Prof. Ravi Gokani speaks about the research during a community gathering held on Monday, Nov. 14.

November 14, 2022 – Thunder Bay, Ont.

Today, Dr. Ravi Gokani from Lakehead University and representatives from the District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board released the results of their research into migration and homelessness.

According to TBDSSAB, approximately 60 per cent of people experiencing homelessness in the city of Thunder Bay migrated from somewhere else.

“This study gives us a preliminary answer to the question of why so many people who experience homelessness in the city are from out of town,” said Dr. Gokani, Assistant Professor in Lakehead’s School of Social Work.

The research suggests, among other things, that a large number of people migrate to the city of Thunder Bay for assistance with housing, health care, and social services.

Many individuals come to the city for social factors such as family or friends who live in Thunder Bay, or they come for a sense of community. Many people also travel to Thunder Bay for economic reasons, such as the promise of employment or education. 

“Some of the findings were suggested by previous research, while other results were quite novel and surprising,” Dr. Gokani said.

“I think the study also raises several other questions for research and policy that might be investigated in the future. Overall, we have an evidence-base and set of lessons on which to build,” Dr. Gokani said.

The research team used machine-learning models to try to understand what factors predict if a person stays or leaves a shelter.

“If a clearer picture is realized on why some people come to Thunder Bay and then become homeless, then it opens the door to seeking opportunities to avoid the situation,” said Ken Ranta, Director, Integrated Services, TBDSSAB.

“It may, for example, involve linking newcomers to the city with supports and developing a plan to support their needs.”

This research stemmed from TBDSSAB’s 2018 Point-in-Time count of the homeless population, which suggested two out of three people experiencing homelessness migrated from outside the city of Thunder Bay and 20 per cent were from outside Ontario.

The partnership with TBDSSAB also involves Lakehead researchers Dr. Rebecca Schiff, Dr. Vijay Mago, and Dr. Travis Hay, as well as students from Social Work, Computer Science, and Health Sciences.

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Connections program provided $22,000 for the study.

You can read the full report here.

 Ken Ranta describes the results of the research.

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Media: For more information or interviews, please contact –

• Brandon Walker, Media, Communications and Marketing Associate, at (807) 343-8110 ext. 8372 or mediarelations@lakeheadu.ca.
• Carole Lem, Communications and Engagement Officer, at(807) 766-4219
  or communications@tbdssab.ca.

Lakehead University is a fully comprehensive university with approximately 9,700 full-time equivalent students and over 2,000 faculty and staff at two campuses in Orillia and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Lakehead has nine faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, Science & Environmental Studies, and Social Sciences & Humanities. Lakehead University’s achievements have been recognized nationally and internationally, including being ranked in the top half of Times Higher Education's 2023 World Universities Rankings for the fourth consecutive year and the number one university in the world with fewer than 10,000 students in THE’s 2022 Impact Rankings, which assesses institutions against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.

Check out Lakehead University's Research and Innovation Bulletin produced by the Office of Research Services!

The R&I Bulletin is distributed every Tuesday by the Office of Research Services and includes information on research funding opportunities, events, workshops and news/updates from our funding partners.

The latest version of the R&I Bulletin (as well as past issues) can be accessed by clicking here.

Check out the Centre for Education and Research on Aging & Health (CERAH)'s monthly E-Blast for December by clicking here.

November 7, 2022 – Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ont.  

For the fourth year in a row, Lakehead University has been included in the top half of the Times Higher Education’s list of the best universities from around the world.

This year more than 2,100 universities participated in the rankings, with approximately 1,799 universities meeting the requirements to be included in the final rankings. 

The 2023 Times Higher Education World University Rankings has Lakehead University in the 801-1,000 category.

“Thank you to all of my colleagues, our alumni and our many partners who helped Lakehead University remain in the top half of the Times Higher Education’s list of top universities from around the globe,” said Dr. Moira McPherson, Lakehead’s President and Vice-Chancellor.

“This ranking recognizes that Lakehead delivers high quality programs, fosters excellence in research and scholarly work, and provides unique and transformative learning experiences that put our graduates on the path to success,” Dr. McPherson added.

This is the fourth year that Lakehead University participated in the World University Rankings. This year, Lakehead ranked second among Canada’s primarily undergraduate universities.

The University was included in the same bracket as a number of Canadian universities, and ranked above the worldwide median in the Research and International Outlook categories.

“Lakehead University’s continued strong performance in research is a major contributor to our strong showing in the World University Rankings,” said Dr. Andrew P. Dean, Lakehead’s Vice-President, Research and Innovation.

