Epilepsy Education Session
- Date
- March 29, 2023
- Time
- 12:00 PM EDT - 1:00 PM EDT
- Location
- Online via Zoom
- Open To
- All TMU community members
- Contact
- Heather Willis, hwillis@torontomu.ca
March is Epilepsy Awareness Month, and March 26 is recognized as Purple Day to increase public awareness and understanding of epilepsy. On this day, we invite you to wear purple to show support for people with epilepsy and join us for an education session.
TMU Criminology student Matthew Karam along with Noura Hamade, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lead at Epilepsy Toronto, and Malvika Khera, a Guelph University alum will present a session about epilepsy. They will address myths and misconceptions, information about seizures and seizure first aid.
The session will also include lived experience accounts from students living with epilepsy, challenges they face and accommodations they may require to best support them in a post-secondary environment.
This event has been organized by the Accessibility team in the Office of the Vice-President, Equity and Community Inclusion in partnership with Epilepsy Toronto, with support from Academic Accommodation Support within TMU’s Student Wellbeing office.
Learn more about the speakers
Matthew Karam is a fourth year criminology student at TMU with a minor in disability studies. One of his main interests is disability advocacy and he is currently working on a qualitative research study on Adults’ Opinions on Disclosing Epilepsy. He has been a public education ambassador helping Epilepsy Toronto with outreach to the community to promote a better understanding of epilepsy and seizures and create safer, more inclusive spaces.
Noura Hamade is the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lead at Epilepsy Toronto. She works closely with the different teams at the organization to continue to ensure that all their programs and services are equitable and represent the needs of their diverse clientele. Her goal is to establish partnerships with diverse communities to expand outreach to people living with epilepsy. She holds a Master’s Degree in Epidemiology from Western University. Previously, she has worked in patient education at the University Health Network Hospitals and as a researcher in the Department of Global Health at the University of Toronto, focusing on women’s health in countries in conflict.
Malvika Khera graduated from the University of Guelph with a Bachelor’s in Commerce and has worked as a communications and social media consultant for the past three years. She has had epilepsy since she was two years old and has been involved with the epilepsy community through Epilepsy Toronto and Epilepsy South Central in Mississauga since she was 16. Malvika is very passionate about spreading awareness of epilepsy in the community through sharing her story.
Live captioning and ASL will be provided
The university is committed to the accessibility and inclusion of persons with disabilities. If you require any additional accessibility accommodations to ensure your full participation, please email accessibility@torontomu.ca.
Questions?
If you have any questions, please email Heather Willis, Accessibility Coordinator, OVPECI at hwillis@torontomu.ca.
