The preliminary program of the congress is available online, and more information can be found on the congress website.

Courtesy of the UArctic Thematic Network on Arctic Health and Well-Being, there will also be a free Pre-Congress Workshop on Community-Based Participatory Research: Principles and Practices in the North on Saturday August 16th. Space is limited and pre-registration is required. Please see the attached flyer and share with other interested colleagues!

Below are brief biosketches of the CBPR Workshop presenters:

Cindy Jardine, PhD
Dr. Cindy Jardine is a Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Dept. of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology at the University of Alberta, an Associate Professor (nil-appointment) with the Dept. of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba, and an Affiliate Scholar with the International Institute of Qualitative Methodology. Dr. Jardine has diverse academic background, with a PhD in Medical Sciences (Public Health Sciences - Environmental Health), MSc in Environmental Science/Engineering (both from the University of Alberta), and BSc (Hons) in Zoology from the University of Manitoba. Prior to joining the University of Alberta, she worked for many years for various government agencies, including the Manitoba Dept. of Natural Resources, Alberta Environment, Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Alberta Health. She also spent three years in Indonesia working on a Canadian International Development Agency project in conjunction with the Indonesian Environmental Impact Management Agency.

Dr. Jardine’s research interests are in the areas of health risk communication, risk perception, risk assessment and risk management. Her goal is promote productive dialogue on risks that leads to informed decision-making. Much of her research is conducted in partnership with Aboriginal communities in Canada’s north. In recent years her research has focused on participatory health promotion projects with Aboriginal youth involving PhotoVoice and participatory video. Dr. Jardine is the former Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Qualitative Methods. She is currently on sabbatical, having been awarded a 2013/14 Fulbright Scholarship to work with the University of Arizona on issues of trust between academic researchers and Indigenous communities in health research partnerships.

Michelle Driedger, PhD
Dr. Michelle Driedger is a Professor and Tier II Canada Research Chair in Environment and Health Risk Communication, in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba, and a member of the Metis nation. Dr. Driedger’s academic training has been interdisciplinary. Following a BA (Honours – U Winnipeg) in environmental studies, with an emphasis in geography and political science, she did a MA (Carleton University) in health geography, and a PhD (McMaster University) in environmental health.

Her broad areas of research interests include public and health risk communication, risk perception, and knowledge translation under conditions of uncertainty. Equally embedded in this program of research is the role that trust plays in the individual or organization that is doing the communication, as well as the way in which they engage relevant communities. Drawing primarily on qualitative methods, her research focus involves the study of how new and emerging risk controversies develop in science, policy and public forums. She is particularly interested in how risk communicators can meaningfully engage public audiences to enable informed decisions about risk recommendations. Her research explores these aspects with both general population and Metis (following community based participatory principles) contexts. She has a number of funded research projects looking at public risk communication concerning pandemic H1N1, as well as looking at how decision-makers navigate uncertainty in policy decisions involving different cancer control and Multiple Sclerosis treatments. Growing from her initial partnerships with Metis communities and the Manitoba Metis Federation, she is collaborating in other Metis relevant research topics.

Rhonda M. Johnson, DrPH, MPH, FNP
Dr. Rhonda Johnson is Professor of Public Health and Chair, Department of Health Sciences at University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA); since 2004, she has coordinated the Master of Public Health (MPH) program there focused on circumpolar and northern health issues. She completed her Doctorate of Public Health-DrPH-as a Public Health Leadership Fellow at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (1998-2001); her dissertation involved a statewide evaluation of a national demonstration project to improve the health care response to domestic violence in Alaska. She has also been a nationally-certified family nurse practitioner (CFNP), with about 20 years of primary care practice and program management experience, mostly in rural, underserved areas of the US, including but not limited to Alaska. An Arizona native, her first degree was in Political Science (ASU, 1979), followed by graduate work in International Relations/Rural Development at the International Graduate School in Stockholm, Sweden. Service as a Peace Corps Volunteer (Rural Development-northeastern Thailand, 1981-2), and Peace Corps Trainer (Bangkok, Thailand, 1983) shifted her focus to health issues, with a particular interest in community-based public health and primary care efforts.

Particular interests include rural health practice, interpersonal violence prevention, innovative provider teams, health literacy/ health communication, community-based participatory research, and maternal and child health. Dr. Johnson has worked in Alaska in a variety of roles since 1992, and recently served as Principal Investigator for the NIH-funded Center for Addressing Health Disparities through Research and Education (CAHDRE) at UAA, and as Project Director of a regional Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) continuing education-distance learning project called “Frontier Models of Leadership: Learning from Communities.” She teaches courses in health education and health behavior, program evaluation, circumpolar health issues, and public health ethics.