Danika Goveas

Danika is a non-Indigenous graduate student and second-generation settler. She completed her undergraduate degree in Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa, where she had the opportunity to work as a research assistant and collaborate on several projects focused on Indigenous health, infectious disease, and food security.

Currently, Danika is an MSc Candidate in Epidemiology in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta. In collaboration with Indigenous communities, her current research aims to explore how Indigenous ways of knowing can be integrated into primary health care policy development in Alberta to inform strategies that promote healing and health equity.

Lene Jorgensen

Lene Jorgensen is the Executive Director for the Diabetes, Obesity and Nutrition Strategic Clinical Network at Alberta Health Services. Lene is an Athletic Therapist and Kinesiologist by background and has worked extensively in the areas of chronic disease prevention & management and system & service planning. Over the past 6 years, Lene has worked on numerous Indigenous health projects and initiatives, such as zone specific Indigenous health action plans, an organizational approach to Indigenous health planning, and the Alberta Health Services Indigenous Health Strategy.

Of specific note, in 2018 and 2019 Lene worked directly with the Blood Tribe Department of Health to co-design the Bringing the Spirits Home Addiction Framework. This framework is a community-wide, comprehensive, full continuum of care addiction framework specific for the Blood Tribe community and the Blackfoot culture. This collaboration and co-design has resulted in increase in the Government of Alberta’s funding to the community, specifically to the locally operated safe withdrawal management site. This framework has also just received the gold award for innovation from the Institute of Public Administration of Canada.

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Kate Dunn

Kate Dunn is an Anishinaabe woman who works in a collaborative role increasing access to Hepatitis C treatment and cure for Indigenous communities in Alberta. Bringing a background in nursing, and a master’s in public health she is pursuing a doctorate in social sciences at Royal Roads University focusing on Indigenous Health. Kate’s Wisdom Seeking research project spends time with Indigenous Knowledge Holders listening to memories, stories, and perspectives on traditional health and liver wellness. These conversations will guide co-creation of a respectful and culturally relevant awareness approach or DocuStory (short documentary movie) sharing perspectives on wellness shaping positive awareness of Hepatitis C. Moving forward to the goal of altering the approach to this disease from one of cultural barriers, fear, and stigma; to a wholistic story of wellness and healing framed in a way that Indigenous Peoples understand, directed by the voices and experiences of Knowledge Holders. This work has potential to influence creation of culturally relevant resources impacting primary health care and provincial policy while incorporating wholistic and traditional wellness approaches to Hepatitis C and liver health.