Inspiring Minds is a campus-wide partnership between Western Research, the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, the Writing Support Centre, Western Libraries, Student Experience, and Western's 11 faculties.
Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research, while enhancing transferrable skills. Being able to communicate your research to broad, interdisciplinary and lay audiences -- both inside and outside academia -- is becoming an increasingly important skill for scholars of all levels.
Inspiring Minds seeks to help graduate students enhance this skill.
This non-competitive showcase highlights work by Master's and Doctoral students from all 11 of Western's faculties and schools.
The following series highlights all submissions received from the Faculty of Health Sciences.Submissions from 2025
Contextualizing Embodied Movement: Young People’s Negotiations of Race, Gender, Culture, and Body Image, Samantha Adler
Nurses’ Experiences Accessing Mental Health Services, Sophia Aksenchuk
Too Long, Too Twisty, or Both?, Niloufar Ansari Dezfuly
Women Experiencing Homelessness and Child Separation: A Critical Feminist Narrative Inquiry, Olayinka O. Ariba
Lessons from the 2024 Jasper Wildfire, Courtney Barnesky
Primary Care Pathways to Implement Holistic Hearing Healthcare for Older Adults, Jana N. Bataineh
Bringing “Home” to Long-Term Care, Denise M. Bedard
Design Research: A Collaborative Approach to Tool Development, Rachel Benninger
The Reproductive Health of Female Firefighters, Dorala Berinyuy Asesi
An Overlooked Barrier: The Impacts of Specific Learning Disorder on Health Management Abilities, Stephanie M. Brocca
Pioneering Accessible Assessment of Language Comprehension for Non-Speaking Canadian Children with Cerebral Palsy, Juno "June" Coan-Brill
“Falling Through the Cracks”: Strengthening Support for People with Parkinson’s and Their Care Partners, Olivia Crozier
Patient satisfaction with advanced practice physiotherapy internationally, Chris Davis, Alison Rushton, Katie L. Kowalski, and Tim Noblet
Exploring how Meaning-Making is fostered in a Dementia Day Program, Gabriela Drozd
Beyond Speech Quality: Exploring Speech Outcomes for Adults with Velopharyngeal Dysfunction, Morgan Flanagan, BJ Cunningham, Jeffrey David Holmes, and Allyson Page
Has your world shrunk?, Catherine M. George
Shifting the Lens: Using Patient Reported Outcome Measures in Adults With Acquired Dysarthria, Emily Golding, B J. Cunningham, Jeffrey Holmes, and Allyson D. Page
Working together to help those with atypical parkinsonism, Joanna Gueret
Nurses need support too! Well-being among nurses working with women who experience intimate partner violence, Ushani Tharuka Silva Guneththi
Exploring Nurses’ Decision-Making: Defining Critical and Sensitive Information from Large Language Models, Julia Harrington
Supporting Parents to Optimize Their Child's Movement, Kyra E. Hollins
Listen to my Speech!, Jessica Holmes
It’s as Easy as One, Two, Play! Empowering Educators to Spark Active Childhoods, Bayley V. Inniss
When the Brain Can’t Hear, Reza Irani and Ewan Macpherson
Creating Care That Respects Culture: Voices from Long-Term Care, Azmat Jehan
Exploring the Experiences of Breastfeeding Mothers Attending Canadian Post-Secondary Education, Rebecca M. Jones
Improving the accuracy of Automatic Speech Recognition models for Children’s Speech, Emma J. Kazmierowski
A Municipal Blind Spot: Representations of the Aging-Disability Intersection in Policy, Sarah A. Lanteigne Ms.
