Amy Kirkham, PhD, P.Kin, ATTH
Toronto, ON | @amyakirkham
Assistant Professor
University of Toronto
Affiliate Scientist, KITE Research Institute, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute
Toronto, ON | @amyakirkham
CWHHA member since 2020.
Biography
Dr. Amy Kirkham is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto. Her graduate and postdoctoral training spans the departments of Kinesiology, Rehabilitation Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering with a unifying focus on clinical cardiovascular and exercise physiology. Dr. Kirkham’s multidisciplinary research program uses advanced cardiovascular imaging techniques to study cutting edge exercise and nutrition approaches to cardiovascular health.
Dr. Kirkham has an internationally recognized track record of scientific achievements including 36 publications in well-respected, cardiology, exercise physiology, and oncology journals, invited presentations at international meetings, and success in peer-reviewed funding. She has received fellowship and operating grant external health research funding of over $1 million, most notably including the CIHR Banting Fellowship for a trial on exercise and nutrition cardioprotection in women with breast cancer. Dr. Kirkham was the first in Canada to receive the prestigious Susan G. Komen Fellowship which is intended to support the top emerging scientists performing breast cancer research in the world. Dr. Kirkham is also an avid and caring mentor and teacher; she has supervised nearly 40 trainees or volunteers in research roles or programs and is a skilled teacher of exercise and cardiovascular physiology and assessment at the graduate and undergraduate levels.
The overarching goal of Dr. Kirkham’s research program is to use a multi-disciplinary approach that leverages cutting edge, non-invasive, imaging techniques to study precisely prescribed, mechanistically targeted, lifestyle interventions to prevent and ameliorate cardiovascular dysfunction and disease, with a particular focus on aging women. Much of her past and current work is focused on cardiovascular disease in breast cancer survivors, the top causes of death of women and most highly funded diseases in Canada. As a recognized expert in this important aspect of cardiovascular health in women, she is now broadening this focus to include the continuum of cardiovascular disease in women. Her current work involves advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques to assess cardiac, vascular and skeletal muscle structure and function, body composition, as well as tumor regression in women receiving either pharmacological or lifestyle (i.e. exercise and diet) interventions.
