Forum’s Queen Elizabeth Scholars in Strengthening Health Systems: Australia
The McMaster Health Forum is pleased to announce its latest group of recipients of Queen Elizabeth Scholarships in Strengthening Health Systems: Eilish Scallan, Padmaja Sreeram, Jean (Zhuo Jing) Wang and Michael Parvizian. All four will be travelling to Australia to build on their knowledge of health systems and policy.
Outgoing Scholar: Eilish Scallan
Scallan is an MSc student in Global Health and will be conducting research studying Hepatitis C treatments within Australian prisons for her thesis at the Centre for Social Research in Health (CSRH) at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.
She will apply her experiences in research to gain unique insight into an often invisible health system, and looks forward to extending this knowledge to the Canadian prison system. She is very excited to be a part of the McMaster Health Forum, and looks forward to learning and engaging with her fellow scholars and colleagues.
Outgoing Intern: Padmaja Sreeram
Sreeram is currently pursuing a specialization in Global Health as an undergraduate student in the Bachelor of Health Sciences Program at McMaster University. She will be travelling to Sydney, Australia to intern at the New South Wales Ministry of Health.
Sreeram will further her understanding of health system decision making by analyzing the potential and impact of health policy to address systemic health inequalities through an intersectional framework, and build upon her McMaster Health Forum Fellowship by actively working to improve patient experience and optimize population health in New South Wales.
Outgoing Intern: Jean (Zhuo Jing) Wang
Wang is currently an undergraduate student in the Bachelor of Health Sciences Program, pursuing a specialization in Global Health. She will be travelling to Melbourne, Australia to intern with the Australian Prevention Partnership Group which aims to increase the uptake of evidence in health policy.
Wang will assist with initiatives that examine chronic disease prevention through a systems thinking perspective. She hopes that she will deepen her understanding of health systems research and how it can be utilized to address pressing health issues.
Outgoing Intern: Michael Parvizian
Parvizian is an undergraduate student in the Bachelor of Health Sciences Program at McMaster University and will be travelling to Sydney, Australia to begin his internships at the Sax Institute – an Australian leader in promoting the use of research evidence in health policy.
Natalwalla hopes to integrate and build upon his research experience working with the McMaster Health Forum by contributing to the Sax Institute’s own knowledge synthesis program and assisting with their testing process. He will also assist with reviewing the evidence base for Aboriginal preventative health policy and contribute to the Sax Institute’s own knowledge synthesis program.
Parvizian is eager to explore the relationship between research, policy, and practice as it relates to varying health systems, considering the unique challenges present at each step of the process.
Through the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship program, the Forum will participate in activating a dynamic community of young global leaders across the Commonwealth to create lasting impacts on health systems both at home and abroad through cross-cultural exchanges encompassing international education, discovery and inquiry, and professional experiences.
The Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarships (QES) is managed through a unique partnership of Universities Canada, the Rideau Hall Foundation (RHF), Community Foundations of Canada (CFC) and Canadian universities. This program is made possible with financial support from the Government of Canada, provincial governments and the private sector.
To stay connected with our QEScholars, follow @MacHealthForum on Twitter and visit the #QEScholars tagboard page.
Read more about the QES Scholarship in Strengthening Health Systems offered by the Forum.
Read more about the QES program at Universities Canada.
