Faculty and Research Associates

Dr. Lesser is an Assistant Professor in the School of Kinesiology at the University of the Fraser Valley and a Certified Exercise Physiologist with the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology. Dr. Lesser completed her BSc. Honours Kinesiology at Dalhousie University, her Master of Science in Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta, and her doctoral degree in Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology at Simon Fraser University. Her doctoral research was funded by CIHR to assess the impact of a culturally relevant exercise program in older South Asian women on cardiovascular risk and visceral adipose tissue. She was a recipient of a national Young Investigator award from SANSAR and the Dr. Hari Sharma graduate award for her doctoral research.

Dr. Lesser has been engaged with UFV as a sessional instructor and limited term faculty member since 2015. In 2019, Dr. Lesser began her research program as an assistant professor. Her research portfolio includes a close partnership with Knights Cabin Cancer retreats, a national charity devoted to helping cancer survivors and their supporters. This partnership has included the evaluation of retreat programming, assessing the impact of kinesiology student engagement with cancer survivors in health behaviors, an intervention study assessing the impact of trail walking on anxiety in cancer survivors, and an assessment of the role of physical activity in nature on psychosocial health outcomes in cancer survivors.

Dr. Lesser continues to have a strong interest in the use of exercise in special populations to improve mental health and is collaborating with the Divisions of Family Practice to engage South Asian women in outdoor exercise and with colleagues to assess the impact of group-based exercise programming in postpartum women. Recently, Dr. Lesser has collaborated with colleagues assessing the impact of COVID-19 on physical activity and mental health and the role of physical fitness on COVID-19 symptom severity. Her work has been published in Medicine Science Sports and Exercise, Applied Physiology Nutrition and Metabolism, PLoS One, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health and Preventive Medicine amongst others.