Dr. Lisa Avery

Dr. Avery is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Manitoba. She is interested in inequalities in health-care access and outcomes, including determinants of health and their impact on the sexual and reproductive health of low- and middle-income societies. She is especially interested in reserach projects and knowledge translation relation to global public health and women's health.

Dr. Avery is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Manitoba. She is interested in inequalities in health-care access and outcomes, including determinants of health and their impact on the sexual and reproductive health of low- and middle-income societies. She is especially interested in research projects and knowledge translation related to global public health and women's health.

Avery is one of the principal investigators for an innovative grassroots nutrition program in Kenya funded by the Canadian International Development Agency and the Canadian Food Grains Bank. The $2.2-million program developed by the Centre for Global Public Health in the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Medicine will create and deliver maternal, newborn and child health nutritional programs for vulnerable families in Kenya by empowering local women to deliver programming in their communities. This project brings together student researchers, international health experts, and non-government organizations to reduce the number of preventable maternal and child deaths.

Avery graduated with a BSc in anatomy and cell science from McGill University. She attained her medical degree at the University of Manitoba, as well as postgraduate training in obstetrics and gynecology and international health. Dr. Avery completed her masters of international health with a focus on sexual and reproductive health (including maternal and neonatal health) and HIV/AIDS policy, planning and implementation at the University of Copenhagen. She is a past recipient of the J.A. Hildes Award.

Dr. Marcia Anderson Decoteau

Dr. Anderson Decoteau is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine. She graduated from the University of Manitoba in 2002 and joined the Department of Community Health Sciences as an Assistant Professor. She completed a Masters of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, concentrating predominantly on health disparities and health policy. Her research interests include improving the health measurement of Indigenous peoples in a way that respects their individual and collective rights, and using healthy public policy as a tool in the prevention of chronic disease. She is past president of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada.

Dr. Judith Bartlett

Dr. Bartlett is a Metis family physician and associate professor of community health with many years of clinical, administrative and research experience in Aboriginal health. She has done groundbreaking research with the Manitoba Metis Federation, including developing knowledge networks to improve health services.

Dr. Bartlett is also active in private consulting, developing holistic approaches and tools for health and wellness services, and is CEO of JADE enterprises, an aerospace manufacturing company. She is active on boards and committees, the majority of which are related to the health and well-being of Aboriginal/Indigenous peoples. Dr. Bartlett has chaired the National Aboriginal Health Organization (2000-04) and the United Way of Winnipeg (2002-03).

Dr. James Blanchard

Dr. Blanchard is a professor of Community Health Sciences and Medical Microbiology in the Faculty of Medicine. He recieved his Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in epidemiology and global public health in 2004.

Blanchard's research aims to better understand the underlying determinants of epidemics, and ultimately develop effective public health stratagies to better allocate health services, and reduce disease spread. He investigates why some people get sick and others don't, and why some communities are more at risk than others. As an epidemiologist, he studies the local and global distribution of communicable and non-communicable diseases like HIV in India, and diabetes mellitus and inflammatory bowel disease in Canada.

Blanchard has recieved numerous awards, including the Frederick G. Banting Award from the Canadian Diabetes Association and the 2006 Rh Award for Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba from the Winnipeg Rh Institute Foundation.

Dr. Robert Chase

Dr. Robert Chase graduated from McMaster University medical school in 1985 with a post-graduate residency in family medicine and community medicine and an MSc in design measurement and evaluation. He has been an assistant professor in Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba since 1997.

Chase has active international health interests in the impact of war on community and environmental health, particularly the mental health of children, in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. He is also involved in primary health-care in Tibet.

His area of speciality is occupational health, principally in the management and prevention of work-related chronic musculoskeletal injuries, and other workplace interventions.  

Dr. Catherine Cook

Dr. Cook is Métis and currently has a joint role with the University of Manitoba and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. She is director of the Centre for Aboriginal Health Education at the university and executive director for Aboriginal health programs for the health authority. Dr. Cook is also engaged at the university in teaching, student supports and research. She practiced as a family physician in remote northern nursing stations for several years before focusing on public health practice. She has held positions of associate director of the J.A. Hildes Northern Medical Unit; regional director of health programs for First Nations and Inuit Health; regional medical officer of health for the Nor-Man and Winnipeg Regional Health Authorities; and co-chair of the Changes for Children implementation team – a process for systemic change within the child welfare system.

