Events

Amanda Slaunwhite is Assistant Professor in the School of Population and Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and Senior Scientist at the BC Centre for Disease Control. Amanda has expertise in overdose, substance use, addiction, and mental health, with eight years of experience working with administrative health data in BC and the US on topics related to overdose, substance use, and mental health. She leads a program of research that uses administrative health data and community-based participatory methods in the areas of peer support, substance use, and community reintegration after release from provincial and federal correctional institutions. Amanda is the scientific lead of the BC Provincial Overdose Cohort, a collection of linked administrative data, including data from BC Emergency Health Services and BC Coroner's Service, on fatal and non-fatal overdose events in BC since 2015. She is also the co-principal investigator of the UBC Research Excellence Cluster in Transformative Health and Justice.

Stuart Kinner is Professor of Health Equity at Curtin University, Head of the Justice Health Unit at University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and Adjunct Professor in the Griffith Criminology Institute. For the past two decades, Stuart’s research has focussed on health services and health outcomes for people who come into contact with the criminal justice system. He is experienced in multi-sectoral data linkage, cohort studies, randomized trials, and other rigorous evaluation methodologies, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. During his career, Stuart has published more than 300 publications, including 199 peer-reviewed papers, and attracted more than $29 million in research and evaluation funding. He chairs Australia’s National Youth Justice Health Advisory Group and serves on both the WHO Health in Prisons Programme Steering Group and the Worldwide Prison Health Research and Engagement Network Steering Committee.

Mo Korchinski is the Executive Director of Unlocking the Gates Services Society and has a long history of involvement with community-based participatory research. She is an advocate for people involved in the criminal justice system and continues to push for change at a policy-level and increased supports for her community.

Heather Palis holds a PhD in Population and Public Health (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) and is a postdoctoral fellow at UBC in the Department of Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine and at the BC Centre for Disease Control. Heather’s research interests include polysubstance use and pharmacological treatments for opioid and stimulant use disorder. Her postdoctoral research examines the impact of recent interventions introduced in response to the illicit drug toxicity crisis in British Columbia (e.g. expanded opioid agonist treatment, prescribed safer supply) on overdose risk among people with histories of incarceration.

Sofia Bartlett is Adjunct Professor in the School of Population and Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC, Senior Scientist for Sexually Transmitted and Blood-Borne Infections (STIBBIs) at the BC Centre for Disease Control, and Co-Director of the Canadian Collaboration for Prison Health and Education. Sofia’s research interests are related to the overlap and co-occurrence of infectious diseases (including STIBBIs, SARS-CoV-2, and tuberculosis) with substance use and incarceration. She is interested in ways that community-based and participatory methods can be applied to research utilising integrated administrative data to inform public health policy and programming, while also advancing the rights and the health of marginalized people.

Sara Cadeau (she/her/they/them) is a student of the energetic arts, with a focus on the reclamation of women’s medicine and leadership bundles. Sara’s ancestors include both Anishnaabe and Ashkenazi (from Russia and Poland). Being able to reconnect with family on her mother's side has helped her learn that they are registered to Garden River Ojibway First Nation in Ontario. 
 
For nearly 20 years, Sara has been sober and abstinent and on the red road ceremonial path. She is a transformational space holder, specializing in finding balance between counterpoints, utilizing softness and strength when needed while working through sometimes uncomfortable places and topics. Sara’s energy has been described as that of a uniterand weaver, a soothing balm on wounds visceral and situational as well as intergenerational, systemic and deeply personal. 
 
A busy decade and a half in her one-on-one healing practice, working predominantly with Indigenous nations, informs her current work. This includes extensive leadership work in fundraising and mobilization of community, organizing and hosting grassroots rallies (including with Idle No More), hosting femme and them’s moon circle gatherings, and becoming a cherished auntie to many. Her soft spot is walking with youth in leadership as well as women and queer folks who are finding their voices and power. 
 
Sara was honoured to be hand chosen by Elaine Alec (Syilx and Secwepemc Nations) to be in the first cohort of Elaine’s Cultivating Safe Spaces course to become a certified trainer. She is currently enrolled in SFU’s Community Capacity Building program and has been busy developing her emotional regulation and resiliency workshop series. Sara's healing course The Reclamation of Women Bundles will be launching soon.

Marnie Scow is from the traditional territories of the Kwakiutl and Namgis First Nations, which are part of the Kwakwaka’wakw Peoples on Vancouver Island. Marnie identifies as a person with lived experience with substance use and the criminal justice system. She has worked in public and Indigenous health in a variety of capacities, including being the first peer hire with the Indigenous Wellness Team at First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) and the first Indigenous woman to work with the grassroots organization Culture Saves Lives, bringing personal connections, stories, with low barrier access to culture for both residents of Vancouver’s downtown east side and BC First Nations communities. While working with FNHA’s Indigenous Wellness Team, Marnie facilitated many dialogues about Indigenous harm reduction and decolonizing addiction throughout First Nations communities in British Columbia. Marnie has a passion for and often specializes in Indigenizing harm reduction, housing first, alcohol harm reduction, advocacy for changes in the healthcare system for Indigenous people, and low barrier access to safe supply. 

Erika Penner, PhD, RPsych is Director of Advocacy for the BC Psychological Association and the Psychology Lead for Vancouver Coastal Health. In her consulting roles, she works with provincial and community organizations to develop and implement mental and behavioural health programs that are evidence-based and cost-effective and improve patient and provider outcomes.

Zach Finley, MA, RCC, has worked for Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) since 2009. Zach has provided counselling services across the continuum of mental health and substance use care in VCH, including group and individual dialectical behaviour therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy, project leadership in person- and family-centred care, and frontline supervision of a community substance use team. He is currently Practice Lead for Clinical Counselling and supports 200 clinical counsellors in the Vancouver Community portfolio, including the Vancouver Primary Care Network.

Bridget Beachy, PsyD, is dedicated to the integration of behavioural health services into medical settings. She is Director of Behavioral Health at Community Health of Central Washington in Washington State, where she practices as a behavioral health consultant, delivering clinical services to patients of all ages. Bridget has experience training interdisciplinary professionals (e.g., behavioral health consultants, medical providers, nurses, senior leadership, directors, support staff) and students in integrated care.

David Bauman, PsyD is a licensed psychologist and principal member of Beachy Bauman Consulting. He also is the Behavioral Health Education Director at Community Health of Central Washington. David enjoys speaking, presenting, and writing on topics related to primary care, contextualism and compassionate healthcare, and the integration of behavioral health into medical settings.

Simon Elterman, PsyD, is an expert in integrated primary care. As a behavioural health consultant for the Hope to Health Clinic in the Vancouver downtown eastside, he provided mental and behavioural health services for patients of all ages and with all presentations, including substance use and suicidality. He has international experience in the application of brief, targeted interventions and has first-hand experience in the success of this model of care in BC.