Nicole completed pre-graduate studies in management, and a Master’s in translation. She started working at the Centre de recherche Azrieli du CHU Sainte-Justine in 2002 as a research assistant, and then as a data manager. In 2008, she joined the MIREC team as the study coordinator. MIREC has become a bit of a family for her. She is proud of having contributed to building an amazing coordinating team dedicated to high-quality research. Nicole oversees the many components of what MIREC has become, including the follow-up studies and the Biobank. The Biobank is what she calls the “gold mine”, as it will allow researchers to continue to study the impact of environmental contaminants on the health of 2000 Canadian women and their children over decades.

Stéphanie has a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the Université de Montréal. Following her schooling years, she worked for Neurochem in the Department of Cell Biology for 8 years. In 2008, she joined the MIREC team as the study data manager. In 2012, she became the MIREC-CD Plus study coordinator, and is now the MIREC-ENDO study coordinator. Stéphanie is proud to be part of the MIREC coordinating team because the study has collected priceless data and samples throughout the years that have the potential to help answer many interesting questions that have remained unanswered so far.

Sarah has a Bachelor’s degree in sociology. She joined the MIREC coordinating team as the MIREC Biobank coordinator at the beginning of 2022. She is responsible for processing application requests for banked data and biological specimens, as well as providing support to researchers throughout the application process. Sarah is proud to be part of the team which supports research into such vulnerable and significant groups within the population.

Annick joined the MIREC team in 2008 as a research assistant. Being a mother of young children, she took a career pause of four years and came back in 2017, happy to resume her duties with the MIREC team. Among her many tasks, Annick is responsible for maintaining the Biobank infrastructure, which includes 23 low-temperature freezers. She works according to the highest quality standards, making sure that the biological samples from the MIREC participants are safely kept for future scientific work. She is proud to contribute to such a unique study on Canadian mothers and children.

Fabiola joined the MIREC team in 2010 as a research assistant. She was first involved in the data entry of the MIREC study. Fabiola is versatile, and her work has evolved over the years, to include laboratory and administrative components. She assists Annick and Stéphanie in handling the study material, the biological samples and in purchasing. She is surprised and mostly proud of the path that took her from Mexico, her home country, to Canada, to find herself working in the health research field (as a child, she always said she would be a doctor!). She enjoys her work with MIREC, as there is always something new to learn and discover.

Trinidad joined the MIREC team in 2010 as a research assistant. She was first involved in the data entry of the MIREC study. At the end of MIREC in 2012, once the data entry was completed, she went on to work with other research teams at the Centre de recherche Azrieli du CHU Sainte-Justine. After almost 10 years, she agreed to return to work on the MIREC-ENDO study data entry. Trinidad is a dedicated team member who understands that great scientific work starts with high-quality data. She finds it fascinating to be able to contribute to such an important study that will increase our understanding of how contaminant exposure impacts our health.

Alex has a Bachelor of kinesiology, with honours, from Brock University, and a Bachelor of science in nursing from The University of Western Ontario. She started her nursing career in obstetrics, which eventually spiked her interest in joining the MIREC research team in 2022 as a research nurse coordinator. Alex is responsible for the training and monitoring of the MIREC-ENDO research staff in all sites across Canada, ensuring staff are appropriately trained and that study activities are conducted in a standardized manner. Alex enjoys being a part of the MIREC coordinating team as she believes that the work being done in MIREC and all of the follow-up studies will greatly and positively influence the health and well-being of mothers and children in the future.