Four UVic health scholars celebrated 

September 17, 2025

Four University of Victoria researchers working to transform health systems so diverse populations can access safe and equitable healthcare have received prestigious scholar awards.  

The Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar (MSHRBC) program awards $450,000 over five years to support early career researchers who are building leading-edge health research programs and making significant contributions to their field.  

The four researchers from UVic's Faculty of Health who have received a scholar award this year are:   

• Megan Ames  
• Farah Mawani  
• Sarah Nutter  
• Allie Slemon  

Faculty of Health Acting Associate Dean Research Sam Liu says the awards recognize the exceptional caliber of the faculty's early career researchers and the important contributions they are making to advancing health research.  

“Support from the Michael Smith Scholar program not only accelerates their individual research programs, but also strengthens the Faculty of Health's capacity to lead innovative health research provincially and nationally," he says. 

Read on to find out more about the new MSHRBC scholars.   

Megan Ames, Clinical Psychology  

One in five Canadian youth experience mental health problems—more than any other age group. Yet most youth cannot access mental health supports.  

Megan Ames, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at UVic, is working to identify low-cost strategies that encourage healthy behaviours to help prevent and address mental health issues in youth.   

Ames, a registered psychologist in British Columbia and a fellow at UVic’s Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health, explores how physical and mental health develop together during adolescence and young adulthood.  

“We have little information on what helps (or hinders) teens to engage in healthy behaviours at the daily level and how this relates to emotion and mental health, particularly for underrepresented youth,” Ames says.  

She is particularly interested in how everyday health behaviours—such as physical activity, sleep, and screen use—relate to mental health challenges like anxiety and depression.  

Underrepresented groups, such as affectional and gender minority and racialized youth, will be prioritized in her research to ensure more equitable access to health promotion knowledge and services. 

“This work informs population health, clinical practice, and developmental theory, contributing to innovative public health strategies that support the mental health and wellbeing of all Canadians,” Ames says. 

She says the MSHRBC scholar grant will allow her to further establish her research career, expand research collaborations and partnerships, and improve her ability to train the next generation of scientist-practitioners.   

Farah Mawani, Public Health and Social Policy 

How can an anti-racist approach to implementation science contribute to redressing social and mental health inequities in BC, nationally and globally?  

Farah Mawani’s research aims to answer that question. Mawani, a social and psychiatric epidemiologist and assistant professor in UVic’s School of Public Health and Social Policy, says people with lived experience of systemic racism and discrimination need to design and lead solutions.   

“Everyone needs to have equitable access to mental health and mental health care,” Mawani says. “Right now, that’s not the case.”   

Her research program involves people with lived experience designing and leading solutions to redress historical exclusion and bridge the gap between academic research and community needs.   

Her research projects include adapting, scaling, and evaluating Building Roads Together, a peer-led walking group program that promotes social inclusion and mental health for immigrants and refugees.  

Mawani is co-principal investigator and BC regional lead for a national Health System Impact Training Platform for PhD and postdoctoral trainees, early career researchers and mentors, which received $2.4 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.  

Becoming an MSHRBC scholar is an important opportunity for Mawani, supporting her to focus on research that dismantles systemic racism and improves community mental health. 

“I’m looking forward to spending more time collaborating with community-based organizations because they have so much knowledge of their community contexts and what’s needed,” she says.  

Read more about Farah Mawani’s research in our Faculty of Health Research Spotlight.  

Sarah Nutter, Counselling Psychology  

Weight stigma contributes to inequity across people’s lifespan, negatively affecting the health of higher-weight people.  

Sarah Nutter’s research seeks to better understand the impact of weight stigma on the health and healthcare of diverse people in Canada.  

Nutter, an assistant professor in UVic’s Counselling Psychology program, says people with higher body weights experience weight stigma across their lifespans and across social contexts including in education, health care and the workplace.  

Research shows that healthcare providers spend less time with higher-weight patients, offer them fewer treatment options and ask fewer questions to better understand a patient's concerns.  

“All of this translates into a poorer healthcare experience,” Nutter says. “And when people feel shamed by their healthcare provider, they are more likely to delay or avoid healthcare in the future.” 

Nutter will survey and interview diverse people with higher weights about their experiences with weight stigma. She also will examine existing health data to better understand real-life impacts of weight stigma in primary healthcare. 

Nutter says that researching weight stigma presents some unique challenges that not all health researchers face.  

“As a socially acceptable stigma, I often find myself having to prove to various audiences and with various success that weight stigma is real and is something people should care about,” she says. “Receiving this award is meaningful because it is a recognition that weight stigma is an important health issue that warrants investigation and action.” 

Allie Slemon, Nursing 

Nurses are the largest group of healthcare providers in Canada. Allie Slemon, an assistant professor from UVic’s School of Nursing, wants to ensure nurses have the tools and capacity to make healthcare equitable.  

Slemon’s research program focuses on healthcare inequities faced by people who experience mental health challenges, and the Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (2S/LGBTQIA+) community. 

In addition to MSHRBC scholar award, Slemon recently won a $1.02 million Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) project grant with School of Nursing colleague Ingrid Handlovsky and Nathan Lachowsky, from the University of Northern British Columbia. 

The grant will fund a study of a novel 2S/LGBTQIA+ liaison nurse role that has launched in BC, to help queer and trans folks navigate the healthcare system safely. The grant will help the research team expand the role to other locations in BC to help more people. 

“This liaison nurse role is the first of its kind in Canada,” says Slemon. “We are kind of in shock, that we have this opportunity to research it, in real time, as it unfolds in the health-care system.” 

Through a range of community-engaged research projects, Slemon is working towards a future where nurses feel empowered to make change and prepared to address inequities. 

“By doing so, people who currently face inequities will experience safe and inclusive healthcare encounters, and as a result, enjoy improved health outcomes,” she says.