Pediatrics celebrates two Vanier Scholars

Dr. Louise Guolla and Alice Soper, supervised by faculty in the Department of Pediatrics, have been awarded Vanier Scholarships, the country’s prestigious graduate awards that recognize world-class doctoral students.  

Guolla is completing her PhD in Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact and is a graduate of the Clinician Investigator Program, under supervisor Lehana Thabane.  

Her scholarship will fund a study of all the survivors of adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer in Ontario since 1987 using healthcare data housed at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. She will explore how often AYA cancer survivors are affected by cardiovascular disease compared to their peers who have never had cancer. 

Using these results, Guolla and team will build a model that predicts which survivors are most at risk of developing heart disease. These findings will also help to design evidence-based health surveillance guidelines for AYA survivors.  

“I feel so proud to know my accomplishments and leadership experience are being recognized at the highest level of government funding agencies in Canada, and financially having this award means I can dedicate more time and energy to my studies,” Guolla said.  

Meanwhile, Soper is completing her PhD in Rehabilitation Science, supervised by professor of pediatrics, Dr. Peter Rosenbaum.  

Soper’s research will co-develop and evaluate an integrated version of the ENVISAGE (ENabling VISions And Growing Expectations) program, which helps increase family-centredness of services and empower parents of children with neurodevelopmental (NDD) disabilities. This version will allow parents and service providers from the same organization to complete the program together.  

She anticipates that the findings from the study will help improve the ENVISAGE program and provide evidence of the extent to which it works to increase parenting confidence, empowerment, and family-centredness of services.  

“I am incredibly humbled to receive the Vanier Scholarship and am honoured to be recognized for my research in the field of childhood disability. Receiving the scholarship further validates the importance of the research proposed for my doctoral work. It is a springboard to continue my current and future research endeavours, for which I am very grateful,” Soper said.