About me
I am the 2021 recipient of the Forte International Postdoctoral Fellowship and will be working at KI as a member of Dr Marie Klingberg Allvin's research group in reproductive health. My main research program at KI is: "A health systems approach to evaluating the impact of midwifery-led person-centered comprehensive abortion care in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A mixed method and quasi experimental evaluation". This project is a scale up of my doctoral research: "Midwives' integration of manual vacuum aspiration for post-abortion care in the Kinshasa and Kongo Central provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo".
I have been a supportive member of the midwifery association in the DRCongo since 2017, when I began working with them as technical consultant via the Canadian Association of Midwives. My doctoral work was born from our relationship and I worked closely with the association and Congolese midwife researchers to understand how abortion care was being actively applied in the field by their members. Building research capacity for midwives and research by midwives is my underlying priority.
Throughout my doctoral schooling, I was faculty with the Ontario Midwifery Education Program where I taught since 2007. I graduated with a BHSc in midwifery in Canada in 2006 and practiced throughout Canada until 2017. I moved to Haiti in 2010 and began my family there. I moved back to Canada with my two children in 2014.
Research description
I am also an adjunct scientist at the McMaster Midwifery Research Centre (Canada). Most importantly, how I do my work is more important than what I do meaning I take a feminist and decolonizing intersectional approach to my research which largely aims to take a health policy and systems approach to improve the role of midwives in the providing broader sexual and reproductive health and rights globally. My collaborative work has been recognized by Global Affairs Canada and BMJ Global Health.
Academic honours, awards and prizes
Ontario Graduate Scholarship, School of Graduate Studies, Laurentian University (2019)