OTTAWA, Monday, October 2, 2023 – Research Canada is pleased to announce the 2023 Leadership in Advocacy Awardees:

Individual Awardee

Dr. Marsha Campbell-Yeo, a certified neonatal nurse practitioner, a professor of Nursing, Faculty of Health, cross appointed to Pediatrics, Psychology & Neuroscience, and a clinician scientist at the IWK Heath Centre.

Organization Awardee

Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging (RIA), a charitable, non-profit organization that enhances the quality of life and care for older adults through research, education, and practice.

The Research Canada Leadership in Advocacy Award recognizes outstanding champions of health research and health innovation. Recognition of Canadian health research—the kind that attracts the necessary public and political support—often comes from the dedicated and tireless efforts of health research advocates who educate policymakers, the media and the public about the social and economic benefits of health research and its promise of future cures and, importantly, a better quality of life for all Canadians. This year’s winner exemplifies this.

“This year’s Awardees have gone above and beyond what is expected of health research advocates,” says Dr. Tarik Möröy, Chair of Research Canada and Director of the Hematopoiesis and Cancer Research Unit at the Montréal Clinical Research Institute. “Dr. Campbell-Yeo is a fierce advocate and dedicated scientist who has been nationally and internationally instrumental in improving the outcomes of medically at-risk newborns and their families. She has changed the lives of patients for generations to come by successfully advocating for increased parent engagement in clinical research, premature newborn research and so much more.”

“The Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging (RIA)’s extraordinary advocacy efforts support Canada’s oldest citizens,” says Dr. Stephanie Michaud, Chair of Research Canada’s Leadership in Advocacy Award Selection Committee and President and CEO of BioCanRx. “It engages in awareness-raising activities, stakeholder engagement and knowledge mobilization to show the value of aging research and encourage its use to create evidence-based practice and policy. The RIA’s commitment and contributions to health research and health innovation advocacy are transformative for Canadians.”

Research Canada will continue to recognize the achievements of our best and brightest advocates in the coming years with this annual award. We wish to thank those who submitted nominations, all of which were outstanding, for the 2023 Leadership in Advocacy Award.

 About the Winners

Marsha Campbell-Yeo, PhD
Dr. Marsha Campbell-Yeo is a certified neonatal nurse practitioner, a professor of Nursing, Faculty of Health, cross appointed to Pediatrics, Psychology & Neuroscience, and a clinician scientist at IWK Heath. She holds grants examining maternal and parent led interventions to improve outcomes of medically at-risk newborns and their families specifically related to pain, stress and neurodevelopment. Her research findings and their real-world impacts have inspired a number of practice changes and initiatives to improve preterm infant health nationally and internationally. Dr. Campbell-Yeo is the 2023 recipient of an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Medicine and Science of Orebro University in Sweden, member of the College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists College of the Royal Society of Canada; a Fellow to the Canadian Association of Global Health and American Academy of Nurses, the incoming (January 2024) President of the Pain in Childhood Special Interest Group of the International Study of Pain, a director on the Council of International Neonatal Nurses (COINN) Board of Directors, and the inaugural scientific advisory committee Chair of the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation (2022).

Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging (RIA)

The Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging (RIA) is a charitable, non-profit organization that enhances the quality of life and care for older adults through research, education, and practice. The RIA focuses on improving care practices, healthcare services, and training and education for the senior living sector. As an advocate for research excellence in seniors care, the RIA actively engages in awareness-raising activities, stakeholder engagement and knowledge mobilization and encourages the use of evidence in practice and policy to benefit Canada’s oldest citizens.