2024 – Dr. Nicole Kozloff

For Dr. Nicole Kozloff, the benefits of mentorship have extended beyond simple guidance on career decisions. Since medical school, her mentors have provided her with a blueprint on how to be the best version of herself.

“I’ve been lucky to work with professionals who helped me establish a vision for my career by sharing perspectives and modeling how their work fit into other parts of their lives,” said the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) psychiatrist and University of Toronto associate professor.

“They’ve shown an interest in me as a person, and in my development, they’ve encouraged me to take the next step. They have identified opportunities for me and put my name forward. If I didn’t think that I had the expertise or the skills or capacity, they helped me see I had what I needed within me.”

Dr. Kozloff recalled one particular supervisor early in her career that had a significant impact on her.

“She invited me over to meet her family. I appreciated getting to know her on that level, and having a template in mind of how to be a productive and successful woman clinician scientist while still making time for other important parts of your life.”

The late Dr. Glenda MacQueen was another academic psychiatrist who placed significant value on mentorship. She was passionate about lifting up her colleagues, and setting early career professionals, particularly women, up for success.

Now, Dr. Kozloff is the fourth recipient of the annual prize that bears her name: the Glenda M. MacQueen Memorial Career Development Award for Women in Psychiatry. The prize is delivered as a partnership between the CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction and the Canadian Psychiatric Association.

“I’m really grateful and humbled to be named among other amazing women who have won this award in the past and to be associated with someone like Glenda MacQueen,” she says.

Dr. Kozloff is the co-director of CAMH’s Slaight Family Centre for Youth in Transition, where youth experiencing severe mental illness receive innovative, high-quality care informed by research, and have opportunities to participate in research.

“Often the research that gets published is not necessarily representative of most people in clinical practice who have that condition, so it’s really important to have processes set up that allow us to systematically give everybody the opportunity to participate in research,” she explains.

Engaging people with lived experience is essential to her work: “We want to engage young people and their families who have been through our services and others to guide both our research and how we deliver services.”

After earning the Glenda MacQueen Award, Dr. Kozloff said she’s better equipped to continue nurturing the careers of junior women scientists both at CAMH and the University of Toronto’s department of psychiatry.

“It helps me give junior women scientists opportunities that they wouldn’t otherwise have, whether in terms of training, research, presenting at conferences or meeting other scientists in their fields,” she says.

“Women clinician scientists need resources, mentorship, and structures in place to help them get started. They need people who can act as role models for them, and they need support to pursue research as part of their careers.”

2023 – Dr. Danielle Baribeau

Toronto-based researcher Dr. Danielle Baribeau was announced Saturday, October 21, 2023 as this year’s recipient of the CIHR – CPA Glenda M. MacQueen Memorial Career Development Award for Women in Psychiatry from the CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (CIHR-INMHA) and the Canadian Psychiatric Association (CPA).

This career development award for women in psychiatry honours Dr. Glenda MacQueen’s dedication to mentorship, as well as her contributions to research, training, clinical and administrative service. Women psychiatrists face inequities both in their personal development and in academic research, and Dr. MacQueen was committed to tackling these barriers.

“This award is meaningful to me as Glenda McQueen was a Canadian female psychiatrist and researcher with a focus in understanding the biology of mental health problems and using this information to target new treatments. I have similar research interests and career goals, and am honored to have the chance to follow in her footsteps,” says Dr. Baribeau, a child and adolescent psychiatrist with Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital.

“As a woman psychiatrist and researcher, this will allow me to keep funding my research team, supporting women students and trainees with an interest in neuroscience and mental health, and ultimately sustain our momentum with projects and datasets just starting up.”

Dr. Baribeau leads a research program focused on clinically translating genetic advances into improved mental health care in autism and neurodevelopmental disorders. Her clinical focus is in autism, neurogenetic disorders, and psychopharmacology.

“This is my first award as an early career researcher; to me it signifies the launch of my career, and provides validation and encouragement during the challenging first few years of getting a research program started,” Dr. Baribeau adds.

“This award will directly support research projects looking at mental health outcomes in youth with neurodevelopmental differences (NDDs) as they enter adolescence and young adulthood. We know adolescence is an especially vulnerable time for mental health problems for all young people, and even more so for youth with NDDs.”

This award was created through the combined efforts of CIHR-INMHA, CPA and Glenda MacQueen’s family. The scientific director of CIHR-INMHA, Dr. Samuel Weiss, was close personal friends with Dr. MacQueen, and even credits her for inspiring him to join CIHR as scientific director six years ago.

“Glenda was a caring and visionary individual, and an inspiration to many,” Dr. Weiss says.

“This memorial award represents her remarkable legacy in research, psychiatry and mentorship. Dr. Baribeau and her work are a strong fit for the spirit of this initiative.”

“CPA is delighted to partner with CIHR-INMHA to present this award, which honours the memory of Dr. MacQueen in a significant and fitting manner,” adds CPA president Dr. Gary Chaimowitz.

“It is our hope that the award provides Dr. Baribeau with the resources to further her crucial work to foster advances in mental health research and psychiatry in Canada.”