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Our Staff
Scientific Director:
Jerilynn C. Prior, MD, FRCPC
Research Associate:
Christine L. Hitchcock, PhD
Post Doctoral Fellow:
Shirin Kalyan, PhD
CaMOS Co-ordinator:
Yvette Vigna, BA
CaMOS Interviewers:
Pauline Hung
Mary Lim
Tennie Ho
Research Assistants:
Administrative Assistant:
Lori Smithers
Volunteers:
Caroline Wilson
Tia Strachan
Jerilynn C. Prior BA, MD, FRCPC
Jerilynn C. Prior BA, MD, FRCPC, ABIM, ABEM is a Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C.
She has a special interest in menstrual cycles and the effects of hormones on women's health. Dr. Prior has studied women's menstrual cycles, perimenopause and the causes for and treatment of osteoporosis. She has researched the use of the ovarian hormone progesterone for treatment of menstrual flow problems, perimenopause, hot flushes, and low bone density. She is Director of the BC Centre of the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study (CaMOS) that is studying osteoporosis, fractures and bone density and has followed over 9000 adult women and men across the country for over ten years, plus over 1000 youth ages 16-24 for three years. She is the founder and Scientific Director of the Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research (CeMCOR). CeMCOR is actively researching menstrual cycles & ovulation and has a very accessible, informative website that receives over 1,200 page views per day (www.cemcor.ubc.ca).
Dr. Prior is internationally known for her research showing that progesterone increases bone formation by stimulating osteoblasts. More recently, she has shown that estrogen levels, besides being unpredictable, are significantly higher than normal in the perimenopause, the three to ten years of changes before menopause. She is widely sought as a speaker for professional and lay audiences and is the author of the award-winning book Estrogen’s Storm Season: Stories of Perimenopause, an informative book about perimenopause told in a story format. Estrogen's Storm Season was a finalist in the 2006 Independent Publishers Book Awards for Health. She is also the author, with two others, of a handbook called Transitions Through the Perimenopausal Years. With Susan Baxter PhD, medical journalist, Prior is author of "Estrogen Errors - Why Progesterone Is Better For Women's Health" that is in press for the spring of 2009, and published by Greenwood Press. This book aims to inform women of the decades of presumption and prejudice behind estrogen-centric women's health dogma. She has over 200 publications and holds 6 patents. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine Distinguished Medical Research Lecturer Award (2002). Dr. Prior is currently serving as President of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research.
Dr. Prior grew up in Alaska where she completed grade school and high school. Using scholarships, she received a Bachelors of Arts in English Literature at Linfield College, Oregon (with honours) in 1965. She graduated from Boston University School of Medicine (with honours) in 1969. She began her training, in Internal Medicine in Boston. Dr. Prior has previously worked as a physician in Boston, Mass., Poughkeepsie and Syracuse NY, and Barrow and Fairbanks, Alaska. She moved to Canada in 1976 and became a citizen because she believes in the Canadian universal health care system.
Dr. Prior has been singing with the Vancouver Bach Choir for 30 years, walks and kayaks for relaxation and health and loves to read. Her daughter is a high school English teacher in Vancouver and a singer. Her son also lives and works in the Vancouver area. In 2008 she became a proud grandmother.
Christine L. Hitchcock, PhD
Christine Hitchcock (BSc (Hon) Mathematics, 1986, MA Psychology, 1987, PhD Psychology, 1992) has worked as a Research Associate with CeMCOR since it was founded. She brings statistical and mathematical modelling skills; in her early career she trained as a post-doc at Oxford, and then worked as an ecological modeller for the Canadian government. Her current research interests include the analysis of normal changes with menstrual cycles and ovulation in regularly menstruating women, hot flushes and other changes in perimenopausal women, and the effects of progesterone on hot flushes and cardiovascular health in menopausal women. Most recently she has been reviewing the safety of extended use of oral contraceptives to suppress menstruation.
Shirin Kalyan, PhD
Dr. Shirin Kalyan graduated from the University of British Columbia with a major in Immunology and Microbiology and a Minor in Arts focused on Psychology. She obtained her doctorate with the Department of Experimental Medicine for which she had been awarded senior scholarships from both the Canadian Institute of Health Research as well as the Michael Smith Foundation. Dr. Kalyan is interested in studying the role of gender in both health and disease progression — with a special interest in the context of stress and the immune system. Apart from women’s health research, Shirin is a fervid environmentalist and public policy advocate and is a current member of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Yvette Vigna, BA
After getting a BA in Psychology in 1974 from UBC, Yvette decided to go into nursing. In 1976 she obtained her diploma in psychiatric nursing and in 1978, a diploma in nursing from the BC Institute of Technology. In 1990 she began working with Dr Prior on various of her research studies as a research technician. In 1995 Yvette became the coordinator of the CaMOS study and has been working in this challenging position since then.
Vesna Stajic, MD
Vesna Stajic, MD, graduated from the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (1983). She went on to specialize in Anaesthesia and recovery room care in Belgrade-Yugoslavia in 1991. She was Head of the Intensive Care Unit and Anaesthesiology Department for 10 years at the General Hospital in Kladovo Yugoslavia.
She moved with her family to Canada in 2002 and received her Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapist Diploma-Long Beach Memorial Hospital (California 2003) and has worked in this field in Vancouver. Vesna currently teaches at the West Coast College of Massage Therapy, Academic Department as a Primary Instructor. She began voluntering for CeMCOR in 2003 and she is now on staff running the final phase of recruitment for the Progesterone-Vasomotor Symptom Study.
She is an International Medical Doctors association Board Member and Past President. Currently she is President of the BC Multicultural Health Society Vancouver.
Elyse Battistella, BSc
Elyse graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in Biology with a specialization in Genetics. She is currently working as a Research Assistant for CeMCOR on a variety of projects, including the MOS Study, as well as managing the CeMCOR website.
Sheela Mistry, MD, D.G.O., M.B.B.S
Dr. Sheela Mistry earned her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree from Seth G.S. Medical College and King Edward Memorial Hospital affiliated to University of Mumbai, India. She completed her specialty residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology from Grant Medical College and Sir J.J. Group of Hospitals affiliated to University of Mumbai, India. During residency her active interests were in the field of Infertility and Endoscopic surgery, so she underwent specialized training and obtained fellowship in Advanced Gynecological Endoscopic Surgery and Advanced Infertility Management at National Institute of Laser and Endoscopic Surgery, Mumbai, India. Sheela practiced as an Obstetrician and Gynecologist for eleven years in Mumbai, India and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She immigrated to Canada in 2006 along with her husband and daughter. Sheela is currently teaching at Vancouver Career College as a Practical Nursing Instructor. She is working with CeMCOR as a Clinical Research Coordinator for the Aniridia - AAE study; a study which is trying to determine a genetic link between a rare eye condition called Aniridia and Anovulatory Androgen Excess (AAE) commonly known as PCOS.
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