Dr. Michelle Driedger

Dr. Driedger is an associate professor of Community Health Sciences and the Canada Research Chair in environment and health-risk communication. She obtained her PhD in geography from McMaster University and studies the dissemination of evidence about risk issues in environment and health, from science to policy, using qualititative research methods.

Dr. Driedger's particular focus is on how risks are constructed, communicated and interpreted by scientific experts, policy-makers, the lay public and media. She brings to the discussion of science-policy debates an understanding of the interplay between power and authority surrounding the construction of risk issues. As technology is constantly changing and we become even more dependent on information and evidence, it is crucial that researchers seek to understand very complex relationships and interactions between expert and lay audiences. Knowledge translation and risk communication are key elements to these processes.

Dr. Driedger has recieved funding to examine factors that affect the public's trust in decision-maker action on risk to the health of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples.

Dr. Brenda Elias

Dr. Elias is an assistant professor in Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba, and former co-director and founding member of the Manitoba First Nations Centre for Aboriginal Health Research. Her research interests include gender health, social determinants, health info-structures, Indigenous health and research ethics. She conducts multilevel quantitative and mixed-method studies into the social, cultural, biological, economic, political and historical determinants of health. Dr. Elias is a strong advocate of team collaborations, and in the last five years has contributed as a principal, co-principal and co-investigator to more than 34 grants exceeding $16 million. Dr. Elias has partnered with the UM Centre for Human Rights Research to demonstrate the power of collaborations in advancing health rights of populations. Three noteworthy Canadian Institutes of Health Research grants that Dr. Elias leads are dedicated to understanding the determinants of health disparities in First Nations communities. Dr. Elias teaches health survey research methods and the social organization of health in the Department of Community Health Sciences.

Dr. Hani El-Gabalawy

Dr. Hani El-Gabalawy is an internationally-recognized leader in rheumatoid arthritis research. He has published landmark studies on synovial biology, the pathogenesis of early arthritis, and has recently established a unique First Nations cohort to study gene-environment interactions in the pre-clinical phase of arthritis. His research has been dedicated to understanding the mechanisms involved in initiating and sustaining rheumatoid arthritis and helping patients with this disorder.

Dr. Linda Larcombe

Dr. Larcombe’s research is focused on the study of genetic, socio-cultural and environmental factors contributing to infectious disease susceptibility and resistance in Canadian Aboriginal populations. Trained in anthropology, her approach to infectious disease research is multidisciplinary and draws from medical anthropology, immunogenetics, immunology, ancient DNA, geographic information systems, land use studies, history and archaeology to gain new perspectives regarding disease susceptibility and resistance.

Dr. Barry Lavallee

Dr. Lavallee is acting director of the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Aboriginal Health Education. He is a member of the Saulteaux/Métis Aboriginal communities of Manitoba and belongs to the Bear clan. Lavallee is president of the indigenous Physicians Association of Canada. He graduated from the University of Manitoba and completed his post-graduate training in family medicine with an emphasis on rural/Aboriginal health in 1990. He completed his masters of clinical sciences in family medicine at the University of Western Ontario in 2004. His research focuses on the experience of Aboriginal patients within the patient-physician therapeutic relationship, diabetes and other chronic diseases, pap smear screening programs in Aboriginal communities, collaborative practices and international indigenous health. He has an interest in trans- generational trauma as it manifests itself in the challenges some First Nations and Métis face in working towards health and healing.

Dr. Robert Lorway

Robert Lorway is a medical anthropologist who studies the intersections of sexual minority rights, culture and health, particularly with respect to global health interventions in Africa and Asia. In 2009, he receieved a CIHR New Investigator Award in the Area of HIV/AIDS Population Health/Health Services. Currently he is the Nominated PI and Team Leader of an HIV Vaccine Acceptability Team Research program, sponsored by CIHR. This program works closely with communities of sex workers and men-who-have-had-sex-with-men in Kenya, China and India to help advance their concerns related to the anticipated release of new HIV prevention technologies.