CAN PARALYMPIC GAMES MAKE MORE INCLUSIVE SOCIETY, seunghoon lee
Active Children, Stronger Future: A New Approach to Enhancing Childhood Arthritis Care, Aidan Loh
Life experiences of Young parents among survivors of 1994 genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda, Munezero Marie Colombe, Glorieuse Uwizeye, and Marilyn Ford-Gilboe
What patients tell us can predict future back pain or disability, Afieh Niazigharemakher
Articulating an interdisciplinary methodology to inform integrity-based decision-making in sport, Alan C. Oldham
Sport as a public emergency: The case for basic humanitarian standards in sport, Alan C. Oldham
Giving Voice to Experience: A Scoping Review of Speech Therapy Perceptions in Parkinson’s Disease and Hypokinetic Dysarthria, Shajaky Parameswaran, B. J. Cunningham, Jeffrey David Holmes, and Allyson D. Page
The Strengths Internationally Educated Nurses bring to Canadian Healthcare, Dilshad Pirani
Playing the System: When Classification Becomes Strategy, Adam J. Purdy
White Coats and Black and White Minds, Sanna Rao
When Dementia Throws Punches—Can Knowledge Be a Shield?, Tielly Regier
Examining how Abuse-Free Sport Policies are Implemented within Canadian Universities to Enhance the “Athlete” Experience for Student-Athletes., Karen Robertson Laansoo
Well-Being in Education: A Post-COVID Lockdown Comparison of School Sectors, Kyle Sandford and Tara Mantler
Family Caregiving of Disabled Children in Families from Collectivist Cultures, Gurleen K. Sandhu
Knee Deep in Innovation: A Robotic Approach to Total Knee Replacements, Anthony Tannous
The Unheard Patient: Uncovering Inclusive Practice Gaps in Healthcare Case Studies, Ranya Treesh
The Early Bird Gets the Words: Improving Access to Speech Therapy Services in Canada, Kristen Turner
Housing Insecurity & Health Impacts, Colleen L. Van Loon
Diffusion Tensor Imaging of Synovial Microvascular Dysfunction in Knee Osteoarthritis, Songlin Zhu
Submissions from 2024
Exploring Equitable Maternal-Newborn Care with Sub-Saharan Black African New Migrant Women in Ontario, Canada, Adebanke Afolabi, Shokoufeh Modanloo, and Glourieuse Uwizeye
Midwives and perinatal mental health, Shahnaz Shahid Ali and Panagiota Tryphonopoulos Dr.
Canadian registered dietitians’ firsthand experiences with providing nutrition care during pregnancy, Hailey Belaire-De Oliveira, Regan Derrig, Jamie Seabrook, and Jasna Twynstra
Co-Development of a Spoken Language Assessment Tool for d/Deaf and/or Hard of Hearing Students, Rachel Benninger
Adaptation and Implementation of an Accessible Measure of Language Comprehension for Non-Speaking Children with Cerebral Palsy in Canada, Juno "June" Coan-Brill
How Social Media Affects the Relationship Between Perceived Weight Status and Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Emerging Adults, Arya Ebrahimzadeh Ahari
Exploring Perceptions of Belonging Among Adolescents with Obesity and their Caregivers, Balraj Gill
Illuminating the intersectional experiences of individuals living with eating disorders and disordered eating: The in/accessibility of treatment services, Hannah Healey and Elysée Nouvet
Did You Hear That? Responses to Altered Auditory Feedback in Children, Jessica Holmes
The Experience of Online Health Information use among Stroke Caregivers: An Interpretive Description Study, Wilfred Huang
Do you know what it means to be deaf and love sports?, Thomas Irish
Exploring the Transition Related Issues Experienced by Nurse Immigrants from Low-Middle Socio-Income Countries Practicing in the Canadian Health Care System: A Focused Ethnographic Study, Mehtab Jaffer, Yolanda Bakenko Mould, and Saleema Allana
Challenging Negative Views on Sexuality: The Role of Post-Secondary Education in Shaping Sexual Health and Intimate Relationships Among South Asian Canadian Women, kasthuri kanesalingam
‘Aging well” with the Arts: Using Arts-based methods with Community-dwelling Older Adults, Sarah A. Lanteigne Ms.
