I’m Brett A. Diaz. I am the Lead for Knowledge Mobilization (KMb) Research and Learning Enrichment at CAMH, and a Research Fellow at The Wilson Centre in Toronto, Canada. I have a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the Pennsylvania State University. I earned my Master’s in Composition and Applied Linguistics, Bachelor’s of English Linguistics, and of Political Science in California State University, San Bernardino.

My research interests center on expressions of affect and emotion as signal events in medical education, user experience, and policy implementation. More broadly, I use linguistic methods and Peircean semiotics to study human communication. I seek out patterned uses of language to glimpse how individuals, communities, and societies make sense of their world.

Since 2013, I have analyzed language in a variety of contexts, such as medical consultation, law, and health policy, for a variety of purposes, like education, analyzing key informant interviews, and policy design and implementation. I have turned my methods and findings into courses and workshops on social science methods, academic and professional writing, medical education, intercultural communication, and policy analysis. I have been fortunate to teach these courses at undergraduate, graduate and professional development levels, in American and Canadian contexts, exposing me to diverse student populations and colleagues.