Bloomberg Nursing Research Faculty
Postdoctoral Fellows
Current Fellows
Dr. Andrea Johnson completed her PhD in Social Work in 2022 at the University of British Columbia. She joined Bloomberg Nursing in 2022 as a postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Dr. Kim Widger. Dr. Johnson’s research interest is in the quality of life of adolescents who are living with advanced cancer. She recently received a clinician researcher salary award from the ENRICH (Empowering Next Generation Researchers in Perinatal and Child Health) training platform, to lead a project titled “Development of a quality of life instrument for use with adolescents and young adults with advanced cancer” (2022-2024). Dr. Johnson’s research will inform palliative care practice and research with adolescents living with incurable cancer, and ultimately support high quality palliative care for this unique group of patients.
Dr. Aimable Nkurunziza completed his doctorate in nursing at Western University’s School of Nursing in 2023. He completed a Master of Sciences in Nursing at the University of Rwanda and a Master of Public Health from Mount Kenya University. He joined Professor Cindy-Lee Dennis’s research team as a postdoctoral fellow in 2023. His doctoral research explored how perinatal services support adolescent mothers in Rwanda – a marginalized group – to inform the delivery of trauma- and violence-informed care (TVIC). Dr. Nkurunziza will develop and test an intervention to advance equity-oriented care in perinatal care to support adolescent mothers during his postdoctoral fellowship. Dr. Nkurunziza’s postdoctoral research is funded by a University of Toronto Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Dr. Laura Buckley completed her PhD at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto in 2022, under the supervision of Dr. Kim Widger. She started her work as a Postdoctoral Fellow, under the supervision of Dr. Linda McGillis Hall, in April 2024. Dr. Buckley’s doctoral research was focused on exploring factors that impact work engagement and burnout in paediatric nurses and how this ultimately impacts both nurse and patient well-being. Her post-doctoral work focuses on the assessment of factors, strategies, and interventions impacting nurse retention in the peri- and post- covid period. Dr. Buckley’s postdoctoral research is funded by funded through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Operating Grant.