Our Team

Meghan Winters, PhD

Meghan Winters is a Principal Investigator for the Impacts of Bicycle Infrastructure in Mid-Sized Cities study. Her research focuses on ways that cities and their infrastructure can play a role in promoting healthy and safe transportation, for people of all ages and abilities. She is happiest when working in close collaboration with cities and stakeholders to conduct research and create tools that address real-world challenges. Dr. Winters is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University; founder and lead of the "Cities, Health & Active Transportation Research" (CHATR) lab; a core investigator at the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar. She has a MSc in Health Care and Epidemiology and a PhD from the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia. Out of the office, Meghan aims to spend the maximum time outside, biking, camping, picnicking and exploring with her family in tow.

Daniel Fuller, PhD

Daniel Fuller is a co-investigator for the Impacts of Bicycle Infrastructure in Mid-Sized Cities study. His research focuses on using wearable technologies to study physical activity, transportation interventions, and equity in urban spaces. He focuses his methodological work on methods for natural experiments, and machine learning. Dr. Fuller is a Canada Research Chair in Population Physical Activity in the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation at Memorial University. He has an MSc in Kinesiology from the University of Saskatchewan, a PhD in Public Health from Université de Montréal, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan. Out of office, Daniel is the Neighbourhood Factors Team co-lead of the Canadian Urban Environmental Health (CANUE) Research Consortium. He spends free time chasing his two rambunctious kids, is a runner with no plans to ever run a marathon, relives his youth playing recreational basketball on Mondays and Wednesdays, and is a long-suffering Montreal Canadiens fan.

Trisalyn Nelson, PhD

Trisalyn Nelson is a co-investigator for the Impacts of Bicycle Infrastructure in Mid-Sized Cities study. Her research develops and uses spatial and spatial-temporal analyses to address applied questions in a wide range of fields from ecology to health. Currently, her research focuses on wildlife movement and active transportation. Dr. Nelson has led the creation of www.BikeMaps.org, a web-map and app to gather crowdsourced data to quantify and monitor patterns of urban cycling safety and ridership. Dr. Nelson is the current Dangermond Chair of Geography at University of California Santa Barbara Planning and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Geography, University of Victoria. Prior to this position, she was the Director of Arizona State University’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. From 2005 to 2016, Dr. Nelson was the Director of the Geomatics Program at the University of Victoria where she also founded and directed the Spatial Pattern Analysis and Research (SPAR) Lab in the Department of Geography and held the Lansdowne Research Chair in Spatial Sciences.  As a mom and an avid cyclist, Trisalyn’s dream is to pave the way for even safer cycling conditions, which will ultimately lead to more people biking.

David Whitehurst, PhD

David Whitehurst is a co-investigator for the Impacts of Bicycle Infrastructure in Mid-Sized Cities study. He is an economist who has specialized in the areas of health and health care throughout his career. The concepts of health state description and valuation, comparability across alternative health-related quality of life instruments, and the application of economic evaluation techniques alongside intervention studies have been common themes throughout his career. Dr. Whitehurst is a faculty member in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and a Scientist at the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. Prior to his appointment at SFU as an Assistant Professor, he has held research positions at the Universities of British Columbia (Postdoctoral Fellow), Birmingham (United Kingdom (UK); Research Fellow) and Keele (UK; Research Associate, Research Assistant). He has an MSc in Health Economics from University of York (UK) and a PhD in Primary Care Sciences (specializing in health economics) from Keele University.

Lise Gauvin, PhD

Lise Gauvin is a co-investigator for the Impacts of Bicycle Infrastructure in Mid-Sized Cities study.  Dr. Gauvin has extensive research experience focused on the socio-environmental determinants of involvement physical activity, interventions to promote physical activity at the population level, and social determinants of disordered eating. Her team investigates how different neighbourhood characteristics can influence people’s lifestyle choices, what neighbourhood features can become the target of public health interventions, and on how these interventions can successfully shape urban residential areas. Dr. Gauvin’s ongoing research and knowledge and exchange activities are developed in partnership with researchers and interventionists at the Montreal Public Health Department. Dr. Gauvin is a Full Professor in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, École de santé publique at the University of Montreal and part of the Léa-Roback Research Centre on Social Inequalities in Health in Montreal.

Suzanne Therrien, MPH

Suzanne is the Research Coordinator for the Impacts of Bicycle Infrastructure in Mid-Sized Cities study. She has a Master's of Public Health degree with specialization in Population Health from Simon Fraser University and an undergraduate degree in Recreation and Health Education from the University of Victoria. She has over a decade of experience working in project management and population health research with teams at the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Hip Health & Mobility.  Suzanne has been a long-time cycling commuter, growing-up zipping around Victoria and now exploring the pathways of Kelowna, BC with her husband and children. She hopes that her work can help shape the way cities are planned to support viable active transportation options and vibrant community life.

Jaimy Fischer

Jaimy is a PhD student and mapping research assistant for the Impacts of Bicycling Infrastructure in Mid-Sized Cities study.  She specialized in geomatics and obtained her first degree through the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria where she also worked with Dr. Nelson and the BikeMaps.org team in the Spatial Pattern Analysis and Research (SPAR) Lab.  Jaimy has a long-time love of bikes, having trained as a professional bicycle mechanic before pursuing her undergraduate degree. When not mountain biking or cycling around the city, Jaimy can be found travelling and adventuring outdoors.

Karen Laberee, MSc

Karen works as a Victoria collaborator for the Impacts of Bicycling Infrastructure in Mid-Sized Cities study.  With many years of research and project management experience, expertise in community-oriented outreach and engagement, and strong connections in the City of Victoria, the CRD and UVic, Karen provides on-the-ground knowledge of progress on the Victoria AAA-Network, as well as related bicycle events and activities.  She also provides an information bridge between related BikeMaps.org and INTERACT projects. Prior to her current work on BikeMaps.org, Karen worked as lab manager at the Spatial Pattern Analysis and Research Lab at UVic, while collaborating on a wide variety of research projects. In her personal life, Karen has gained considerable experience volunteering on numerous boards that support amateur sports or community initiatives. In addition to being mom to a somewhat sports-crazy family, Karen can be found running the trails around Victoria.

 

Former team members:

  • Michael Branion-Calles, Doctoral Student
  • Danielle DeVries, Masters Student
  • Calvin Thigpen, Postdoctoral Fellow