Dr. Carrie Bourassa is a professor of Indigenous Health Studies at First Nations University of Canada. She is Metis, and was born and raised in Regina, and received her academic training at the University of Regina, including a PhD in social studies. She has worked in policy development with the provincial government, as well as in academia. Her research interests include the impacts of colonization on the health of First Nations and Métis people; creating culturally competent care in health service delivery; Aboriginal end of life care and Aboriginal women’s health.
Dr. David Jones has a medical degree and a Masters of Health Science in Community Health and Epidemiology, both from the University of Toronto. He has worked in many areas of clinical medicine and public health in his long and distinguished career. He served as chief medical health officer and executive director of the Population Health and Primary Health Services Branches for the province from 1995 to 2002. In 2004, when the Public Health Agency of Canada was established, he was appointed as its first Chief Public Health Officer, a position he held until 2014.
He has served as the President of the Canadian Public Health Association and Vice-President of the American Public Health Association. In 2010, he was awarded the R.D. Defries Award, CPHA’s highest award, honouring his outstanding contributions to public health in Canada. After having strokes in 2012 and 2015, Dr. Jones is now working fewer hours, teaching and advising on public health through Health Canada’s First Nations and Inuit branch in Atlantic Canada and Ottawa. He also serves on the National Board of the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
For an interview with Dr. Jones prior to this panel, see http://www.thinkupstream.net/wickedproblems