Translating Evidence into Action – Symposium

Knowledge exchange on tools and strategies from the behavioural sciences to enhance pandemic and health emergency preparedness

Thursday, May 15 – Free, full-day, online event – Register!

PROGRAM PREVIEW

Session Themes

• Behavioural science for enhanced pandemic preparedness
• Behavioural science tools to promote uptake of prevention measures
• Using behavioural science to combat misinformation and build trust
• Role of modeling of behavioural data for pandemic response
• iCARE data blitz (presentations by iCARE trainees)

SPEAKERS AND MODERATORS

View all speaker and moderator bios

Full Schedule

Organized by the iCARE study team and the Montreal Behavioural Medicine Centre

Last updated: May 8, 2025

Invited Speakers and Moderators

Alison Hill, PhD

Alison Hill is Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University and a core faculty member at the Institute for Computational Medicine and in the Infectious Disease Dynamics Group. Her research team develops mathematical models and computational tools to help understand, predict, and treat infectious diseases, with a particular focus on HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, drug resistant infections, and disease-behavior interactions. Alison received her BS in Physics from Queen’s University, her PhD in Biophysics and Medical Physics through the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology, and her MPH from Harvard School of Public Health. In fall 2025 she will be joining the department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto.

Anastasiya Gudymenko, MSc(c)

Anastasiya is a first-year Master’s (M.Sc.) student at Concordia University. She completed her Bachelor of Science with Honours, with a specialization in Health, Kinesiology, and Applied Physiology, and has since focused on behavioral science to better understand the determinants of health-related behaviors. She’s passionate about designing interventions that help develop healthier habits, particularly among youth living in at-risk environments. Currently, Anastasiya is working on a research project in collaboration with partners in Benin, aiming to reduce air pollution exposure among adolescents with asthma.

Camille Léger, PhD(c)

Camille Léger is a PhD student in psychology at the Montreal Behavioural Medicine Centre (MBMC), co-directed by Dr. Kim Lavoie and Dr. Simon Bacon. The MBMC is a leading research lab affiliated with the CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, UQAM, and Concordia University. Camille’s research centers on health psychology, with a specific focus on the psychological and behavioral dimensions of pressing public health challenges, including COVID-19, long COVID, and vaccination

Cari McIlduff, PhD

Cari McIlduff obtained a bachelor’s degree in psychology in Canada, with the support of the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award, and has worked in early childhood intervention in a rural School Division in Canada. Cari completed her PhD in Australia exploring best practice methods and cultural safety in working with Indigenous Peoples. Cari has authored a parenting module for families who have or are experiencing trauma and/or toxic stress within the Positive Parenting Program. She co-developed, evaluated and authored the Model of Engaging Communities Collaboratively with Indigenous communities across five countries; a model of culturally safe methodology for community capacity building and social change that was piloted across 42 communities in the Kimberley region of north Western Australia. Cari is dedicated to working with Indigenous communities globally to support, promote and hold space for self-determination, community-led social change and research agendas for what is required in each unique Indigenous community. Cari’s research interests are in mental health, epigenetics, effects of colonization that continues to oppress Indigenous Peoples globally, cultural safety, effects of racism, social change/justice, and child and family wellbeing.

Cory Neudorf, PhD

Cory Neudorf is a Senior Medical Expert with the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan. He is the former Senior Medical Health Officer of the Saskatchewan Health Authority and former Chief Medical Health Officer with the Saskatoon Health Region. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada with Certification in the specialty of Public Health & Preventive Medicine. He has held various leadership roles in Public Health at the national level in Canada, including Chair of the Canadian Population Health Initiative Council, President of the Canadian Public Health Association, and President of the Public Health Physicians of Canada. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Canadian Journal of Public Health and the Strategic Analytic Advisory Committee of the Canadian Institutes for Health Information. He is co-founder and President of the Urban Public Health Network of Canada and is a liaison member with the Regions for Health Network (WHO Europe). His research interests include: intervention research to improve health equity; public health systems and services research; health status indicators and surveys; and integrating population health into health system performance improvement and strategic planning.

Elena Altieri, MBA

Elena Altieri created the Behavioural Insights Unit at the World Health Organization which she currently leads. The unit is responsible for mainstreaming the use of behavioral science in the work of the organization and of its partners. Elena has over twenty three years of experience working on behaviour change for several international organizations, in more than 40 countries across all regions. She worked on a wide range of social and health issues such as natural disasters prevention, people trafficking, social inclusion, hearing and safe listening, unintentional injury prevention and road safety and nutrition. As a practitioner, she has applied social and behavioural science to policy making and program design and implementation, but also to strategic communications and capacity building. Prior to joining WHO in 2011, Elena specialized in socio-economic development in Latin America. She has a Master Degree in Direction of Communications with a focus on marketing from the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain; and an M.B.A. in International Health Management from the Swiss Tropical Public Health Institute in Basel, Switzerland.

