Speakers

Nutrition in Diverse Populations

Morgan Allen - Fresh Routes 

Morgan is an Edmonton-based advocate for food justice and food security, as well as an all-around food lover! After graduating from the University of Alberta with a major in Nutrition, she began working in the field of community development and food security. She was formerly the Community Resource Coordinator with the Community-University Partnership at the University of Alberta and the Multicultural Health Brokers Cooperative where she worked to support a number of strategies and projects aimed to increase access to food among migrant families in Edmonton. She then moved into the role of Lead Coordinator of the Leftovers Foundation in Edmonton, the largest food redirection charity in western Canada, with the mission of mobilizing the community to address wasted food. In 2019, she joined a collaborative effort, alongside several key players in the city, to implement the Fresh Routes Mobile Grocery Store as a way to increase access to healthy, fresh, and affordable food across Edmonton. Morgan is currently the City Manager of Fresh Routes in Edmonton. 

Malek Batal, PhD - Université de Montréal

Malek Batal is professor of public health nutrition at the Nutrition Department of the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Medicine and a researcher at the Centre for Public Health Research of the Université de Montréal and the CIUSS du-Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal (CReSP). He holds the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Nutrition and Health Inequalities and is the Director of TRANSNUT, the WHO-Collaborating Centre on Nutrition Changes and Development. His research focuses on food security and diet quality as well as the environmental, social, economic and cultural determinants of food choice and their relationship to the health of individuals and the ecosystem in several populations, including First Nations adults, children and youth in Canada, Indigenous Peoples in the Ecuadorian Andes and rural people in Haiti. He has also worked with refugee populations in Canada on issues of food security. 

Rosanne Blanchet, PhD, RD - University of Alberta

Dr. Rosanne Blanchet is a Registered Dietitian with a certificate in Public Health Nutrition from Université Laval and a PhD in Population Health from the University of Ottawa. Her research seeks to understand the determinants of eating habits and the social determinants of health of populations undergoing rapid cultural changes and/or vulnerable for health disparities (e.g., Indigenous peoples, immigrants, refugees, visible minorities, low-income households). Her doctoral research focused on the relationships between acculturation, ethnicity, and nutritional health of school-aged immigrant children of African and Caribbean descent living in Ottawa. Dr. Blanchet is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta with Dr. Noreen Willows. Her postdoctoral research aims to understand the outcomes of an Indigenous food sovereignty initiative that reintroduced sockeye salmon in the Okanagan Basin on Syilx culture, well-being, food security, and diet. Her objective is to eventually develop interventions aiming to help prevent chronic diseases and consequently reduce health inequities affecting Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour in Canada. 

Kelly Gordon, RD, B.Sc (Nutri. Sci.) - Six Nations Health Services

Kelly has worked as a registered dietitian for over 18 years, focusing on community wellness.  Kelly is Kanyen’keha (Mohawk) and a proud mother of two energetic children.  A graduate from McGill University, she has strived to use her experience and knowledge to support well-being within Indigenous communities.  Currently Kelly works with Six Nations Health Services as a team manager of health promotion; she previously worked for Toronto Public Health, Davenport Perth Community Health Centre and she continues to work with various Indigenous organizations.  Kelly is co-chair of the Nourish Indigenous and Allies Advisory, supporting work to increase access and availability of Indigenous foods within healthcare settings.  Kelly has presented and advocated to a variety of audiences speaking to how “food is a pathway towards reconciliation”, looking towards Indigenous food and food ways in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada’s calls to action. Kelly’s work focuses on acknowledging of Indigenous knowledge and how it can be integrated into her everyday work, supporting community members on their journey towards their own wellness.

Suzanne Johnson, MSc, RD - Okanagan Salmon and Our Health 

Suzanne Johnson is the Lead Okanagan Researcher for the Okanagan Salmon and Our Health project.  As a graduate student researcher, she served as the community representative of the Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA) to facilitate the engagement of staff and membership in the development and design of this collaborative community-university project.  As an Indigenous mother, her work is motivated by the need to see equity and justice in the determinants of our well-being, including food security and food sovereignty.  She has recently completed an Interdisciplinary graduate research project (June 2020) that has combined her views shaped by over 25 years of community nutrition experience in First Nations communities with her understanding of Syilx knowledge to explore how the restoration of Indigenous food systems effects well-being. 

Kate Storey, PhD, RD - University of Alberta 

Dr. Kate Storey, PhD, RD is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, Distinguished Researcher - Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation, and CIHR New Investigator. Kate is a Centre for Healthy Communities Scientist and Lead for ‘Healthy Schools.’ Dr. Storey’s research program SIRCLE (Settings-based Intervention Research through Changes in Lifestyles & Environments) focuses on school- and community-based strategies to promote wellbeing, prevent chronic diseases, and reduce health inequities. Dr. Storey’s work aims to create a culture of wellness for kids, their families, and their communities by making the ‘healthy choice the easy choice’ where we live, work, learn, and play. She works to create systems-level change through programs that foster resilience and empowerment. An established leader in creating healthy school communities, she has been awarded over $9M (PI/Co-PI) in grants and contracts. She has implemented, evaluated, and scaled healthy living programs in communities with thousands of children and has established partnerships across sectors and levels to facilitate sustainability. Kate is an avid runner and cyclist, and is a mom to two young children who share her passion for adventure, travel, and being active. 

Fatheema Begum Subhan, MPhil, PhD, RD - California State Polytechnic University Pomona

Dr. Fatheema Subhan is an Assistant Professor at California State Polytechnic University Pomona. She is a Registered Dietitian and received her PhD degree in Nutrition and Metabolism from the University of Alberta, Canada. She is a CIHR Health Impact Fellowship recipient. Her research interest includes development, implementation, and evaluation of community-based nutrition interventions for diabetes management, school-based health promotion programs and maternal and infant nutrition and health. Her work aims to empower individuals and communities to be able to make nutrition education and healthcare support accessible to reduce health-inequities in the ethnic minority communities.

Julia Tran, BSw - Community Resource Coordinator, Grocery Run Program, Multicultural Health Brokers Cooperative

Julia is deeply passionate about food justice, food dignity and working with migrant populations. Her work is inspired by her personal relationships and lived experience as a first generation Chinese-Vietnamese-Canadian. Julia is the Community Resource Coordinator with the Community-University-Partnership at the University of Alberta and the Multicultural Health Brokers Cooperative. Julia's role is tied to responding to the urgent food needs of ethnocultural families experiencing chronic poverty through the Grocery Run as well as advancing food security strategies tied to socio-economic inclusion and wellbeing. She is currently working in collaboration with MCHB Health Brokers, community members and community partners to build a business case for a social enterprise for a Cultural Grocery Box and to explore food security strategies tied to Urban Agriculture.

Noreen Willows, PhD - University of Alberta 

Dr. Noreen Willows is Professor, Population and Public Health Nutrition, Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences, University of Alberta. Her research interests are the development and evaluation of community-based nutrition interventions in Indigenous communities in Canada and the impact of household and cultural food insecurity on health and well-being. Her primary research focus is population health intervention research to enhance food access in First Nations communities through school-based, food security and food sovereignty initiatives. Dr. Willows champions a decolonizing community-based participatory approach to research in which community members and academic co-researchers form community-university partnerships to develop culturally appropriate solutions to health issues identified by community members.