New Faculty Hires: Fall 2024
Welcome to the 2024/25 academic year! This fall, FCS welcomes a new slate of professors across four of our schools. Some are joining TMU for the first time. Others are familiar faces, promoted from previous roles. Each one brings something unique to the faculty. Get to know them better in this year’s round-up.
Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing
Prof Amanzai is a nurse practitioner in both community and hospital settings and has worked with diverse populations. She focuses on health promotion, disease prevention, and treatment from a diversity and inclusion lens.
What experience informs your approach to teaching future nurses?
Nursing as a profession requires collaboration and team-oriented learning. I’ve seen this in real-time in clinical practice and in the community as a nurse practitioner. After working in acute care and primary care settings with various interprofessional teams, I now enjoy incorporating evidence-informed approaches into my teaching — with the ultimate goal of enhancing students’ capacity to improve clinical decision-making.
Check out Prof Amanzai’s bio page
Prof Gorospe is passionate about amplifying the patient’s voice, supporting clinician development, and shaping broader healthcare policies. He specializes in researching pain appraisal and management, and the use of artificial intelligence to facilitate multidimensional healthcare and learning. He maintains active partnerships with teaching hospitals, academic institutions, and government agencies across the country.
What research program are you planning?
It’s an exciting program that delves into the multi-dimensional needs of patients — reimagining how clinicians can meet these needs with innovative care strategies. By using cutting-edge mixed methods and multi-method designs, this program invites collaboration to create real-world impact in healthcare.
Check out Prof Gorospe’s bio page
Melissa Stevenson is Anishnaabe-Cree kwe from Peguis First Nation in Manitoba. She is Bear Clan and has a strong connection to traditional ways of knowing and healing, and the importance of spiritual healing in understanding how to care for our physical health. Her research centers on supporting Indigenous health and wellbeing in urban settings, as well as whole-person care, end of life care, chronic illness management/type 2 diabetes care, and Indigenous data sovereignty.
What do you enjoy when you’re not being a prof?
My family and community are very important to me. I love to spend time with my three children and do advocacy work in reconciliation within the health systems. For my own self-care, I enjoy participating in traditional First Nations ceremonies — from sweat-lodge to Sundance ceremonies. For me, spiritual care is key in ensuring that the best version of me shows up each and every day.
Check out Prof Stevenson’s bio page
Midwifery Education Program
Prof Middleton is both a practicing social worker and midwife. She has worked at the community and national levels, primarily in sexual and reproductive health. She worked as a trauma therapist with sexual assault victims, which motivated her to then become a midwife to facilitate safe passage for people giving birth. She specializes in birth trauma healing and perinatal mental health for both the birthing person and the family unit.
What career advice can you share with students?
Be curious, be excited and seek help! The best healthcare providers are curious about themselves, their clients/patients and things around them. Don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions and reach out for extra help. You don’t need to hold all the secrets of the universe! Let’s normalize asking for help and always be continually learning and curious!
Check out Prof Middleton’s bio page
School of Nutrition
Prof Lee’s nutrition research spans a wide breadth. She has explored topics such as energy balance, exercise physiology, dietary assessment, nutrient profiling models, food policy evaluation, and knowledge synthesis. She has also examined the nutritional quality of pre-packaged food supply, e-commerce food labeling and the cost of ‘healthy’ foods in Canada.
What do you research?
My focus is on policy-driven, public health nutrition research aimed at improving population diets and, ultimately, population health. I investigate environmental factors — like food policies, food environment and nutrition literacy — that shape our diet. I also examine physiological effects of foods and explore ways to support healthy eating. I’m especially excited about collaborating with students on innovative ideas to advance nutrition research and public health.
Check out Prof Lee’s bio page
Prof Ealey specializes in researching the mechanisms that drive fat expansion as obesity develops. She’s also especially passionate about examining the biological variations in metabolic systems that contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in the prevalence of obesity-related conditions, including type 2 diabetes. Fun fact: In her spare time, Prof Ealey loves playing board games with her family, as she says: “we’re a competitive bunch!”
What approach do you take to teaching future leaders?
I see myself as a facilitator of learning. It’s a privilege to guide and empower the next generation to be bold leaders and creative thinkers. They, in turn, will be facilitators of change. Therefore, bring a curious mindset to learning inside and outside the classroom. Ask the 5Ws + H (who, what, where, when, why and how) to understand material and challenge the status quo. Reflect on who is — and isn’t — being represented in your learning environment. This critical, culturally responsive lens lets you apply curious thinking across disciplines, and empowers you to play an active role in your education.
Check out Prof Ealey’s bio page
Prof Nishi’s research program focuses on cardiometabolic health and cognitive function through the lens of plant-based nutrition — with the ultimate objective of informing public health policy and updating nutrition recommendations and guidelines. She currently collaborates with academics and health professionals, both nationally and internationally. She also enjoys podcasting as a way to engage in insightful conversations and learn from a diverse range of people.
If you could share one key learning with your students, what would that be?
The world is dynamic and ever-evolving. Skills you develop today may need adjusting tomorrow. So, embrace both curiosity and adaptability. Curiosity drives exploration, innovation and deeper understanding — and encourages you to ask questions, seek new perspectives, and challenge existing assumptions. Adaptability helps you stay relevant and effective by pivoting in response to new information, changing circumstances and emerging opportunities.
Check out Prof Nishi's bio page
School of Social Work
Prof Ferguson has over a decade of experience in the field of education, specializing in social work and women and gender studies. She’s particularly interested in health policy, and scholarship of critical pedagogies. She’s also a Project Manager Professional (PMP) with a track record of leading education projects in policy and the community mental health sector. Her research focuses on Black women’s health, and scholarship of teaching and learning.
What do you enjoy when you’re not being a prof?
I like growing things. Many in my family are/were gardeners and I’ve benefited greatly from their labour. I like planting seeds here and there — both literally and figuratively. I especially like sitting around my mom and dad's garden, watching them do their thing. It’s a time to carve out, little-by-little, gems of freedom — reworking lost narratives of our relationship to land and labour — and to create new relationships. And then, of course, there’s the eating part, which is good too!
Check out Prof Ferguson’s bio page
Prof Nobe-Ghelani is a migrant settler from rural Japan. She loves working with the community and has extensive social work experience in health and wellbeing with marginalized communities, both locally and internationally. She has diverse research interests, including Indigenous-Migrant relationality, earth-based healing and social and ecological justice, spirits of grandmothers, and more. Fun fact: Prof Nobe-Ghelan is also a certified forest therapy guide and trained in horticultural therapy.
What do you enjoy when you’re not being a prof?
I love spending time outside in many different ways. One thing I really enjoy is gardening with diverse communities. Spending time in ravines is also amazing. Another outdoor activity I like is going on hikes and bike rides with my family. But when I can’t go outside and have to stay in, I’m really interested in baking and experimenting with making many different kinds of ice creams!
Check out Prof Nobe-Ghelani's bio page
