Alumni Profile: Jeopardy! champ Juveria Zaheer on second chances at success

Juveria Zaheer (PGME Psychiatry ’12, MSc Institute of Medical Science ’15) is an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and a clinician scientist at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). As the medical head of CAMH’s emergency department, she provides urgent psychiatric care to people in crisis. Zaheer is also a noted researcher and a leading expert in best practices around suicide risk assessment and prevention.

Recently, Zaheer gained international recognition for her leading expertise in a different area — trivia. While her first appearance on the game show Jeopardy! in May 2023 resulted in a loss, she performed well enough to be invited to compete in a Jeopardy! Second Chance tournament later that year. She won that competition and went on to play in a Champions Wildcard tournament, where she also came out on top. She will now compete in Jeopardy!’s Tournament of Champions (TOC), which airs beginning February 23rd.

Having just wrapped taping of the TOC, Zaheer chatted with us about her experience on- and off-camera.
 

Many may now recognize you for your Jeopardy! appearances, but tell us about your ‘day job’ outside trivia game shows.

I work in the CAMH emergency department, which is the only standalone psychiatric emergency department in Ontario. It’s busy. When I started at U of T Psychiatry as a resident, we would see 350 patients a month. Now we see over 1,500. I'm also the medical head, ensuring we provide evidence-based, dignified care to people in crisis. I’ve always said I have the best job in the world. It’s very rewarding to see people on the hardest days of their lives and provide them with comfort, dignity and support, and to be able to help connect them to the resources they deserve.

I’m also a scientist. My research focuses on suicide and suicide prevention. My team and I are seeking to understand the epidemiological underpinnings of suicide — the cultural and structural impacts within different populations — as well as biological and psychosocial determinants. We also do a lot of work around best practices in suicide risk assessment and co-create plans with participants on how best to support recovery.

Right now, we’re running a study looking at the experiences of people with suicidality during the height of COVID, to better prepare for future pandemics. Another big investigation we’re working on — the first of its kind anywhere in the world — is a cohort study on people with suicidality across all ages, all diagnoses, all types of presentation. We’ll follow them for a year to understand them from multiple perspectives.

I’m proud of the progress I’ve made in research because people with severe and persistent mental illness are often excluded from studies, especially when they're experiencing suicidality.

How has your U of T education and training contributed to your Jeopardy! success?

I've always really loved people's stories, which is an important part of connecting with the people you treat. I applied this skill a lot during my residency. Apparently, an affinity for stories is common among trivia experts — there’s even a recent Scientific American article about this phenomenon. A former Jeopardy! contestant did a study and learned that trivia experts were most likely to remember facts in the context of a scene or a memory or an anecdote, and not through rote memorization.

Before I did my MD, I also completed three years of an undergraduate degree at U of T in the Faculty of Arts & Science through the Centre for the Study of the United States at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. That foundational education was incredibly important in building up my knowledge of American history and politics.

What about in your current clinical practice, and as a researcher?

As a physician you learn how to manage and memorize a lot of data, and to recall it very quickly. This is especially so in emergency settings. You also have to stay calm for your team and for your patients. You need to model that it’s a safe place. When you work in an acute care environment, you also need to respond to things quickly and pay attention to more than one thing at a time. All those skills have been very helpful.

One of the other things that being a researcher has taught me about life is variance. There is so much variance — so much randomness — in Jeopardy! There's a huge component of luck on this journey, so you can't get too high or too low.

How have your colleagues helped in your preparation?

When you film three tournaments in two-and-a-half months — and you have to be very evasive about where you're going and why — you need all the support you can get!

Aislynn Torfason (PGME Psychiatry ’21) is an emergency department psychiatrist whom I mentored. She's extraordinary and brilliant. Whenever I needed coverage for my administrative responsibilities she was right there.

Paul Kurdyak (MSc Physiology ’93, MD ’97, PGME Psychiatry ’05, PhD ’09) was the emergency head when I was new at CAMH and we still work together. He’s been an incredible mentor and supporter — it’s a very tight-knit community.

Our pharmacist also shared a book on buzzing-in strategies with me. Others would quiz me on categories I was weak in. CAMH has also aired all my games on the big screen on our huddle board.

When I lost the first time, I was so worried about what people would say, but my colleagues only talked about how great I was. That’s made it easier to keep playing, because I felt like I wouldn’t disappoint anyone, no matter what happened.

You mentioned mentoring — how has being a mentor and medical educator helped you?

About 140 residents a year train at CAMH. One thing I’ve realized in training them is that people learn differently. You have to find out how people learn in order to best support them, and I’ve thought a lot about how I learn best.

Also, nobody learns if they’re under a ton of stress. With my trainees, I would try and find quiet moments to talk about cases, to provide support, to learn who they were as people. That made it a lot easier for them to feel comfortable and learn in a very stressful environment. While taping Jeopardy! I would take advantage of any downtime to get to know my fellow competitors as people, and I had some amazing conversations. Those interactions really helped combat stress.

How would you describe the balance between knowledge and the other aspects of game play, in terms of your Jeopardy! success?

When I got the call to appear on the show for the first time, I was so focused on acquiring knowledge that I didn’t think about anything else. I didn't think about how I was going to stay calm. I didn't think about betting strategy. I didn't think about the buzzer. I didn't think about how I would manage adversity. And I didn't think about my values.

So, I made a conscious effort during these last three tournaments to focus more on those elements. And I think having that sense of mental wellness or perspective really helped me play better. Everyone knows lots of stuff, but it's how you translate that knowledge into your performance that’s most important.