Meet Sinai Health’s next gen of leaders and lifelong learners

Sarah Jeffries, child of Tania Pape, Social Worker at Mount Sinai Hospital, is the co-founder of NEST Project, a non-profit with the goal of assisting students as they transition from high-school to university. Sarah’s flawless academic record is complemented by involvement in her sports community as a competitive swimmer and instructor. She also volunteers in her school’s nutrition program and the Hygiene Hope Initiative, which provides the homeless with necessary products to maintain health and wellness. She is pursuing a bachelor of health sciences at Queen’s University, with the goal of continuing on the path to becoming a doctor.

Joel Lim, child of Janet Sio, Pharmacist at Hennick Bridgepoint Hospital, is an avid and skilled musician. He also uses his leadership skills to benefit his school community by helping his peers feel a sense of belonging. Joel is active in robotics and in his faith community, and has excelled at a number of mathematics competitions. Joel is pursuing a bachelor of applied sciences in civil engineering at University of British Columbia, with a plan to go on to complete a master’s in urban planning.

The Rose Torno Bursary was created to encourage an interest in research or in health sciences education. Clarence Lam is a dedicated Pharmacist at Mount Sinai who has taken on formal and informal leadership roles, like acting as the interim Clinical Practice Leader for Pharmacy. During the pandemic, Clarence stepped away from his residency to provide full-time clinical care for patients, identifying patient care to be a higher priority for the hospital. He is pursuing a master’s of health administration at the University of Toronto in the fall, with the hope of leveraging his learning to benefit Sinai Health through leadership and innovation.

The Valerie Fine Bursary is awarded to an individual who demonstrates Sinai Health’s Value of Humanity in their work. The bursary will support their continuing education towards the promotion of patient-care excellence. Christopher Hayden is a Social Worker in Neurological and Stroke Rehabilitation at Hennick Bridgepoint. A champion for positive patient outcomes, he is continuously seeking opportunities to learn new skills for the betterment of his patients using trauma-informed care. He will begin training in eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, which addresses post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in patients who experience trauma from strokes.

The Donald E. Low Bursary Fund was established to allow an individual who is studying or practicing in the field of microbiology to either travel to the Department of Microbiology at Mount Sinai Hospital or to another microbiology laboratory to expand their knowledge in the field. Dr. Joseph Zeppa, Ph.D., is a Clinical Microbiology Fellow at the University of Toronto. He attended a two-week rotation at the National Microbiology Laboratory In Winnipeg. The rotation involved hands-on training in whole genome sequencing workflows, bioinformatics analysis, and laboratory outbreak response and detection. He intends on sharing his learnings at Sinai Health and with other microbiologists in the broader health-care community.