Jeanna Pillainayagam
Jeanna Pillainayagam is currently a Master of Public Health student at McMaster University. Jeanna is a youth mental health advocate, with years of volunteer and research experience with organizations like Foundry and CMHA-BC. She has previously worked on mental health projects with groups such as Anxiety Canada and the University of Northern British Columbia as a speaker, writer, and facilitator. She is currently a member of the University of British Columbia’s (UBC’s) Research for Mental Health Equity in the Asia-Pacific – Digital (REMAP-D) cluster’s International Lived Experience Advisory Panel (I-LEAP). Jeanna is a proponent of increased youth engagement, particularly in health research, and strongly believes in the importance of incorporating lived experience into research and policy planning. She has served as a draft grant proposal reviewer for youth mental health and substance use researchers in the UBC Faculty of Medicine through the UBC Youth Research Advisory Panel. Jeanna currently sits on the CIHR’s Advisory Committee on Ethics, where she brings her perspectives and experiences from engaging in youth health research and policy-making contexts to provide advice on health research ethics priorities. She is excited to be able to be a youth voice and also learn more about research through participating in IMPaCT.
Career Stage: Patient Partner