Core Team - Shot Bios

LINDSAY CROWSHOE

Dr. L. Crowshoe is a Piikani Nation band member, a First Nations physician, an Associate Professor of Medicine and an Assistant Dean at the University of Calgary. He provides clinical service to the urban Indigenous population of Calgary at the Elbow River Healing Lodge, an AHS primary health service model. He contributes to local, provincial and national health services policy and programing, focusing on improving primary health care service for Indigenous people. As an Indigenous health researcher, he has experience leading provincial, national and international research teams focusing on primary care, public health and health education. He provides input on Indigenous health education policy and programming within national organizations (Association of Faculties of Medicine, the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada) and leads similar activities within his local institution, the Cumming School of Medicine.

ESTHER TAILFEATHERS

Dr. E. Tailfeathers is member of the Kainai First Nation and a family physician with 17 years of service to Indigenous populations. She is Senior Medical Director for Alberta Health Services’ PPIH SCN.

CARA BABLITZ

Dr. C. Bablitz is a Métis family physician and clinical lecturer within the University of Alberta’s Department of Family Medicine. She provides clinical service within the AHS’ Indigenous Wellness program and is an emerging PHC researcher with a focus on palliative medicine.

Cheryl Barnabe

Dr. C. Barnabe is a Métis rheumatologist with a graduate degree in Clinical Epidemiology. She is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. She is a Vice-Chair in the Department of Medicine (Indigenous Health), past-Chair of the Quality Care Committee for the Canadian Rheumatology Association, and a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Indigenous Health Committee.

Dr. Barnabe’s research program, ‘Arthritis Care for Indigenous Populations’, has contributed knowledge on the epidemiology of arthritis and contemporary outcomes of inflammatory arthritis conditions for Indigenous people. In response to the identified accentuated disease burden, she co-develops promising health services interventions to bridge the care gaps that exist, and leads delivery of curricular initiatives for rheumatology residents and practitioners to support the provision of culturally safe arthritis care environments. She is the principal investigator of the Alberta Indigenous Mentorship in Health Innovation (AIM-HI) Network, a CIHR-funded Indigenous Mentorship Network Program, to recruit and retain Indigenous scholars in health research.

Dr. Barnabe has received several national awards, including a CIHR Canada Research Chair in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Autoimmune Diseases (Tier 2, 2018-2023), the Killam Emerging Research Leader Award (2018) and is a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada (2018).

Andrea Kennedy

Andrea Kennedy RN PhD is a nurse, educator and researcher dedicated to Indigenous health and education equity. She is honoured to learn with Elders. Andrea honours her diverse relations, including Settler and Métis ancestry and traditionally adopted Tsuut’ina and hanai Hawaiian families. She teaches undergraduate nursing with a decolonizing approach, and is working towards reconciliation in higher education and healthcare through social innovation, mentorship and relational learning with Indigenous communities. Andrea's scholarship interests include four interrelated priorities: Child and Family Health (including chronic conditions), Patient and Family-Centred Care, Indigenous Health Education & Care, and Relational Ethics.

Adam Murry

Dr. (PhD) A. Murry (Apache), is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Calgary. For the past two years he has been working to develop an Indigenous model of mentorship for evaluation and training purposes as part of his duties with the Alberta Indigenous Mentorship in Health Innovation (AIM-HI) network, a provincial node of the larger Indigenous Mentorship Network Program (IMNP). He currently teaches undergraduate classes in Indigenous psychology and qualitative methods and conducts research on mental health promotion in on-reserve school settings, Indigenous allyship, Indigenous employment barriers and strategies, Indigenous ministry, Indigenous tobacco use, science education programs for undergraduates, and the development of critical consciousness.

Mike Green

Dr. M. Green is the Brian Hennen Chair, Head of the Department of Family Medicine and a Professor of Family Medicine, Public Health Sciences and Policy Studies at Queen’s University. He is a Senior Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). In 2018 he was elected as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and he has served on many professional and government expert committees including the Ontario Expert Panel on Wait Times in Primary Care, the Advisory Committee on Ontario’s Immunization System Review, the College of Family Physicians of Canada Indigenous Health Working Group and Patient’s Medical Home Steering Committee, and Health Quality Ontario’s Primary Care Advisory Committee. His research covers a broad range of health services and policy research areas with an emphasis on primary care, quality of care, equity in health, and Indigenous health and has been supported by major grants from Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Ontario Strategy on Patient Oriented Research Support Unit and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. He has published and presented widely on his work in journals such as CMAJ, Health Policy and the Annals of Family Medicine, and at major national and international primary care and health policy related conferences.

Rita Henderson

Dr. (PhD) R. Henderson is an early career scholar and models of care scientist in Family Medicine at the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on building health equity through health professional education and systems alignment for improved health outcomes in partnership with Indigenous communities. Her work addresses mental health and addictions, diabetes and obesity, and anti-racism/structural competency training for health professionals. Dr. Henderson is a Principal Investigator of the AIM-HI Mentorship Network and current Faculty Chair for the O’Brien Institute for Public Health’s GRIP.

Stephanie Montesanti

Dr. (PhD) S. Montesanti is an Associate Professor in the University of Alberta’s School of Public Health. Her research focuses on policy intervention, analysis and innovation in primary health care, with specific interests in public and community engagement in FN and Métis communities and vulnerable populations. She has expertise in health policy and systems research methods, qualitative and community-based research approaches, and patient and family-centred approaches to research and policy development. She co-Chairs the University of Alberta's School of Public Health (SPH) Indigenous Reconciliation Strategy and Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) Working Group with the guidance of Cree Elder Bert Auger. She leads several provincial and national policy studies and knowledge translation initiatives on primary health care transformation and innovations in service delivery.

PAMELA ROACH

Dr. (PhD) P. Roach is Métis, originally from St. Laurent, Manitoba and has lived mostly in central and southern Alberta. She is the Program Manager of the Brain and Mental Health Research Clinics with the Hotchkiss Brain Institute and an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Family Medicine and Community Health Sciences. She has worked in health services research for over 17 years in a variety of roles in academic and health care settings, both in Canada and the UK. She completed her PhD in Medical and Human Science at the University of Manchester, and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Family Medicine at the University of Alberta. She co-designed and implemented a new graduate level Indigenous Health course in the medical school that includes anti-racism and structural competency education. In addition, she also is involved in and leads research projects to develop Indigenous health competency in medical education and faculty development. She currently co-leads the Community Health Sciences graduate level Health Research Methods course where she includes decolonizing methodologies into core graduate health research education. Her current research involves implementing models of engagement between communities and younger people with dementia to improve quality of life and includes understanding the lived experiences of Indigenous people living with dementia in order to improve services. She is on the editorial board of Dementia: the international journal of social research and practice and recently joined the CCNA T18: Issues in Dementia Care for Indigenous Populations.