Dr. Sharon Macdonald

An interest in Canadian geography and natural history led Dr. Macdonald to Churchill, where she began an ongoing relationship with northern and Aboriginal communities. She worked as a general practitioner in Nunavut and northern Manitoba for the Northern Medical Unit under the mentorship of Jack Hildes. Dr. Macdonald developed an interest in the health of populations and health-care delivery in remote areas. She returned to specialty training in community medicine and has been a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada since 1982. Over the years, Dr. Macdonald has worked in Aboriginal health care, public health, and community health service delivery systems. She is a longtime member of the Department of Community Health Sciences and has participated in a variety of departmental and faculty activities, including as director of the J.A. Hildes Northern Medical Unit. Dr. Macdonald was vice-president of community health services at the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority from 2000-2006. Her research interests include public health, knowledge translation, home care and Aboriginal health services.

Dr. Patricia Martens

Dr. Martens is director of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, an internationally acclaimed university-based research centre focusing on population-based health services, public health and population health research. She is involved in various national committees, including the board of the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation. Dr. Martens was named the 2010 YM/YWCA Woman of Distinction for health and wellness. She has been invited to speak at more than 200 presentations nationally and internationally, and has published more than 100 articles, books and abstracts. Dr. Martens’ interests in health services and population-health research include projects on the health status and healthcare use of Manitoba’s rural and northern residents, mental health and the use of health-care services by those with mental illness, the health of Aboriginal people, and child health. Dr. Martens directs the Need to Know Team, a collaborative research group of university academics working with planners from Manitoba’s 11 Regional Health Authorities and Manitoba Health. This team’s research impact on health policy and planning was recognized through receipt of the prestigious CIHR’s national KT Award for regional impact in 2005.

Dr. Bruce Martin

Bruce Martin is associate dean of medicine. In 1980, he embarked on a career in northern and Aboriginal health care, initially in a mining community of northeastern Ontario, then with the James Bay Cree of Moose Factory, and briefly thereafter with the United Church Health Services serving the Heiltsuk of Bella Bella, BC. His first contacts with the University of Manitoba were in 1991 in the central Arctic when he participated in intervention strategies for epidemics of infectious disease. He joined the Northern Medical Unit in the fall of 1991 as a full-time clinician in Churchill and the Kivalliq Region of what is now Nunavut and in 1994 relocated as a fly-in physician to the Oji-Cree communities of Island Lake. He enrolled in the master’s program in Community Health Sciences while balancing full-time practice. His thesis focused on palliative care program development amongst the Kivalliq Inuit. In 1999, he was appointed director of the J. A. Hildes Northern Medical Unit, relinquishing for the most part his primary-care practice that by then had included care provision in almost forty First Nation and Inuit communities throughout Canada. He has focused his efforts broadly in that role, including advocacy for health professional learners in remote and cross-cultural settings, community-based collaborative research, and innovative program development. He sits on numerous provincial, national and circumpolar boards and advisory committees.

Dr. Deborah McPhail

Dr. McPhail joined Community Health Sciences as an assistant professor in 2012.

A critical health scholar who studies the social aspects of obesity, McPhail's interdisciplinary work has been published in journals such as Antipode and Social Science & Medicine. She obtained a PhD in women’s studies from York University in 2010. Her doctoral dissertation, A Feminist History of Obesity Discourse in Twentieth-Century Canada, is under advance contract for publication with the University of Toronto Press.

McPhail's current work focuses on the interplay among obesity discourse, food access, traditional eating practices and social inequalities. Her other areas of interest include critical theories of health and the body, feminist and qualitative research methods, and anti-racist and postcolonial studies.

Dr. Michael Moffatt

Dr. Moffatt spent two years as a general practitioner in Fort Rae, NWT, where he developed a lifelong passion for northern and Aboriginal health issues. He moved to Manitoba in 1983, where he has continued to practice pediatrics and has also held positions as director of the J.A. Hildes Northern Medical Unit and head of Community Health Sciences. His research interests have included pediatric epidemiology, population health and clinical research in the health of First Nation and Inuit children, iron deficiency, enuresis, SIDS, early childhood caries and injury prevention. Developing interests include quality improvement in health, patient safety and knowledge translation. He continues to provide consultation in general pediatrics to three northern communities. Moffatt is executive director of research and applied learning for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and a professor in community health sciences and pediatrics and child health at the University of Manitoba.

Dr. Stephen Moses

A front line fighter in the global battle against HIV/AIDS, Dr. Stephen Moses is part of a collaborative team developing groundbreaking research and prevention programs to fight the spread of the disease in Africa and India.

He is taking over as head of the University of Manitoba's Community Health Sciences department.

