DIRECTOR

Clyde Hertzman
Director
604-822-3002

Dr. Hertzman is Director of the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), College of Interdisciplinary Studies at UBC; Canada Research Chair in Population Health and Human Development and Professor in the School of Population and Public Health at UBC.

Nationally, Dr. Hertzman is a fellow of the Experience-based Brain and Biological Development Programme and the Successful Societies Programs of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIfAR). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. He holds an honorary appointment at the Institute for Child Health, University College, London.

Dr. Hertzman has played a central role in creating a framework that links population health to human development, emphasizing the special role of early childhood development as a determinant of health. His research has contributed to international, national, provincial, and community initiatives for healthy child development. He is the recipient of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) 2010 Canada's Health Researcher of the Year and the Canadian Institute of Child Health (CICH) 2010 National Child Day Award.

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DEPUTY DIRECTOR

Joanne Schroeder
Acting Deputy Director and Knowledge Translation Director
604-827-5396

Joanne Schroeder studied social work at the University of British Columbia. She has played a foundational role as Community Development Manager in the translation of HELP's early child development research to communities. She is also the lead author of the Communities for Children: A Toolkit for Action recently published by the HELP and a contributor to a variety of other publications. Joanne is the National Lead Fellow for the Council for Early Child Development (CECD) and as part of that role manages the Pan-Canadian EDI initiative.

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FACULTY

Tom Boyce
Professor
604-827-4465

Dr. Thomas Boyce is the Sunny Hill Health Centre/BC Leadership Chair in Child Development in the Human Early Learning Partnership and the Centre for Community Child Health Research at the University of British Columbia. He is also Co-Director of CIFAR's Experience-Based Brain and Biological Development Program and a member of Harvard University's National Scientific Council on the Developing Child.

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Jim Frankish
Director, Centre for Population Health Promotion Research
604-822-9205

Dr. Jim Frankish is the director for the Centre for Population Health Promotion Research. He is also a professor for CFIS & School of Population & Public Health. Additionally, Dr. Frankish is a member of the PHIRNET research-training program, board member for Lookout Homeless Society and member of the National Collaborating Centre on Determinants of Health. His research interests include: Olympics & inner city communities, service use by homeless with mental illness, poverty & nutrition and health literacy in street youth.

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Paul Kershaw
Associate Professor
604-827-5393

Dr. Paul Kershaw is a farmer morning and night. By day, he is an academic, public speaker, media contributor and volunteer. In these latter roles, he is one of Canada's leading thinkers about family policy, receiving two national prizes from the Canadian Political Science Association for his research. 'Armed with a laptop and a raft of statistics,' The Vancouver Province describes Kershaw as 'a one-man road show trying to change Canada one talk at a time.' Change is necessary, he argues, because Canada no longer works for all generations. At the University of British Columbia, in the College for Interdisciplinary Studies, Kershaw is the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) Scholar of Social Care, Citizenship and the Determinants of Health.

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Brenda Poon
Assistant Professor
604-822-3560

Dr. Brenda Poon leads HELP's Early Childhood Screening Research and Evaluation initiative. Dr. Poon completed her doctoral work in Special Education at UBC and postdoctoral fellowship with HELP through a joint award from the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Dr. Poon is interested in research and evaluation related to early identification and early intervention for children with special needs, family-centered services, integrated child health information systems, as well as social determinants of children's health and development over the lifecourse.

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AFFILIATED SCHOLARS

Richard Carpiano
Associate Professor of Sociology
(604) 822-3845

My interests center on the sociology of health and illness, particularly community and individual socioeconomic influences on physical and mental health. I also have related interests in social capital, social networks, theory-building in population health, social constructions of illness and risk, community action research, the measurement of community social environments, and the application of mixed methods to health research.

In addition to sociology, my training is rooted in public and population health.  Thus, my research activities are interdisciplinary, often involving collaboration with researchers from fields such as geography, anthropology, public health, nursing, and medicine.  I was a Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholar at the University of Wisconsin from 2004-2006. Currently, I am a Faculty Affiliate of the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at UBC. 

I have been the recipient of two investigator awards.  In 2007, I was awarded a six year Career Scholar Award from the Michael Smith ...

