Isabelle Thibault

Isabelle Thibault is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychoeducation within the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Sherbrooke, where she has held progressively senior positions since 2014, including her current appointment as Professeure agrégée (2022-present). Her academic career spans teaching roles in child development, clinical assessment, and psychoeducational intervention, with a focus on adolescent populations.

Her research centers on body image dissatisfaction, eating disorders across developmental stages (particularly prepubertal anorexia nervosa), and psychosocial risk/resilience factors in child and adolescent mental health. She employs diverse methodologies including network analysis, longitudinal studies, and community-based participatory research, with strong emphasis on school and family contexts. Her work bridges clinical psychology, public health, and educational settings through interventions like the HORS-PISTE anxiety prevention program.

Her publication trends reveal consistent focus on eating pathology across developmental stages, with growing emphasis on prevention science, body image interventions, and implementation research. Recent work increasingly incorporates transdisciplinary approaches, examining intersections between physical health metrics and mental health outcomes in youth populations.

• Dean's Honor of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (2015)
• FRQSC Doctoral Fellowship ($60,000, 2013)
• FRQSC Master's Fellowship ($15,000, 2009)
• SSHRC Master's Fellowship ($17,500, 2008)

Dr. Thibault serves as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on multiple major grants totaling over $5 million CAD, primarily from SSHRC, FRQS, and FRQSC, focusing on body image interventions, eating disorder prevention, and school mental health. She leads the research team on the Trampoline protocol for school reintegration after psychiatric hospitalization and contributes to the GRISE (Groupe de recherche et d'intervention sur les adaptations sociales de l'enfance) research group. Her mentorship extends through supervision of graduate students and professional development workshops for school-based clinicians.

Her laboratory work centers on the University of Sherbrooke's psychoeducational research infrastructure, collaborating with the Centre RBC d'expertise universitaire en santé mentale and multiple Québec school boards. Current initiatives focus on photovoice methodology for student voice in mental health programming and developing school-based protocols for body image concerns.