As Kelowna’s homepage for news, CASTANET reaches many individuals within the Okanagan. Read their story “Kelowna woman launches lawn bowling event to heighten awareness about women’s heart health” to learn more about the event and our patient partner, Jennifer Monaghan!
Lab members Dr. Brodie Sakakibara, Dr. Elise Wiley, and Michelle Yang recently attended the 2025 World Physiotherapy Congress in Tokyo, Japan!
Listen to Dr. Sakakibara’s recent CBC radio interview talking about our upcoming ‘Understanding Stroke Research in the Okanagan‘ event in Vernon, BC!
At the ORL branch Vernon Library, panelists dicussed the latest in stroke research advancements, clinical trials, resources and supports!
Congratulations to Dianne Kim, who recently completed her Bachelor of Science degree with a psychology major and biology minor! Thank you for all of your amazing work! Best of luck during your graduate studies at the University of Alberta!
Congratulations to Dr. Elise Wiley, who received two prestigious postdoctoral fellowship awards from Michael Smith Health Research BC and StrokeCOG!
Dr. Wiley is looking at one-year self-management and health resource use trajectories among individuals who have had a recent stroke. Her primary research area is chronic disease self-management after stroke with a particular focus on health resource utilization and sex-based considerations.
Dr. Wiley received the Michael Smith Health Research BC trainee award for her work in ‘Exploring the natural history of chronic disease self-management and health resource utilization after stroke’.
Additionally, she received the StokeCOG clinical trail training program award for her work in ‘Optimizing stroke recovery in women through accessible modalities of health service delivery: A sex-and-gender-based analysis of the TeleRehabilitation with Aims to Improve Lower Extremity Recovery (TRAIL) Clinical Trail’.
Congratulations to Dr. Kenny Noguchi on recently winning the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s (SSHRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship Award! This highly prestigious award provides fellows with $140,000 over two years.
Michelle’s manuscript, ‘Experiences of health professional students delivering a community-outreach teleheAlth program for COVID education and Health promotion to older adults’ has been accepted into the Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development! Congratulations Michelle!
Three UBC Okanagan faculty members have been recognized for their outstanding research commitment and achievements through the university’s annual Researcher of the Year awards. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the prestigious awards, which recognize faculty members making the world a better place through scholarly and creative pursuits. Award recipients epitomize excellence and are leaders in their respective fields and disciplines.
UBC Okanagan proudly recognizes Dr. Brodie Sakakibara as one of three 2025 Researchers of the Year, celebrating exceptional contributions to research, innovation and creative activity.
Dr. Sakakibara is dedicated to empowering stroke survivors after discharge from hospital and giving them the support they need to help reduce further hospital visits and advocates for viewing stroke as a chronic condition, not just a single acute event. “Very few researchers and labs in the world are taking the approach of stroke as a chronic condition,” says Dr. Sakakibara. “It’s empowerment. It’s putting people back in control, letting them manage on their own and making them a key partner in their care for much better long-term outcomes.”
Read more about how UBCO celebrates extraordinary faculty members as Researchers of the Year.
Brain Awareness Week 2025, hosted by the NIMBL Lab at UBC Okanagan, was a great success! This event was a no-cost, community-engaged research event where UBC Okanagan researchers focused on anything ‘brain-related’ and opened their doors in an effort to bridge the gap between the ongoing academic research and the patient population or interested community members.
Dr. Brodie Sakakibara was the keynote speaker for the event and spoke about clinical research trials investigating innovative post-stroke rehabilitation interventions that are accessible to the Okanagan patient population.
