Catherine L. Backman is Professor, Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of British Col-umbia, Senior Scientist at Arthritis Research Canada, and Affiliated Investigator, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. She teaches occupational therapy theory and societal and environmental influences on professional practice. Catherine’s research focuses on the impact of chronic illness on participation in valued life activities, activity dis.ruption, and occupational balance, with a view to informing occupational therapy practice and improving the health and well-being of people living with long term illnesses or disability.
Darren Blakeborough is an Assistant Professor in the University of the Fraser Valley’s Social, Cultural, and Media Studies Department and a member of UFV’s Centre for Education and Research on Aging. His primary research areas are popular culture, technology, and social gerontology. Darren is author of the book “Old people are useless”: Rep.resentations of Aging on The Simpsons and produced the documentary film “They’re not scary!” An intergenerational dance project.
Geertje Boschma is Professor at the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia. Her research centres on nursing and health care history, with particular emphasis on mental health care and mental health nursing. She is lead faculty of the UBC School of Nursing Consortium for Nursing History Inquiry.
Helen Brown’s program of research brings critical perspectives to studies aimed at improving health and social equity for rural and remote Indigenous communities. Using community-based and participatory methods she has worked with First Nations communities across Western Canada on projects that align with community priorities around health, wellness, cultural continuity, and language revitalization. She is currently the lead on a program of research, in partnership with the Correctional Service of Canada and the Tŝilhqot’in First Nation, that investigates impacts of a prison-community partnership program on Indigenous inmate and community health, well-being and rehabilitation. Her other projects include collaborating with interdisciplinary partners on exploring the intersections of health and justice, increasing community collaboration within nursing education, and investigating maternal and child health for rural and remote women.
Shelley Canning is an Associate Professor of Nursing at the University of the Fraser Valley; she is also a doctoral candidate in UBC’s School of Nursing. Her research focuses on issues of quality of life for older adults, with an emphasis on inter-generational and arts-based interventions for individuals with advanced dementia. Her research has involved a variety of interdisciplinary partnerships. Shelley is a member of UFV’s Centre for Education and Research on Aging and UBC’s Centre for Research on Personhood in Dementia.
Natasha Damiano has an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia and has been involved in a number of qualitative health research projects in British Columbia since 2006. A research coordinator at the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy since 2014, she is currently exploring the intersections of arts-based inquiry and practice, and what it can contribute to community mental health, rehabilitation science, and health literacy.
Megan J. Davies is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Science at York University. A BC historian, her research interests include mental health, old age, rural health, and everyday health care. Megan has a particular interest in innovative forms of presenting the past and in academic-community collaborations.
Rebecca Graham is a weaver and artist of mixed northern European ancestry, and the third generation of her family in Coast Salish Territory. She studied in environmental ethics and agriculture at the University of British Columbia and abroad and holds a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Rebecca explores the relationship between ourselves, other species, and the land through flax for linen, woven structures, and hide tanning. Rebecca has been the artistic director of the EartHand Gleaners Society since 2014. In 2016, she was the recipient of a City of Vancouver Mayor’s Art Award as the Emerging Artist in Craft and Design.
Paula Jardine has been artist in residence at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver since 2005, creating the annual All Souls event with long time collaborator Marina Szijarto. She is also artist in residence at Royal Oak Burial Park. The focus of Paula’s work has been to revive and redefine community arts and the artist’s role in the community, exploring and cultivating cultural forms that celebrate and connect us to each other, the land, and natural cycles.
Sasha Mullally is a Professor of History at the University of New Brunswick where she currently serves as Associate Dean, School of Graduate Studies. She has published widely in the social history of rural medicine and the social organization of twentieth-century century health services, and has a book with David Wright forthcoming with McGill-Queen’s University Press on physician immigration to Canada during the early years of the medicare system. Her work on this special issue of BC Studies draws from a new SSHRC-funded project on the history of early occupational therapy in the United States and Canada.
Alison Phinney is a Professor and Associate Director of Graduate Programs in the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. She is also the Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Personhood in Dementia, and is known internationally for her work on dementia, meaningful activity, and aging. As a community-engaged researcher, she uses methods of applied ethnography and participatory action research to study a range of questions aimed at supporting per.sonhood and social citizenship of older people and those with dementia through improved practices in the health care system and the community at large.
Gloria Puurveen is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics at the University of British Columbia. She is a former music therapist and has a Masters in ger.ontology from Simon Fraser University and PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from UBC. Her award-winning (IIQM) dissertation focused on the experiences of individuals with advanced dementia nearing the end of life. Using qualitative and arts-based methodologies, her current research is concerned with how people living with dementia and their care partners envision living well to the end of life.
Claire Robson is a writer, researcher, and arts activist. Her federally funded postdoctoral research at Simon Fraser University investigated the potential of arts-engaged community practices. A widely published writer of fiction, memoir, and poetry, Claire’s most recent book, Writing for Change, shows how collective memoir writing can effect social change. Her awards include Xtra West Writer of the Year, the Joseph Katz Memorial Scholarship (for her contributions to social justice), and the Lynch History Prize (for her contributions to better understanding of gender and sexual minorities).
Kelsey Timler has a background in public health and approaches all her work from a foundational commitment to equity and social justice. Based out of the University of British Columbia, School of Nursing, she works as a Research Manager across a number of community-based and participatory research projects, all of which are conducted in collaboration with Indigenous communities in Western Canada. Her Master’s thesis drew on community-based and participatory methods to learn about the impacts of a prison farm program where incarcerated men grow and subsequently gift organic produce to T.ilhqot’in First Nations communities. Kelsey has a long-standing belief in the ability of food to bring people together, as well as a decade of professional cooking experience. Her interests in food sovereignty and food justice continue to influence her work in correctional agriculture contexts, including her upcoming doctoral research, focused on fostering food justice and healing for incarcerated women and their children through community-based and participatory research.
