Dr. Lu obtained her Master of Science and PhD from the University of Waterloo’s School of Public Health and Health Systems. During her graduate studies she explored and published on a variety of topics such as individual meanings of health and illness in the realm of food allergies, and the evaluation of NGOs working in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sector. Since graduating in 2017, Stephanie has led and managed projects in primary care, public health, and academic settings. In these roles she conducted research with persons living with dementia through the MINT Memory Clinic model, and built evaluation capacity as a Program Evaluation Specialist at the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit by delivering educational workshops.

As a Senior Research and Evaluation Associate with HRI, Stephanie’s role includes planning and executing a variety of research and evaluation projects related to mental health and addiction. She works directly with key stakeholders, including advisory groups, service providers, clinicians, and people with lived and living experience. Stephanie has extensive experience with a variety of research and evaluation approaches, methods, and tools, including participatory- and user-based approaches; both qualitative and quantitative methods; and, developing logic models, evaluation frameworks, surveys, and other data collection tools. Stephanie’s previous experience translates well to HRI’s growing portfolio of research and evaluation projects related to service delivery and community engagement.

See Stephanie’s publications on ResearchGate.