NOTE: This is one in a series of articles on Brock’s 2025-26 Horizon Graduate Student Scholarship recipients. Read other stories in the series on The Brock News.

Dr. Josemyrne Faure wanted to be a pediatrician from the time she was just five years old.

“I tagged along with my younger brother to the pediatrician’s office,” she says. “She was so nice to me. After that, I instantly knew that I wanted to be her when I’m older.”

Having practised as a physician overseas, Faure originally planned to pursue licensure when she moved to Canada in 2022. But her experience of being pregnant and employed full time during that period shifted her focus from clinical practice to public health work.

Now a Community Health master’s student at Brock University, Faure is among the exceptional researchers to receive a 2025-26 Horizon Graduate Student Scholarship.

Supervised by Associate Professor of Nursing Manal Alzghoul, she is drawing on her international clinical experience to examine workplace health and safety for pregnant immigrant women in Ontario.

“I want to see how immigrant women experience health and safety while pregnant. Whether they have access to workplace accommodations, or if they experience fear due to language barriers or immigration status,” she says.

While there is research on immigrant women, maternal health, occupational health and safety, Faure says there is limited research examining all three together.

“There’s a big gap,” she said. “From my personal experience, I know we need some adjustments in policy — not only for immigrant women, but also for pregnant women.”

She points to informal employment and intense manual labour as examples of working conditions that may carry more risks for pregnant women, adding that heavy lifting or long hours of physically demanding work are associated with increased risks such as preterm birth.

“Many immigrant women may not feel able to ask for accommodations,” she says. “That’s why I really wanted to continue as a public health researcher. I want to help with health policy and equity.”

Faure’s research direction is shaped by years of frontline medical work around the world. After training to become a doctor in Cuba, she worked in Haiti and completed a master’s focused on global health in Taiwan. While working with Doctors Without Borders in Chad, she witnessed the challenges of clinical care in communities with few resources and limited public health infrastructure.

“Preventative medicine is almost non-existent. People don’t have any education about health care,” she says. “You can give them the medications but how are they going to conserve insulin without a refrigerator? They are forced to take it without proper storage, which is unsafe.”

Today, her goal is to advance health equity by pursuing a PhD and becoming a public health researcher.

At Brock, she says she has found a supportive academic environment where “professors are so easy to talk to.” She has also built community through campus involvement.

“My involvement in the Brock University Volunteer Association is incredibly valuable,” she says. “I’ve learned a lot from talking with people from different backgrounds.”