Our Team

As an occupational therapist, I worked extensively with children living with mental health issues—often some combination of anxiety, depression, learning disorders, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)—as well as with their families and schools to ensure that they were able to successfully participate in the occupations of childhood. I worked in child and adolescent psychiatry in Kingston, Ontario, a small city with a large military base. Although military families were disproportionately represented in my caseload, I could find no literature to help me understand why that might be.

When I started in my tenure-track faculty position in 2013, I had an opportunity to draw on this clinical experience and focus my interests on the mental health of military families within the Canadian Institute for Military & Veteran Health Research (CIMVHR), a pan-Canadian research network based in the School of Rehabilitation Therapy at Queen’s University. At that time, there was scant Canadian academic research focusing on military families, and a need to redress that gap. As a spouse in a public safety family, I also saw many parallel challenges and a need to extend this research to families of public safety personnel.

Through my research, I am to advance and translate research to better understand and serve the health experiences and outcomes of military and veteran families, veterans, and public safety personnel and their families in Canada, vulnerable populations with unique and historically neglected health issues. This research program has the potential to inform how government leaders, policy makers, health care providers, employers, insurers, educators, families, military personnel, veterans, and public safety personnel come to understand, recognize, and act, especially when it comes to mental health issues.

In 2021, I consolidated my research under the banner of the Families Matter Research Group (FMRG). Through the FMRG based at Queen’s University, I lead a variety of SSHRC- and CIHR-funded health and well-being applied and collaborative research designed to improve the lives of military, veterans, public safety personnel and their families. While I contribute to a variety of work across these populations, I lead a family-centred research program exploring how the occupational risks and requirements of military and public safety service shape the roles, routines, and rhythms of family life, with a keen eye to how mental health and impacts of trauma can affect families and how, in turn, families can affect the serving personnel.

Over the past 25 years, I have worked as an occupational therapist developing extensive experience in multiple areas of practice across a variety of practice settings. Much of my clinical experience has involved supporting and enabling children and adolescents with a variety of physical, learning, and mental health concerns to participate and achieve personal goals in their daily lives at home, school, and community. My strong belief in working collaboratively with clients, families, and professionals has been a central approach in my work. In addition to my clinical experiences, I have worked as a Fieldwork Coordinator developing collaborative and sustainable partnerships to enhance capacity building within community organizations at local, national and global levels, as well as serving as a Term Adjunct with a teaching focus on children and youth within the Queen’s University Occupational Therapy Program.

Erin has a Bachelor of Commerce from Mount Allison University where she completed her honours in marketing. She joins the Families Matter Research Group as research coordinator after a number of years of working in research related communications in the area of military, veteran, and family health.

Erin is a military spouse and has a young family of her own. She grew up in a military family and her parents, too, come from military families. Her brother also serves in the military.

Families of military members, veterans and public safety personnel are incredible and they face unique challenges. She is committed to support and share the outcomes of this research for all the families that are serving our communities from home because families matter!

I have always been in awe of people who are able to persevere and derive meaning in the aftermath of some of life’s toughest challenges. Resilience as a research interest came to the forefront when I took an elective on military families at Mount Saint Vincent University and contributed to a research project on the families of public safety personnel. I was equally awestruck by what these families endure day-to-day managing chaotic schedules, separation from loved ones, along with fear and worry. What became immediately clear was that no one does this alone and a support network of family and friends and community resources have a significant impact on outcomes. Relational resilience, the capacity of families to work together and be mutually supportive, is a primary factor in the wellbeing of these families and has become the focus of my work which involves both research and practical application. I continue to be inspired by the stories of military and public safety families who can teach us so much about family resilience through both their triumphs and their struggles.

Holding undergraduate and graduate degrees in Family Science, Deborah is a professor in the Department of Family Studies and Gerontology at Mount Saint Vincent University. She has developed and taught many family studies courses in that program, including a course focusing on military and veteran families.

