Dr. Hounjet is a first-year resident in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of British Columbia.
Born and raised in rural Saskatchewan, she is of Metis and settler descent and is passionate about Indigenous health. She, along with her colleague Emily Green, spearheaded the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Report Card Project which provided a voice to Indigenous medical students across the country. She has had the privilege of acting as a consultant to the Federal Government during the National Dialogue on Indigenous Health. This year she was the honored recipient of both the Canadian Association of Medical Education Rising Star Certificate of Excellence for her work in improving Indigenous health education both at a local and National level, as well as the Dr. Graham Clay Presidential Prize.
She hopes to continue to work to improve access to safe medical care for Indigenous people, especially from a surgical perspective, as she continues through her residency.
Dr. Joshi earned her MD from the University of Toronto after completing a BSc. (Hons) in Biochemistry at McMaster University.
Heta is very passionate about women in surgery and is excited to be the only female doctor on the neurosurgery team in her PGY1 year. She also has had several leadership roles involved in medical education and teaching. She has been on the MD program’s Admissions Committee and led many policy changes that influenced the medical school admissions criteria. Throughout medical school, she was the class representative on the clerkship committee and helped redesign the clerkship curriculum during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She also enjoys computer programming and is familiar with a variety of different languages including Java, Python, C/C++, R, and more. She hopes to incorporate her computer programming skills into her academic research. Outside academia, Heta enjoys scuba diving, traveling, hiking, and spending time with her family, friends, and most importantly, her golden retriever.
Dr. Rebchuk earned his MD, MSc and BKin (Health Sciences) from the University of British Columbia. He is originally from Toronto, Ontario.
In graduate school, Alex studied the relationship between head impact exposure and neurological function in football players. He was a recipient of the CIHR Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship. During medical school, he received the George W. Leroux Memorial Scholarship and Florence E. Heighway Summer Research Award. He received multiple scholarships from the American Academy of Neurology and won Top Breakthrough Abstract at the Canadian Stroke Congress for his research regarding cognition and quality of life following stroke.
Alex is interested in politics, and was involved in political advocacy prior to medical school. He previously played competitive soccer and now spends his free time skiing, golfing and cycling. He also enjoys travelling, especially to surfing locales.
Dr. Rizzuto earned his MD from the University of British Columbia after completing a BSc. (Hons) in Kinesiology with a minor in Chemical Biology at McMaster University.
Michael acted as the president to the UBC Medicine Class of 2019 over the course of his medical studies. He served a two-year term on the board of the UBC Medical Journal as the Director of Publications. During his undergraduate studies, he was the recipient of an NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award at McMaster University, which allowed him to evaluate virtual reality head mounted displays as tools for ergonomic posture assessments. At UBC, Michael received research funding that allowed him to study microRNA biomarkers as they relate to the severity of spinal cord injuries.
Michael holds a 1st degree black belt in Taekwon-Do and has played competitive soccer for a number of years. He also enjoys skiing, baking, and occasionally dabbles in video games.
Dr. Craig is from Saint John, New Brunswick, and received his MD from Dalhousie University. His undergraduate background is in both economics and molecular biology.
Mike enjoys rowing, and competed for several years during and after university. He also enjoys cycling and tries to train for the Whistler Gran Fondo and other local events while not learning neurosurgery. In his spare time he also likes studying economic policy
Dr. Chang obtained his MD degree from the University of Toronto. Prior to starting medical school, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in the University of Toronto's Specialist Program in Human Biology (Genes, Genetics, and Biotechnology) with a minor in Philosophy.
He competed at the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) World dragon boat championships in 2011 (Tampa Bay, USA) and in 2013 (Szeged, Hungary) as a member of the Canadian national team.
Stephano also enjoys dragon boats, outrigger canoe, paddle boarding and snow boarding.