Gurmaan Gill
Undergraduate Student
Meet Gurmaan, our undergraduate Work Learn student! Gurmaan is a 4th year student studying Honours Cellular and Physiological Sciences at UBC. He is currently working on a scoping review of unpaid labour in parents and its associated mental health outcomes. When not in the lab, Gurmaan can probably be found in a boxing gym or working on his radio show.
Sarvenaz Oloomi
Undergraduate Student
Sarvenaz is an honours student doing her honours thesis at the lab. She is in her fourth year studying Psychology Honours at UBC. She is looking at factors related to verbal aggression towards infants. When not in the lab, Sarvenaz enjoys singing, sports, and trivia nights.
Graduate Students
Rose Cameron
Rose Cameron is a second year UBC Medical Student at the Island Medical Program in Victoria, BC. She has worked with the PAR Lab since Spring 2020, contributing to projects on Fear of Childbirth, Mother’s Thoughts of Harm, and Perinatal Anxiety Screening Study. In her spare time, Rose bakes bread at least once a week and enjoys reading by the fire.
Janae Vlaar
Janae Vlaar is a first year UBC Medical Student at the Island Medical Program in Victoria, BC. She is a research assistant and FLEX Student with the PAR Lab working on the Perinatal Anxiety Screening Study. Her research interests are in perinatal and pediatric health. Janae enjoys road and mountain biking, eating ice cream, and playing with her cat.
Staff and Students
Devan Tchir
Meet Devan Tchir, a Research Assistant with the UBC PAR Lab. Devan has a background in neuroscience and public health. His previous publications have spanned from the cellular to population health level, and has a new found passion for perinatal mental health. When not working at his computer, you can find him on the tennis court or hiking the beautiful Vancouver Island wilderness.
Simran Grewal
Meet Simran Grewal, a Research Assistant with the UBC PAR Lab since Fall 2020. She has a background in Organic Chemistry and Physiology, with research interests in the field of obstetrics and gynecology. She strives to learn more about the maternal-fetal systems with an integration of mental health and anxiety. She has worked on the Perinatal Anxiety Disorders Screening Study. When not working, you can find Simran playing the piano or badminton.
Rachel Martin
Meet Rachel Martin, who joined the PAR Lab as a Research Assistant in April 2020. Rachel is interested in research focusing on the transition to parenthood, and specifically how mood disorders, such as perinatal anxiety, relate to postpartum caregiving behaviour and parent-infant bonding. Rachel led the authorship of a chapter on postpartum, unwanted, intrusive thoughts of infant harm with Dr. Fairbrother and is also leading projects on fear of childbirth and postpartum OCD. When not doing this exciting work, Rachel likes to go to Zumba classes and travel around Spain!
Nichole Neufeld
Meet Nicole Neufeld, a recent honours graduate from the psychology program at UVic. Nicole started in the lab in the Fall of 2019, and is currently working on recruitment for the Thoughts of Harm extension study. Her research interests include the neuropsychology of executive function and dysfunction in the context of pregnancy and parenting. Ideally, she hopes her research will contribute to the creation of new programs and/or screening measures with the overall goal of improving the everyday functioning of parents with mental health difficulties. Outside of the lab, Nicole enjoys playing board games, reading, and sewing.
Alexandra Merletti
Alexandra Merletti has been a Research Assistant at the PAR Lab since December 2019. Previously, she has worked on recruitment for both the Thoughts of Harm and the Perinatal Anxiety Disorders Screening Study. Her research interests are primarily concerned with making mental health care for pregnant and postpartum people accessible via her work in the lab. Outside of the PAR Lab, you can find Alexandra hiking or reading.
Research Assistants
Rebecca Louw – Work Study
I am an honours biopsychology student at the University of Victoria in the last year of my degree. My previous research experience includes emotional processing in autism spectrum disorder, expert visual processing in medical professionals, the underlying neural processing of familiar faces, and pain perception and the placebo effect.
Cassandra Turner – Work Study
Cassandra is an undergraduate honours psychology student at the University of Victoria in the fifth and final year of her degree. She hopes to go on to pursue graduate studies in clinical psychology. She has previous experience from both the Risky Behaviour Lab at UVIC as well as the Child Development Lab. She is interested in anxiety, its comorbid conditions, and developmental trajectories. She loves the outdoors, cats, and working with children.