FELLOWS AND STAFF
Rosina Cross – TUTOR-PHC Fellow
Rosina Cross, PhD, is an early career researcher at the University of Exeter (UK) specialising in physical activity promotion in primary care, with expertise in behavioural medicine, qualitative research, and intervention development and implementation. Her work focuses on lifestyle behaviour change, in particular physical activity interventions and self-management of chronic diseases such as atrial fibrillation and heart failure. She holds a PhD in Health Psychology and an NIHR School for Primary Care Research Fellowship, developing expertise in developing and evaluating physical activity interventions in primary care. She is also passionate about patient and public involvement, equality, diversity, and inclusion in research and has experience in mentoring and leadership development. Her long-term goals are to bridge the gap between health research and implementation and to establish a physical activity and lifestyle medicine research hub within the School for Primary Care Research.
Nataly R. Espinoza Suarez – TUTOR-PHC Fellow
Nataly R. Espinoza Suarez, MD, is a Peruvian family physician currently pursuing a PhD in Community Health at Université Laval in Quebec. She previously completed a research fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota (U.S.), where she contributed to projects on shared decision-making and minimally disruptive medicine, with a focus on improving healthcare experiences for patients with complex needs. Her work is driven by a strong commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, particularly in amplifying underrepresented voices to understand how immigration, culture, and structural factors intersect in the healthcare journeys of immigrant populations. Her doctoral research explores the cancer-related pain experiences of immigrant cancer survivors, focusing on their transition from oncology to primary care. Through this work, she aims to inform culturally sensitive, patient-centered approaches that support both clinical development and primary care research. Her goal is to help bridge care gaps and empower healthcare professionals to respond more effectively to the unique challenges faced by diverse communities. She also brings expertise in qualitative methods, qualitative synthesis, and knowledge synthesis, which she applies across projects that explore the social dimensions of health and care delivery.
Nadia Llanwarne – TUTOR-PHC Fellow
Nadia Llanwarne, MD, is a family doctor and assistant clinical professor at the Université de Montréal. She helped establish the GMF-U des Montérégiennes, a new university-affiliated primary care clinic on the South Shore of Montreal, where she now works and teaches. She trained in the UK and holds a medical degree (University of Manchester), an MA in medical anthropology (SOAS, University of London), and an MPhil in Primary Care Research (University of Cambridge). She was awarded NIHR fellowships in Cambridge. Her research focused on the relationship between different dimensions of healthcare quality and patients’ experiences of primary care. Her research interests span both the broader organisational structures of healthcare and the intricacies of doctor-patient interactions. Having worked on both sides of the Atlantic, she has been struck by the contrast between Quebec’s strong emphasis on relational continuity—largely absent in the UK—and its stark inequities in access to primary care. She is committed to exploring solutions to this pressing challenge: how can we ensure equitable access to primary healthcare without sacrificing the therapeutic benefits of relational continuity?
Susan Saldanha – TUTOR-PHC Fellow
Susan Saldanha is a PhD candidate at Monash University (Australia) researching the intersection of gender-based violence and reproductive health – specifically, how power, control, and coercion shape people’s experiences of pregnancy, contraception, abortion care, and access to healthcare. Her work focuses on reproductive coercion: how it manifests in clinical settings like general practice and how it is often overlooked in routine care. Her research draws on mixed-methods approaches, combining surveys, scoping reviews, and qualitative analysis, to generate both theoretical insights and practical knowledge about how reproductive coercion is experienced and addressed. She also collaborates with health and legal professionals to translate evidence into training and practice change. Driven by a commitment to reproductive justice and autonomy, her research is grounded in real-world service contexts and aims to support trauma-informed care. She is dedicated to producing research that improves recognition of reproductive coercion in healthcare and contributes to safer, more responsive systems for people affected by violence and reproductive control.
Aprill Susin – TUTOR-PHC Fellow
Aprill Susin, NP, PhD(c) is a dedicated Nurse Practitioner with over 12 years of clinical experience, currently serving as President of the Nurse Practitioner Association of Nova Scotia and as an Assistant Professor at Dalhousie University. Her career began in geriatric medicine, where she provided holistic, evidence-based care for six years before transitioning to primary care, where she hase practiced for the past six years. She is currently working in both the Mobile Primary Care Access Clinics and the IWK Gynecology Clinic, where she continue to advance access to high-quality, patient-centered care. Her passion lies in women’s health, and she is pursuing a PhD at Queen’s University with a research focus on pain associated with intrauterine device (IUD) insertions—an area aimed at improving experiences and outcomes in reproductive healthcare. As both a clinician and educator, she is committed to fostering the next generation of healthcare providers, while advocating for systemic improvements through leadership in professional practice and policy. Her work bridges clinical care, academic research, and healthcare leadership, all in service of more equitable and compassionate healthcare systems.
Manuela Beeckmans – Administrative Coordinator
Manuela Beeckmans is the Administrative Coordinator of the Canadian Primary Care Research Network. Manuela helps to coordinate the activities of the Steering, Executive, Operations & Management, Building Capacity and Learning Health System Evaluation Committees, as well as the Learning Health System Implementation Working Group.
Leanne Kosowan – Research Manager
Leanne Kosowan is the Research Manager for the Canadian Primary Care Research Network, coordinating activities within the research stream including providing support to research projects, monitoring research progress and contributing to the development of future research priorities of the network. In addition, Leanne is the Manager of the Manitoba Primary Care Research Network, the Manitoba provincial practice-based research and learning network within the Canadian Primary Care Research Network and the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network (CPCSSN) supporting collaborative, patient-oriented, practice-based research, and quality improvement.