An abiding interest in the interdependence between work and family life led to Dr. Norris’ early involvement in planning and implementing military partner programs and parent education programs at the first CAF Military Family Resource Centre (MFRC) located at CFB Halifax. Insights gained through conversation with program participants were the sparks that ignited a long-standing commitment to learning more about the lives of military-connected family members. Research and professional activity with military and Veteran families has been her main research focus over the course of her career to date.

Informed by ecological theory and critical theory, Dr. Norris’ research program is applied, collaborative, and interdisciplinary. She has facilitated studies focusing on the everyday lives of female military partners experiencing the cycle of deployment, resilience(y) in military and veteran families, work-life balance in families where mothers are serving members in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), the bi-directional relationship between operational stress injuries and the mental health and well-being of veteran families, family psychoeducation programs for military and veteran families, and the military to civilian transition. She has collaborated with fellow academic researchers, DND defence scientists, Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) personnel and others. Recently, her research program has expanded to include an emphasis on the impacts of operational stress on the families of public service personnel.

Dr. Norris’ military and veteran family research program was recognized through her designation as a Fellow with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIMVHR) in 2017. CIMVHR’s Fellowship Initiative was established to recognize researchers demonstrating exceptional research advancements within the field of military, veteran and family health and well-being research. She and key colleagues were also the recipients of the Vanier Institute’s Colonel Russell Mann Military and Family Health Research Award in 2018.

My primary research interests center on families of public safety personnel such as corrections, communications, firefighters, paramedics, and police. Public safety families face challenges in relation to their loved one’s work as well as lifestyle factors such as shiftwork and sleep.

My research background comes from Kinesiology and Community Health, where I specialized in understanding the self-management behaviours of persons with chronic pain. I learned that when something affects one person, the whole family is influenced. My family has served in the military, and I have seen the joy families feel and the sacrifices family members make due to their loved one’s service.

There has been minimal research to understand the experiences of families of public safety personnel. I am currently working on various projects involving family members to try and create a baseline of research. My goal is to acknowledge the role of families of public safety personnel and to create programs and resources that will properly recognize and support them.

If you are a family member of a public safety employee, and would like to discuss your experience, I would love to hear from you. Please e-mail Rachel.richmond@queensu.ca for information on how to participate.

As an occupational therapist, I have spent over 20 years working with children, adolescents, and families who are living with the effects of mental health disorders. In addition to providing direct care to families in a variety of clinical settings, I have also spent much of my career supporting the learning and development of health care professionals to ensure evidence-based, culturally competent care. Challenges and barriers as faced in facilitating the translation of research to practice inspired me to pursue my Master’s degree followed shorted by my PhD. Throughout my graduate research journey, I had the honour and privilege of learning from and working with some the leaders of military and PSP family research including Dr. Heidi Cramm, Dr. Deborah Norris, Prof. Nicola Fear, and Dr. Alyson Mahar. My current research interests include building on our understanding about the health and well-being of Canada’s military members, veterans, public safety personnel, and their families with a focus on life transitions and changes. Currently, I am working as a Research Associate in the Trauma and Recovery Lab at McMaster University and Research Scientist within the Families Matter Research Group leading research to better understand the experiences of military and veteran survivors of military sexual misconduct and the impacts on families.

As an occupational therapist, I have been working with children, young adults, and families with mental health concerns and/or developmental disabilities. During my clinical work, I developed appreciation for the involvement of families in their loved one’s care. In addition to my clinical work, I have been involved in generating research related to children with developmental disabilities and their families. Shortly after I completed my Master of Science in Occupational Therapy, I started a PhD with the goal of better supporting children and their families with Developmental Coordination Disorder and co-occurring conditions. During this time, I met my husband who is in the Canadian Armed Forces. Being thrown into the military life, I realized the gaps in support for military families, particularly spouses. Upon completing my PhD, I began my journey of combining my clinical, research, and lived experience as a military spouse to learn more about military and public safety personals and the involvement of their families. Currently, I am training with Dr. Heidi Cramm as a post-doctoral fellow and leading the research that evaluates the Wounded Warriors Canada Surviving Spouses Program to refine and evolve the program to better meet the needs of grieving spouses.