Frédérique Deslauriers, PhD(c)

Frédérique Deslauriers is a PhD Candidate in psychology (Psy.D/ PhD) at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Her research interests are behavioural medicine and public health, specifically in the context of the pandemic. For the last five years, she has worked on the International COVID-19 Awareness REsponse (iCARE) Study. Frédérique’s doctoral thesis aims to develop a public-informed campaign strategy to optimize responses to future pandemics. She has assessed the remaining COVID-19-related questions and concerns of the Canadian population and will use this data to inform a Canadian campaign strategy. Results will form the basis of a policy brief that will be presented to governments across Canada and hopefully help future pandemic preparedness.

Gerry Molloy, PhD

Gerry Molloy is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Galway, Ireland. He leads a programme of research focused on the behavioural science of medicines use. Gerry received his PhD from the University of St Andrews and was awarded a combined Economic and Social Research Council/Medical Research Council post-doctoral fellowship, which he held at the University of Aberdeen between 2004 and 2006. Subsequently he worked as a research fellow in Department of Epidemiology & Public Health at University College London (206-2009) and as a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Stirling in Scotland (2009-2012). He was awarded Fellowship of the European Health Psychology Society in 2018. Gerry has been an Associate Editor of Health Psychology Review since 2021 and was previously an Associate Editor of the British Journal of Health Psychology and the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. He was a member of the European Society of Cardiology task force that wrote the 2024 guideline on management of elevated blood pressure and hypertension.

Iveta Nagyova, PhD

Iveta Nagyova (PhD, FABMR) is the Head of the Department of Social and Behavioural Medicine and a Senior Research Leader at Pavol Jozef Safarik University (UPJS) in Kosice, Slovakia. She is also the Immediate Past-President of the European Public Health Association (EUPHA; 2020–2024), a member of the Technical Advisory Group for Building an Innovation Ecosystem for Public Health at the WHO Regional Office for Europe, and a designated National Focal Point for Behavioural and Cultural Insights. Previously, she has served as a member of WHO TAG on Behavioural Insights and Sciences for Health, the WHO/Europe Regional Director’s Advisory Council on Innovation for Noncommunicable Diseases, and the European Advisory Committee on Health Research (EACHR). At the national level, she serves as an advisor to the WHO Country Office and the Slovak Ministry of Health in the fields of chronic diseases, integrated care, behavioural insights, and public health.Her research interests include biobehavioural and psychosocial innovations in chronic condition prevention and management, non-pharmacological interventions, behaviour change, and improving functional status and quality of life for individuals living with chronic diseases. She is passionate about knowledge translation and improving health outcomes through evidence synthesis, co-design of innovative care models, implementation strategies, and scaling up effective interventions.

Dr. Jamie Brehaut

Dr. Jamie Brehaut is a Senior Scientist in Methodological and Implementation Research at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and Full Professor in the School of Epidemiology & Public Health at the University of Ottawa. As a psychologist and implementation scientist with training in issues of human memory, attention, and cognition, Dr. Brehaut has expertise in psychological theory, judgement and decision making, decision support, and mixed methods study designs. Much of his work focuses on the application of psychological theory, methods, and principles to optimize the design of interventions intended to improve health and health care.

Kai von Harbou, MD

Kai von Harbou is the Unit Head for Community Protection and Resilience at WHO Headquarters, where he leads the work on the HEPR Community Protection Subsystem. With over 15 years of experience in health emergency preparedness and response, he has spent the past decade working in various capacities within the WHO Health Emergency Program across all three organizational levels and in three different regions. He served as Head of the WHO Emergency Sub-office in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where he led the health response to both the Rohingya crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic in the world’s largest refugee camp. Before joining WHO, he served as a surgical resident at Yale School of Medicine, a research fellow at Mount Sinai Medical Center, and for the German Red Cross in Emergency Medical Services. Kai holds a Medical Degree from Hamburg University and a Master’s in Disaster Management from Copenhagen University.

