Principal Investigator

Rob Whitley, PhD

Rob Whitley is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University and a Principal Investigator at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. He is interested in the social and cultural aspects of mental health, particularly how these factors influence the etiology of mental illness as well as recovery and service engagement. He recently received a CIHR New Investigator Award and an FRSQ Junior 1 Research Scholar Award. He has published over 80 papers in the field of social and cultural psychiatry, and his work is currently funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC), and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR).

Doctoral Students

William Affleck

William Affleck is a PhD student in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University. His research interests include trauma and bereavement, cross-cultural psychiatry, refugee mental health, and gender issues in mental health. He was recently awarded a doctoral scholarship from the CIHR.

Sarah Berry

Sarah Berry is a PhD candidate and course instructor in the Department of Sociology at McGill University. Her interests span the fields of sociology, psychology, communication and media studies, and gender studies. She is currently working as Project Manager for Rob Whitley on an MHCC-funded study to examine mainstream media representations of mental illness in Canada. Berry’s dissertation work examines journalistic understandings of, and lay and professional responses to, associations that are made between criminality, violence, and mental illness in contemporary Canadian news media.

Marie-Eve Boucher

Marie-Eve Boucher completed an undergraduate program in Cultural Anthropology with a Minor in Film Studies before embarking on a Masters of Socio-Cultural Anthropology at Concordia University. Her research topic was the socio-cultural organization of globalization and the informal economy. Boucher conducted fieldwork in France and Senegal in 2006. She obtained her degree in 2007 and returned to work in West Africa for two years as a consultant for a local HIV organization. Since returning to Canada in 2009, Boucher has been working as a professional researcher and ethnographer for the private and public health sectors. She is currently pursuing her PhD with Rob Whitley on recovery and mental health.

Daniel Poremski

Daniel Poremski is a doctoral student in Psychiatry at McGill University working on a mixed-methods study examining the efficacy of Individual Placement and Support as a method of increasing employment rates in individuals who have a mental illness and who have recently been homeless. He received his MSc in Psychiatry from Cardiff University in 2010 and a BA in Psychology in 2007. His main interests are mental health policy, non-pharmacological interventions for improving cognition in people with schizophrenia, and the debate over diagnostic labelling.

Masters Students

Kirsten Humbert

Kirsten Humbert graduated from Laurentian University in 2008 with a BSc (Hons) in Behavioural Neuroscience. Currently she is pursuing an MSc in Psychiatry under the supervision of Rob Whitley. Her project examines the experiences of ministers in the United Church encountering and addressing issues of mental health within their congregation. In addition to qualitative research, she is also involved with the Douglas Institute Brain Bank as an on-call coordinator and lab technician.

Research Assistants

Aldric Reid

Aldric Reid is a Concordia university graduate with BA in psychology. He is currently working with Dr. Whitley and his team on the recovery and the social media projects. Aldric is a certified personal trainer and his interests include exploring exercise therapy within a clinical population. In his spare time, he coaches a little league football team.

Dara Murphy

Dara Murphy is an undergraduate student in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University. She is a videographer and collaborates with Rob Whitley in public outreach activities; for example, she produced and edited a series of short videos on the topic of mental illness, hosted on Rob Whitley's YouTube channel.

Cassandra Zawilski

Cassandra Zawilski is in her final year at McGill University, studying Psychology with a double minor in Social Studies of Medicine and Canadian Ethnic and Racial Studies. Her interests include health inequalities and the social determinants of health. Cassandra has volunteered as a Crisis Intervention Counselor for San Francisco Women Against Rape and worked as a Public Policy Intern for the Mental Health Association of San Francisco. She plans to continue her studies in public health or social justice / public interest law. Cassandra conducts qualitative data analysis on various projects for Rob Whitley.