Canadian Healthcare Reform is on the Horizon and Advanced Practice Physiotherapy is Rising, Kaitlyn Maddigan
Artificial Intelligence, Deepfakes and Digital Violence: Understanding the Impact on Health, Erika Murray
Client perspectives on nutrition care received from their prenatal care providers, Lexie Nobbs and Lauren Cameron
We have a dream: an arts-based social architecture analysis of a Canadian report: In the Land of Milk and Money, Lexie Nobbs and Lise Katrina Wolyniuk
Examining the predictors of response to ICBT for tinnitus treatment outcomes: A secondary analysis of intervention study, Frank K. Ocran
Fairness, Inclusion, and Safety: Exploring sport's ethical principles, Alan C. Oldham
Games acts, language, truth and the co-construction of social reality, Alan C. Oldham
Development of Parasports; A case of Ghana, Dennis Osei-Nimo Annor
Easing the Load: Addressing Shoulder Injuries among Firefighters, Temitope Osifeso
Engaging Children in Physical Activity: How Can We Better Support Rural and Small Urban Communities?, Emma E. Ostermeier
Expanding Occupational Possibilities for Young People Labeled Intellectually Disabled, Rachel Reparon
Applying Machine Learning in the Examination of Physical Activity and Engagement Among Commercial mHealth App Users, Babac Salmani
Understanding Teachers' Perspectives on Nutrition Education in Ontario Elementary Schools, Ashley P. Vito Ms
Understanding protective factors for children after exposure to parental gender-based violence, Julia Yates
Submissions from 2023
The Experiences of Familial Mental Illness Stigma Among Individuals Living with Mental Illnesses, Joseph Adu and Joseph Adu
Language and Working Memory Online Assessment Tool, Niloufar Ansari Dezfuly
Equity in Canadian Postpartum Care Practices, Andrea Atkinson
The Exploration of Sociocultural Impacts on Physical Activity Levels Among Muslim Women Students Studying at Western University, Mais Awadallah
Co-Designing a Spoken Language Assessment Tool for Educators of the d/DHH, Rachel Benninger
Gender-based violence and breast cancer: A threat to women’s health equity in Canada, Cara Anne Davidson
How satisfied are patients with advanced physical therapy practice?, Chris Davis
How does the "6th sense" contribute to our auditory spatial attention?, Erisa Davoudi
Virtual More Than Words®: A Caregiver-Mediated Program for Autistic Preschoolers, Lauren Denusik
Mining the knowledge gap of Sexually Transmitted and Blood-Borne Infections among Black youth in Canada, Bethelehem Girmay and Obidimma Ezezika
Did You Hear That? When What We Hear Influences What We Say, Jessica Holmes
Burnout among New Graduate Nurses (NGNs)- Are we ready to take the load?, Mehtab Jaffer
From the Other Side: Stroke Management in Low- and Middle-Income African Countries (LMIAC), Keren Sarpomaa Kankam, Laura Murray, Danielle Glista, Marie Savundranayagam, Mawukoenya Theresa Sedzro, and Selina Teti
iBelong@School: Understanding Young People’s Experiences of Learning During and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic, Hannah D. Litchfield
Will Health Warning Labels Affect Young Adult Perceptions of Alcohol?, Erin O. McEachran Ms
A study to investigate Narrative Skills, Language, and Working Memory: An insight into Macro and Micro structures of Language, Diya Nair, Dr Theresa Pham, and Dr Lisa M.D. Archibald
Empowering Care: Uncovering the Learning Needs of Personal Support Workers in Dementia Care, Grace I. Norris
Test-Retest Reliability and Interrater Reliability of Pinch and Grip Strength, Alicom Ochere
Guided Internet-Delivered Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Adults with Tinnitus in Ontario: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Frank K. Ocran
Do We Understand Cultural Humility in Healthcare Delivery?, Mo Olajide
Integrity based decision making in sport, Alan C. Oldham