Feature 6: Healthcare
In the spring of 2023, the provincial government pledged $37.4m towards the to-be-constructed Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Hall, which will house the Victor and Mona Dahdaleh Institute for Innovation in Health.
A Path to a Different Kind of Healthcare
The Dahdalehs announced their $15m contribution to the project at an exciting event in Halifax in April. These funds will allow StFX to complete the Xaverian Commons project, joining with Mulroney Hall to transform upper campus into an academic hub for students and faculty.
The Dahdaleh Institute will coalesce the health-related work that is already being undertaken at StFX, and provide collaborative spaces in which researchers can work together.
$15M
from the Dahdaleh Foundation
These funds will allow StFX
to complete the Xaverian
Commons project, joining
with Mulroney Hall to transform upper campus into an academic hub for students and faculty.
At A Night for the Blue and White, guests met with some of the extraordinary faculty members who conduct health research.
Dr. Dahdaleh, whose foundation also supports the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Institute for Genomic Medicine at McGill, was particularly keen to chat with Dr. Derrick Lee, a mathematics professor who studies the disproportionately high rates of colorectal cancer in Atlantic Canadians.
Construction on Dahdaleh Hall is slated to begin in 2024. In the meantime, professors like Dr. Lee are making enormous strides in tackling the health challenges of today. They mentor undergraduate students and run research labs with ambitious mandates-often, with a focus on issues most pertinent to rural Nova Scotians.
Derrick Lee
A proud Newfoundlander, Dr. Lee uses mathematics and statistics to investigate the causes of the aberrant rates of colorectal disease in Atlantic Canada.
Britney Benoit
Dr. Benoit 10 conducts research and community initiatives in the field of breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact, bringing theory into practice for the benefit of Nova Scotian mothers and children.
Britney Benoit
Dr. Benoit 10 conducts research and community initiatives in the field of breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact, bringing theory into practice for the benefit of Nova Scotian mothers and children.
Marcia English
Dr. English oversees a lab program staffed entirely by female students of colour. Her groundbreaking work in creating plant-based seafood alternatives and plant-based food packaging are gaining traction in industry.
Katie Aubrecht ’05
Dr. Aubrecht, also an alumna of StFX, holds a Canada Research Chair in Health Equity and Social Justice and is focused on mental health across the life span, rural mental health, and disability culture and justice.
Kara Thompson
Dr. Thompson is a professor in the Psychology Department who is a nation-leading expert on substance use and abuse, particularly in youth. She is also a scientist on the Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation project, and leads the SHEA Lab at StFX.
StFX Students at the Cutting Edge
Over the past decade, as more foundations and private donors have pledged their support, summer research opportunities for undergraduate students have become increasingly popular. The following students are three of nearly one hundred undergraduate students at StFX who had their research funded in the summer of 2023. Their work spans every discipline and faculty; even even under the broad banner of “health research,” students’ projects are wide-ranging and creative, and often of deeply personal significance
Gatluak James
Gatluak James received a CIHR USRA research award this past summer, which he used to conduct an ethnographic study of a youth basketball program in his hometown of Windsor, ON.
Renee Papp
Renee Papp conducted research this summer with the support of an Irving Oil Research Mentorship Award. A third-year English student, Papp investigated representations of sexual violence in Canadian literature.
Will Langille
Will Langille, recipient of a 2023 Scotia Scholars Undergraduate Research Award, is examining the different ways in which depression can manifest in young men, particularly while they’re at university.
Gathering inspiration from Xaverians who've spent their careers conducting pioneering work in health care
Even before the Institute for Innovation in Health (the I2H) becomes a tangible reality, we can look to existing examples of faculty members and students whose work has made extraordinary impacts on the health and wellbeing of Nova Scotians.
Gerry Marangoni
Dr. Gerry Marangoni’s groundbreaking work in gold nanotechnology was especially important during COVID-19; his company’s research provided for superior rapid testing for children and adults with sensitivities to invasive nasal swabbing.
Ann Bigelow
Dr. Ann Bigelow, Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Professor of Development Psychology at StFX, is a world-leading expert in the field of skin-to-skin contact for mothers and infants.(Dr. Benoit’s work exists in no small part thanks to Dr. Bigelow’s decades of research.)