Katherine Séguin, PhD(c)

Katherine is a doctoral candidate in psychology (Ph.D./ Psy.D.) at the Université du Québec à Montréal under the supervision of Dr. Catherine Herba. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the associations between maternal mental health symptoms and maternal sleep quality, as well as their physiological and psychosocial impacts. She is also a teaching assistant, a student mentor for the Canadian Psychological Association, and the scientific coordinator of the Revue québécoise de psychologie. Katherine is passionate about research and has presented her findings at several national and international conferences.

Dr. Kim Corace

Dr. Kim Corace, PhD, C.Psych. is the Vice-President of Innovation & Senior Scientist at the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at University of Ottawa, Clinical Investigator at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Program Director of  Evidence-Based Evaluation & Clinical Programming in the Mental Health & Substance Use Disorders and Clinical Programs at The Ottawa Hospital, Senior Scientist at Homewood Research Institute, and a Clinical Health Psychologist. In addition, Dr. Corace was a Presidential Officer of the Canadian Psychological Association from 2019-2022. Through her roles, she partners with providers, agencies, and persons with lived expertise, to provide strategic leadership for mental health and substance use health system transformation and integration, including innovation in service delivery models. Working at provincial, national, and international levels, her work focuses on facilitating health behaviour change, reducing stigma, and improving access to care and health outcomes. She contributes her expertise and research to inform numerous standards and guidelines committees as well as policy development initiatives to improve mental health and substance use health care.  She has received numerous accolades and awards for her outstanding contributions, including CPA’s Excellence in Hospital and Healthcare Psychology Award in 2023

Dr. Kim Lavoie

Dr. Kim Lavoie, PhD, FCPA, FABMR is a full professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Quebec at Montreal and holds the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Medicine. She is Co-Director of the Montréal Behavioural Medicine Centre, a researcher at the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et service sociaux du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal (CIUSSS-NIM), adjunct professor in the Department of Medicine at Université de Montréal, co-lead of the International Behavioural Trials Network (IBTN), co-lead of the Canadian Behavioural Intervention and Trials Network (CBITN), and Chair of the Canadian Network for Health Behaviour Change. Dr. Lavoie’s work focuses on research in three areas: the impact of psychological stress (e.g., depression, anxiety) and lifestyle factors (diet, exercise, smoking, adherence) on the development and progression of chronic illnesses (e.g., cardiovascular disease, asthma, COPD, obesity); psychophysiological and behavioural mechanisms linking psychological stress to disease; and behavioural medicine (e.g., behavioural interventions for chronic illnesses, including motivational communication and cognitive-behavioral therapy).

Mariantonia Lemos Hoyos, PhD

Mariantonia Lemos, PhD, is a professor at Universidad EAFIT (Medellín, Colombia). She has led multiple research projects on mental health, behavior change, and compassion in clinical and community settings. She is currently working on the adaptation and implementation of a behavior change strategy to promote physical activity and healthy eating, as well as on the implementation of a mental health program for vulnerable youth in the city of Medellín. She is an active member of the International Behavioural Trials Network and a collaborator with the International Agency for Research on Cancer. She has been coordinating the iCARE study in Colombia. Her work combines academic rigor with a strong social commitment, promoting contextualized and sustainable interventions.

Dr. Michael Vallis

Dr. Vallis is a health psychologist based in Halifax, Canada. He is an Associate Professor in Family Medicine at Dalhousie University. He obtained his Ph.D. and M.A from the University of Western Ontario, London, and his B. Sc. From Dalhousie University. His main area of expertise is adult health psychology, with an emphasis on obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular risk and gastroenterology. He spends most of his time training healthcare providers in behaviour change for chronic disease management. He regularly supervises clinical and academic students and is active in research on motivation, behavioural change and adaptation to chronic disease. He consults nationally as well as internationally and is heavily involved in academic publications, journal editing, and clinical practice guidelines. He was on the executive of the Canadian Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Obesity (2020) and lead author of the Psychological and Behavioural Chapter for these new guidelines as well as the 2006 guidelines. As well, he is an author of the Psychology and Mental Health chapter of Diabetes Canada’s Clinical Practice Guidelines (2023, 2018, 2013, 2004). He received the 2024 Distinguished Service Award from the Canadian Association of Bariatric Physicians and Surgeons, the 2021 Charles H Best award from Diabetes Canada and holds a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Government of Canada on the recommendation of the Diabetes Canada.

