ABOUT OUR TEAM
Dr. Kelly Dean Schwartz
PhD, RPsych
Nominated Principal Applicant
Dr. Schwartz is an Associate Professor in the School of Applied Child Psychology Program at the University of Calgary’s Werklund School of Education. As a registered psychologist, Dr. Schwartz has been engaged in the study of children, youth, and their families for over 25 years — most notably focusing on the development assets and family strengths contributing to healthy development and thriving.
Under his direction, the Social Development Research Team (SDRT) has received provincial and national grants to study child and youth engagement with social media and technology, international positive youth development, student mental health, and resiliency in first responder and military families.
Dr. Schwartz is a member of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, the Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education, the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, and the Owerko Centre. He also serves on numerous community, provincial, and national boards, and advisory committees, and works with national institutes focused on research and training that informs evidence-based psychological services (prevention and intervention) for children, youth, and families.
Dr. Megan McElheran
PsyD, RPsych
Principal Knowledge User
Dr. McElheran is a Clinical Psychologist and the CEO of Wayfound Mental Health Group — a community-based psychology practice headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. She is the creator of the Before Operational Stress program, which is an empirically-informed upstream program for employees of high psychological risk occupations.
She began working with uniformed service personnel in 2004, at which time she had the opportunity to train extensively within the National Center for PTSD — a branch of the United States Veterans Affairs Administration. This training introduced her to the unique factors that affect military members and Veterans, and how therapeutic interventions must be adapted to effectively serve these populations.
Returning to Canada in 2008, Dr. McElheran began working with Canadian military members, members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Canadian Veterans. Over the years, the populations she serves have expanded to include other public safety personnel (PSP) groups, including municipal police officers, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, and correctional services officers. She continues to provide empirically-supported treatments for operational stress injuries to PSP individuals and groups, and focuses significantly on the development of innovative programming for PSP.
Dr. Hanna Duffy
PhD, RPsych
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Duffy is a registered psychologist and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calgary’s Werklund School of Education. She completed her PhD in School and Applied Child Psychology at the University of Calgary, and her pre-doctoral residency at Renfrew Educational Services and Rocky View Schools.
Her research primarily focuses on supporting first responder families, while her current work focuses on the development and implementation of an evidence-informed psychoeducation and support program for spouses of first responders. Dr. Duffy aims to expand the scope of her current work to provide psychoeducation and support for children and adolescents from first responder families.
Dr. Andrea Stelnicki
PhD, RPsych
Collaborator
Dr. Stelnicki is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Regina. She is currently heading several projects evaluating programs for PSP, including the BOS program evaluation project and tracking the mental health of PSP peer supporters.
Her experience evaluating the BOS program (Stelnicki et al., 2019) has equipped her with expertise to further develop the BOS-Family intervention and manage data collection for the current project. She completed her doctoral research focusing on the well-being of military-connected youth in the context of parental mental disorders, with two papers related to the military family project currently under peer review.
Dr. Stelnicki is also a registered psychologist specializing in assessment and intervention for children and adolescents. She will act as the Sex and Gender Champion, along with supporting the intervention implementation.
Dr. Tim Black
PhD, RPsych
Collaborator
Dr. Black is past Associate Professor of Counselling Psychology at the University of Victoria, a specialist in PTSD and group counselling approaches, and the National Clinical Co-Advisor to Wounded Warriors Canada (WWC).
He is the co-founder of WWC’s Couples Overcoming PTSD Every Day (COPE) Program, Trauma Resiliency Programs (TRP1 and TRP2), and the peer-led trauma education program Trauma Resiliency Training for Trauma Exposed Professionals (TExP) – including professions such as military, police, fire, paramedic, corrections, and health care.
Dr. Black has trained clinicians across Canada and internationally to deliver WWC programs. He currently works with TExP organizations, locally and nationally, to help educate and support their members in learning about the effects of professional serial trauma-exposure, and the importance of acquiring skills in managing post-traumatic responses.
Research Assistants
Daranne Harris is a PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary. Daranne brings her experience as project lead for Dr. Schwartz’ NeuroNexus challenge and supports the wearable technology aspects of the BOS-Family intervention proposed in this study.
Marisa Van Bavel is a PhD Candidate in educational psychology who brings experience with urban and indigenous populations and strength-based approaches.
Michelle Redekop is a PhD Candidate in Counselling Psychology and has clinical experience with families, as well as military and RCMP populations experiencing OSI’s. Her doctoral research focuses on women firefighters’ experiences of harassment, discrimination, and resilience.
Kathleen Oliver has a PhD in Psychology from McMaster University and is currently a MSc student in Counselling Psychology. Kathleen brings a wealth of knowledge in research methods and neuroscience to the team.
Jodi Gregory is the Project Coordinator of the study. Jodi has a Masters in Clinical Social Work and over ten years of collaboration with youth serving organizations in both Calgary and Vancouver.