Monica Parry

Monica Parry is a Professor in the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto and a Nurse Practitioner at Kingston Health Sciences Centre. Her clinical expertise has laid the foundation for a program of research to reduce the global burden of cardiovascular disease in women by 2030. Her program of research addresses four of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030): #3-Good Health and Well-Being; #5-Gender Equality; #10-Reduced Inequalities; and #17-Partnerships for the Goals. Monica is a member of the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Alliance; a Co-PI and Chair of the Knowledge Mobilization and Implementation Subcommittee of the Health Research Training Platform in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism; and a Co-I with the CANadian Consortium of Clinical Trial TRAINing platform. She is leading a research team to develop and test at heart, the first progressive WebApp developed for women with heart disease. Monica is also leading a research team to address the health and wellbeing of unpaid caregivers in Canada (https://unpaidcaregivers.ca/).  She has received advanced training from CIHR to engage patients as partners in research and is currently CIHR-funded with Clinical Trials Ontario to develop a decision resource for patients and investigators wishing to engage in Patient-Oriented Research (POR). 

Charlene Chu

Dr. Charlene Chu is an Assistant Professor at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto, and an Affiliate Scientist at KITE Toronto Rehab at the University Health Network. She is cross-appointed (status only) with the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work’s Institute for Life Course & Aging, as well as the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute at the University of Toronto. She is an Assistant Editor at the Canadian Journal on Aging.

Dr. Chu is a Registered Nurse with 16 years of experience working with older adults across the health spectrum, ranging from acute care to long-term care. Her PhD designed and evaluated a person-centered physical activity intervention to improve the functional mobility, and quality of life of older adults with dementia residing in long-term care. Her post-doctoral training was in the Intelligent Assistive Technology and Systems Lab where she acquired the skills in co-design and technology development, validation, and evaluation.