HRI collaborators bring value to projects and studies across all areas of research and evaluation. We are pleased to welcome four new members to our team.
Yelena Chorny, MD, MSc, CCFP(AM), DABAM
HRI Collaborating Clinician
Chief of Addiction and Trauma Services at Homewood Health Centre (HHC)
Dr. Yelena Chorny is committed to the advancement of compassionate, evidence-based care for people experiencing substance use and concurrent disorders. Currently, she is Chief of Addiction and Trauma Services at Homewood Health Centre (HHC). She is certified in both Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and received the organization’s Award of Excellence in 2018 for her role in expanding addiction treatment services in the Guelph-Wellington region.
Dr. Chorny’s research interests lie in the areas of measurement-based care, program evaluation, and the translation of research into practice. She has co-authored several HRI-led publications and presentations and brings valuable clinical expertise to HRI’s addiction research program.
Matthew Keough, PhD, C Psych
HRI Collaborating Clinical Scientist
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Director of the Centre for Research on Addiction Vulnerability in Early Life (CRAVE Lab) at York University
Dr. Matthew Keough completed his PhD in clinical psychology at Concordia University, followed by a psychology residency at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Currently, he is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Director of the Centre for Research on Addiction Vulnerability in Early Life (CRAVE Lab) at York University.
Dr. Keough’s research program explores two key areas:
- Identifying risk factors for addiction in early life (before the age of 30) using lab-based and longitudinal studies, and
- Improving psychological treatments for concurrent disorders with a focus on creating integrated, accessible, and engaging treatment options.
Presently, Dr. Keough is running several large-scale randomized controlled trials testing novel online treatments for concurrent disorders. He has published numerous articles in the field of addiction studies and has presented extensively at major national and international conferences.
His clinical and research expertise will help to shape projects within HRI’s addiction research program and to translate findings into clinical practice.
Shannon Remers, MSc
HRI Collaborating Researcher
Shannon has worked in the mental health and addictions sector for more than a decade. She received her Masters of Science in Cognitive Neuroscience from Wilfrid Laurier University and a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Psychology, as well as a diploma in Forensics Science, from Saint Mary’s University.
Currently, she is the Senior Manager of Research and Outcomes at Homewood Health Inc. (HHI). In this role, she leads HHI’s internal research initiatives aimed at optimizing outcomes, bringing best practice into programs, implementing measurement-based care in treatment, and using psychometrics to help determine optimal treatment plans. Shannon has been a valuable contributor to HRI’s addiction and trauma research programs for several years and has co-authored several HRI-led publications and presentations. As an HRI Collaborating Researcher, Shannon will help to shape research and evaluation priorities, execute new and existing projects, and move findings into clinical practice.
Yeying Zhu, PhD
HRI Collaborating Scientist
Associate Professor, Department of Statistics & Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo
Dr. Zhu holds a Master’s Degree in Statistics from the National University of Singapore and a PhD from Pennsylvania State University. Currently, she is Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics & Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo.
Dr. Zhu’s research interests lie in causal inference, machine learning, and their interface. She is keen to understand the interdisciplinary nature of causal inference and aims to develop theoretically sound methods to address data-driven problems. Her recent work focuses on the development of variable-selection and dimension-reduction procedures to adjust for confounding in observational studies. She is also exploring causal mediation analysis, which examines how a treatment or intervention affects the outcome through one or more intermediate variables. Notably, Dr. Zhu has developed innovative machine learning algorithms for the modeling of propensity scores for binary, multi-level, and continuous treatments. Applications of Dr. Zhu’s research lie in biomedical studies, public health, and social sciences. Dr. Zhu is a valuable contributor to HRI’s addiction research program and has mentored several HRI staff in the application of novel statistical methods to study causal inference. Dr. Zhu will continue in her mentorship role and provide her expertise in collaborative research projects that could benefit from the application of causal inference methods.