BC Children’s Hospital is pleased to announce the 2021 Glenda MacQueen Summer Studentship in honour of Dr. Glenda MacQueen.

Dr. Glenda MacQueen
Dr. Glenda MacQueen

Dr. Glenda MacQueen joined the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) in 2018 and provided valuable advice on BCCHR’s scientific direction, particularly in the areas of brain and mental health research. She also sat on the Strategic Advisory Boards of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, the Royal Ottawa Institute of Mental Health, and the Integrative Health Institute for the University of Alberta.

Dr. MacQueen earned her PhD in Psychology and her medical degree from McMaster University, where she also completed her residency in psychiatry. In 2008, she moved from McMaster to the University of Calgary (UCalgary) to become Academic Head and Zone Clinical Department Head for Psychiatry. She was the first Senior Medical Director of the Alberta Health Services Addiction and Mental Health Strategic Clinical Network.

Dr. MacQueen’s commitment and leadership in psychiatry is evident through her involvement in a diverse range of mental health organizations throughout her career. She was a valued member of the Board of Directors for the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CAN-MAT), the Palix Foundation, the Brain Canada Foundation, and the personnel committee of the Calgary Drop-in and Rehab Centre; a deputy editor for the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry and associate editor of the Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience; a member and Vice-Dean of the Cumming School of Medicine at UCalgary; a member of the Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education; and the Medical Director of the Mood Disorders Clinic at the Foothills Medical Centre.

Dr. MacQueen was a world-renowned researcher who made significant contributions to the understanding of the neurobiology and treatment of major depression and bipolar disorder. She was an exceptional scholar, distinguished educator and leader in Canadian psychiatry who worked tirelessly to improve the health and well-being of families. She was also a mentor and friend to many students and colleagues across the country.
 
This award has been aptly named in honour of Dr. MacQueen, in recognition of her dedication to educating, supporting and inspiring promising future health scientists. 

Congratulations to Lara Radovic, recipient of the 2021 Glenda MacQueen Summer Studentship award!

Lara Radovic
Lara Radovic, undergraduate student at UBC, recipient of the Glenda MacQueen Summer Studentship award

Lara Radovic is the recipient of the Glenda MacQueen Summer Studentship, one of the awards offered in 2021 as part of the BC Children’s Hospital Summer Studentship program. Summer Studentships are 12-week programs that run from May to August each year. Funding for this studentship is provided by the BC Children's Hospital Research Institute and the BC Children's Hospital Foundation.

Lara is an undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia (UBC), currently entering the fourth year of an Honours Degree (BSc) in Behavioural Neuroscience. In addition to studying behavioural sciences, Lara has many other diverse interests, also enjoying creative writing and poetry, hiking and classical ballet.

Under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Coelho, and for the duration of her studentship, Lara is working on the project, “Parental Coping and Self-Efficacy in a Mixed-Gender Sample of Youth with Eating Disorders.” Through this study, Lara aims to better understand how a parent's management of eating disorder symptoms differs depending on their child’s gender.

The study’s objective is to assess how parent confidence, self-efficacy and psychological well-being change throughout youth eating disorder treatment, and to investigate group differences between parents of male, female and gender-diverse youth. The data comes from a broader longitudinal study at the Provincial Eating Disorders Program that assesses youth eating disorder clinical features and treatment outcomes.

Lara’s role throughout this project is to conduct literature searches to inform study design, analyze incoming data and prepare papers and poster presentations of the study findings. Considering the lack of research on eating disorders in male and transgender youth, this study will provide valuable data that will lead to a larger future project on parent factors in youth eating disorder recovery.