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A rural landowner trying to help solve the housing crisis. A musician and researcher creating an album about women’s reproductive health. And a genetic counsellor advancing the mission of an ultra-rare disease foundation shaped by her own family’s experience.

These are the forward-thinking projects being led by this year’s recipients of three prestigious alumnae fellowships.

Awarded annually to female-identifying Queen’s grads, the Jean Royce Fellowship, Marty Memorial Fellowship, and Alfred Bader Fellowship in Memory of Jean Royce support a year of study, research, or a project that fosters creative expression or drives progress in knowledge or society.

Keep reading to meet this year’s recipients and learn how their projects are turning personal experience into work that reaches far beyond themselves.

Lisa Webb, MPA’06 
Jean Royce Fellowship

What’s the project? 
Webb’s Good Neighbour Rural Housing Initiative starts with a simple but ambitious question: What if underused rural land could become a place to live, grow food, restore ecosystems, and build community? Using her own 18 acres as a starting point, Webb is studying what it would take to make the model practical – from zoning and official plan restrictions to water, wastewater, heating, and small-dwelling options. 

Why does it matter?
For Webb, the project grows out of concern for the housing crisis and the lack of opportunity for some people to earn a living. She sees possibility in rural land that is sitting unused or unimproved as one way of helping solve the problem. “I also believe that we need to evolve from looking after ourselves to looking after each other and all species in our environments as well,” she says.

What does this support make possible?
The fellowship will help Webb research the land-sharing model, explore alternative energy and water systems, and test how much income generation and land restoration a small piece of land can support. It will also help offset start-up costs for equipment, seeds, irrigation, educational materials, and events that could foster broader conversations about land sharing.

Ariana Lewis, BHSc’24
Alfred Bader Fellowship in Memory of Jean Royce

What’s the project? 
Lewis – who goes by the stage name Ariana Gillis – is creating a full-length concept album about women’s reproductive health, with each song structured around part of a scientific manuscript (abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, references). Drawing on her graduate research in reproductive biology and her career as a singer-songwriter, she hopes to turn complex science into music people can hear, feel, and discuss.

Why does it matter?
For Lewis, the challenge is creating an album that doesn’t compromise the science or the art and also making sure it reaches people. “Women’s health remains notoriously underrepresented not only in science, but also in everyday conversation,” she says. Shifting that, she adds, will require “radical new approaches.”

What does this support make possible?
Before receiving the fellowship, Lewis wasn’t sure how she could keep pursuing music while building a career in science. The support gives her “the time, resources, and creative freedom to explore both at the same time,” she says, and create something she hopes can change how scientific information is shared and discussed.

Stephanie Telesca, Artsci’09
Marty Memorial Fellowship

What’s the project? 
As a prenatal genetic counsellor, Telesca helps families understand unexpected findings in pregnancy, the investigations available to them, and their options for care. When her own daughter was diagnosed with KCNC1 Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy, an ultra-rare genetic condition, no patient advocacy group existed for families like hers. So, Telesca started the KCNC1 Foundation to connect families, advance research, and support the development of precision therapies.

Why does it matter?
Her daughter’s diagnosis has brought Telesca into an area of health care she now sees from every angle: as a genetics professional, a parent, and an advocate. The larger challenge, she says, is how to support access to genetic therapies for ultra-rare disease communities and define outcomes that truly matter to families. “The time I put into this directly impacts my daughter and my family as a whole, but also benefits the wider ultra-rare genetic-condition community,” she says.

What does this support make possible?
The fellowship gives Telesca dedicated time to advance the KCNC1 Foundation’s work without affecting her ability to help provide for her family. More specifically, it will help bring the scientific and patient communities together in a one-day virtual meeting and support the creation of a registry for the KCNC1 community. “In the broader sense, this work advances the field of precision medicine, as the teachings from one disease group can inform other disease groups,” she says.

Read more about the journey of Telesca’s family in this Queen’s Alumni Review feature by Carly Weeks, Artsci’03. It was a nominee for Best Feature Article at the 2024 National Magazine Awards: B2B.  

Learn more about Queen’s alumni awards and fellowships, including past recipients and how these honours recognize the many ways alumni give back to Queen’s and beyond.