Eight recipients honoured with the 2025 Fiera Capital Awards for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Health Care Research

MONTREAL, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This year, eight exceptional medical and health science students from Black, Indigenous, and other racialized communities have been awarded the 2025 Fiera Capital Awards for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Health Care Research. These important awards celebrate academic excellence and support the next generation of diverse voices in scientific research.

Launched in 2022 through a partnership between Fiera Capital Corporation, the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Foundation, and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (The Institute), these awards are designed to provide vital financial support to researchers from Black, Indigenous, and other racialized backgrounds—groups historically underrepresented in scientific research funding. Fiera’s donation of $120K, committed over three years, has supported emerging talent and advanced inclusive research initiatives.

“Supporting these students has been a privilege. Their passion, perseverance and commitment to advancing science that serves all communities is nothing short of inspiring. We are not just investing in research; we are backing future leaders whose work will shape how care is delivered and understood.”

— Flora Sousa, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Fiera Capital

Securing funding early in a researcher’s career can make all the difference—while a lack of support can significantly affect their trajectory. This is especially true for scientists from racialized communities, who face additional systemic barriers at every stage of their careers. The Fiera Capital Awards aim to remove these barriers, providing not just financial assistance, but also access to expert mentorship and training through The Institute.

“At The Institute, we take pride in creating an inclusive and collaborative research environment that reflects our 2030 Vision of advancing precision health across the life course. As a globally respected institute, we are committed to attracting world-class talent—scientists who bring bold, transformative ideas to improve human health. Our collaboration with Fiera Capital and the MUHC Foundation reflects our shared mission to accelerate discovery, advance health outcomes, and ensure equitable access to research funding —amplifying the voices of all scientists, especially those whose perspectives have historically been overlooked.”

— Dr. Rhian Touyz, Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer, The Institute

Meet the 2025 recipients of the Fiera Capital Awards for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Health Care Research:

Abdelrahman M. Alokda, a PhD student in neuroscience, is exploring how certain natural or chemical substances—called bioactive compounds—might help slow down aging and protect the brain from diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Yousra Benslimane, an M.Sc. student in pathology, is creating tiny, smart delivery systems called lipid nanoparticles, inspired by the body’s own messengers to help mRNA treatments—like vaccines or gene therapy—reach the right cells and work better.

Maria Kristina Cunanan, an M.Sc. student in experimental medicine, is exploring how psychological distress—like anxiety and depression—influence the risk of heart disease, and how these effects may differ based on a person’s sex and gender.

Aura Andrea Tamez Gonzalez, a PhD student in neuroscience, is exploring how the body’s natural resilience systems—the ways our cells protect and repair themselves—can affect how long we live and how likely we are to develop brain diseases like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.

Yi Yvonne Jin, a PhD student in clinical nutrition, is exploring the role of dairy products and dairy fat intake on the health in individuals with prediabetes (a condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not yet diabetes).

Maisha Maliha Promi, a PhD student in neuroscience, is using a geroscience approach—which means studying how aging itself contributes to disease—to find new ways to treat neurodegenerative brain disorders.

Anabel Selemon, an M.Sc. student in epidemiology, is trying to better understand how to protect immigrants from developing tuberculosis by studying how often people who immigrate to British Columbia are using preventive treatment.

Aditi Singh, an M.Sc. student in rehabilitation and occupational therapy, is looking at a new online tool called GETONTRAK that helps people who have received a kidney transplant take care of their health after surgery.

Awardees were selected by a multidisciplinary committee based on academic excellence, insight into the systemic challenges they’ve encountered in their research journey, and their potential to impact other researchers from racialized groups.

“The MUHC Foundation is proud to stand alongside Fiera Capital in our ongoing mission to support a more inclusive health care research ecosystem and provide crucial backing to researchers from Black, Indigenous, and other racialized communities. These awards reflect our belief in the power of diversity to drive discovery and inspire change. We are honoured to help these emerging researchers pursue their ambitions and contribute to a healthier, more equitable world.”

— Marie-Hélène Laramée, President and CEO, MUHC Foundation

About the McGill University Health Centre Foundation

The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Foundation raises funds to support excellence in patient care, research and teaching at the McGill University Health Centre, one of the top university hospitals in Canada. Our Dream Big Campaign to change the course of lives and medicine is raising millions of dollars to solve humanity’s deadliest puzzles: infectious diseases; end cancer as a life-threatening illness; fix broken hearts through innovative cardiac care; detect the silent killers—ovarian and endometrial cancers—early; create the best skilled health care teams in Canada; and much more. We are rallying our entire community to solve the world’s most complex health care challenges. https://muhcfoundation.com

About the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre 

The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (The Institute) is a world-renowned biomedical and healthcare research centre. Affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of McGill University, The Institute is the research arm of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) – an academic health centre located in Montreal, Canada, that has a mandate to provide complex care to its community. The Institute supports over 700 researchers and close to 1,400 research trainees devoted to a broad spectrum of fundamental, clinical and health outcomes research at the Glen and the Montreal General Hospital sites of the MUHC. Its research facilities, including the Centre for Translational Biology, the Centre for Innovative Medicine and the Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, offer a dynamic multidisciplinary environment that fosters collaboration and leverages discovery aimed at advancing precision health throughout the life course. The Institute is supported in part by the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ). rimuhc.ca 

About Fiera Capital Corporation 
Fiera Capital is a leading independent asset management firm with a growing global presence. Fiera Capital delivers customized and multi-asset solutions across public and private market asset classes to institutional, financial intermediary and private wealth clients across North America, Europe and key markets in Asia. Fiera Capital’s depth of expertise, diversified investment platform and commitment to delivering outstanding service are core to our mission of being at the forefront of investment management science to create sustainable wealth for clients. Fiera Capital trades under the ticker FSZ on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Headquartered in Montreal, Fiera Capital, with its affiliates in various jurisdictions, has offices in over a dozen cities around the world, including New York (U.S.), London (UK), and Hong Kong (SAR).

Each affiliated entity (each an “Affiliate”) of Fiera Capital only provides investment advisory or investment management services or offers investment funds in the jurisdictions where the Affiliate is authorized to provide services pursuant to an exemption from registration and/or the relevant product is registered.

Fiera Capital does not provide investment advice to U.S. clients or offer investment advisory services in the U.S. In the U.S., asset management services are provided by Fiera Capital’s affiliates who are investment advisers that are registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or exempt from registration. Registration with the SEC does not imply a certain level of skill or training. For details on the particular registration of, or exemptions therefrom relied upon by, any Fiera Capital entity, please consult: https://www.fieracapital.com/en/registrations-and-exemptions.

Additional information about Fiera Capital, including Fiera Capital's annual information form, is available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. 

Contacts:

Tarah Schwartz
Vice-President, Communications & Marketing & Engagement
McGill University Health Centre Foundation
tarah.schwartz@muhc.mcgill.ca

Yasmine Sardouk
Vice President, Corporate Communications
Fiera Capital Corporation
communication@fieracapital.com 

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at: 
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f6328922-c855-43c6-a33e-415ef06dd507