Team

Malek Batal is a Professor at the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Medicine, Adjunct Professor at the School of Public Health and the Director of the WHO-Collaborating Centre on Nutrition Changes and Development (TRANSNUT). Malek holds the Tier-1 Canada Research Chair in Nutrition and Health Inequalities and is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Malek conducts participatory research studying the links between environment and food system health and population health, in an effort to redress health inequities. Equally important to scientific rigor is the relevance and usefulness of his research to society, this is why he collaborates as part of transdisciplinary research teams with First Nations in Canada and Indigenous and rural people internationally, prioritizing engagement with knowledge users from civil society and governments and putting his research findings at the service of public policy.

www.ciens-malekbatal.com

Laurie Chan is a Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Ottawa and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Toxicology and Environmental Health.

Laurie studies the exposure of chemical contaminants found in the diet and the environment, particularly among Indigenous Peoples. He assesses the effects of these contaminants on ecosystem health and human health and develops new tools for risk assessment. In the laboratory, he uses different models, and biochemical techniques to better understand how chemicals affect the biological functions of wildlife and humans. His goal is to develop effective tools and programs for the management and promotion of environmental health for human populations. https://chantoxlab.com/

Terre Satterfield is a Professor at the Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability, UBC.

Terre’s work as an environmental social scientist addresses the value, culture, and risks of environmental change. Difficult environmental policy dilemmas and the qualitative and quantitative methods that might resolve these are of particular interest. These include considering how to: measure and classify risks to natural systems, gauge the values of marine and terrestrial landscapes, and represent the tangible and intangible attributes of nature that matter to people in conservation and decision-making contexts. Locally, her work pertains to First Nations interest in land management, oil and gas development, and regulatory contexts.

William Cheung is a Professor and Director of the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, the University of British Columbia, and a Canada Research Chair in Ocean Sustainability and Global Change.

William is an international leader in studying the impacts of global change on marine biodiversity and ecosystem services, and developing pathways towards desirable and sustainable future oceans. His work addresses policy-relevant research questions and cuts across multiple disciplines and scales, from oceanography to ecology, economics and social sciences. He is currently directing a newly established SSHRC-funded international partnership project titled: Solving the Sustainability Challenges at the Food-Climate-Biodiversity Nexus (Solving-FCB). William is actively involved in international and regional initiatives that bridge science and policy. He served as Coordinating Lead Author for the Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Anne Salomon is a Professor of Resource & Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University.

Anne's research is motivated by a deep interest in understanding how human activities alter the productivity, biodiversity and resilience of coastal marine food webs with the ultimate goal of informing ecosystem approaches to marine conservation. Broadly, Anne along with her students study the cascading effects of predator depletion, marine spatial planning and ecosystem-based management, and the dynamics of coupled human-ocean systems. Ultimately, she strives to engage coastal communities and government agencies in collaborative research and encourage constructive dialogue between them to design effective marine policies that balance the needs of people and nature.

Tiff-Annie Kenney is an assistant professor in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine (Faculty of Medicine, Laval University) and researcher within the Population Health and Optimal Health Practices axis of the CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Centre and the Institute of Integrative Biology and Systems (IBIS).

Adopting a transdisciplinary food system lens, her research focuses on complex interactions between social (e.g., food affordability) and ecological (e.g., climate change, species declines) determinants of health. For nearly a decade she has had the privilege of collaborating with Indigenous communities in northern and coastal regions of Canada on local food security research and action priorities. As a visitor/guest in these spaces, she remains dedicated to approaches which affirm Indigenous governance and leadership in research.

First Nations Health Authority, Environmental Public Health Services is supporting the process and communications both internally and externally, with the permission of the First Nations. FNHA is also collaborating in developing a capacity-building component that will co-train graduate students and First Nations community researchers to support the ongoing and future research and delivery of the education/intervention programs. FNHA will share and communicate the benefits of adaptation strategies as they relate to Indigenous food sources with other First Nations in BC who are not directly involved in this study, along with broad knowledge dissemination through FNHA communication channels with health and community leaders, and provincial and federal partners. FNHA's representatives include Maery Kaplan-Hallam and Kathleen Yung.

Maery Kaplan-Hallam is the Climate Change & Health Adaptation Specialist for FNHA. She is a 4th generation settler of mixed European and South African ancestry grateful to the Coast Salish peoples, including Lək̓ʷəŋən (Lekwungan), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), on whose territories she was born and raised.

In her role she works with First Nations communities and organizations across BC on a variety of climate change and health adaptation initiatives, including through the delivery of the Indigenous Climate Health Action Program (ICHAP), which provides funding for community-led climate action projects focusing on health and wellness outcomes. In this space she has the privilege of learning from and alongside communities as they develop and implement climate adaptation initiatives, ranging from climate-risk assessments and action planning, Indigenous food security and sovereignty projects, and environmental monitoring, to language and traditional knowledge preservation, among many others.

 Read about the Indigenous Climate Health Action Program

Kathleen Yung is the Healthy Eating and Food Security Specialist for FNHA. Kathleen is grateful to be living as an uninvited guest beautiful unceded territories xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. She was born and raised on Treaty 4 and Treaty 6 territory by first generation Chinese immigrant parents.

Kathleen's role at the FNHA is to work with all five FNHA regions (North, Interior, Island, Fraser-Salish, and Vancouver Coastal) and the communities they serve in areas related to food security, Indigenous food sovereignty, and eating nourishing foods. She listens to and works alongside many Knowledge Keepers to ensure access to traditional foods, Indigenous Knowledge, and culturally safe, trauma-informed food-related work is central to the work supporting First Nations’ health and wellness.

Kim-Ly Thompson is a PhD Student at Simon Fraser University supervised by Anne Salomon.

Kim-Ly is interested in how resurgent Indigenous food systems can intersect with and inform local climate change adaptation.

Erika Gavenus is a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia, supervised by Terre Satterfield.

Through her research, Erika explores how the governance of fisheries can affect people’s capabilities to access nourishing foods.

Karen Fediuk is the project manager and lead nutritionist with the dietary survey team.

Karen is of Ukrainian-Canadian descent, and lives within W̱SÁNEĆ territory. Over the past 2 decades, Karen has been providing technical support to First Nations for their Nation-led food systems research, with a focus on quantifying contemporary food use, understanding potential contaminant risks from human activities, and developing rights-based harvesting models that meet nutrition and food security/sovereignty needs.