Team | Hart Lab

HARTLAB COLLABORATORS

PROF. LORNA FERGUSON, PHD

Vanier and Banting Scholar, Lorna Ferguson is an Assistant Professor at the University of Regina in the Department of Justice Studies. Dr. Ferguson 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/

SERGEANT LISSA RUOCCO

Lissa, an officer with the Toronto Police Service since 2006 has over 18 years of experience as a member and trainer with the elite Emergency Task Force. Recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in policing, her career reflects sustained leadership and mentorship. She is the first female police sniper in Canada and one of the longest-serving female tactical officers in North America. She is an FBI-trained hostage negotiator and an instructor at the Canadian Police College. Since 2014, she serves as a core practitioner-partner with the HARTLab at the University of Toronto Mississauga, contributing directly to all of our research on police health, performance, and evidence-based training, including the Autonomic Modulation Training Intervention for officers exposed to PTSI. Her operational expertise and leadership are central to tailoring scientific methods for application in policing and the general population, and to piloting and implementing research-integrated training. Her composure, expertise in stress and physiological regulation, and credibility within tactical units establish her as a trusted translational leader. She also provides confidential mentorship and intensive support to officers experiencing occupational stress, facilitating recovery and sustained high-level functioning.

SARAH SCOTT, HBSC

Sarah C. Scott (she/her) is a PhD student at the University of Toronto. 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 role of sexual minority identity, coping and HRV. Sarah also developed a therapeutic horticulture intervention at the University of Toronto Mississauga to improve mental and physical wellness of undergraduate students. Sarah is an awardee of two Canadian Graduate Scholarships.

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

LORIDEE DE VILLA

Loridee De Villa, a current medical student, 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) as a student assistant. 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 current PhD student at the University of Waterloo and past graduate from the University of Toronto Mississauga where she specialized in Psychology. She was the lab manager of the HART Lab during 2025 and was involved in coordinating the Autonomic Modulation Training (AMT) project data management amongst other more general lab responsibilities. She is involved in research on psychological wellness and continues to be involved in research collaboration and manuscript preparation.

PATRICK FAHIM

Patrick Fahim is a former thesis student in the HART lab and current PhD candidate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Saskatchewan. 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. Despite this move, Patrick will still be involved with the lab carrying out various projects with the team.

AMANDA JANI

Amanda is currently a graduate student at the University of Toronto Institute of Medical Science. She graduated from the University of Toronto Mississauga where she double majored in Biology for Health Sciences and Psychology. She worked as a research assistant in the Hartlab, where she is primarily responsible for data organizing/processing and conducting analyses 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 such as HRV and HRF among police officers.

SILAS LIENING

Silas is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying Psychology at the University of Toronto Mississauga who spearheaded 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, a current graduate student at Wilfrid Laurier University. She holds an Honours BSc in Kinesiology with a minor in psychology from Wilfrid Laurier University. She worked as a research assistant in the HART Lab, primarily focusing on police recruitment strategies Autonomic Modulation Training (AMT) project, where she reached out to police services across Canada and coordinated event presentation at knowledge translation events. In addition, Colleen contributes to a literature search and summary of articles for a review of HRV metrics utilized in research within the field of policing.

JAHDA WALDRON

Jahda is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Toronto Mississauga, specializing in Forensic Psychology with a minor in Professional Writing and Communication. She is a volunteer research assistant at the HART Lab, contributing to the Autonomic Modulation Training (AMT) project. In this role, she processes heart rate data and extracts heart rate variability (HRV) values for analysis. Jahda’s academic and professional interests focus on developing and implementing trauma-informed interventions within the legal system.

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.

PROF MONICA GHABRIAL, PHD

Monica Ghabrial, Ph.D. (she/her) is a Health Psychologist and Assistant Professor at Algoma University. She completed a CIHR Postdoctoral Fellow in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western University Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry and Harvard University. 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.

Dr. Ghabrial one of the leaders of 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, PHD

Konstantinos Papazoglou is a psychology PhD (2018) and previous Vanier CIHR scholar at the University of Toronto and was 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, PHD

Christopher Zou, a psychology PhD (2017) from the University of Toronto. He completed his undergraduate and Master’s degree at the University of Toronto. He worked 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.