COVID-19, Aging and Well-being: One Year Later

Simon Bacon is a professor in the Department of Health, Kinesiology and Applied Physiology. His research deals with the impact of health behaviours and lifestyle (e.g., physical activity, diet, weight management, stress) on chronic diseases (e.g., obesity, cardiovascular disease, and chronic lung disease). He utilises multiple methodologies including epidemiological, psychophysiological, systematic review, and behavioural trials designs. Currently, Bacon is the CIHR SPOR Mentoring Chair in Innovative, Patient-Oriented, Behavioural Clinical Trials and a fellow of the Obesity Society, the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.

Marguerite Dorion is a community member and active participant at the engAGE Living Lab. She lives in Outremont and is an avid painter and mixed media artist.

Jean-Philippe Gouin is a clinical psychologist and associate professor in the Department of Psychology, and a Canada Research Chair in Chronic Stress and Health. Broadly speaking, his research program investigates the impact of chronic stress on health and well-being. Specifically, his research examines risk and resiliency psychosocial processes impacting the negative psychological and physiological consequences of cumulative and chronic exposure to social and environmental stressors over the life course. In particular, Gouin is interested in the interplay between interpersonal processes and lifestyle behaviours, such as sleep, physical activity and diet, to promote resilience to stress. Gouin is currently conducting a longitudinal study to examine the psychological consequences of COVID-19 on older adults.

Najmeh Khalili-Mahani is the director of the Media Health Lab at Concordia's PERFORM Centre, and her interdisciplinary research focuses on identifying gaps and opportunities in media-based interventions for stress reduction in adults with limited mobility (e.g., isolated seniors, those with chronic pain conditions). Khalili-Mahani completed her PhD in neuroscience (McGill, 2009) focusing on neuroimaging markers of the effect of stress hormones in the brain. Besides PERFORM Centre, she is a member of the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology, and engAGE, and an affiliate assistant professor in the Departments of Psychology; Design and Computation Arts; and Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Constance Lafontaine is the associate director of ACT, Ageing+Communication+Technologies. As part of her work with ACT, Lafontaine develops and leads participatory action research and research creation projects with Montreal-based partners. She also explores the intersections of animality and human and non-human ageing, including probing multi-species temporalities. 

Janis Timm-Bottos is an associate professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts and founder/director of the Art Hives Initiative. Timm-Bottos’ research investigates the community art studio as an accessible and cost-effective therapeutic site for individual, family and community healing. She currently serves as the PI for FRQ-S engAGE Living Lab Créatif, and as the co-director of Design, Arts, Culture and Community of the Next-Generation Cities Institute.

Andrea Tremblay is a PhD student in the INDI program. Her areas of special interest, research and investigation are the fields of environmental sustainability education and the influence and power of storytelling as a catalyst for spreading the potential for societal change in this field as well as aging studies. These interests have been fueled by a continuous fascination in the intricacies and subtleties of language in the shaping of individual and collective, local, regional and national identity.