“Research and creative activity are an essential part of Lakehead University. A significant factor to our research success is the partnerships that exist with our researchers, both nationally and internationally.”

In terms of Lakehead’s position in the International Outlook category, James Aldridge, Vice-Provost, International, said this ranking recognizes the efforts Lakehead has made toward internationalization of the University.

“This work was done by continuing to recruit students from diverse regions and countries, and by developing new and exciting pathways and mobility programs for our students. We believe that continuing to grow and develop our international partnerships is essential to internationalization of our programs, faculty, and students,” Aldridge said.

“In 2021/2022, Lakehead was the university of choice for 1,479 international undergraduate and graduate students from more than 70 countries.”

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings judges research-intensive universities across each one of their core missions: teaching (the learning environment); research (volume, income and reputation), international outlook (staff, students and research); citations (research influence); industry income (knowledge transfer).

It uses 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide comprehensive and balanced comparisons.

In addition to the THE World University Rankings, Lakehead University ranks 64^th globally in the THE Impact Rankings, the only global ranking that reflects the societal impact of universities by measuring the institutions’ success in delivering the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Earlier this year, the THE World University Rankings found that Lakehead was the top ranked university in the world with under 10,000 students.

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Media: For more information or interviews, please contact Brandon Walker, Media, Communications and Marketing Associate, at (807) 343-8110 ext. 8372 or mediarelations@lakeheadu.ca.

Lakehead University is a fully comprehensive university with approximately 9,700 full-time equivalent students and over 2,000 faculty and staff at two campuses in Orillia and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Lakehead has nine faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, Science & Environmental Studies, and Social Sciences & Humanities. Lakehead University’s achievements have been recognized nationally and internationally, including being ranked in the top half of Times Higher Education's 2023 World Universities Rankings for the fourth consecutive year, and the number one university in the world with fewer than 10,000 students in THE’s 2022 Impact Rankings (which assesses institutions against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals). Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.

November 4, 2022 – Thunder Bay, Ont.

Lakehead will host an Indigenous Veterans Day ceremony on Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 1 pm in the Agora with speakers from the University and invited guests.

There will also be an exhibit featuring photos and artifacts from the World Wars.

See below for more about the exhibit, which will be on display from Tuesday, Nov. 8 until Friday, Nov. 11.

The Indigenous Veterans of Treaty #3 project was developed back in 2018 by the Fort Frances Museum and Cultural Centre, Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Historical Centre, and Glenn Jourdain of Couchiching, whose research and photos laid the foundation of this project. Unfortunately, Jourdain passed away in July of 2021.

This exhibit was curated in the spirit of collaboration and reconciliation. It shares the triumphs and sometimes shocking realities faced by Indigenous veterans across Canada and specifically those from Treaty #3. 

With a focus on the First and Second World Wars, including other wars to the present day, this exhibit highlights veterans, their triumphs, setbacks, Indigenous women roles, mixing Indigenous and military culture. It honours those who came home and those who did not.

This is a growing exhibit – it started with around 100 names of veterans, and now it has 324. 

The exhibit will also include artifacts and displays highlighting veterans of Anishinabek Territory-Robinson Superior Treaty (1850) and Métis veterans.  

Special thanks to the Fort Frances Museum and Cultural Centre, Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Historical Centre, Thunder Bay Museum, Métis Nation of Ontario, and the City of Thunder Bay's Indigenous Relations Office for loaning Lakehead these displays.

Lakehead welcomes everyone to this exhibit.

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Media: For more information or interviews, please contact Brandon Walker, Media, Communications and Marketing Associate, at (807) 343-8110 ext. 8372 or mediarelations@lakeheadu.ca.

Lakehead University is a fully comprehensive university with approximately 9,700 full-time equivalent students and over 2,000 faculty and staff at two campuses in Orillia and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Lakehead has nine faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, Science & Environmental Studies, and Social Sciences & Humanities. Lakehead University’s achievements have been recognized nationally and internationally, including being ranked, once again, among Canada’s Top 10 primarily undergraduate universities in Maclean’s 2021 University Rankings; as well as included in the top half of Times Higher Education's 2022 World Universities Rankings for the third consecutive year, and the number one university in the world with fewer than 10,000 students in THE’s 2022 Impact Rankings (which assesses institutions against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals). Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.

Lakehead professor receiving funding to evaluate e-mental health solution supporting youth in Northwestern Ontario

November 1, 2022 – Thunder Bay, Ont.

