Faculty and Research Associates

Dr. Jessiman is an associate professor in Psychology at the University of the Fraser Valley and is also the Vice Chair for the university’s Centre Education and Research in Aging (CERA). Dr. Jessiman completed her BSc in Behavioural Science at the University of Abertay, Dundee and her MPhil and PhD in psychology at the University of Dundee. Her postgraduate research was funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s initiative to improve the quality of life of the aging population in Scotland. Dr. Jessiman’s postgraduate research was in the cognitive neuropsychology of typical and pathological aging, principally looking at the effects of typical aging, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD), on metacognitive and metalinguistic functions.

She went on to become a post-doctoral research fellow in the Cognitive Neuropsychology of Aging Lab at the University of Dundee, a position that was funded by Parkinson’s Disease, UK. Dr. Jessiman’s post-doctoral research focus was the effects of Parkinson’s disease on metapragmatics and tip-of-the tongue states. In 2005 she took a full-time lecturing position at the University of the West of Scotland and maintained an associate researcher position in the Aging Lab at Dundee University. Dr. Jessiman came to UFV in 2011, where she continued her research in aging in Canada, collaborating on research in ageism, perceptions of elder abuse, elderspeak, healthy aging, and loneliness and social isolation in older adult populations. Dr. Jessiman has published her research in aging and neuropsychology journals and has presented her findings at the British Society of Gerontology and Canadian Association of Gerontology conferences.