The UOHI Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in Research Award honours students or fellows who challenge systemic barriers, promote inclusive research practices, and create opportunities for under-represented groups — whether through innovative study design, mentorship, outreach, or workplace improvements. Awardees are distinguished by their commitment to making research more robust, generalizable, accessible, and impactful.
Congratulations to Dr. Lisa‑Marie Maukel, Postdoctoral Fellow, recipient of the 2026 UOHI EDI in Research Trainee Award! She is recognized for bringing extraordinary productivity, intellectual depth, and scientific rigor to integrating EDI methods into her research. Investigating the intersections of cardiovascular and mental health, she is changing treatment paradigms and outcomes for women and other under-served cardiac populations.
Since joining UOHI in 2024 as a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Maukel has made significant contributions to addressing long‑standing gaps in cardiovascular research by ensuring that sex and gender are explicitly considered in analysis, interpretation, and knowledge generation. Across her growing body of work, she has consistently strengthened the validity and generalizability of findings, to ensure they are accessible, relevant, and responsive to lived experience.
She has led and co‑authored influential studies such as the analyses and manuscript writing for the MINDSET pan-Canadian study which examined sex differences in mental health outcomes and psychological intervention needs among patients with Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) —a condition that disproportionately affects women. She has also contributed to emerging literature on women and microvascular disease, an area historically under‑studied despite its clinical importance.
Dr. Maukel led successful efforts to secure CIHR and BHI grants to support an international team co-designing and evaluating a gender- and EDI-sensitive psychological intervention that addresses psychological distress for patients with SCAD using the ORBIT model, and she is planning the follow-on proof-of-concept study. The intervention is being co-created with six diverse patient partners, ensuring that lived experience and diverse voices inform all aspects of the work.
Dr. Maukel has developed strong, trust-based relationships with patient communities by leading educational sessions and workshops through initiatives such as the UOHI Women’s Heart Health Education Series, Sharing is Caring, and a national SCAD conference. As a mentor, she further enables trainees to identify and tackle long-neglected challenges. For example, she is supervising a graduate student on a first-of-its kind systematic review and meta‑analysis of mental health interventions for women with heart disease—a much-needed addition to the cardiovascular literature which has been historically dominated by male samples.
Reflecting her commitment to systemic change beyond individual studies, Dr. Maukel is a member of the UOHI Women’s Health and Brain-Heart Teams, the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Alliance and the Women’s Health Special Interest Group with the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Through rigorous, inclusive research design; meaningful mentorship; patient‑centred knowledge mobilization; and sustained leadership, Dr. Maukel is helping to ensure that cardiovascular research is more equitable, accessible, and impactful for all.