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Susan Dahinten
Associate Professor
604-822-7437

Dr. Susan Dahinten is an Associate Professor at the UBC School of Nursing and Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar. Her research program focuses on the intersection of family and community factors that influence the health and development of children and youth, and the evaluation of public health interventions to support healthy childhood development. She currently teaches quantitative research methods at the University, and has expertise in the longitudinal analysis of large data sets, including the use of administrative data.

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Ruth Eckstein Grunau
Associate Professor
604-875-2447

The focus of Dr. Grunau’s interdisciplinary research program is biobehavioural reactivity and infant neurodevelopment, broadly encompassing multiple aspects of infant arousal, self-regulation, attention and cognition in preterm and term born infants, including pain responses.

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Anthony Herdman
Assistant Professor
604.827.4853

Dr. Tony Herdman’s research program focuses on understanding the brain dynamics that underlie many psychological phenomena involved in auditory and visual perceptions, attention, language and memory. He uses behavioural, eye-tracking, and electrophysiological (EEG & MEG) measures to study fundamental principles of these systems and how they develop. One main line of investigation is providing insights into how experience with visual objects (such as letters and words) alters brain dynamics and neural-network communications in typically-developing readers and dyslexics. Another research stream is looking at how auditory selective attention and visual novelty detection in children are affected by socioeconomic disparities. Dr. Herdman is also conducting research in the fields of cognition & memory and neuroimaging methodology. Dr. Herdman is particularly fascinated by how a brain functions and communicates across multiple dimensions (space, time, and frequency) and how such communication is altered by experience as a brain develops its abundant abilities.

Dr. Herdman is ...

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Michael Kobor
Assistant Professor
604-875-3803

Genes can be influenced by the environment, which means our lifestyle can impact the expression of our genes. Epigenetics is the field that studies the relationship between our environment and our genes.

"Epigenetics is a very important component for studying human health," says Dr. Kobor. "There is increasing evidence that epigenetic modifications are altered in a variety of diseases, such as cancer, and neurodegenerative disease."

The Kobor laboratory focuses on the environmental and biological factors that affect genome function and gene expression, with a particular focus on how DNA is packaged.

"There are two meters of DNA that need to fit inside a little cell, so it must be packaged very tightly," explains Dr. Kobor.

Many different environmental factors affect the molecular machinery of the DNA packaging process. The Kobor lab is involved in collaborations looking at this relationship in fetal alcohol syndrome, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The ...

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Tim Oberlander
Professor
604-875-3570

Dr. Oberlander a developmental pediatrician studying how early social experience (prenatal maternal mental illness and psychotropic medication exposure) influences biobehavioral development during childhood.

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Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl is the Principal Investigator of the Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI). An Applied Developmental Psychologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology and Special Education at UBC, she has been conducting research in the area of the child and adolescent social and emotional development for over 20 years. Specifically, her work has been to identify the processes and mechanisms that foster positive development in children, such as empathy, optimism, and altruism.

More information about Dr. Schonert-Reichl: http://educ.ubc.ca/research/ksr/schonert-reichl.html.

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Joanne Weinberg
Professor
604-822-2498

Dr. Joanne Weinberg is a Professor and Distinguished University Scholar in the Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences at UBC. She is a member of the Brain Research Center, and an Associate Member of the Department of Psychology and the Child and Family Research Institute. Dr. Weinberg has served as President of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology and the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Study Group, on the Board of Directors of the Research Society on Alcoholism, and on the Editorial Advisory Boards of Alcohol,  Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, Neurotoxicology and Teratology, and Physiology and Behavior. She is currently a member of the Advisory Panel of the Intervention Network Action Team, Canada Northwest FASD Research Network and is co-leader of the FASD Project of NeuroDevNet, Networks of Centers of Excellence. The research in Dr. Weinberg’s laboratory utilizes rat models to examine how early life experiences, in particular, prenatal alcohol exposure ...

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Bruno Zumbo
Professor
604 822-1931

Department of Educational & Counselling Psychology & Special Education, University of British Columbia RESEARCH INTERESTS: Statistical theory and practice, including the analysis of large scale survey data arising from tests, scales, and questionnaires, as well as data from observational (quasi-experimental) and experimental studies.

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ABORIGINAL STEERING COMMITTEE

Jeremy Belyea is from Lake Babine Nation, hailing from the Raven clan. Jeremy holds a Masters Degree in Education-Counseling from UNBC and also has two different counseling designations from the Canadian Counseling Association and the BC Association of Clinical Counselors.

