PhD Students

Beata Batorowicz
Beata graduated from the University of Western Ontario (UWO) with a B.Sc. degree in Occupational Therapy. In 2004, she completed M.Sc. at UWO. Her thesis focused on children who used adaptive technology for writing and explored relationships among children's independence, performance, and methods of accessing technology.  Beata has practiced clinically as an occupational therapist for 11 years, providing community-based services and working with children who have little or no functional speech. She was also a clinical services leader of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), seating/mobility, and adaptive technology services at the Thames Valley Children's Centre in London. Between 2006 and 2009, Beata has been a lecturer at UWO in the School of Occupational Therapy and Health Sciences. Beata is a doctoral student in the Rehabilitation Science PhD program at McMaster. Her research focuses on language and communicative competence, participation, and quality of life of children who are non-verbal and use AAC. She is interested in application of augmentative communication strategies to enable children's community and social participation. Beata's PhD supervisor is Dr. Cheryl Missiuna, and her committee members include Dr. Gillian King and Dr. Peter Rosenbaum.

Briano Di Rezze
Briano has an undergraduate degree in Human Biology from the University of Toronto and graduated from McMaster University in 2003 with an MSc in Occupational Therapy. His work experience in occupational therapy is primarily in the area of pediatrics, having worked with children across disability groups in both pre-school and school-aged populations. As a clinician, Briano was involved in clinical research in addition to his practice. His research interests are in current and emerging research methodology within rehabilitation intervention research. Briano is entering his final year of the doctoral program at McMaster University in Rehabilitation Science. The focus of his research is in developing a generic measure to evaluate intervention fidelity of paediatric occupational therapists and physiotherapists. This measure will be tested within a large randomized controlled trial conducted through CanChild and aims to be applicable for other paediatric interventions in the future. Briano is supported by his PhD supervisor Dr. Mary Law and by his committee members Prof. Nancy Pollock, Dr. Jan Willem Gorter, and Dr. Kevin Eva.

Samantha Doralp
Samantha is currently completing her doctorate in the Rehabilitation Sciences program at The University of Western Ontario. Her PhD research, in the motor development lab under the supervision of Dr. Doreen Bartlett, concerns the affordances in early motor development in healthy full-term infants. Her interests are in explaining the high degree of variability observed in early motor development, with a focus on personal and environmental determinants between the ages of 4 and 10 months of age. In 2005, she completed her MSc in Neuroscience at The University of Western Ontario, investigating the influence of cholinergic drugs on a neural model of memory in the hippocampus.

Nora Fayed 
Nora is a third year PhD student working under the supervision of Dr. Peter Rosenbaum. She is an occupational therapist with clinical experience in driver rehabilitation, and feeding and swallowing in children from Bloorview Kids Rehab in Toronto. Ms Fayed has also worked as a research occupational therapist for children with mild motor problems and young men with Asperger's syndrome. Her main research interests focus on quality of life in children with epilepsy and content validity in quality of life measurement. In addition to her ongoing commitments at McMaster, Ms. Fayed completed a fellowship role in the World Health Organization Health International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health Research Branch in Munich, Germany where she learned about methods for assessing content validity in health and quality of life research.

Susan Guenther
Susan graduated in 2001 with a double Specialist BSc in Psychology and Exceptionality in Human Learning from the University of Toronto at Mississauga.  She then pursued a Masters in Occupational Therapy at the University of Toronto, Class of 2004.  Susan practiced as an entry level clinician in School Health Support as well as wheelchair prescription in a children's rehabilitation setting.  In 2006 she accepted a position as a Living and Life Skills Educator with youth as they transitioned into adulthood.  Her Masters research explored the lived experiences of disabled university students and how navigating their accommodations affected their student roles.  Susan continued work on this research project with her former supervisor, Prof. Barry Trentham, until 2007.  She relocated to McMaster University, working as a Research Project Coordinator with Prof. Deb Stewart on transitions research and began her doctoral studies in the Rehabilitation Science PhD program at McMaster University in 2008.  Susan's thesis topic explores how disability is understood within rehabilitation science and rehabilitation providers' attitudes and perceptions on disability. She works with her PhD supervisor, Dr. Peter Rosenbaum, and her committee members are Prof. Deb Stewart and Dr. Seanne Wilkins.

Danielle Levac
Danielle Levac graduated from the University of Ottawa in 2001 with a BSc degree in Physiotherapy. She has worked as a physiotherapist in pediatric acute care, rehabilitation, and school health support settings. In 2007, she completed a MSc in Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University, exploring recovery patterns in children and youth with acquired brain injury (ABI). Danielle is currently a PhD candidate in the Rehabilitation Science program at McMaster. The focus of her research is on the use of commercial virtual reality technology (specifically, the Nintendo Wii & WiiFit) to promote motor learning within physiotherapy interventions for children and youth with ABI. Her PhD supervisor is Dr. Cheryl Missiuna, and her committee members are Dr. Virginia Wright, Dr. Laurie Wishart, and Prof. Carol DeMatteo.

Lisa Rivard
Lisa graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physiotherapy from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. She has worked in a variety of pediatric clinical settings with infants and young children and has held several research positions including coordinating a funded clinical research project, providing research support to several funded grants and most recently as the Project Coordinator for a multi-province 3 year CIHR-funded knowledge translation study at CanChild. In 2005, Lisa completed a Master of Science (Rehabilitation Science) degree at McMaster University, investigating teachers' perceptions of the motor difficulties of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). Lisa will begin her doctoral studies in the School of Rehabilitation Science PhD Program at McMaster in September 2010 under the supervision of Dr. Cheryl Missiuna. Lisa's PhD research will build upon her Master's work, exploring emerging interests in the identification of children with DCD, particularly younger children with coordination difficulties, including an investigation of the suitability and psychometric properties of early identification measurement tools used with children with DCD.