Dr. Moses's main research interests include biological and behavioural risk factors for STI/HIV transmission, syndromic approaches and risk assessment in the managment of STIs, targeted interventions to reduce the transmission of STIs and HIV infection; health worker training in STI managment in resource-poor settings; and integrated approaches to STI/HIV prevention and control.

Dr. Pamela Orr

Dr. Orr is a physician, teacher, administrator and researcher with expertise in Aboriginal and circumpolar health. Her current research focuses on the epidemiology of infectious diseases in Aboriginal populations, the social determinants of health, and health care delivery. Dr. Orr is a consultant with the J.A. Hildes Northern Medical Unit and scientific editor of the International Journal of Circumpolar Health.

Dr. Brian Postl

Dr. Postl is dean of the Faculty of Medicine and former founding president and CEO of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. He has served as head of pediatrics and child health and as head of community health sciences at the University of Manitoba. He has also served as director of the J.D. Hildes Northern Medical Unit. His research, published works and professional involvement focus on Aboriginal child health, circumpolar health and human resource planning. His contributions in these areas, combined with his experience as a visiting pediatrician to communities in northern Manitoba and Nunavut, contributed to him earning the Canadian Association of Pediatric Health Centre’s Child Health Award of Distinction in 2006 and the Inter-Professional Association on Native Employment’s Champion of Aboriginal Employment award in 2007. Dr. Postl serves on a number of committees and boards of provincial and national associations, foundations, institutes and other organizations.

Dr. Leslie Roos

Dr. Roos is a distinguished professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. He co-founded the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy in the early 1990's and helped develop the Population Health Data Repository. This population-based system allows researchers to examine the social determinants of health and the efficacy of the health care system. The revolutionary concept helped transform research using data routinely collected by multiple ministries, leading to important findings in health policy and prevention.

Roos is particularly interested in the diverse uses of information-rich research environments. He is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Royal Society of Canada. He has been an associate of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and a fellow of the Academy for Health Services Research and Health Policy.

Dr. Noralou Roos

Dr. Roos is a professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba and a founding director of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy. She held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair and recieved funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to create Canada's first data laboratory, containing population-based data on health, education, and social services.

Roos is also the director of EvidenceNetwork.ca, an evolving Canadian health-care resource designed with the needs of journalists in mind. This site provides the latest findings on controversial health policy and direct access to health policy experts.

She is a board member of the United Way of Winnipeg, and has worked with the Winnipeg Poverty Reduction Council and the Point Douglas/Lord Selkirk Park Project advisory board.

Dr. Jitender Sareen

Dr. Sareen is a psychiatry professor and director of research and anxiety services at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. He is also a consulting psychiatrist for the Veterans Affairs Canada operational stress injury clinic at Deer Lodge Hospital in Winnipeg. He has been supported by numerous national and local peer-reviewed grants in the areas of military mental health, Aboriginal suicide, and homelessness. He is leading a large partnership grant with First Nations communities in Northwestern Manitoba to improve the understanding of suicide and suicide prevention measures. He is also the Winnipeg site co-principal investigator for the Mental Health Commission of Canada's research demonstration project in homelessness and mental health. Dr. Sareen has published more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in the areas of traumatic stress, anxiety disorders, Aboriginal suicide, psychiatric neuroimaging and military mental health. 

Dr. Leigh Anne Shafer

Dr. Shafer is a biostatistician and assistant professor in the University of Manitoba's department of internal medicine. Her primary expertise lies in infectious disease research. By working together with social scientists and epidemiologists, she strives to bring together her quantitative expertise with qualitative research in order to highlight and reduce global health inequities. 

Dr. Shafer spent more than 15 years in several countries in Africa working in child survival, reproductive health and HIV/AIDS research. She has developed mathematical models, including models of the sexual transmission dynamics of HIV, a model of hepatitis C transmission through infected blood and needles, and a deterministic model of HPV transmission.

Since arriving at the U of M in 2010, Shafer has received a grant to examine differences in HPV vaccination and cervical cancer screening between First Nations and non-First Nations women, and a grant to examine the impact of diabetes during pregnancy and breastfeeding on subsequent diabetes in First Nations mothers and children. In addition to leading studies, she has supported studies as a biostatistician on a range of topics from dialysis outcomes to medical opioid use to Crohn’s disease.