Meet Joyce Nyhof-Young!

December 16, 2022

We are Women’s offers the WCH community a chance to get to know each other and share our stories.

Name: Joyce Nyhof-Young

Pronouns: she/her

Title & Department: Scientist, Academics Program

On the WCH team for: With the Academics Program since July 2022, but working with the Family Practice Team since 2016


1. What does your typical workday look like?

I work mostly from home for the moment.  I wake up at about 6:30 a.m., do an hour or so of yoga and stretches, have breakfast, and get to work by 8 a.m. I work until about 6 p.m. I’m at the computer for most of the day in meetings or conducting education research, so I try to break up my day with a couple of very enjoyable walks around my neighbourhood. Those regular walks are very restorative and invigorating and help me to think through my projects and research.

2. What excites you the most about working at WCH?

I’m still relatively new to my educational role at WCH, but I am speaking with many dedicated healthcare providers and administrators as I settle in. I am struck by the passion that everyone brings to their work and their focus on enhancing excellent patient care through education. My work revolves around building capacity in education scholarship among our staff, and I am blown away by the excellent and creative education work everyone is doing with our patients, trainees, and staff. I’m so excited about supporting these efforts!

3. How does your work contribute to creating a positive patient experience?

I am an applied education researcher. My goal is to support staff efforts to provide outstanding clinical care by promoting their education scholarship. I provide personalized support to healthcare staff of all disciplines for projects like program development and evaluation, quality improvement, and whatever other education research they might wish to conduct.

4. Tell us one to three things that your colleagues would be surprised to learn about you!

I am an entomologist and neuroscientist by training. As an entomologist, I used to regularly dissect out mosquito brains to investigate their structure and function. Yes, mosquitoes do have brains, and they are amazingly complex!

After becoming a tutorial assistant during my neuroscience studies, I recognized the impact and importance of teaching.  I fell in love with the education side of academics and ultimately switched fields to complete a PhD in education at OISE.