Professor Medved's approach to teaching and mentoring has developed through her years of experience as a teacher in Toronto, New York, and Winnipeg teaching graduate and undergraduate courses. She has always strived to create opportunities that allow students to explore their individual interests while acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to expand their interests and curiosities.
Medved's teaching is closely interconnected with her research – not least because she has always enjoyed being involved in an ongoing process of reflection and discussion with students. Moreover, she has ample experience successfully working with students in research projects and has conscientiously mentored her students so that they were able and prepared to successfully continue onto the next stage of their careers.
Professor Medved has three main research foci. One primary focus is related to psychological functioning after trauma. In this area, she examines risk and resilience factors post injury or disease. Related to this, she is exploring recovery in individuals who have suffered burns or other types of physical trauma. Linked to risk and resilience, she also investigates these factors in veterans, especially females.
A second focus is concerned with individuals living with neurological challenges. A lack or lost sense of self-identity has been identified as a major problem after neurotrauma and in neurodegenerative diseases. In her research, Medved explores narrative best practices in this domain. Intersecting lines of investigation in this area include medical decision-making, and more recently, family adjustment to neurological changes.
In a third line of research Medvev investigates the nexus between culture and health. Recent research projects include exploring the correlates of suicidality in Aboriginal peoples, perceptions of the cardiovascular disease (aka white man’s disease) in Aboriginal women, and the role of solvent user in homelessness.