. Chris’ second line of work examines the underlying assumptions surrounding the “coming out” experience of sexual minorities. He is interested in examining the different definitions of “coming out” across researchers and the general public, and understanding the impact of coming out on health and well-being of individuals who belong to sexual minority groups. He hopes that by identifying some of these assumptions about “coming out”, we can better assist individuals who are going through this difficult process.