Our Team
Meet our established team of Research Professionals passionate to identify and assess risk and develop occupation-based interventions for preventing high-risk behaviours and improving mental and physical health in the workplace.
Assistant Professor
Emily Geldsaler Grant Early Career Professor in Workplace Mental Health
Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Member, Rehabilitation Sciences Institute
Faculty Researcher, Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Affiliate Scientist - Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network
Collaborating Scientist, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Principal Investigator
Dr. Behdin Nowrouzi-kia
OT Reg. (Ont.), PhD, FRSA
0000-0002-5586-4282
Behdin Nowrouzi-Kia, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science, where he also holds the inaugural Emily Geldsaler Grant Early Career Professorship in Workplace Mental Health. Through an occupational lens, his research program is a systematic study of occupations in the areas of work disability prevention, return to work, and disability management. This approach is designed to produce results directly applicable to identify and assess risk and to develop interventions for preventing or improving high-risk behaviours in the workplace. Dr. Nowrouzi-Kia’s work is motivated by efforts in the field of work disability prevention that extends beyond the efforts to prevent or cure diseases from a purely physical perspective, towards more holistic approaches.
Maryam Shahzad
Doctoral Trainee
Maryam is a clinical occupational therapist and doctoral student in the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute at the University of Toronto. Maryam has experience in qualitative and knowledge synthesis studies in the areas of resiliency and brain injury and health behaviours of Indigenous and immigrant populations. She is interested in studying occupational disability and rehabilitation in diverse populations. She has clinical experience supporting the return to work and community integration of individuals with brain injury.
Donia Obeidat
Doctoral Trainee
Donia is a Jordanian occupational therapist and a Ph.D. student in rehabilitation science at the University of Toronto. As an occupational therapist and a future scientist, Donia is mainly interested in the working environment and related disabilities, engagement in community, and improving quality of life.
Sharada Nandan
Research Assistant
Sharada graduated from the University of Toronto Scarborough with an HBSc, specializing in psychology. During her time as a student, she completed an 8-month co-op at the ReSTORE lab working on projects related to gender-based violence and presenteeism and absenteeism among teleworkers. Sharada re-joined the lab in 2026 to further develop her research skills in hopes of pursuing grad school. She is interested in exploring projects related to improving mental health within the workplace and exploring topics related to women's health and minority populations.
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Yiting (Tina) He
Volunteer
Yiting is a fourth-year Bachelor of Kinesiology student at the University of Toronto, specializing in the Behavioural Science stream. She has experience working with EEG and brain–behavioral sciences and is eager to strengthen her hands-on research skills through her role at the ReSTORE Lab. Yiting is passionate about understanding the connections between brain function and rehabilitation and aims to build on this foundation as she prepares for future graduate studies.
Monica Huynh
Volunteer
Monica is a recent graduate from Wilfrid Laurier University where she majored in kinesiology and minored in biology and psychology. Some of her interests include the biopsychosocial framework, musculoskeletal injuries and rehabilitation as well as public and community health. She joined ReSTORE lab in hopes of strengthening her research abilities and further studying occupational related disabilities and injuries.
Vedika Patil
Work Study Student
Vedika Patil is a third-year student at the University of Toronto double-majoring in Economics and Statistics. She is interested in applied health research, particularly in understanding how social, behavioural, and environmental factors shape health outcomes across different populations. In the long term, she hopes to pursue a career in applied health research or health policy, working in settings where data analysis is used to improve population health outcomes and inform evidence-based decision-making.
Maria Paula Salamanca Acosta
MITACS Student
I am Maria Paula Salamanca Acosta, a fifth-year medical student. I will be joining the laboratory team as a research intern through the MITACS program. I coordinate a student research group focused on neuroscience, and I am particularly passionate about mental health research, with a special emphasis on suicidal ideation and the impact of emotional symptoms on neurodegenerative diseases, which I have explored in my previous research projects. In my free time, I enjoy painting, photography, and dancing. I am very happy to be part of the team and to learn about rehabilitation approaches in stroke.
Viktoriia Shevchuk
MITACS Student
My name is Viktoriia Shevchuk, and I am a fourth-year Bachelor’s student in Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine. Throughout my studies, I have focused on youth mental health, with a particular interest in the prevention of mental health problems and supporting teenagers as they navigate adolescence.
I look forward to participating in the research project on Exploring Work Disability and Functional Capacity in Individuals with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus as a Mitacs intern and getting to know the team members.
Rubén Beltrán
MITACS Student
Rubén is a graduate student in the Master's in Administrative Engineering at Instituto Tecnológico de Orizaba (TecNM), Mexico. He joined the ReSTORE Lab as a Mitacs Globalink Research Intern to explore the intersection of technology and workplace mental health. Rubén is interested in the development of intelligent systems for occupational health, with a particular focus on burnout prevention and early detection in organizational settings.
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Arulini Ampigaipathar
Research Assistant
Arulini is a Research Assistant at the ReSTORE Lab. She is a UofT alumni who holds an Honours Bachelor of Science; she specialized in Psychology and minored in Health Humanities. From her co-op internships, Arulini has valuable experience in various fields such as IT, project management, and customer communications. She also makes time for her interest in mental health by volunteering in healthcare-focused roles in a centre for mental health sciences, as well as being a peer-reviewer for an undergraduate journal of disability studies.
Jeysri Hariram
Volunteer
Jeysri is a Life Sciences student at Queen’s University who is especially interested in the intersection of mental health and rehabilitation. Her research and volunteer experiences have sparked a strong interest in how mental health can affect recovery, participation, and a person’s ability to return to work. As a Volunteer Research Assistant with the ReSTORE Lab, she hopes to continue exploring mental health and occupational health while contributing to research that can make a meaningful difference in people’s lives.
