Ashley graduated with distinction with a BSc. in Kinesiology from the University of Calgary.  She began her research experience as a Research Assistant in the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Calgary where she was involved in various projects around osteoarthritis and osteoporosis.  Ashley later studied Preventative Medicine abroad at the University of Exeter.  In addition to her research background, Ashley has clinical experience as a Kinesiologist, working with adults and children along a spectrum of disabilities.  She comes to us from the Department of Emergency Medicine where she was a Research Assistant working on numerous projects in areas including delirium and DVT.  She is currently working with Dr. Paul Boiteau and Dr. Kevin Solverson on the Pulmonary Embolism Response Team (PERT) quality improvement project.

Aiza Nazarmatova is a research coordinator at the University of Calgary and a nurse case manager at the RRDTC. In her recent role as a Research Coordinator, she manages complex research activities, from ethics submissions to data organization, showcasing her exceptional skills in patient support, case management, and effective collaboration within a multidisciplinary team. Her educational journey includes a Bachelor of Nursing from Athabasca University, a Practical Nurse Diploma from Bow Valley College, and a Law degree from Kyrgyz Slavic University, underscoring her diverse academic interests and diversity. She is fully equipped to provide comprehensive patient care in high-demand settings. Her extensive training covers crucial areas, including Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS), trauma-informed care, phlebotomy, tracheostomy care, and immunizations.

Aiza is passionate about continuous improvement. She actively engages in research projects and quality initiatives, with a clear focus on enhancing patient outcomes. In addition to her professional achievements, she enjoys travelling, hiking, and cherishing quality moments with her friends and family.

Connie Mantei has been working at U of C for 16 years supporting faculty members, adapting to their varying needs and learning new programs and techniques along the way.  She has become proficient in many areas, both clinical and research oriented, and continues to grow and expand in her role in order to meet the individual needs of her faculty members.

Connie has had a varied career throughout the years, including buying, renovating, staging, and then flipping houses, also going back to college before working at U of C to upgrade her skills and qualifications to build on the knowledge and experience accumulated over time.

She is a mom to two grown boys, who are both married, and has been blessed with her first grandchild this past year.  She enjoys hanging out with her friends, family, and her two dogs, and keeps very active, having always loved outdoor activities, which now include many hours of dog walking!

Jean Kawasoe is a Research Technician at the University of Calgary, specializing in molecular biology and cell culture. They hold a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Waterloo (1990-1995) and possess expertise in essential laboratory techniques for biological research.

Haiyan Hou is a Clinical Laboratory Manager at the University of Calgary’s Department of Medicine. With extensive experience in clinical laboratory operations, Haiyan plays a key role in managing laboratory practices to support medical research and patient care.

Jen is a lab volunteer who assists the lab technician with work related to conducting an inventory of the biobank and data entry. She also helps with sorting through samples, aliquoting them and updating the biobank software.

Katherine is a graduate of the University of Calgary's Bachelor of Health sciences, majoring in Bioinformatics. She enjoys analyzing data, from traditional statistical methods to exploring how machine learning can be applied to more challenging problems.

Sasha is a computer science researcher exploring how generative technologies can support creative workflows. Throughout his Master’s degree at the University of Calgary, Sasha developed techniques for guiding evolving AI generated designs and published research on immersive VR data visualizations.

Dr. Costenbader is a rheumatologist and epidemiologist working at Brigham and Woman’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in Boston Massachusetts. Her work has investigated risk factors and disparities in the development of Lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and in the long-term outcomes of those affected.

Dr. Ann Clarke is a Professor in the Division of Rheumatology in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta. She established the University of Calgary Lupus Clinic in 2013 and is its current Director. Her research focuses on the epidemiology, economics, and outcomes of systemic lupus erythematosus.

Dr. Susan Elliott is a Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management and University Research Chair in Medical Geography at the University of Waterloo. As a health geographer with an active research career, her current research activities focus on the intersection of health and environment with an emphasis on bridging science and policy. 

Leanne joined Lupus Canada in 2008 and was appointed Executive Director in 2016. In this role Leanne leads the vision and initiatives of Lupus Canada while overseeing operations, revenue development, advocacy and research efforts and industry partnerships in Canada. Leanne is committed to increasing public awareness of lupus and ensuring lupus patients across Canada have access to care.

Christine Sperling is a patient partner who is working in collaboration with researchers to provide a patient perspective on SLE (Lupus) research.  She is also a member of the CanVECTOR  Patient Partner Council.  Having lived with Lupus for over 35 years, Christine hopes that by sharing her lived experience with researchers that there will be continued improvement in disease management, treatments and ultimately a higher quality of life for lupus patients. 

Sasha is a rheumatologist, a James McGill professor and a senior scientist in the Centre for Health Outcomes Research and Division of Clinical Epidemiology at the Research Institute of the MUHC. Dr. Bernatsky is the CAN-AIM Nominated Principal Investigator.

Dr. Marie Hudson is a rheumatologist, epidemiologist, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at McGill University. She is a physician-scientist and member of the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Community Studies at the Jewish General Hospital. She is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada and is funded as a New Investigator by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). 

Mina Aminghafari is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary, specializing in statistical and machine learning, functional data analysis, time series, and non-parametric statistics. Her research focuses on developing innovative methods in unsupervised learning and analyzing complex data patterns.

