I am a social epidemiologist specializing in community-based methods and health equity. I build evidence, programs, and policy that help people, communities, and health systems flourish in the face of the leading public health crises of our time, including climate change, the epidemic of loneliness, and persistent syndemics — each deeply rooted in harmful and inequitable systems.
My research focuses primarily on three interlocking domains — each serving as a case study that helps illuminate the social and ecological conditions that shape population health, in order to help our society and systems overcome outdated cognitive models for responding to the health crises our communities face. They share a single umbrella: understanding how health inequities are produced, and acting to undo them. That through-line is set out in my theoretical framework.
Human beings are social animals. Understanding and strengthening our social lives is central to good health, and to closing the gaps in who gets to be healthy.
Explore the programWe are deeply enmeshed in our environments, depending on them for food, shelter, and the basic conditions of a stable life. As those environments are destabilized, the resulting distress falls first and hardest on the communities least able to absorb it.
Explore the programEpidemics rarely arrive alone. HIV, substance use, overdose, and infectious disease cluster together and fall hardest on people already pushed to the margins. Studying how these crises feed one another points to where action can make health more fairly shared.
Explore the programSince being appointed in 2022, my program has grown into a multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral effort spanning research, teaching, and translation.
Selected current projects that illustrate the through-line of my work - generating evidence, mobilizing it into accessible curricula and digital tools, and shaping policy and practice.
The first national, evidence-based public-health guidelines for social connection - developed through a Delphi consensus process with leading international experts and refined with diverse Canadian communities.
Visit socialconnectionguidelines.orgAn open, interactive course building students' core competencies in epidemiologic and biostatistical reasoning - designed for undergraduate public-health learners and adapted for use by health professionals across British Columbia.
Open the courseA structured continuing-education curriculum that prepares health-care providers, link workers, and community organizations to design, deliver, and evaluate social-prescribing pathways. Developed with the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing.
Take the courseA curriculum for clinicians, educators, and community workers to recognize and respond to climate-related ecological distress - co-developed with the Mental Health and Climate Change Alliance and informed by our $1.8M provincial intervention work.
Open the courseA self-guided, mobile-friendly intervention applying the Social Connection Guidelines to everyday life - pairing brief psychoeducation with practical exercises drawn from social and behavioural science.
Try the interventionA self-guided, mobile-friendly intervention supporting people experiencing climate-related ecological distress - combining evidence-based coping strategies with practical tools for building emotional resilience in the face of climate change.
Try the interventionMy program is built around three interlocking pillars - discovery, mobilization, and translation. Each pillar supports the others and connects research, teaching, and service into a coherent contribution.
An active program of original scholarship on social connection, loneliness, climate-related distress, and health equity - with publications in Nature Human Behaviour, The Lancet HIV, PLOS One, and major health-policy journals.
Research portfolioClassroom teaching, supervision of 60+ trainees, and the development of openly available curricula that bring research findings into reach for students, professionals, and the public.
Teaching dossierLeadership of two national non-profits, advisory roles with governments and international bodies, and a deep commitment to community-engaged scholarship and policy impact.
Service portfolioI treat equity, diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation as operational principles that shape every part of my research, teaching, mentorship, and service. Read about the lived experience that grounds this commitment and the concrete practices that put it into action.
