We are thrilled to be able to welcome Stephanie Hatzifilalithis to her new position of Scientist with Women’s Age Lab! Get to know Stephanie a little more and the work that she’s doing to improve the lives of our patients here at Women’s.
Name: Stephanie Hatzifilalithis
Pronouns: She/her
Title & Department: Scientist, Assistant Professor – Women’s Age Lab, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
On the WCH team for: Two and a half years – but only two-ish months as a scientist!
1. What does your typical day look like?
Organized chaos?! Always chasing a grant, a paper, a community partnership, another good idea. In all seriousness, I think in part why I chose this profession is the ability to have a new “typical” day every day. In practicality, I often have my tea in the morning with my partner, check the news to make sure nobody’s rights (including mine) were taken away, and likely go swimming or yoga at my local YMCA. Then head in to the office for a day full of writing, answering emails, meetings, and thinking! As a community-engaged researcher I also am often in the community – talking to partners, people with lived or living experience and or collecting data. Some would say I like to talk to people…and I would say that also takes up part of my typical day. Always fascinated by how people came to be who they are today.
2. What excites you the most about working at WCH?
The values of the institution. WCH was born out of rebellion – and I find myself trying to shape my research through a lens of emancipation, making WCH the perfect space to carry out my research. I also have always felt seen and celebrated as a queer woman. I don’t know how to check this or confirm but I think I might be the first openly queer scientist at WCH (TBC?!), which is also pretty exciting. In a Scientist role in Women’s Age Lab, the first center of its kind globally, I am privileged to be able to harness the knowledge from listening to the voices of older people in the community for over a decade and to create change and impact for and with older people, especially older women.
3. How does your work contribute to making a positive patient experience?
Everything I do centers around two key principles. 1) How is this going to benefit the community/People with lived experience (PWLE)? 2) how can I best involve members of the community/PWLE in research in the most meaningful way to make and sustain change together. I work alongside people with living or lived experience and in my opinion are the “magic sauce” of the research we get to do together. Right now we are working on creating an ethics module for PWLE who want to engage with research at WCH – for example as – researchers, data collectors, storytellers, ambassadors, – to make sure the process is smooth, effective, and meaningful for all. I am also leading a national collaborative on climate change and aging with multiple PWLE as members of our governance structure, ensuring decisions for them, are never made without them. On a side note, I am making it my mission to make WCH an accredited Age-friendly Hospital so am hoping that makes quite a direct positive impact to patients and those coming to WCH.
4. Tell us one to three things that your colleagues would be surprised to learn about you.
I used to play golf at a professional level, I would never turn down a good donut, and I have a pet goose, named Gander.