Janet Parsons

Dr. Janet Parsons (PhD, MSc, BScPT, BA) is an Associate Professor (Tenure Stream) in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. She is a member of the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, the Institute of Medical Science and the Institute of Health Policy Management & Evaluation. She has been a CQ Academic Fellow at the Centre for Critical Qualitative Health Research (Dalla Lana School of Public Health) since 2012. Dr. Parsons is an Affiliate Scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital at Unity Health Toronto. A physiotherapist by training, she practiced for 18 years in acute-care teaching hospitals.

Areas of Research / Educational Scholarship

Dr. Parsons is a health services researcher, rehabilitation scientist and qualitative methodologist with expertise in health and social equity, critical social science, patient and community engagement, knowledge translation, and policy research. She specializes in the development and application of arts-based visual and narrative methodologies to a wide range of research topics. Her research program operates at the intersection of the health sciences, social sciences and the arts. She has employed film, photography, drawing and storytelling in her work. She leads the Creative Collaboratory for Research Education and Practice.