Clinicians & Alumnae
Lacie White
She completed graduate studies at the University of Ottawa, receiving the Governor General’s Gold Medal award for her doctoral thesis. With a clinical background in palliative care, her research interests include relational ethics, contemplative approaches to practice, and embodiment through strong emotion and uncertainty. Drawing on emergent narrative and arts-based methods, Lacie seeks to explore the more intangible aspects of experience.
Emily Marcogliese
Emily Marcogliese (she/her/elle) received her PhD in the from the University of Ottawa in 2023. Her PhD work focused on the moral experiences of undergraduate nursing students during clinical placements. Emily’s research interests include topics related to nursing ethics, nursing education, the experiences of students and nurses in practice, and power in the clinical context as well as qualitative and systematic review methodologies. When Emily is not working, she can be found competing for the University of Ottawa Equestrian Team.
Stephanie Avery
Stephanie has been working in the pediatric intensive care unit at the Montreal Children’s Hospital since graduating from McGill in 2014 as a nurse clinician, and more recently as an assistant nurse manager. For her master’s thesis, she explored bereaved parents’ experiences of end-of-life nursing care in the pediatric intensive care unit. Since graduating from the University of Ottawa in 2019, she has also been working as a qualitative research assistant on a project that aims to improve care for children with medical complexity and their families during hospitalization in the intensive care unit setting.
Lisa Robinson
Lisa completed her masters degree in nursing at the University of Ottawa in 2018. Her thesis research was a qualitative study examining nurses’ engagement with personhood at end of life, in acute care. Since graduating, she has worked as a Community Hospice Care Nurse Coordinator with Hospice Care Ottawa, and is currently a MAiD Nurse Navigator with the Champlain Regional MAiD Network.
Donna Lawrence
Donna is a Registered Nurse and completed her graduate studies in Nursing at Athabasca University in 2022. She has clinical experience in community hospice care, long-term care, palliative care education and holds specialty certification in hospice palliative care with the Canadian Nurses Association. Donna is currently working as a Palliative Nurse Consultant in the community providing foundational palliative care education, while supporting long-term care homes with strengthening their palliative approach to care.
Stephanie Sorenson
Stephanie is a Registered Nurse of over 13 years with a wide variety of clinical nursing experience, most recently as the Clinical Learning Specialist in the Intensive Care Unit at Kingston Health Sciences Centre, Kingston General Hospital site in Kingston, Ontario. She graduated with a Master’s of Science in Nursing from the University of Ottawa in 2020 and was the recipient of the Jean Jenny Prize for Excellence in Tertiary Health Care. Stephanie has an interest in end-of-life care in the context of organ donation in the ICU.
Lauren Hoefel
Lauren is a Registered Nurse and completed her master’s degree in nursing at the University of Ottawa in 2019. Her thesis research focused on validating and testing the Ottawa Decision Support Framework which is used to help guide people making health or social decisions. She has clinical experience in community health care and holds speciality certification in hospice palliative care with the Canadian Nurses Association. She is currently working as a director of palliative care consultation in the community setting providing education programs and mentorship to frontline providers.
Brenda Halibisky
Brenda is a nurse practitioner and did her PhD in the School of Nursing at the University of ottawa. She is a part-time professor with the University of Ottawa, teaching in the Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program and a primary care provider working within a family health team setting. Her doctoral project examined the nurse practitioner role in community palliative care.
Celine de Rubeis
Celine is a Registered Nurse who completed a Masters of Education: Health Professions Concentration in 2021. Her research project focused on Patient and Family Involvement in the Education of Health Professionals working in Palliative Care. She worked in pediatric palliative care with Roger Neilson House (RNH) as the Educator and with the CHEO Palliative Care Team as a Palliative Care Nurse. Additionally, Celine has worked in relevant fields like pediatric and adult oncology.
PCNE 