Joey Silbert, Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology

Alena Zelinka, Helen Yang, Joey Silburt are student leaders within the Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology (LMP) Wellness, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (WIDE) committee. This committee is a collaboration of faculty, staff, and students focused on reviewing the department’s practices to ensure that they are inclusive, equitable, and supportive of diversity and wellness.

Helen Yang Alena is a PhD candidate at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in the lab of Dr. Rita Kandel. Together with Dr. Samira Mubareka, she co-chaired the Knowledge subcommittee, investigating challenges in faculty member career advancement and developing strategies to overcome these obstacles. She is currently leading a project with Dr. Isabelle Aubert to develop methods to assess LMP committee composition and practices according to principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Together with her project working group, she has generated a preliminary approach for LMP committee review and drafted a common set of Terms of Reference for LMP committees.

Helen is a MSc candidate at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute in the lab of Dr. Shabbir Alibhai. Helen co-chaired the Community subcommittee with Dr. Janice Robertson. They worked with a team of students, staff, and faculty to improve the accessibility of departmental communications, create safe spaces for LGBTQ members, and develop social, academic, and professional opportunities for postdoctoral fellows. She is now leading a project with Dr. Avrum Gotlieb to collect and highlight stories from the LMP community, and amplify voices of individuals Joey Silburt from marginalized and under-represented groups in health and medical sciences.

Joey is a PhD candidate at Sunnybrook Research Institute in the lab of Dr. Isabelle Aubert. Through the WIDE committee, Joey worked with a team to identify gaps in health and wellness resources available within LMP. In this capacity, Joey helped to lead a project to develop a repository on community health and emergency help resources and is working with the WIDE committee to create an emergency one-click button to help connect students and staff with health resources.

Alena, Helen, and Joey joined WIDE with the ultimate goal of supporting the LMP community and contributing to important dialogue and solutions. Working with faculty and staff to lead specific tasks and objectives has been and continues to be a journey of growth, collaboration, and empowerment. They learned that success as leaders is predicated on the contributions of all team members who must have meaningful roles and responsibilities, and the creation of safe, respectful, positive spaces, resulting in the productive exchange of novel ideas.