About us.
Juliana Lee
[Co-founder/Co-President]
Juliana Lee is a Research Assistant at the CBDM lab, Harvard Medical School. She holds a MSc by Research degree from the University of Oxford and a HBSc from the University of Toronto. As the founder and leader of the COVID19 Recovery team, she maintains the website quality, supervises overall activities, and answers enquiry emails. Her motivation is her belief that keeping hope alive promotes altruism which is essential to keep the community together and fight the pandemic crisis as a global team.
juliana_lee@hms.harvard.edu
Leo Zhu
[Co-President]
Leo received his MASc from the University of Toronto in Chemical Engineering, specializing in modelling human physiology and drug pharmacokinetics. As co-president, he is responsible for facilitating inter-team communications, project management/logistics, outreach, and finances. In his free time, Leo is involved in academic consulting, Model United Nations, being active, and DJing! He believes in the importance of democratizing health education to prevent the spread of misinformation and helping people make informed decisions.
leo.zhu@mail.utoronto.ca
leozhu1996.github.io
Sophia Shim
[Co-founder/Science Writer]
Sophia Shim is a MSc candidate at the University of Guelph studying food safety and toxicology, and holds a HBSc from the University of Toronto where she majored in Human Biology. Working on building a career in science writing and communications, she creates content for our science communication blog titled “Making Sense of Science” and also contributes to science content published to our Instagram. Sophia hopes to help keep spirits up by providing resources for physical and mental well-being, as well as hopeful media content via the #StayAtHome page.
sophia.shim@mail.utoronto.ca
Our science team
Carrie Wei
[Science Director]
Carrie graduated from Queen’s University and is pursuing a career in optometry. She is passionate about global health, sustainability, and the scientific process. In her spare time she likes to spoil her pets, foster creativity, discover new music, and is always on the look for a binge worthy show.
Kathleen Hon
[Science Writer]
Kathleen is a third year undergraduate student studying Genetics at the University of Western Ontario. Her primary interests include autoimmune diseases and evolutionary genetics. She hopes to share the latest optimistic research available while making it understandable to all.
Ayushi Saxena
[Science Writer]
Ayushi is a M.Sc candidate in biotechnology at Invertis University, India. Her specialization is in Bioinformatics and is an intern at Computational Genomics Center ICMR-AIIMS on the project of multiepitope vaccine design against COVID-19. She gets bright-eyed and bushy-tailed while discussing science!
Angela Wei
[Science Writer]
Angela is a third year undergraduate student at McMaster University studying Health Sciences. She is interested in studying and identifying various social determinants of health and hopes to make science and health information more accessible. In her free time she enjoys playing volleyball, collecting plants, and binging TV shows.
Yuju Kim
[Science Writer]
Yuju is a second year PhD student in the Kluger group at the University of Toronto, studying site-specific protein modifications and bio-orthogonal protein conjugation to design oxygen-carriers that may serve as potential blood substitutes. Prior to this, she completed her HBSc in Biochemistry and Chemistry at the University of Toronto. Her vision for the COVID-19 Recovery Initiative is to negate the stigmas associated with science, especially since the rise of COVID, by making science more accessible and reader-friendly.
Our social media team
Michelle Huang
[Marketing Director]
Michelle is entering her 3rd year of undergraduate studies at the Rotman School of Management. She’s working towards her specialization in management and minor economics along with a focus on marketing & international business. As part of the marketing team, she's excited to think of new ideas to help spread this platform to new heights!
She is also a part of the community team.
Grace Guo
[Design Director]
Grace is a Bachelor of Science graduate from the University of Toronto. She currently works as a digital marketing consultant and has been working as a designer and photographer since high school. Grace has 2 cats and 2 dogs and loves going rock climbing or fishing on her days off. As the design director, she creates graphics and templates used for our Instagram posts and oversees social media visuals.
Julia Lee
[Social Media Manager]
Julia is a third year student at University of Toronto working on her undergraduate degree in Criminology and Sociolegal Studies and English. Outside of school she enjoys working with children/youth and is a teaching aid to elementary and high school students. Julia enjoys outdoor activities and looking for a good cup of coffee in her leisure time.
Our community team
Tiffany Chou
Tiffany is a third year student studying psychology at the University of Toronto with an interest in neuroscience and pharmacology.
Sissi Zhu
Sissi is a first year Life Sciences undergraduate student at the University of Toronto. She is looking to study psychology and aspires to synergise her main two interests, visual art and science, as a focus in the future. As a webinar coordinator, she aims to communicate and cooperate with potential speakers and assist them with any enquiries.
Our translators:
Arlette A Kasongo
[French]
Arlette aluma Kasongo is a 4th year student at the University of Ottawa in translational and molecular medicine. She is doing her honours project in Dr Celine Aguer’ s lab and enjoy playing piano and painting during my free time. Member of the COVID-19 French team where she enjoys translating different contents in French and share it with the French community.
Kirsten Luck
[French]
Kirsten recently finished her MSc at the University of Guelph, studying ecology and freshwater biology. She translates English content into French and is hopeful that the spread of positive news as well as scientifically based information will have a positive impact on readers. In her spare time she likes to stay active, play music and spend time outside.
Media Coverage:
11Alive:
University of Toronto NEWS:
Curiocity:
https://curiocity.com/toronto/things-to-do/8-things-to-do-at-home-this-week-in-toronto-april-6-10/ (same article on 4 other sites for Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Seattle)
680news: https://www.680news.com/2020/03/30/silver-linings-some-good-news-in-these-trying-times/
Trinity College, University of Oxford: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-K4sYzJSL3/
Trinity College, University of Toronto: https://www.trinity.utoronto.ca/discover/news/
AWARDS:
University of Toronto COVID-19 Student Engagement Award ($3000): https://global.utoronto.ca/u-of-t-covid-19-student-engagement-award-winners/
Collaborators:
Kindness Amid the Coronavirus project: http://kindness-amid-coronavirus.com/