Dr. Jennifer Khoury has been named the 2024 recipient of the MSVU Early Career Research Award. Dr. Khoury was recognized during the university's fall convocation celebration held on October 20, 2024. The Early Career Research Award was established to recognize a faculty member at the beginning of their career who is pursuing exciting and innovative research in their field. Dr. Khoury is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at MSVU. She holds a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Interdisciplinary Neuroscience.
Learn more about Dr. Khoury's success in research in the citation below as written by her Psychology Department colleagues Dr. Derek Fisher, Dr. Michelle Eskritt-Keck and Dr. Christine Lackner.
About Dr. Khoury
Dr. Jennifer Khoury began her Tier II Canada Research Chair in Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at Mount Saint Vincent University in 2021. Since joining the Mount, Dr. Khoury has established a busy and productive lab, the Developmental Psychobiology Research Centre (DPRC).
Dr. Khoury's research takes a multi-method approach, including direct observation, self-report, and neuroendocrinology methods, to broadly examine the impact of early life stress on neurobiological function and social-emotional development of children and infants, with a particular interest in how parent-child relationships can exacerbate or protect against early life stressors.
A natural collaborator, Dr. Khoury holds adjunct appointments at both Dalhousie University and Saint Mary's University, while also maintaining active collaborations with research groups across North America, including at McMaster University and Harvard University.
Despite only receiving her PhD in 2017, Dr. Khoury has already published 44 refereed journal articles (21 of which were published following her appointment to a tenure-track position), one book chapter and one professional resource. Dr. Khoury is also an author on 57 presentations at national and international conferences, with notable inclusion of student trainees among the authors where she is senior (i.e. last) author. These publications dealing with the interconnections of adversity, caregiving, stress and emotion regulation include both empirical articles exploring novel models as well as meta analyses summarizing across bodies of research. According to Google Scholar, her work has been cited 1837 times.
Dr. Khoury's grant capture is exceptional, with over $1.8 million in research funding as a principal investigator; this includes funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Her status in the field is apparent in being selected to participate as a reviewer for CIHR (where she is also a member of the College of Reviewers), NSERC, and SSHRC, as well as being chosen to participate in the Science Meets Parliament program that facilitates engagement between Members of Parliament and the scientific community.
Dr. Khoury has also made significant contributions in the training and mentorship of students, including the supervision of undergraduate theses and independent studies, summer research assistantships, and three graduate students. Dr. Khoury displays compassion, steadfast support, and dedication to fostering the individual goals of her students. The quality of her mentorship is evident in the caliber of the students she attracts and in their achievements under her leadership; five of her previous Honours Thesis students have gone on to pursue graduate degrees in Psychology. Three of her six Honours students have been awarded the Canadian Psychological Association Undergraduate Thesis Award. Dr. Khoury expertly balances high scholarly expectations with a great deal of care, compassion, and respect for her students and research staff as individuals. She has created an environment conducive to striving for academic and research excellence, while prioritizing personal growth, a true testament to her exemplary mentorship.
Dr. Khoury has an exceptional track record in all facets of the research enterprise and has made independent, significant, and sustained contributions to her field.
Congratulations Dr. Khoury on this important recognition!