Nazeem Muhajarine, PhD

Nazeem Muhajarine is a population health researcher and a driver of change at the community level to promote better health. Specializing in social epidemiology, Nazeem has excelled in conducting research that is translated into change. He has led projects nationally and internationally, built research institutions and infrastructure, and is a highly sought-after mentor. Nazeem exhibits remarkable depth and range in his scholarly work. He is at once a highly respected researcher, leader, and builder; a valued mentor and teacher; and an exceptional academic who works effectively with people across sectors.

Noémie Tremblay, PhD(c)

Noémie Tremblay holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Sherbrooke and brings with her over five years of extensive experience as a communications advisor. Her academic and personal journey culminated in the pursuit of advanced studies in psychology within the Honors program at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). Driven by an unwavering passion for research and behavioural sciences, she is currently immersed in a Ph.D. program in Psychology, under the guidance of Dr. Kim Lavoie, within the Montreal Behavioral Medicine Center. Her thesis is on the Motivational Communication Competency Assessment Tool (MC-CAT), a tool designed to support the MOTIVATOR training program in motivational communication. Her work aims to enhance healthcare professionals’ communication skills, optimize the patient-provider relationship, and support chronic disease prevention.

Robert West, PhD

Robert West is Professor Emeritus of Health Psychology at University College London. He specialises in development and evaluation of behaviour change interventions. He currently advises the Public Health Wales Behavioural Science Unit. He is co-founder of the Capability-Opportunity-Motivation, Behaviour (COM-B) model of behaviour, the Behaviour Change Wheel framework for intervention development, and the PRIME Theory of motivation. He has authored or co-authored more than 900 scientific papers and 18 books including ‘The Behaviour Change Wheel’, ‘Energise: The Secrets of Motivation’, and ‘React: Harness the Animal Brain’.

Simon Bacon, PhD

Simon Bacon is a behavioural scientist, who is interested in understanding why people do what they do and then developing tailored interventions to help positively change high-risk behaviours. These interventions range from targeting individuals through to policies. Most of this work has focused on health behaviours (e.g., physical activity, diet, weight management, medication adherence) and has targeted health-related outcomes, i.e., reducing the development and progression of chronic diseases(e.g., obesity, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, COVID-19). The work that he does is multidisciplinary and intersectoral, requiring the engagement of a number of different collaborators and partners, and utilises a variety of mixed-methodologies, including epidemiological, psychophysiological, evidence syntheses, qualitative, and behavioural trials designs. Currently, Simon is the FRQS co-Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Digital Health for Health Behaviour Change and the CIHR SPOR Chair in Innovative, Patient-Oriented, Behavioural Clinical Trials. He is also a fellow of the Obesity Society, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. In addition to Concordia, Dr. Bacon is co-director of the Montreal Behavioural Medicine Centre, a researcher at the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal (CIUSSS-NIM), and co-leads the International Behavioural Trials Network and the CIHR funded Canadian Behavioural Interventions and Trials Network.

Tim Evans, PhD

Tim Evans is Vice-President, Research, Innovation and Impact at Concordia University. He earned a medical degree from McMaster University and a DPhil in agricultural economics from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Before joining Concordia, Evans was the inaugural director and associate dean of the School of Population and Global Health at McGill University, where he also served as associate vice-president of global policy and innovation. He was executive director of Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force and held senior leadership roles at the World Bank, the World Health Organization and BRAC University. Throughout his career, Evans has played a key role in advancing global health initiatives. He co-founded Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, led the World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health and worked to expand access to HIV treatment and midwifery training in Bangladesh.

Troy Day, PhD

Troy Day is Professor and Head of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Queen’s University. His research focuses on mathematical epidemiology and the evolutionary dynamics of infectious diseases. He was a member of the Modeling Consensus Table arm of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table during the COVID-19 pandemic. Day is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles, two textbooks in mathematics, one textbook on mathematical modeling in biology, and a monograph on the role of nongenetic inheritance in evolutionary biology. He has received several recognitions for his work including a Canada Research Chair, an E.W.R Steacie Fellowship, a Canada Council Killam Research Fellowship, and the E.W.R. Steacie Prize. He is an Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Vincent Gosselin Boucher, PhD

Vincent Gosselin Boucher is an adjunct professor in the Department of Physical Activity Sciences at the Université du Québec à Montréal. He holds a PhD in Psychology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia’s School of Kinesiology. His research focuses on behaviour change, population health promotion, and digital health technologies. He specializes in developing and evaluating training programs in health promotion and behaviour change, designing tools for health assessment and monitoring, and exploring the well-being of healthcare professionals. He is also interested in science communication, digital health, and combating misinformation. His goal is to make behavioural interventions and health promotion programs more accessible to the public.