I am an Assistant Professor and Research Scientist at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. As an epidemiologist and health services researcher, I have been working for the last decade to increase the quantity and quality of research data available to support the development of evidence-informed policy and programs for Canadian families connected to the military. In the last few years, I have extended this work to include implementing research within teams to support the mental health and wellbeing of the families of public safety personnel. Becoming a mom of two during the pandemic has reaffirmed for me the importance of understanding how our occupations affect the day-to-day existence as well as the health and wellness of families.

Denise is a post-doctoral researcher working with Dr. Heidi Cramm at Queen’s University. Currently her primary area of research focuses on suicide prevention practices for family members of military and public safety personnel and Veterans. She earned her PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences with a Collaborative Specialization in Public Health Policy from the University of Toronto in 2020. Dr. DuBois is also a military spouse and sits on the Board of Directors for the Kingston Military Family Resource Centre.

My primary research interests involve understanding the educational experiences of children and youth growing up in Canadian military families. Currently, I am a doctoral candidate at Queen’s University under the supervision of Dr. Heidi Cramm, where my research is exploring the school transition experiences of adolescents living in Canadian military families.

Growing up in a Canadian military family, I am aware of both the challenges and benefits that the military lifestyle can pose for children and youth, particularly within an educational setting. It wasn’t until I was completing my Bachelor of Education degree at Queen’s University that I discovered a lack of Canadian research addressing the educational experiences of military-connected children and youth. At this moment, I knew I had an opportunity to combine my personal experience of growing up in a military family with my professional knowledge as an educator and pursue research in this field. I then went on to complete a Master of Education degree at Queen’s University where my research looked at how secondary school educators perceive and support the needs of Canadian military-connected students.

While I have primarily worked on Canadian research studies as a graduate student, I will soon be headed over to the United Kingdom to complete a research exchange under Prof. Nicola Fear and Dr. Rachael Gribble at King’s College London. As an extension of my doctoral work, the study I will be working on will explore the types of experiences UK service parents have when supporting their adolescent(s) through a school transition following a military relocation.

In addition to supporting military families through research, I feel equally responsible to contribute to the social mission. As such, I have made considerable efforts to engage with local military communities within Canada. I previously served on the Board of Directors for the Kingston Military Family Resource Centre and have recently collaborated with the Trenton Military Family Resource Centre on various projects. Additionally, I am currently serving alongside Ashley Williams as the Co-Chair of the Student and Postdoctoral Engagement Committee (SPEC), which exists to support the development of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are completing military, Veteran, public safety personnel (PSP), and family research.

During my studies in Biology as an undergrad, I met my future spouse who was in the Canadian Armed Forces. I had no military background and was quickly educated in the blessings and challenges of being a part of a military family. During a posting to CFB Kingston and Ottawa, I completed my MSc in Botany.

After several moves and several teaching experiences at universities, colleges and K-12 across the country, my spouse’s medical journey brought us back to Ottawa. I had volunteered at several Military Family Resource Centres and I wanted to direct my career into giving back to my military and veteran community. The effects of my spouse’s injuries and my experiences within the military community and the health care system changed the trajectory of my career goals.

Within Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services, I am currently a Project Coordinator within Military Family Services and have worked in education, employment, support to the MFS US team (supporting families posted out of Canada), health care, second language training support and most recently in the area of grief, loss and bereavement.

Military families can learn all about relocation and moving to the next post and about frequent absences and deployments. In the area of death and loss, there are limited opportunities to learn about the risks inherent to this lifestyle and how you can prepare, and navigate your grief journey including children, parents, siblings and extended family and friends. I have begun my journey as a student, within the Doctorate of Rehabilitation and Health Leadership program, and with the guidance of Dr. Heidi Cramm. I am aiming to create an educational online program that will benefit military families experiencing loss and bereavement.