Sean Locke and Corliss Bean, Postdoctoral Fellows with the Diabetes Prevention Research Group (DPRG) at UBC, will be greatly missed as they embark on the next stages of their careers at Brock University this fall.
Their hard work over the past several years has been invaluable in transitioning the Small Steps for Big Changes pilot study to a large community study based out of YMCAs in the Okanagan and beyond.
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Corliss Bean joined the DPRG as Postdoctoral Fellow in fall 2017. During her time with the DPRG, Corliss was awarded the Killam Post-doctoral Research Fellowship Prize (2019), funded through a 3-year trainee award through Michael Smith Foundation for Health-funded Post-Doctoral Fellow, and secured her first tri-council grant as a Principal Investigator (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in partnership with YMCA of Okanagan).
Corliss’ work with the DPRG has furthered her passion for community-engaged work with the goal of fostering physical and psychosocial health. She has worked with experts in the field of knowledge translation, reinforcing the importance of making research evidence accessible and relevant.
This fall, Corliss begins her new position at the Department of Recreation & Leisure Studies at Brock University. In her years with the team, Corliss has had excellent teaching, supervisory, and mentoring experiences, leading to lasting friendships and colleague connections.
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Sean Locke joined DPRG as a Postdoctoral Fellow in spring 2016. During his time with the DPRG, Sean received Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR) and Diabetes Canada postdoctoral fellowships, and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant (as a PI) to study individuals’ biased and negative exercise thoughts. As part of this project, he partnered with the City of Kelowna’s Sport and Exercise programming to test a novel health coaching strategy to help individuals to reframe their negative and biased exercise thoughts.
Sean recalls, “Small Steps has come a long way since 2016 – the YMCA staff are now delivering the program and the partnership has strengthened so much that the program is going to be delivered out of multiple YMCAs. It’s super exciting to see”.
Through his time at the DPRG Sean recalls receiving lots of project coordination and mentorship experience, but also had the autonomy to develop his own research program alongside this work.
Sean said, “Mary and the DPRG are so supportive of one another. I really wouldn’t be where I am, and learned what I learned without the camaraderie within the lab. We had a lot of fun together, but also managed to write a few papers along the way.”
This fall, Sean begins his new position at the Department of Kinesiology at Brock University. He’s moving forward, having developed the right skills with the right partnerships to pursue excellence in teaching and academic scholarship.
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Sean and Corliss bring a wealth of experience with them to her new faculty positions at Brock University. Their excellent work, ever-present smiles, positive attitudes, and many contributions to the team will be missed.
The DPRG team wish Sean and Corliss the best of luck at Brock University and beyond!