Top of page
Dr. Sue Stock received her medical school training at Queens University, in Kingston, Ontario and her specialty training in Pediatrics and Endocrinology at the Hospital for Sick Children, in Toronto, Ontario and at BC Children’s Hospital, in Vancouver, BC. She is currently a Pediatric Endocrinologist at BC Children’s Hospital and is a Clinical Instructor at the University of British Columbia. She also practices as a community-based physician in North Vancouver and on Vancouver Island, focusing on patients with endocrine conditions and eating disorders. Her private practice is located in North Vancouver.
Dr. Stock has a strong research interest in the area of disordered eating. Past research has dealt with the hormonal effects of disordered eating and the association between substance use and eating disorders. She has been working on the Healthy Buddies™ program for the past 5 years, thanks to initial funding from the SickKids Foundation and 2005-2008 funding from the Provincial Health Services Authority. Dr. Stock determined the older/younger peer teaching structure intrinsic to the Healthy Buddies™ program and also ensured the scope of the program was broad to address both extremes of the disordered eating continuum, from traditional DE to conditions of overweight and obesity. The Healthy Buddies™ program addresses this through focusing students on the benefits of improved nutrition, improved body image, education about healthy growth and development, increased physical activity and decreased screen time. To contact Dr. Stock click here
Jean-Pierre Chanoine, MD, PhDClick here for information about Dr. Jean-Pierre Chanoine
The Healthy Buddies™ Program Development & Implementation Team is made up of two BC educators, David Barnum and Valerie Ryden. As elementary school teachers they have taught Kindergarten through Grade 7, with 30 years of combined teaching experience. Their role in this current phase of Healthy Buddies™ is to develop and publish the program materials for this implementation phase and future use, to recruit and train educators for implementation of the program in their own classrooms, to take Healthy Buddies™ to districts throughout the province, to oversee the practice of Healthy Buddies™ and provide support to educators working with the program, and to plan sustainability of the program for future use.As a specialist in elementary science and past president of the BC Science Teacher Association, David Barnum has worked on Ministry of Education curriculum writing teams, has co-authored an elementary textbook, and offered numerous workshops to teachers around the province. David was a classroom teacher at the initial study intervention school and so has experienced the impact of Healthy Buddies™ in the classroom first hand.Valerie Ryden worked in community and corporate fitness and wellness in the early 90’s before becoming an elementary school PE specialist. She has offered numerous workshops to generalist classroom teachers and run many school based active living programs. Valerie Ryden was the initial educator on the BC Children’s Hospital team, writing the Healthy Buddies™ program with Dr. Sue Stock. Valerie was the intervention teacher at the study school on the Sunshine Coast. Both are passionate about children’s health and passionate about the power of Healthy Buddies™ to improve the health of children! David Barnum has school aged children and Valerie Ryden has preschool aged children and both hope their kids benefit from this program in the future.
To contact David & Valerie click here (top)Project & Research CoordinationStacey Evans Ishkanian (co-investigator)Stacey became involved with Healthy Buddies™ during the 2003-04 Pilot Study. Stacey's role in this phase of Healthy Buddies™ is to oversee the grant and project, handle business development, manage the project budget, coordinate and conduct program evaluation around the Province, and work with the statistician to analyse and write up the study findings.As part of her work, Stacey developed a coded "kid-friendly" measuring tape that disguises ordered numeric values. The purpose of the design is harm reduction through deemphasizing waist size and increasing personal privacy. Stacey received her research training in two labs at the University of British Columbia and at the BC Children's Hospital under the mentorship of Dr. Charmaine Miranda, Department of Psychology and Dr. Sue Stock, Department of Endocrinology. Stacey graduated from the University of BC with a bachelor's degree in Psychology in 2003 and will be starting a Master's degree in Sept 2008. To contact Stacey click here (top)
PsychologyDr. Charmaine Miranda, Ph.D, R.Psych Dr. Charmaine Miranda is a clinical neuropsychologist, adjunct professor at the University of British olumbia and clinical associate at Simon Fraser University. Dr. Miranda has been involved with Healthy Buddies™ since its inception, contributing to the program content and development. She conducted baseline assessments in both pilot study schools and developed the comprehensive assessment tools used for the Healthy Buddies™ pilot study. Dr. Miranda directed follow up data collection with Dr. Stock; she is an advisor for the current program evaluation. (top)