CROSH’s faculty research members are active in many different areas of occupational health and safety and related research. Learn how you can become a faculty research member of CROSH.
Dr. Battochio is a bilingual Administrator, Professor, Consultant, and Researcher with a Ph.D. in Human Studies. Since 2007, he has authored and evaluated peer-reviewed research, reports, grant applications and conference papers related to Health, Safety, Environment, and Community. In that time, Dr. Battochio has also conducted hundreds of lecture presentations and workshops at post-secondary institutions and private organizations about Mental Health. He has gained recognition including federal, provincial and local research funding, individual awards, and educational scholarships.
Dr. Sandra Dorman is the Director of the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health, and a Full Professor at Laurentian University. Dr. Dorman’s expertise is in physiology/pharmacology and her research program focuses on health promotion and disease prevention in the occupational setting. Her recent work has centred on fatigue mitigation (including nutrition, fitness, sleep, stress and psychosocial hazards) in physically demanding workforces (such as Mine Rescue, Mining, Wildland Firefighting, and Structural Firefighting) with high incidences of fatigue-related injuries. Currently, she is focusing on two primary themes in the occupational setting: 1) modifiable contributors to fatigue, and 2) the use of wearable technology in the occupational setting. She has a track record for successfully addressing host-identified problems and communicating information back to the host organization.
705-675-1151 ext. 1015
Dr. Eger’s research interests focus around the application of ergonomic and human factors principles in industry. She is a leader in the field of occupational vibration and has done seminal work to document whole-body vibration and foot-transmitted vibration exposure associated with surface and underground mining activities. She is also recognized for her research examining the link between working posture, line-of-sight and mobile equipment design. She is an invited member of the International Standards for Organization technical committee concerned with human vibration.
705-675-1151 ext. 3944
Dr. Godwin is the Associate Director of CROSH. As an emerging leader in OHS research, Dr. Godwin has a consistent track record in publishing original research pertaining to line-of-sight and the reduction of fatal injuries in the workplace. Her occupational health and safety interest include developing a portable data collection tool to gather long-term joint loading data in industrial sectors, using methods of functional data analysis to evaluate the effect of fatigue on cumulative loading waveforms and investigating gender differences that occur in manual material handling tasks.
705-675-1151 ext. 1079
Dr. Katie Goggins is a Postdoctoral Researcher at CROSH and is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Sciences at Laurentian University. Her research interests focus on the role of biomechanics, human factors, and ergonomics on industrial health and safety and occupational disease.
Dr. Basem Gohar’s research aims to identify and understand work-related risk factors, including but not limited to work stress, sickness absenteeism, moral injury, and intention to leave the profession in various occupational sectors. Dr. Gohar values a multidisciplinary approach in his research through meaningful collaborations and applies various research methods, including knowledge synthesis (e.g., systematic reviews & meta-analysis), quantitative and qualitative designs. He is also a clinical psychologist in the public and private sectors.
Dr. Grewal brings innovative ideas into the multi-disciplinary field of human-computer interaction (HCI). His work of using the quantitative electroencephalogaphy (QEEG) to measure the user’s cognitive demand during interface use is a first in the HCI field. His experiments have generated publications in the fields of neuroscience and computer science. In 2007, Dr. Grewal formed the HCI Research Group consisting of collaborators from the Neuroscience Research Group and industry partners.
705-675-1151 ext. 2351
Areas of Expertise: Industrial engineering; Occupational health and safety (OHS); OHS management; Workplace accident prevention
A full time faculty member with the School of Nursing at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, Dr. Horrigan has over 25 years of nursing experience in a variety of urban, rural and remote clinical settings as Northern Ontario and Ethiopia, East Africa. Her research interests include, quality of work life, healthy workplace environments, health services and policy research, , correctional nursing work environments, and telenursing educational needs. Prof. Horrigan is currently exploring the quality of nurse’s worklife in urban, rural, and remote settings as part of her doctoral studies in Rural and Northern Health.
Dr. Kerekes has an M.A. and Ph.D in Psychology from Hungary and has worked as an Assistant Professor at the University of Pécs, Medical School at the Institute of Behavioural Sciences. She is currently a post-doctoral researcher with the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH) at Laurentian University and a clinical associate at a private practice in Sudbury. She has 16 years of experience in different areas of psychology and occupational health psychology. Dr. Kerekes has a membership with different professional associations such as the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) or European Health Psychology Society (EHPS).
Dr. Kociolek’s research interests include, generally: Occupational biomechanics, Ergonomics, Neuromuscular control, Work-related musculoskeletal disorders, and Injury prevention. More specifically, his research interests include: Wrist and hand biomechanics, Pathomechanics, Injury mechanisms, Sensorimotor function, Ergonomic assessment methods, and Workplace interventions.
