Wellesley Junior Fellowships

• Anjana Aery
• Anjum Sultana
• Nazeefah Laher (Bob Gardner Equity Fellow)
• Nishi Kumar

• Health Equity and Access to Citizenship
• Improving Access to Interpretation Services
• Equitable Access to Home and Community Care
• A Thriving Income for a Healthy GTA
• Understanding Health Care Use Among Immigrants and Refugees

• Rebecca Cheff, Bob Gardner Equity Fellow
• Nadha Hassen, SAMI (Social Aetiology of Mental Illness) Fellow
• Dhvani Katakia
• Juan Camilo Sanchez

• The Real Cost of the Three Month Wait
• Growing Up in Healthy Homes: Repairing Indoor Air to Reduce Asthma
• Making Room for Health Equity: The Role of CHCs in Advocacy 
• Thriving Together: Reconstructing Social Capital for Refugee Health
• Green Paths to Mental Health

The Wellesley Junior Fellowship will build the next generation of professionals who will work to improve the health of the Greater Toronto Area by leading, researching and driving social change.

Fellows will develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will allow them to advance population health and reduce health inequities. They will drive change on the social determinants of health through applied research, effective policy impact, knowledge mobilization, and innovation.

The objectives of the Wellesley Junior Fellowship are:

1. To improve the health and health equity of the GTA through projects that impact the social determinants of health.
2. To increase the capacity of the GTA to improve health and health equity through the development of researchers, policy makers and communications experts.
3. To identify exceptional graduates who have the potential to be first-rate leaders and researchers in health improvement, health equity and social change.
4. To develop the fellows’ knowledge, attitudes and skills so that they have the capacity to develop innovative health research, policy solutions and knowledge translation.
5. To help the Fellows generate networks, including professional and public knowledge users, that function to leverage collective expertise, information access and knowledge.

The two-year, full-time junior fellowship program will begin in January 2019. The year will begin with a training phase, followed by a project phase.

Training: The first couple of months of the program will be primarily devoted to training designed to equip fellows with the practical knowledge and skills needed to innovate, design and work as part of a team to lead WI projects that integrate research, policy and knowledge translation. During the training phase we aim to augment the multidisciplinary and collaborative capacity of the group. The training will help equip fellows with the skills to develop and implement a project strategy.

Project Phase: Following training, fellows will work with the Wellesley Institute team to carry out a Wellesley Institute project. Project work will include a range of activities, such as design, stakeholder engagement, project design, data collection, data analysis, policy analysis, literature review and knowledge translation activities such as event planning and facilitation, and report writing. All WI projects will include elements of research, policy and knowledge translation. Emphasis will be put on integrating these three project components to create a project strategy for achieving policy change.

The learning objectives of the Wellesley Junior Fellowship are:

WI Institute Vision and Mission: Learn and engage in the vision and mission of the Wellesley Institute

Basic Knowledge: Gain exposure and access to basic knowledge, skills, and tools for doing policy, research and knowledge translation.

Creativity and Innovation: Gain knowledge, skills and tools for generating innovative and creative ideas for identifying and solving health inequities in Toronto

Integrated Strategies: Develop pragmatic strategies to unify policy, research and knowledge translation approaches

Leadership and Collaboration: Cultivate the ability mobilize, motivate, lead and collaborate with diverse networks and stakeholders

Application Information

Selection Process

Applications will be reviewed by a Selection Committee at the Wellesley Institute. Short listed candidates will be invited for an interview, providing them with an opportunity to expand on their experience and interest in the Fellowship.

Please read the ‘How to Apply’ section below and see our FAQ for more information about the application and selection process

Fellows will receive an annual stipend of $50,000. All fellows are expected to commit full time for two years (January 2019 – December 2020) to The Wellesley Junior Fellowship Program.

Based on their experience or project topics, Fellows may be assigned a specific type of fellowship. The options include: The Bob Gardner Fellowship in Health Equity, The Open Fellowships and The SAMI Fellowship.

However, all these types of fellowships are operating under the broader umbrella of the Wellesley Junior Fellowship Program, and will have the same application process and fellowship experience.

Open Fellowships

Fellowship projects that align with Wellesley Institute’s strategic Plan 2014 – 2018 including the Wellesley Institute’s four priority areas will be most likely to succeed. However, applicants are encouraged to also submit project proposals that lie outside these specific priority areas. We especially encourage submissions that represent rapid responses to current emerging community needs and from individuals demonstrating a high degree of engagement with diverse communities, interests, backgrounds and perspectives.

The Bob Gardner Fellowship: Driving Health Equity into Action

Inspired by the work of the late Dr. Bob Gardner, the Wellesley Institute’s Director of Policy from 2005-2014, the Bob Gardner Fellowship will focus on policy actions that will reduce health inequities in Toronto. Bob was an advocate for building health and health equity into all policies and for the use of Health Equity Impact Assessments that are grounded in local experience. The Bob Gardner Fellow may share Bob’s interest in health care system reform or may focus their work on reducing and eliminating health inequities across other social determinants of health.

The SAMI Fellowship: The Social Aetiology of Mental Illness

The SAMI fellowship builds on the former CIHR funded Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research (STIHR), the Social Aetiology of Mental Illness (SAMI) Training Program. The SAMI fellowship will support researchers towards developing work that will improve the mental health of the GTA.

Admissions Requirements

• A relevant Master’s degree or equivalent;
• 1+ years work or volunteer experience (practicum experience counts towards this) related to the social determinants of health and/or health equity
• Demonstrated talent for productivity and innovation in research, policy, or knowledge translation
• Priority will be given to candidates demonstrating talent for driving change in one or more of Wellesley Institute’s four priority areas.

Selection Criteria

The Wellesley Junior Fellowship is a highly competitive program with up to 4 spots being awarded each year.

Fellowships will be awarded to post-Master’s candidates who have set themselves apart through their research achievements, their productivity, creativity, leadership potential, and their demonstrated commitment to acting on the social determinants of health and/or health equity.

Successful candidates will demonstrate outstanding potential for examining complex connections between social factors and health, as well as an ability to critically analyze problems using multilevel thinking and multidisciplinary methods.

Applications for the next cohort (January 2019 – December 2020) of Wellesley Junior Fellows are now open!

Please CLICK HERE to find the online application form. You can find a PDF version of the form HERE, which should be used for reference only. Applications MUST be submitted through the online form (https://goo.gl/forms/21oO7QmfV0s3FOvu2) in order to be considered.

All applications must be submitted in full by midnight on Monday June 11^th, 2018 by 11:59 pm in order to be considered.

For questions about the program that are not covered on our website, please email contact@wellesleyinstitute.com.

Please note that due to the volume of applications, we cannot accept phone calls or in-person meeting requests with prospective applicants; however, we will do our best to answer your questions via email.

You may want to check the FAQ document from time to time, as we may update it with new questions and answers that are emerging from other applicants.