We are pleased to welcome Christiane Roth and Dr. Michèle L. Hébert as Autism Alliance of Canada’s 2024-2025 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Health System Impact Fellows (HSIF). They will be joining the Alliance’s highly skilled community of fellows, past and current, who have a track record of engaging in impactful, community-driven projects. 

The Health System Impact Fellowship program is funded by the CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research’s (CIHR-IHSPR) with support from various CIHR institutes, funders, health system organizations and universities. Autism Alliance of Canada proudly hosts trainees accepted into this program, giving them opportunities to address real-world system challenges in Canada.

Our Fellows collaborate with community organizations, policymakers, researchers, healthcare professionals, and people with lived experiences across the country to tackle real-world system challenges.  Our goal is to increase the capacity of emerging researchers to drive meaningful change for Autistic people and their families across Canada. 

This year, we are welcoming two fellows: 

• Christiane Roth is a Research Associate and PhD student in the Disability Policy Research Program at the University of Calgary – School of Public Policy and Faculty of Kinesiology. With an MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science she has particular interest in the domestic application of international disability focused human rights frameworks in Canada. Christiane has work experience in policy development and advice that aims at improving participation in society and access to services for underserved and equity-deserving population groups. In this context, she has led projects on behalf of the German Development Cooperation and European Union Commission, which included efforts to improve access to services for people with disabilities. She is currently completing her PhD at the University of Calgary. Christiane will build on the work the Alliance is doing to use  administrative data to examine the relationship between policies, supports and services for autistic children and youth and outcomes later in life.

• Dr. Michèle L. Hébert is a pediatric occupational therapist with 29 years of expertise, postdoctoral researcher and volunteer founder of Buds in Bloom/ Bourgeons en Éclat, Registered Charity for neurodiverse children and their families. Michèle earned a PhD in Rehabilitation Science from McGill University on interprofessional collaboration for children on the autism spectrum, and she completed a two-year postdoctoral scholarship at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy and Faculty of Social Work, and a second postdoc at the University of Alberta for children from military families. In all these roles, Michèle helps co-create solutions with families, service providers and decision-makers, to transform health inequity into equity, in turn bringing a sense of belonging and community-connection to children, youth and their families. At Autism Alliance of Canada, Michèle will develop a framework that bolsters cross-Canada connection, ultimately to engage and support French-speaking Autistic people and organizations, bolstering community-wide inclusion and policy guidance from those communities.  

As our fellows join the Alliance, they are excited to gain a better understanding of the Canadian provincial and federal policy environment and contribute to strengthening the data to policy pipeline and contribute to community engagement efforts to improve the lives of Autistic Canadians. 

As the host organization, Autism Alliance of Canada is excited to collaborate with our academic partners at the University of Calgary and University of Alberta to provide mentorship and training. The fellows will receive mentorship from Dr. Deepa Singal, Scientific Director of the Alliance and Dr. Jonathan Lai, Executive Director of the Alliance. Christine will receive academic mentorship from Dr. Jennifer Zwicker, Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Disability Policy for Children and Youth, Associate Professor, and Director of Health Policy at the University of Calgary. Dr. Hébert will receive academic mentorship from  Dr. Andrea MacLeod, Professor, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine – Communication Sciences & Disorders at the University of Alberta and Canadian Research Chair in Bilingual Acquisition and Communication Disorders.

Learn more about Christiane Roth on Linked In and on the Disability Policy Research Program website.

Learn more about Dr. Michèle L. Hébert on LinkedIn and on the Buds In Bloom website.