Naana Jumah, BASc MD DPhil FRCSC

Naana Jumah is an OB/GYN and Clinician Scientist at TBRHRI. Dr. Jumah’s research and clinical practice focuses on Aboriginal health and addiction in pregnancy.  Through a series of integrated studies, she seeks to organize a model of care that addresses the needs of opiate dependent pregnant women in the Northwestern Ontario and improve maternal and neonatal outcomes. Dr. Jumah holds a BASc from U of T, a Doctorate in Medical Engineering from Oxford and an MD from Harvard. She completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and specialization in Addiction Medicine at U of T.

Margot Latimer, RN, PhD

Margot Latimer is an Associate Professor in Dalhousie University’s School of Nursing, as well as Faculty at the Centre for Pediatric Pain Research, IWK Health Centre.  She co-leads the CIHR funded Aboriginal Children’s Hurt and Healing (ACHH) Initiative with Eskasoni Health Director, Sharon Rudderham, working closely with community to mobilize Indigenous knowledge. Dr. Latimer is the Indigenous health research lead of the Chronic Pain SPOR and also co-chairs the Indigenous Health Research Advisory Committee.

Sharon Rudderham, BA

Sharon Rudderham is Health Director of the Eskasoni Community Health Centre on Cape Breton Island. She co-leads the CIHR funded Aboriginal Children’s Hurt and Healing (ACHH) Initiative with Dr. Margot Latimer and has served as a member of the Nova Scotia Provincial Health Council.  She has been instrumental in the development of the Unama’ki Client Linkage Registry (a healthcare database for the 5 Cape Breton Mi’kmaq communities). Rudderham co-chairs the Indigenous Health Research Advisory Committee.

Karen Bakker, PhD

Karen Bakker is a Professor, Canada Research Chair, and Co-Director of the Program on Water Governance at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on water insecurity worldwide, with a current focus on sustainable water governance and Indigenous law in northern Canada. Dr. Bakker is a Rhodes Scholar, a member of the Royal Society’s College of New Scholars, and a member of the Board of the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

Chantelle A. M. Richmond, PhD

Chantelle Richmond, Biigtigong Nishnaabeg (Pic River First Nation), is an Associate Professor of Geography and Director of Applied Indigenous Scholarship at Western University.  Her research draws from a community-centered model that explores the intersection of Indigenous people’s health, knowledge systems and connection to land.  With a greater goal of improving Indigenous health equity, Richmond engages in research approaches that empower Indigenous communities to meet their visions of self-determination.

Caleb Behn (Eh-cho Dene & Dunne-Za) JD

Caleb Behn is Eh-cho Dene and Dunne-Za from Treaty No. 8 in Northeastern BC.  He is the Executive Director of the ‘Keepers Of The Water’, an indigenous led grassroots organization dedicated to protecting water in the Arctic Basin. Caleb graduated from the University of Victoria Law Program holding a Concentration in Environmental Law and Sustainability.  He is the subject of the award winning documentary film “Fractured Land”.  His current research focuses upon unconventional energy, indigenous health and water governance.

Rod McCormick, PhD

Rod McCormick (Kanienkehaka-Mohawk) is a Professor and BC Government endowed Research Chair in Aboriginal Health and Education at Thompson Rivers University. Before moving back to his partner’s home community of T’Kemlups te Secwepemc, Rod was a psychologist and counselling psychology professor at the University of British Columbia for 18 years. Dr. McCormick’s research focuses on community capacity building in mental health and research as well as the reclamation of traditional forms of healing.

Kim Matheson, PhD

Kim Matheson is a Professor and Joint Research Chair in Culture and Gender Mental Health at the Royal Ottawa’s Institute of Mental Health Research and the Department of Neuroscience at Carleton University. Her research concerns the intergenerational effects of the Indian Residential School system on the mental health of descendants. She works in partnership with organizations and communities in the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation, seeking holistic approaches to promoting community resilience to enable their youth to thrive.

Amy Bombay, PhD

Amy Bombay’s primary areas of inquiry have explored the links between historical trauma, contemporary stressor exposure, and mental health and wellness among Indigenous peoples, and on the important role that cultural identity plays in relation to well-being. Her research exploring the different pathways by which Indian Residential School trauma is transmitted across generations has  been particularly influential in educating the public about the long-term effects of colonization and in influencing policy and practice related to Indigenous health.

Caroline Tait, PhD

Caroline Tait is Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Saskatchewan and co-lead with Dr. William Mussell of First Peoples First Person a national Indigenous research hub, Canadian Depression Research and Intervention Network.  Dr. Tait holds a PhD from McGill University in Medical Anthropology. She is a member of the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan and has conducted community-based health research in partnership with First Nations and Métis communities and organizations for the past 20 years.

Jeffrey L. Reading MSc PhD FCAHS

Jeff Reading is the inaugural British Columbia First Nations Health Authority Chair in Heart Health and Wellness at St. Paul’s Hospital and Professor, Simon Fraser University (2016). On March 8, 2017, Dr. Reading launched the I-HEART Centre at Providence Health, St. Paul’s Hospital. Jeff obtained his PhD in Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto (1994). He has served as inaugural Scientific Director of the Institute of Aboriginal Peoples’ Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2000-2008) and currently chairs the peer review committee. Jeff’s broad interests include First Nations heart health and wellbeing and community engaged research.

Mary Smith, PhD(c)

Mary Smith is engaged in an Indigenous methodology that centres contextual Indigenous ontology and epistemology in which to conduct research in tandem with the community.  This brings to the fore Indigenous methods that unveil stories shaped by a colonizing history. She has completed a retrospective autoethnography of the lived experience of kidney donation that conveys how culture intersects with health care. Furthermore, through surveys and hermeneutic interviews Dr. Smith has explored Indigenous learning in NP education.

Deborah Van Dyk RN, MScN

Deborah Van Dyk is a research coordinator at The Ottawa Hospital and works as a public health nurse with the Government of Nunavut. She has been managing the Taima TB research program since its creation in 2011. Taima TB brings together those affected by TB and those committed to stopping TB to implement and evaluate innovative strategies intended to halt the spread of TB. Partners have identified Taima TB as a model for health research collaboration.

Janet Smylie, MD, MPH, FCFP

Janet Smylie is the Director of the Well Living House Action Research Centre for Indigenous Infant, Child, and Family Health and Wellbeing, CIHR Applied Public Health Chair, and Staff Physician at St. Michael’s Hospital.  Her primary academic appointment is as Associate Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.  Dr. Smylie’s research focuses on addressing Indigenous health inequities in partnership with Indigenous communities.   A Métis woman, Dr. Smylie acknowledges her family, teachers, and lodge.

Guest Researcher from Roche Diagnostics Canada

Brianne Wood is a PhD candidate in Epidemiology at the University of Ottawa. Her dissertation focuses on eliciting women’s preferences among cervical screening modalities. In 2012, Brianne joined a team of researchers that partnered with Anishinaabek communities in Northwestern Ontario to understand how self-collected sampling may work in remote First Nations as an alternative screening option. She continues to work with Indigenous women and other marginalized groups to tailor cervical screening recommendations for hard-to-reach communities.