Nicole Lafrenière is a Master Lecturer at Laurentian University, Lecturer at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and the Collaborative Simulation Educator between Health Sciences North, Laurentian University and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. Nicole completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) with honors at Laurentian University and has her Master of Nursing from Laurentian University. Nicole comes with expertise in education, nursing, simulation, patient experiences and interprofessional practice/education. She has past clinical experience in pediatrics, public health and in the operating room. Additionally, Nicole participates in several research initiatives specific to simulation, interprofessional education and reproduction. She is happily married and the mother of Maverick and Eric Lafreniere and enjoys working with others and watching her kids play hockey.
Dr. Leduc is a postdoctoral researcher with the School of Public Health and the National Suicide Research Foundation at University College Cork. He is currently working on the Horizon 2020 funded MENTUPP research program, Mental Health Promotion and Intervention in Occupational Settings.
Dr. Brent Lievers’ interests involve the application of engineering techniques to the testing and modelling of biological systems, particularly bone. He has applied these tools in realms such as sports and forensics with a view to injury characterization, mitigation, and prevention. He has also collaborated with Dr. Tammy Eger on occupational health and safety studies of the human body’s response to vibration exposure.
705-675-1151 ext. 2382
Dr. Nancy Lightfoot is an epidemiologist, microbiologist, and Full Professor in the School of Rural and Northern Health. Her research interests include: studies of the occupational and other impacts of various cancers, cardiovascular, and other chronic and infectious diseases on various types of northern workers and their caregivers, as well as their compensation and return to work experiences; occupational cohort studies of mortality and incidence; occupational health and safety issues for Indigenous communities; predictors of cancer survival; the impact of wildfires and evacuations on communities; and factors associated with, and the impact of, travel for health care. She does qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research. She also conducts occupational epidemiological research with other CROSH investigators, as well as some external investigators. Many of her graduate students are members of CROSH and conduct occupationally-related research for their theses.
705-675-1151 ext. 3972
Dr. Merritt’s research combines bioinformatics, functional genomics, and experimentation to explore the connection between genetic diversity and biological complexity. A past Canada Research Chair in Genomics and Bioinformatics, Dr. Merritt was trained as an evolutionary biologist and expanded into experimental studies of enzymes, metabolism, and stress biology as a postdoc and in starting his own lab. Research in his group often focuses on metabolism, stress, and genetic networks using the fruit fly model system in the laboratory, but projects also include a wide variety of organisms, locations, and biological questions.
Dr. Behdin Nowrouzi-Kia’s systematically studies occupations in the areas of work disability prevention, return to work and disability management. His work is motivated by efforts in the field of work disability prevention that extends beyond the efforts to prevent or heal diseases from a purely physical perspective, towards more holistic approaches. The major tenets of Dr. Nowrouzi-Kia’s work use a biopsychosocial view to understand work disability and extend towards incorporating personal characteristics (e.g., psychosocial) and environmental (e.g., healthcare system, workplace, workers’ compensation system) factors in improving health outcomes. Dr. Nowrouzi-Kia is also the founder of Infinity Health Consulting Group and OT Services North.
Ann Pegoraro is the Lang Chair in Sport Management currently holds an appointment as a Full Professor in the School of Hospitality, Food, and Tourism, all at the University of Guelph. Dr. Pegoraro is also the co-Director of the National Network for Research on Gender Equity in Canadian Sport. Dr. Pegoraro holds a doctorate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an MBA degree from Laurentian University. She is an experienced leader with a demonstrated history of working with the industry. Ann is a strong professional skilled in Applied Research, Partnership Development, Digital Media, Gender Equity, Nonprofit Organizations, and Sport Consumer Behavior.
Dr. Nicholas Ravanelli is an Assistant Professor in the School of Kinesiology at Lakehead University. Dr. Ravanelli’s overarching research objectives are to derive efficient, safe, and effective evidence-based strategies to mitigate heat-related illness for occupational settings, explore the impact of common comorbidities in the workforce on thermoregulatory function, and advance our current understanding of fundamental thermoregulatory control mechanisms.
Dr. Sinden is the Research Lead for Human Factors and Ergonomics at CROSH. Dr. Sinden’s research aims to prevent and reduce the human and financial impact of workplace injuries through 1) Applied Ergonomics. She collaborates with employers, workers and other stakeholders, using principles of knowledge translation, to develop tools that can be used in primary and secondary injury prevention. 2) Identifying Determinants of Occupational Task Performance. Dr. Sinden uses motion-capture and electromyography to identify how gender impacts development of muscle fatigue during occupational task performance.