Dr. Sejal Patel of the GEEC Research Team.

Meet Dr. Sejal Patel, an Associate Professor in Early Childhood Studies, in the Faculty of Community Services at Ryerson University. With training in developmental psychology and education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, Dr. Patel held Canadian Institutes of Health Research Strategic Training and Peterborough K.M. Hunter Charitable Foundation post-doctoral fellowships at the Centre for Research on Inner City Health at St. Michael’s Hospital. She is an Affiliate Scientist in the Keenan Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital.

Dr. Patel’s research investigates the effects of innovation in (1) service provision and education, and (2) the designed environment, on inequities in children’s educational success and well-being. Her research on educational success and well-being considers children’s physical, language, cognitive, social, and emotional development. As a community-engaged scholar, Dr. Patel pursues her professional goals by collaborating with community partners to carry out intervention research with marginalized populations to help reduce inner city disparities, and to mobilize knowledge to help inform local practice and public policy.

Here are Dr. Patel and the GEEC team’s current projects:

• School redesign and neighbourhood redevelopment: A study of educational success, families, and equity (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council [SSHRC] funded, Primary Investigator)
• Reducing inequities in children’s educational success and family well-being in marginalized communities through innovation in public education (SSHRC funded, Primary Investigator)
• Full-day kindergarten: Longitudinal effects on children’s educational success and well-being (SSHRC funded, Co-Investigator)