Aliya Kassam, PhD
Research Lead, Office of Postgraduate Medical Education
Associate Professor, Community Health Sciences
Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary
Dates of Visit: February 13 – 14, 2023
Purpose of Visit
Biography
Aliya Kassam, PhD is trained as an epidemiologist, ethicist as well as a health services and medical education researcher. She completed her doctorate under the supervision of British psychiatrist Sir Graham Thornicroft a world-renown mental illness stigma and discrimination expert and subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Mental Health Commission of Canada. Dr. Kassam is also the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) lead for the O’Brien Institute for Public Health (OIPH). She is interested in wellbeing, advocacy and social justice and their intersections with health professions education (HPE) and healthcare. Her research program spans the areas of 1) residency physician training and competency assessment 2) HPE learner wellbeing and career development and 3) patient safety and engagement. Her program of research has implications for teaching and learning ethical principles as well as the role of stigma, power and culture in both healthcare and higher education systems.
Dr. Kassam is an internationally recognized researcher in measuring stigma and discrimination towards mental illness and is the founder of the learner wellness lab WISHES.