Operational Committee
Sharon Compton, Director
Sharon's primary research area includes oral health issues in older adult populations and uses qualitative methods in her research. Sharon is involved in various topics in educational research. Her teaching includes undergraduate courses in research and evidence-informed practice.
Maryam Amin, Associate Chair Research
Maryam is a Professor in the division of Pediatric Dentistry and the Director of Graduate Program - Dentistry, in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. Her research interests are social and behavioral aspects of children’s oral health with a focus on understanding the psychosocial, behavioral, community, and societal influences on the oral health of children particularly from disadvantaged populations. She has developed a multidisciplinary research program in collaboration with different stakeholders including clinicians; researchers from diverse disciplines such as medicine, nursing, public health, psychology, and sociology; community organizations; and policymakers.
Colleen Starchuk, Curriculum Manager
Colleen is the Manager, Curriculum position in the School of Dentistry. She graduated with a Bachelor of Education and completed her Master of Arts with a focus on Work, Organization, and Leadership, and a secondary focus on Adult Education. Over the past decade, Colleen and her team have provided curriculum consultation services and supported blended and online course development for several units including the Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Nursing, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Native Studies, and the School of Dentistry.
Arnaldo Perez, Researcher
Arnaldo is an educational and clinical researcher who specializes in research methodologies, including quantitative, qualitative, review, and mixed-methods approaches. He supports faculty members and graduate students in designing, conducting, and reporting educational research projects. His areas of research include active learning, program evaluation, faculty development, and learning and teaching views and experiences.
Hollis Lai, Researcher
Hollis splits his time between the Undergraduate Medical Education office and the ERSU. His research interests include developing intelligent applications, learning sciences, and adopting analytic methods in oral health research. His focus within the Unit is to engage in and support educational research, with a focus on quantitative methods, analytics, and machine learning.
Nazlee Sharmin, Researcher
Nazlee has a PhD in Physiology, Cell, and Developmental Biology and a Master of Education (MEd) in Health Sciences Education from the University of Alberta. She is involved in teaching foundational science at the School of Dentistry. Her educational research interest broadly focuses on developing and infusing technologies to improve students’ learning experiences. Nazlee is actively involved in research related to educational technology, augmented reality, gamification, whiteboard animations, H5P, artificial intelligence, and bioinformatics. Nazlee is willing to support faculty members in adopting, developing, and evaluating teaching technologies.
Yuli Berlin-Broner, Researcher
Yuli is a clinician and specialist in endodontics. She splits her time between co-coordinating and teaching undergraduate endodontics (pre-clinical, simulation lab, and clinical), research, and patient care delivery. Her research interests include the incorporation of micro-computerized tomography (micro-CT) to enhance undergraduate endodontic education, dental trauma, and connections between endodontics and general health. Her focus within the unit is to support educational research and to facilitate collaboration between clinical aspects and foundational sciences.