What’s Your Story? – Sonja Findlater

What are you studying?

I’m in neuroscience and before that I did a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy. I practiced as an occupational therapist for 16 years and then came back to school and did my Masters in Kinesiology. After that I still wasn’t quite where I wanted to be, so now I am doing my PhD in Neuroscience.

What made you decide to come back to school?

I had been working with stroke patients my whole career and we had been doing the same things in therapy for decades and despite the fact that there were big changes in medicine, our therapy hadn’t really changed. I just wanted to look at why we were doing things the way we were doing them.

What are you hoping to discover through your research?

Going forward in my PhD, I will be looking at the white matter pathways of stroke subjects, and I’ll be looking at if we can predict the proprioceptive deficits depending on the amount of damage in their pathways. If subjects have proprioceptive deficits but the pathways are intact, we can start to look at what else is going on that might be causing the deficits.

What excites you about your research?

After 16 years as a therapist I found that our practice wasn’t as based in science as it could be, so it feels really good to be in a scientific environment. I find it really inspiring to be somewhere like the Hotchkiss Brain Institute where I am alongside people who are doing cellular and molecular work and all the different sciences being done. Everyone has the common goal in my lab of improving the lives of stroke patients whether they are looking at preventing strokes or in my case, rehab.

Tell me about your supervisor.

It’s Dr. Sean Dukelow. He’s a physiatrist – a physician who has specialized in physical medicine and rehabilitation and he’s also a researcher. He’d call himself a clinician scientist. I was the first grad student he took on. For me, it’s really great to have a supervisor who is so knowledgeable about rehab – he really understands where I’m coming from and why I ask some of the questions that I do.

What has been your greatest academic achievement?

Getting my first paper published was huge! It felt like it took forever. To see all that work in print felt pretty good.

How have you dealt with roadblocks in your research?

I really like collaboration. When I come up against a roadblock I find it helpful to discuss it with my peers and mentors. I find that even if someone isn’t doing the same type of research, they may have some really helpful insights.

What do you enjoy about the University of Calgary?

I like that a lot of disciplines are brought together. I have found people to be very helpful.

Where did you grow up?

Just outside of Red Deer on a farm.

What is the best movie of all time?

I really really like The Shawshank Redemption. I’m a huge Morgan Freeman fan.

What has been your favourite vacation?

My husband and I went on a climbing trip to Thailand before I came back to school. It was awesome. We were there for a month.

If you could master one skill you don’t have right now, what would it be?

I’d like to be able to play the guitar.

If you had to eat only one meal for the rest of your life what would it be?

Thai red curry!

What would you do if you won the lottery?

I would create a foundation of neuro-rehabilitation research and I’d go on a trip to Patagonia.