Twenty early-career researchers from across Canada will receive $100,000 each in funding for innovative projects to better understand the brain, through one of Brain Canada’s flagship programs Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research.

In its third year, this signature program is anchored by a generous gift from the Azrieli Foundation, with support from the Alvin Segal Family Foundation, The Arrell Family Foundation, The Barry and Laurie Green Family Charitable Trust, and The Erika Legacy Foundation.

“As a nation, we are among the world’s five most active countries in neuroscience,” says Brain Canada President and CEO, Dr. Viviane Poupon.

“By funding early-career research in conditions ranging from epilepsy to depression to multiple sclerosis, Canadian researchers will continue to contribute to major scientific advancements in brain science that will further the field both nationally and internationally.”

The ultimate goal of the Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research program is to reduce the social and economic burden of neurological and mental health problems through prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment.

This year, the 20 grant recipients are investigating a diverse range of brain disorders and diseases. From studying gene therapy for Huntington Disease, to examining the brain structures behind eating disorders in adolescents, to fighting memory loss, these forward-thinking leaders are contributing to significant improvements in the lives of people in Canada.

Dr. Aislin Mushquash, Associate Professor in Psychology at Lakehead University, and her team are receiving $100,000 to evaluate an e-mental health solution that supports transitional-aged youth in Northwestern Ontario. 

Many transitional-aged youth (18-25) suffer from mental health-related difficulties, which can have devastating consequences.

Effective treatment is desperately needed. Youth in underserviced areas such as Northwestern Ontario have increased need for and decreased access to mental health treatment, especially those in rural and remote areas.

Limited access and longer waits for treatment can lead to worsening symptoms, can increase the risk for more serious outcomes, and can negatively impact engagement in treatment once it is received. Dr. Mushquash’s team will evaluate the impact of a mobile mental health app (JoyPop) for transitional-aged youth waiting for mental health treatment – thereby providing youth with more timely support and helping them to improve their coping skills and mental health-related symptoms.

The JoyPop app is one mobile mental health app that has a growing evidence base demonstrating important benefits for youth.

This app is relevant to youth seeking mental health treatment as difficulties in emotion regulation are common across diagnoses. The research team has partnered with two of the largest youth mental health agencies in Northwestern Ontario to investigate the benefits of the JoyPop app within these clinical settings.

The main goal of this research is to determine the effectiveness of the app in improving emotion regulation skills among a diverse group of youth on the wait-list for mental health treatment compared to usual practices.

They will also determine what difference in emotion regulation skills is meaningful to youth, assess changes in their mental health-related symptoms, conduct an economic evaluation assessing the cost effectiveness and cost utility of integrating the app into clinical services, and compare outcomes among Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth, and youth across the gender spectrum.

This research can directly address youth mental health by improving accessibility and timeliness of care and transforming future service delivery.

Partners and donors include the Azrieli Foundation, Children’s Centre Thunder Bay, and Dilico Anishinabek Family Care.

2021 Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research

For this competition, a total of 116 candidates from across the country submitted letters of intent that were evaluated by a peer review panel. Forty-seven researchers were subsequently invited to submit full, comprehensive grant applications, with the 20 grant recipients chosen after a second round of peer review.

Grant Recipients:

1. Dr. Philippe Albouy, Université Laval, Working Memory

2. Dr. Lindsay Bodell, Western University, Eating Disorders
3. Dr. Elie Bou Assi, Université de Montréal, Diagnosing Epilepsy
4. Dr. Vincent Breton-Provencher, Université Laval, Learning & Decision-making
5. Dr. Lindsay Cahill, Memorial University, Huntington Disease
6. Dr. Carlos Camara Lemarroy, University of Calgary, Multiple Sclerosis
7. Dr. Annie Ciernia, The University of British Columbia, Gut-Brain Interaction
8. Dr. Michèle Desjardins, Université Laval, Cognitive Decline in Aging
9. Dr. Catherine Duclos, Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal, Safer Anesthesia
10. Dr. Emma Duerden, Western University, Fetal & Neonatal Brain Development
11. Dr. Alexandre Fisette, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Brain Networks & Obesity
12. Dr. Federico Gaiti, University Health Network, Brain Tumour Biology
13. Dr. Rishi Ganesan, Western University, Delirium in Critically Ill Children
14. Dr. Jiami Guo, University of Calgary, Cellular Response to Brain Injury
15. Dr. Karl Klein, University of Calgary, Gene Mutation & Epilepsy
16. Dr. Julien Muffat, The Hospital for Sick Children, Genetics of Brain Disorders
17. Dr. Aislin Mushquash, Lakehead University, Accessible Youth Mental Health Support
18. Dr. Shaun Sanders, University of Guelph, New Treatment for Brain Cancer
19. Dr. Ashlyn Swift-Gallant, Memorial University, Sex Bias in Autism Spectrum Disorder
20. Dr. Christoph Zrenner, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Brain Stimulation for Brain

