In Memoriam: Eugenia Canas

Photo of Eugenia CanasEugenia Canas, Health Information Science PhD'19

It is with profound sadness that FIMS acknowledges the passing of Dr. Eugenia Canas on June 18, 2021. Eugenia was a shining light and a beautiful human being. To her colleagues, she was a source of strength and a role model, generous with her time and wisdom. To her friends, a wise, kind and loving presence, always calm and compassionate, but with a sharp and unpredictable sense of humour. She was the model of an emerging scholar, who did her work in the right ways, and for the right reasons. Eugenia’s commitment to social justice, health equity and the mental well-being of young people was truly inspirational and came, in part, from her own experiences.

Among many other things, Eugenia was a founding member of the Centre for Research on Health Equity and Social Inclusion, and served as CRHESI’s first Centre Coordinator. She was a graduate of the Health Information Science PhD program, supervised by Professors Nadine Wathen and Helene Berman. Eugenia published her doctoral dissertation in 2019, titled Working with Youth as Stakeholders in Mental Health System Transformation: An Institutional Ethnography of a Service Organization in ACCESS Open Minds. Her obituary can be found online.

To honour Eugenia’s passion to support students and young people more broadly, a scholarship has been established in her name which will provide funding support for a student in Western University’s Health Information Science Graduate Program. If you would like to make a donation, please visit: http://westernconnect.ca/canasmemorial.