Health Studies Alumni Career Panel
Event Details
Thursday March 14th
2-4pm EDT
Paul Cadario Conference Centre
Online & In-Person
Join Health Studies for it's first annual Alumni Career Panel Event! This will be a moderated, hybrid event in which five Health Studies alumni of diverse interests and careers speak about their career paths to their current work.
RSVP required for in-person OR to view online
Please feel free to share RSVP link with others who may be interested in attending - this event is open to all.
Please Join Us!
Panelist Bios
Amanda Bull - class of 2021
Amanda Bull graduated from the University of Toronto in 2021 with a Specialization in Health Studies. She went on to complete her Master of Arts in Health and Aging at McMaster University where she conducted research that examined the lived experiences of older adults who face ageism in the workplace and labour market. This work earned her a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship. Amanda is now a Ph.D student in Social Gerontology at McMaster University where her program of research broadly examines the lived realities of ageing, ageism, and paid work in Canada. Perhaps unsurprisingly, her favourite undergraduate course was HST308 with Drs Raza Mirza and Christopher Klinger.
Vhil Castillejos - class of 2018
Vhil Castillejos (he/him) is a public health professional whose passion lies in health promotion and the social determinants of health. Currently, he works at the University of Toronto’s Health & Wellness Centre (St. George) as a Health Promotion & Community Liaison. Here, he’s responsible for the implementation of the university’s Peer Support Service, and is involved in several mental health capacity building activities for diverse stakeholders within the university. Prior to working at UofT, he worked in the non-profit sector in the fields of youth mental health, community & social services, and HIV prevention/sexual health.
Vhil holds a Master of Public Health degree (2020) and an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Health Studies (2018) both from the University of Toronto.
Rachael Pascoe - class of 2012
Rachael Pascoe (she/her) specialized in Health Studies, with minors in Anthropology and Psychology during her undergraduate at UofT from 2008-2012. During her time in the Health Studies program, she served on the Health Studies Student Union (HSSU) for three years as a year representative and secretary, before becoming president during her fourth year in 2011-2012. As a health studies specialist, she did her thesis project at CAMH on wait times for addictions services. Her favourite Health Studies Class was Diseases in Neglected Populations. Rachael went on to earn her Master of Social Work degree from the University of Toronto in 2014 and has social work practice experience in the fields of concurrent disorders, sexual violence prevention, and trauma-specific therapy. She is currently a SSHRC-funded fifth year PhD student at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at UofT, doing her PhD dissertation research on intervention research exploring the effects of group therapy on feelings of shame, conceptualizations of masculinity, and hope for a productive future for male adolescents who have sexually offended. Rachael has research experience specifically on clinical interventions with historically underserved youth.
Kandace Ryckman - class of 2014
Kandace (she/her) graduated from the Health Studies program in 2014. She then went on to complete her Masters of Public Health with a specialization in Epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health in 2016. Since then, Kandace has worked in a variety of roles in research, applied public health practice, government agencies, and most recently in health care.
Currently, Kandace is the Director of Operations and Strategy at Health Commons Solutions Lab, a non-for-profit social innovation lab housed within Sinai Health. Founded in 2017, Health Commons brings an equity-based population health approach to co-design solutions to the health care system’s trickiest problems. In this role, Kandace is responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations of the people and projects as well as guiding the organization’s strategic priorities and business development.
In her time in the program, Kandace was actively engaged in the Health Studies Student Union and was Co-Editor of Health Perspectives in her final year. Kandace is excited about the opportunity to meet with current students in the program to discuss the many exciting career options available.
Mélanie Seabrook - class of 2021
Mélanie is a past HSSU president, and graduated from the Health Studies program in 2021. She then pursued a Master’s in Health Systems Research, with an emphasis in Health Policy, at UofT’s Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation (IHPME). Her thesis focused on the financing of Canadian public health systems, which she successfully defended in Dec. 2023. She is now continuing her research on public health financing and climate change adaptation at the North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. Mélanie is grateful for the Health Studies program, which prepared her well for graduate studies, and particularly enjoyed an HST special topics.