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Connie Deane is Metis and Coordinator of the Infant and Early Childhood Development Center in Vernon. Connie began working with families in 1985 after receiving a Diploma in Early Childhood Education. Her passion for children and families has led her to pursue many additional training and educational programs, including earning a Diploma in Infant Development from UBC. Connie also works with families as the Interior Region Advisor for Aboriginal Infant Development Programs of BC.

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Diana Elliott is a Coast Salish, Cowichan Tribes member with equal roots from the Nuu Chalth Nuth Tribal Territory. Diana has accumulated over 15 years experience in the field of Aboriginal Infant Development with an early career in Licensed Practical Nursing. She also has over a decade of experience in planning, implementing, delivering, and evaluating programs and services for children and youth aged newborn to 19 year and their parents. Most specifically, Diana works in Infant Development with an interest in community health and wellness.

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Joan Gignac hails from the Sagamok Anishnawbek, Ojibway Nation in Northern Ontario and has been living in BC since 1990. Joan works as the Executive Director of the Aboriginal Head Start Association of British Columbia. She is an Early Childhood Educator and has worked in a wide variety of child care settings. In the past, Joan was the Child Care Manager for Nutsumaat Lelum: the Chemainus First Nation Child Care Centre.

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Karen is a member of the Aboriginal Steering Committee.

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Duane Jackson
ASC
250-622-9452

Duane Jackson is from the Gitanmaax of the Gitxsan Nation. He recently completed the Early Childhood Education Program at the First Nations Training and Development Centre. Duane has been working with young people as a basketball coach for the past twenty-five years and his passion for developing well rounded individuals both on and off the court was acknowledged when he was the recipient of the 2006 Aboriginal Coach of the Year by the Aboriginal Sports and Recreation Association of BC. Duane is now channeling his passion and enthusiasm for youth for early childhood development as the Regional Aboriginal Coordinator with ...

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Roger John is Tsalashmec (People of the Lakes) of the St’at’imc Nation and of the Grizzly clan. Roger is in the PhD program in Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia. He was raised in the community of Tsalash has lived in Victoria in Coast Salish territory for twenty years. He worked at the University of Victoria as the Indigenous Advisor for the Faculty of Human and Social Development for twelve years prior to pursuing his PhD. Roger’s research and therapeutic interests include the meaning that Indigenous men make from participation in social-cultural-spiritual-ceremonial activities; the impact ...

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Linda Matthews traditional name is Gispa stoothl and she is a member of Wilps Xstoom Hloxs of the Gisgaast clan in Gitsegukla. Linda was born and raised in the Hazelton area and is an active feast participant. Linda works at Gitxsan Child and Family Services Society as the Operations Manager, serving the six Gitxsan communities of Gitanmaax, Glen Vowell, Kispiox, Gitwangak, Gitsegukla, and Gitanyow. Linda speaks Gitxsan because she was inspired by interactions with the Wii Axhoosxwit (Elders) to learn her language.

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Jessie Nyberg is a Shuswap Elder registered to the Creek Band. Her Shuswap name, Busy Ant, was given to her by her grandmother when she was just one year old because she did not like to stay still and kept very busy. Jessie is a wife, mother of two, grandmother of three and a retired registered nurse after practicing for forty-five years. She is an RN, holds a Bachelor of Science Degree and is close to completing earning an MHA. In addition to her role as the ASCs Elder, Jessie is involved with the Vernon First Nations Friendship Centre, School ...

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Sue Sterling originates from the Nlakapamux Nation in Merritt and currently sits with the Dumdehmyoo (Bear) Clan with the Nadleh Whuten Indian Band from the Carrier Sekani Nation. Her traditional name is Gwanawar, meaning Black Swan. Sue is an Aboriginal Early Childhood Development Consultant for the Interior Region of BC. She participates on the Board of Directors for the British Columbia Aboriginal Child Care Society (BCACCS) and is the Western Canada National Representative for the World Forum on Early Childhood Foundation.

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RESEARCH ASSOCIATES

Barry Forer
Research Methodologist
604-827-5782

Dr. Barry Forer is a research methodologist and statistician specializing in early childhood development and child care. At HELP, his research topics have included child care quality and stability, neighbourhood effects on child development, and the psychometric properties of the EDI. His Ph.D. was completed in the Measurement, Evaluation, and Research Methodology program at the UBC Faculty of Education.

