What a science mindset means to me:
An instinct to question the obvious, matched with the rigour and critical thinking needed to find what’s actually true.

Prior to joining Shift Health, Jennifer built research experience across Africa, Europe, and North America. She was a Commonwealth Scholar at Newcastle University in the UK, and has worked as a Research and Development Scientist in the health technology sector, as a pro-bono consultant, and as a fellow evaluating the organizational readiness, market positioning, and regulatory landscape of early-stage Canadian health technology companies. She has held leadership roles including Chair of the Career Development Committee at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and Doctoral Student Representative for the American Society for Nutrition’s Global Nutrition Council.

Jennifer earned her PhD in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Toronto, where her dissertation was conducted as part of a multi-institutional collaboration funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with partners in Bangladesh, Canada and the US. Her research investigated the factors shaping infant gut microbiome development, maternal-infant microbial transmission, and the effects of a probiotic intervention on infant microbiome development. She presented her research across multiple international conferences, and her doctoral work earned several awards, including the Robert Suskind Pediatric Nutrition Award and the Emerging Leaders in Nutrition Science Award from the American Society for Nutrition, as well as a nomination for the Governor General’s Gold Medal from the University of Toronto.