To learn more about this year’s cohort of Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research and to read about their projects, visit braincanada.ca/directory-funded-grants

These Canadian-based projects have been made possible by the Canada Brain Research Fund (CBRF), an innovative arrangement between the Government of Canada (through Health Canada) and Brain Canada Foundation, and the Azrieli Foundation, the Alvin Segal Family Foundation, The Arrell Family Foundation, The Barry and Laurie Green Family Charitable Trust, and The Erika Legacy Foundation.

The CBRF increases Canadians’ support for brain research and expands the philanthropic space for supporting brain research to achieve maximum impact. To date, Health Canada has invested over $130 million in brain research through the CBRF, which has been matched by Brain Canada Foundation and its donors and partners.

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Media: For more information or interviews, please contact Brandon Walker, Media, Communications and Marketing Associate, at (807) 343-8110 ext. 8372 or mediarelations@lakeheadu.ca.

For more information, please contact:

Brielle Goulart
Brain Canada Foundation
brielle.goulart@braincanada.ca
450-915-2253

Lakehead University is a fully comprehensive university with approximately 9,700 full-time equivalent students and over 2,000 faculty and staff at two campuses in Orillia and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Lakehead has nine faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, Science & Environmental Studies, and Social Sciences & Humanities. Lakehead University’s achievements have been recognized nationally and internationally, including being ranked, once again, among Canada’s Top 10 primarily undergraduate universities in Maclean’s 2021 University Rankings; as well as included in the top half of Times Higher Education's 2022 World Universities Rankings for the third consecutive year, and the number one university in the world with fewer than 10,000 students in THE’s 2022 Impact Rankings (which assesses institutions against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals). Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.

On behalf of the Offices of Research Services and Human Rights and Equity, we are pleased to announce the following academic departments, and lead faculty members, were successful in the internal competition titled ‘Departmental Competition for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Initiatives’ for the amounts listed:

• Anthropology (Dr. Jessica Metcalfe) - $1,500
• Chemical Engineering (Dr. Sudip Rakshit) - $1,200
• Civil Engineering (Dr. Ahmed Elshaer, Dr. Ahmed Bediwy and Dr. Jian Deng) - $1,500
• English (Dr. Max Haiven, Dr. Sarah Olutola and Dr. Anna Guttman) - $1,300
• Geology (Dr. Noah Phillips) - $1,500
• Health and Behavioural Sciences (Dr. Ravi Gokani) - $1,500
• Physics (Dr. Hubert de Guise) - $1,200
• Science & Environmental Studies Science Speaker Committee (Dr. Joseph Carney - Chair, Dr. Maryam Ebrahimi, Dr. Matthew Tocheri, Dr. Amanda Diochon, Dr. Noah Phillips, and Dr. Sree Kurissery) - $300

These departments and EDI champions put forth excellent proposals for increasing EDI knowledge within the research environment at Lakehead University. All successful departments received funding, made possible through an NSERC EDI Institutional Capacity-Building Grant, that will support the implementation of these projects. The initiatives range from speaker events to mentor activities and will occur by the end of March 2023.

Please keep an eye on the Research & Innovation Bulletin and Campus Connection for more details on the public events being planned by these units.

Once again, congratulations to all!

https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=2570050

Press play on the link above to watch the CTV’s Tony Ryma interviewing Professor Joel Mohr from Lakehead University's Faculty of Business Administration about whether holiday consumerism is alive and well.

Check out Lakehead University's Research and Innovation Bulletin produced by the Office of Research Services! The R&I Bulletin is distributed weekly every Tuesday by the Office of Research Services and includes information on research funding opportunities, events, workshops and news/updates from our funding partners. The latest version of the R&I Bulletin (as well as past issues) can be accessed by clicking here.

Lakehead International welcomes all our students, staff and faculty to join in this year's International Education Week from November 14 to November 18. International Education Week is an annual event that is celebrated by over 100 nations around the globe and this year's theme is Exploring Global Perspectives.

For more information about International Education Week 2022 or to register for the upcoming events, please visit the International Education Week website or follow Lakehead International Student Services' social media:

Facebook and Instagram: @lakeheadinternationallife
Tiktok: @lakeheadintllife