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Martin Guhn
PhD Fellow
604-827-5784

Dr. Martin Guhn is a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research postdoctoral fellow, with a background in human development, psychology, education, and music. His interdisciplinary, applied research focuses on how social, cultural, demographic, and socio-economic factors jointly affect children's developmental health and educational trajectories. Further research interests include children's well-being and social and emotional development, bio-ecological theories of human development, validation of developmental health assessment, measurement of change over time, educational reform, and school- and community-based knowledge-to-action research. Please visit Dr. Guhn's website to find further details on his research interests, publications, projects, and collaborations.

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Jennifer Lloyd
Research Associate
604-827-4456

Dr. Jennifer Lloyd is a Research Associate and Djavad Mowafaghian Foundation Junior Scholar at the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) at the University of British Columbia. She is also an Associate Member of UBC's School of Population & Public Health.

Dr. Lloyd earned her B.Sc. in Psychology and her M.A. in Educational Psychology from the University of Victoria. Following a year working in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, she pursued her Ph.D. in psychometrics from UBC's Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology and Special Education. Under the supervision of Prof. Bruno ...

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Chris McLeod
PhD Fellow
604 822-0348

 

Dr. Christopher McLeod is a postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Clyde Hertzman. He is a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Junior Fellow and Faculty Associate at the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research. Chris’s research at HELP explores how institutional and economic structures across high-income countries create different life course trajectories, with a focus on the nexus of education, skill-level and employment experience and their effect on health and health inequalities. He is a research lead with the WorkSafeBC-CHSPR Research Partnership that seeks to develop and use linked administrative data to support occupational health and compensation policy research ...

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Connie Milbrath
Research Associate
604-827-4086

Dr. Constance Milbrath is a developmental psychologist who joined HELP as a Senior Researcher in 2006, moving north from University of California San Francisco (UCSF) where her focus was on developing and applying methodologies that blend qualitative and quantitative analyses in complementary frameworks. Her interests at HELP are in the ethno-cultural determinants of early child outcomes for immigrant and aboriginal populations. She has published widely in the fields of clinical and developmental psychology.

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Jayne Pivik
Honourary Research Associate
604 822-3207

Dr. Jayne Pivik is a community/environmental psychologist who examines community/neighbourhood impacts on child and youth well-being, community asset mapping, human-environment interactions, and collaborative and participatory research processes involving children and youth. Dr. Pivik has studied the impact of traumatic brain injuries, stress and coping with disabilities, promoting inclusion and disability awareness for children with disabilities, university-community collaborations and involving community voices in health care decision-making.

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Ziba Vaghri
Research Associate and Program Director
604-827-3159

Dr. Ziba Vaghri is a Research Associate leading the International Research and Initiatives Program at HELP. Her previous work as a health care professional in various countries has given her rich experience in working within multiethnic settings and appreciation for cultural diversity. Dr. Vaghri's current interests lie in population-based monitoring of Early Child Development (ECD) in diverse parts of the world. She ascribes to the view that this could inform new initiatives in the various countries and provide direction to them in the framing of future policy around ECD. In accordance with this view, for the last few years ...

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Anat Zaidman-Zait
PhD Fellow
604-827-3530

Dr. Anat Zaidman-Zait completed her PhD in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology and Special Education at the University of British Columbia. Over the last years, her research focused on parental stress and coping processes among parents of children with disabilities, the interplay between parental stress and children’s development, and applied measurement as it relates to constructs and issues in parenting. In addition, she is interested in the interrelations between parenting, children’s biobehavioral regulation (e.g., temperament, stress reactivity, sleep), and their combined contribution to children's development and mental health outcomes.

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STAFF

Jeremy Alexander
GIS Technician/Cartographer
604-822-1375

Jeremy works to produce GIS maps and cartographic support for the provincial ECD mapping unit. He graduated in May 2008 with a BA in Human and Physical Geography from the University of British Columbia. His main projects while working at HELP have been work on Aboriginal mapping, Dental Survey Mapping and work with EDI and SES Index mapping projects. Jeremy's research interests include aboriginal mapping to appropriately contextualize Aboriginal data and information design.

