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l to r: Jade Ley, Vanessa Dairo-Singerr, Nour Alashi, Ramlah Mahmood, Raksha Sagar

The Dalhousie University Faculty of Dentistry celebrates five recipients of the $2000 QEII Foundation Diversity in Health Care Bursary for 2025: Nour Alashi, Vanessa Dairo-Singerr, Jade Ley, Ramlah Mahmood, and Raksha Sagar. It was the second time for all recipients apart from Mahmood. They were presented with their awards at a ceremony in September 2025.

Bringing her full identity to health care
Nour Alashi received her first QEII Foundation bursary as an undergrad studying biology at Dalhousie. She knew she wanted to pursue further studies in a medical field but was unsure which one. Her brother, Ahmad, who also studied dentistry at Dal, was one role model for her, and another was her orthodontist, Dr. Stephen Roth, both of whom provided shadowing opportunities that helped her decide dentistry was "the one for me".

Alashi was born in Saudi Arabia but her family is originally from Palestine. When she was eight years old, the family immigrated to Canada. It was a hard transition at first, she says, partly because "I didn’t look like everybody else, right?" But people in Halifax were "accepting" and over the past 20 years the population has become much more diverse.

The application process for the Diversity in Health Care Bursary this time round prompted a lot of reflection. Alashi says she thought about how her background shaped her vision of the kind of health care provider she wanted to be. "In the past, I sometimes separated my experiences as a diverse woman from my professional identity, and I think the application process for the bursary helped me merge the two and reinforced the value of bringing my full identity to health care."

The QEII Foundation Diversity in Health Care Bursary couldn’t have come at a better time for Alashi, enabling her to buy a badly needed new laptop. "You can’t survive dental school without one," she says.

Now in her final year, Alashi hasn’t decided what life after graduation holds for her and is torn between staying near family in Halifax and working in a rural area where there is a high need for dental care. Wherever she practises, her hope is that she can contribute to the community by helping to improve access to oral care.

Plans for outreach at home and abroad
First-time recipient Ramlah Mahmood originally came to Dalhousie to study dental hygiene, graduating in 2022. But dentistry was always on her mind and, after gaining some clinical experience, she applied to Dal again to study to become a dentist. She is now in her third year.

Mahmood says she enjoyed the process of reflecting on her studies and future goals in her application for the QEII Diversity in Health Care Bursary. She was born in Toronto but trips to Pakistan to visit family inspired Mahmood’s long-term goal of returning there to provide care in a family friend’s dental outreach clinic. She also hopes to be able to give back to the local community she eventually works in, providing free dental work at weekends.

Until then, she says the bursary will help with her student loans, plus "it’s always nice to be recognized for your hard work and accomplishments."

Jade Ley is in her final year of dental school. Being a student is expensive, she says, and the bursary has lifted some of her financial stress. “I can focus on being the best student I can be and be there for my patients.” She is looking forward to joining Bridgewater Smiles in her hometown after graduation.

Ley believes the QEII Diversity in Health Care Bursaries have helped to highlight the lack of diversity in health care settings and show that things are changing. "I thank them for promoting diversity and creating inclusive spaces for us to work in health care," she says.

Feeling seen and understood
Vanessa Dairo-Singerr and her family began receiving oral health care only after they left Nigeria, their home country. It was this experience that inspired her to study dentistry and devote some of her time to treating under-represented patients, such as newcomers to Canada and special needs athletes. Now about to graduate and begin a general practice residency at Western University, Dairo-Singerr’s focus is still on serving the widest range of patients she can.

Like Ley, Dairo-Singerr is grateful to the QEII Foundation for its support for under-represented students in health care fields. "I hope to inspire others from similar backgrounds to see that it’s possible for them to pursue careers in health care," she says.

Raksha Sagar is an endodontist who earned her qualifications in India. When she moved to Canada, she had to return to dental school to qualify to practise here. "Once you’re in practice, coming back to academics is very hard," she says. Both she and her husband were going through the process together. In addition to the mental load, there was also the financial stress to reckon with. "We literally rely on our line of credit for everything," says Sagar.

The $2000 QEII Foundation Diversity in Health Care Bursary is welcome, but Sagar says it is not about the money. "It was the feeling that we were recognized as a minority and there was somebody who saw and understood our journey through this process."

Sagar and her husband plan to start their own fund in the future to help internationally trained dentists requalify in Canada. "It’s not easy and the expenses are so high," she says. "Scholarships and bursaries – even a small amount of money – all help."