Cluster Leads
Faculty Members
Nicole Berry
Medical Anthropology
Areas of specialization: reproductive justice & reproductive health; global health and development, decolonizing research; qualitative research methods; ethnography.
Stéphanie Black
Education
Areas of specialization: comprehensive sexual health education (CSE), teacher training, 2S/LGBTQIA+ health equity, qualitative research methods
Nicole Catherine
Child Health Equity and Policy
Areas of specialization: child health equity and policy, early-life prevention, social determinants of health, life-course health and development, longitudinal and randomized intervention research, integrated knowledge translation, community-partnered mixed methods
Maya Gislason
Medical Sociology
Areas of specialization: planetary health; climate change and health; social inequities in health; Indigenous health and wellness; ecosystem approaches to health; community-engaged research; mixed methods; structural and epistemic justice.
Catriona Hippman
Interdisciplinary Health
Areas of specialization: qualitative research methods; reproductive justice & reproductive health; mental health; perinatal health
Angela Kaida
Epidemiology
Areas of specialization: HIV; sexual and reproductive health equity; global health; gender and health; community-engaged research; HIV stigma and criminalization; mixed methods research.
Lyana Patrick
Indigenous ecological and community health
Areas of specialization: Indigenous health and justice, water governance, Indigenous relationality, urban Indigenous community planning, Indigenous community health and well-being, institutional change through decolonizing education
TJ Salway
Social Epidemiology
Areas of specialization: 2S/LGBTQ+ people; stigma & health; identity valence/validation, mixed methods, community-engaged and action surveys, ecosocial theory.
Hasina Samji
Social Epidemiology
Areas of specialization: youth mental health and wellbeing; social and structural determinants of health; health equity; community-engaged and participatory research; school-based health promotion; marginalized populations; intersectoral approaches to wellbeing.
Kimberly Thomson
Epidemiology and Public Health
Areas of specialization: child health policy, child social-emotional development, social determinants of health, population dataanalysis, life course epidemiology, prevention and health promotion, evaluation
Cayley Velazquez
Public Health
Areas of specialization: race, food, and health; health equity; social determinants of health; food justice and food security; racialized health inequities; chronic disease prevention; health policy and evaluation.
Meghan Winters
Population Health
Areas of specialization: applied research, GBA+, social equity analysis
Faculty Alumni Researchers
João Luiz Bastos
Social Epidemiology
SJH RC Group Lead April 2025-May 2026
Areas of specialization: Social and structural determinants of health; discrimination and racism; intersectionality; health inequities; and quantitative approaches to studying social inequalities in health, including measurement and psychometrics.
Health policy and systems / global health
Areas of specialization: Social and structural determinants of health, gender inequities, healthcare workforce, pandemic preparedness and response, qualitative and mixed methods approaches.
Trainee Researchers
Enijola Akinyemi
Honours Student, Public Health & Data
Areas of specialization: Black health and racial health inequities; health-care access and quality; health policy; quantitative health research; epigenetics and population health.
Enijola is a fourth-year Health Sciences student, completing her Honours thesis under the direction of Dr. TJ Salway and Dr. João Bastos. Her research interests focus on health inequities, anti-racism, and the social and structural factors that shape healthcare experiences, centered on Black communities. She aims to contribute to more equitable and culturally responsive healthcare practices and policies through quantitative research, community-engaged work, and equity-informed approaches. Outside of work, Enijola enjoys painting, spending time with family and friends, and supporting youth through STEM outreach.
Shubh Athwal
MSc student
Epidemiology, Community Health
Areas of Specialization: child health, social determinants of health, health equity, community-based research, knowledge translation
Shubh Athwal (she/her) is a second-generation Punjabi settler completing her Master of Science in Health Sciences at the Children’s Health Policy Centre in the Faculty of Health Sciences at SFU. She is passionate about community engagement, creating spaces for meaningful conversations about health equity, and mobilizing knowledge to make research more accessible and relevant to communities. Her research interests include understanding the developmental and health trajectories of newcomer children through a social determinants of health and health equity lens. Shubh is also interested in understanding how community-based approaches can enhance research in these areas
Andrew Caldwell
PhD Candidate
Sarah Dedrick
MPH student
Sarah is a Master of Public Health student completing her thesis under the direction of Dr. Salway. Broadly, Sarah’s research interests include comprehensive sex education, SOGI-inclusive education, and the health promotion of 2S/LGBTQ+ individuals. Her professional goals are research grounded in advocacy, by using community-based participatory research and equity-informed methodology to centre the voices, experiences, and needs of each community. Outside of work, Sarah enjoys reading, video games, playing volleyball, or hanging out with her cat, Chickpea.
Amarachi Ezeocha
PhD Candidate
One Health, Public Health, Implementation Science
Areas of Specialization: One Health, implementation science, public health policy, health communication, knowledge mobilization
Erik Mohns
PhD Candidate
Areas of specialization: child health equity; early-life prevention science, children’s mental health, social determinants of health, mixed methods, and integrated knowledge translation
Patricia Salazar Ramirez
PhD student
Population Health
Areas of Specialization: Healthy cities and the built environment, health equity, mobility justice and transportation equity, physical activity and active transportation, implementation and evaluation of sustainable transportation interventions, quantitative population health methods.
Patricia is a PhD in Health Sciences student with a background in medicine and an MSc in Community and Population Health Sciences from the University of Saskatchewan. Her research interests focus on the intersections of population health, health equity, and the built environment, particularly how transportation and urban planning decisions influence health and wellbeing. Her master's research examined the relationship between active transportation, the built environment, and physical activity across four Canadian cities. She has also contributed to research on sustainable transportation planning and the development of tools to support evidence-informed decision-making. She is particularly interested in how research can be used to inform policies and interventions that create healthier, more equitable, and accessible communities. Outside of research, Patricia enjoys reading, going to the gym, travelling, and dogs.
Christine Yanagawa
PhD Candidate
Christine is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµand a Joint Doctoral Research Scholar in the School of Population and Public Health at UBC. Her research examines how urban environments and social conditions shape encounters between people and rats. She is particularly interested in how housing, neighbourhoods, and access to resources collectively influence these encounters and their potential health risks. More broadly, her interests include human–animal relationships and how exposure to health risks and access to protective resources vary across populations and places, shaping both human and animal well-being. Christine holds an MPH and a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology and in human–environment geography. Prior to entering public health, she spent 15 years working as a Registered Veterinary Technician in clinical practice.