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Lynell Anderson
Senior Researcher
604-827-5399

Lynell Anderson is a leading authority on family policy in Canada, especially with respect to the finances of child care services. As a Certified General Accountant (CGA) with extensive experience in the private, voluntary and public sectors, Lynell brings leadership to the role of Senior Family Policy Researcher with UBC's Human Early Learning Partnership. Lynell has also taught Public Sector Financial Management for the CGA Associations of BC and Canada. Lynell uses financial information to inform, engage and empower. In 2010 Lynell received the United Way of the Lower Mainland Excellence in Action Early Childhood Development Award for her ...

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Loic Belingard
Research Technician/Data Analyst
604-822-3347

Loic is the Data Analyst for the GECKO project. He has two postgraduate degrees, one in Neurological Sciences from the University of Provence (France) and the other in Computer Applications from the University of Montreal. Loic is specialized in data management and statistical analysis for medical research. He is particularly interested in the processing of electrophysiological signals.

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Samantha Berger
EDI Coordinator
604-827-5504

Samantha is the EDI Implementation Coordinator at HELP (maternity leave position until 2013). She recently completed her MSc in Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is interested in contributing to research concerned with disenfranchised groups, particularly migrants.

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Jacqui Boonstra
Statistical Analyst/Psychometrics and Ministry Liaison
604-822-0025

Jacqui is a Statistical Analyst, knowledgeable in advanced, complex modeling methods and technologies, and ecological based psychometrics for individual, nested, and aggregated data. She is particularly interested in applied social science, education, and policy research related to quality of life.

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Anna-Marie Bueno
Administrative Assistant
604-822-1310

Anna-Marie is the part-time administrative assistant to Joanne Schroeder.

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Lisa Chen
Statistical Analyst
604-822-4652

Lisa Chen is responsible with database 'scrubbing' and data management issues. She will do EDI analysis and provide school reports. Lisa Chen has an MS in Applied Statistics from University of Georgia and has been working at UBC as a statistical analyst for 14 years.

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Gillian Corless
EDI & MDI Implementation Manager
604-822-1836

With a background in strategic planning and project management, Gillian's role at HELP is to ensure smooth implementation of the Early Development Instrument (EDI) in public and independent schools across British Columbia. Gillian holds an MA in Human Geography from McGill University and has focused her career on interdisciplinary cooperation around the well-being of children and families.

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Jay Douillard
Geospatial Technical Lead
604-827-4401

Jay provides GIS, Cartographic and web based interactive mapping to the Early Childhood Development Mapping Project. In 2004 Jay earned a BA in Human Geography from the University of British Columbia. Jay's research interests include visualization of complex data, web based cartography and spatial statistics.

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Matthew Ellis
Systems Administrator
604-827-5397

Matthew is the key systems administrator at HELP.

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Kristi Engle Folchert
Research Assistant
604-822-5492

Kristi is a Research Assistant for the GECKO Project and the Early Childhood Screening Unit. She has an MA in Women's and Gender Studies from the University of British Columbia, a BS in Psychology and Women's Studies from Iowa State University, and has completed both qualitative and quantitative projects. She continues to be passionate about feminist and social justice issues. (on maternity leave until 2012)

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Tanya Erb
Executive Coordinator
604-822-5880

Tanya provides overall coordination support for the various research and administrative activities of Dr. Thomas Boyce.

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Catherine Fenn
International Project Coordinator
604-822-0305

Catherine is the Project Coordinator with the International Research and Initiatives Program, coordinating research projects and facilitating initiatives with our international partners. She joins HELP with experience in Vancouver and Ottawa as a consultant and researcher for government and other clients on social and cultural issues. Catherine holds an MA in Literature (York) and an MA in Anthropology (UBC).

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Carrie Gallant
Privacy Officer
604-822-0176

Carrie works with HELP half-time as the Privacy Officer and brings over fifteen years of experience in training, policy and project leadership within the public sector and provincial government and over six years as the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy officer for the Ontario Pay Equity Commission. Carrie holds a J.D. and a B.A. from Queen's University, and a pending Master of Laws in Dispute Resolution from Osgoode Hall Law School, and has taught Negotiation and Mediation Advocacy at UBC's Faculty of Law as an adjunct professor. In her other half-time role, Carrie continues ...

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Brianne Grant
Currently on leave
604-827-5504

Brianne is the EDI Implementation Coordinator at HELP. With an MA in Children's Literature, she has focused her career and volunteer work on fostering stronger local communities to support child and youth development. (on maternity leave until 2013)

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Diane Gray
Research Coordinator
604-822-0820

Diane is a Research Coordinator at CPHPR.