Dr. Leclair research focuses on autoimmune inflammatory myopathies. She is one of the founding members of the Canadian Inflammatory Myopathy Study (CIMS), a multi-center registry following over 300 individuals living with inflammatory myopathies. Dr Leclair’s work helped to characterize novel clinical phenotypes and generate knowledge to help improve clinical outcomes in inflammatory myopathies with projects covering a wide range of topics namely risk factors, drug effectiveness, morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. She is currently developing a research program aiming to improve monitoring approaches in inflammatory myopathies using innovative and patient-centred approaches.

Dr. Dianne Mosher is the past Division Head of the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Calgary and a rheumatologist with over 30 years of experience treating patients and conducting research.  She is currently the Associate Dean of the Indigenous, Local and Global Health Office at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary.  She is past president of the Canadian Rheumatology Association and co-author of “Living Well with Arthritis.”  In February 2013, she received the Governor General of Canada’s Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal for her contributions to arthritis care in Canada.

Dr. Moran Toro is a Clinical Assistant Professor and Community Rheumatologist. She has a special interest in inflammatory arthritis, rheumatic diseases in pregnancy, and young adults with rheumatic diseases. Her professional interests include Medical Education, and she is involved in Undergraduate Medical Education as the Chair of Rheumatology for Medical School Teaching. She enjoys working with the Fellows of Rheumatology in Training.

Emily Shantz is postdoctoral fellow interested in the intersections between human health and environment. Her research interests include chronic and infectious diseases, social determinants of health, health inequities, and knowledge translation. Emily’s doctoral work with the SLE-CALCULATOR project focused on understanding the social factors associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease in people living with SLE, as well as patient engagement, knowledge mobilization, and implementing an integrated knowledge translation approach in which knowledge users are included as equal partners throughout the research process.

Jenny Wei is a dedicated biomedical engineering professional and Co-Managing Director at UT BIOME. She has led projects focused on healthcare innovations, including designing a urinary surgery irrigation device, developing a wearable for abnormal breathing detection, and conducting computational analysis of muscle disease biomarkers. Jenny holds a MASc. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto, where she also coordinated the IgNITE Medical Case Competition.

Mohammadjavad Sajadi is a statistician focused on integrating advanced statistical models into real-world applications, particularly in Data-Driven Health Tech. His current project, ANA, aims to enhance healthcare analytics through innovative modeling. Javad earned his bachelor's degree in applied mathematics from Sharif University of Technology and is now pursuing a master’s in statistics at the University of Calgary, where he continues to advance his expertise in data science and statistical inference.

Eugene Krustev is a myositis fellow at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Eugene completed his Bachelor's and Master of Science degrees at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and his medical training at Memorial University of Newfoundland, during which he investigated the role of the endocannabinoid system in animal models of inflammatory arthritis and developed 3D-printed simulation models for teaching arthrocentesis skills. He subsequently completed his internal medicine residency and rheumatology fellowship at the University of Calgary, where he expanded into investigating novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets in systemic lupus erythematosus and inflammatory myopathies. In his free time, Eugene enjoys skiing during the winter and spends his summer weekends hiking and fly fishing.

Francesca Cardwell completed a Doctor of Philosophy under Dr. Susan Elliott’s supervision in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo (2018). Francesca is a health geographer, interested primarily in the relationships between the environment and health.

Nathan is an honours undergraduate student in the Cumming School of Medicine's Bachelor of Health Science program, majoring in biomedical sciences. His current research is focused on biomarker discovery and validation for the prediction and prevention of systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

Farbod is a bioinformatician working on integrating artificial intelligence into the medical field. His current projects include the ANA reader, SPIN, and SLE calculator. He graduated from the bioinformatics undergraduate program at the University of Calgary in 2024.

Grace is an undergraduate Honours Biochemistry Co-op and Research Specialization student in the faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University. Her current research is focused on biomarker discovery and autoimmune biobanking.

Dr. Hanly’s major research foci are pathogenic mechanisms and clinical outcomes in systemic lupus erythematosus, with emphasis on how lupus affects the brain and other parts of the nervous system. Dr. Hanly also collaborates on studies of pathogenic mechanisms in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. He belongs to several national and international research networks involving clinical studies of systemic lupus erythematosus.

Dr. Murray Urowitz is a senior staff rheumatologist at the Toronto Western Hospital and Senior Scientist at the Krembil Research Institute. He is also Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Director of the Centre for Prognosis Studies in the Rheumatic Diseases and the University of Toronto Lupus Clinic. Dr. Urowitz was a founding member of the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC) group and currently directs the SLICC Registry for Atherosclerosis.

Dr. Sabrina Anh-Tu Hoa is a rheumatologist and clinician-scientist devoted to caring for patients with systemic sclerosis. Her research program aims to develop better risk stratification and treatment strategies early in the disease process in order to decrease the morbidity and mortality burden of systemic sclerosis, with a special focus on interstitial lung disease.

Dr. David Sontag is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, part of the Institute for Medical Engineering & Science, the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and the J-Clinic for Machine Learning in Health. His research focuses on advancing machine learning and artificial intelligence, and using these to transform health care. 

Mark Tarnopolsky is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Division Head of Neuromuscular and Neurometabolic Disorders. He is a graduate of McMaster University and has been a faculty member since 1996. Tarnopolsky focuses his innovative research on mitochondrial diseases, muscle disorders, and other neurometabolic disorders. His goal is to discover and evaluate therapies and treatments for people with neuromuscular diseases, mitochondrial dysfunction, and other mitochondrial conditions such as aging, immobility, diabetes and obesity.

Dr. Nicholls is a clinical assistant professor with the department of surgery, division of orthopaedic surgery, at the U of C, and the Fellowship Director of the combined spine program. A childhood experience influenced his path to medicine.