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Jennifer Harvey
Chief Technical Officer
604-827-4021

Jennifer leads HELP's mapping team in producing hundreds of population-level maps related to the state of ECD on annual basis. With an MA in geography, Jennifer's research and practice focuses on the connections between health, place, community and the power of maps in bringing together and visualizing these elements. Jennifer is a fan of cycling, potlucks, and spontaneous dance parties.

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Ruth Hershler
Senior Statistical Analyst Manager
604-822-6765

Ruth coordinates the linked and longitudinal database development for HELP. She works closely with HELP Affiliates, and with government, hospitals and community organizations. She will be working to create longitudinal trajectories of health and development for defined populations of BC children, and will provide leadership in augmenting current databases and facilitating maximum data development and linkage.

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Rita Jekabsons
Contracts/Research Grants Officer
604-822-3361

Rita is responsible for grant applications and research/service agreement processing, including evaluation of budgets.  She also  facilitates faculty and researchers in finding appropriate funding sources.  Rita holds a BA in English Language (UBC) and comes to HELP with experience in coordinating health and social science research applications at the Child & Family Research Institute and the UBC Faculty of Education.

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Elsie Kipp
Currently on leave
604-827-5081

Elsie is a member of Yale First Nation, a small community located at the southern end of the Fraser Canyon. Elsie graduated with a BA in Communications (Journalism and Public Relations) in 1999 and has spent the past decade working at the community level engaging various populations to make positive social change. Elsie works with the Aboriginal Steering Committee and the EDI Implementation Team. (on maternity leave until 2012)

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Christine Klerian
Early Child Development Monitoring (ECDM) Coordinator
604-822-4206

Christine is the coordinator and research assistant for the Forum of Early Child Development Monitoring (ECDM). She has a bachelor’s degree in Communications with a focus on culture and children’s journalism, as well as a certificate in ESL Teaching and a certificate in Development and Innovation in the Teaching Practice.  She is finishing a master’s degree in Human Development, Learning and Culture in the UBC Faculty of Education.

Christine also has over twelve years of working experience, mostly in Mexico but also in China and Canada. As a graduate student, Christine has been involved in research projects ...

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Anna Krasnova
Data Analyst
604-822-4383

Anna comes to HELP most recently from Population Data BC where she had the opportunity to work with the BC Linked Health Database. She made significant contributions to documenting linkage practices and data processing methodologies. Anna works on screening-related projects and EDI-related projects.

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Brenda Kwan
Research Coordinator
604-822-9214

Brenda works as a Research Coordinator for CPHPR with Diane Gray and Dr. Jim Frankish.

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Stephanie Lam
Project Coordinator
604-827-3426

Stephanie is the Project Coordinator for GECKO. She has a B.Sc. from the University of Toronto, having majored in Anthropology and Human Biology. Her previous experience includes working in the areas of inner-city health and international youth volunteering. Since moving to Vancouver from Toronto, Stephanie has been busy enjoying the various film and music festivals, hiking, climbing, and trying out new restaurants.

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Adrienne Lariviere
Finance Assistant
604-827-5750

Adrienne provides financial coordination to almost all members of the HELP staff. She is key in the smooth administration of HELP's day-to-day financial and administrative tasks.

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Jannie Leung
Research Assistant
604-822-0679

Jannie is a Research Assistant for the Early Childhood Screening Research and Evaluation team. She brings experience in both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, with a BSc in Biology and an MSc in Community Health & Epidemiology. Her research interests include health equity, program evaluation, and participatory and community-based research in local and international contexts.

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Owen Lo
Student Research Assistant
604-822-8765

Owen is the student research assistant for the Early Childhood Screening Research and Evaluation project at HELP.

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Amber Louie
Research Coordinator
604-822-8765

Amber has been working in population health promotion research at UBC since 2002, and she joined HELP's Early Childhood Screening Unit in 2007. She brings experience in conducting interviews, focus groups, qualitative analysis, questionnaire design, statistical analysis, systematic literature reviews, and evaluation of public health services. She has co-authored publications in population health on topics such as youth suicide, job stress, workplace noise, and unwanted sexual advances.

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Bryan Mathews
Senior Finance Manager
604-827-4094

Bryan is the Senior Finance Manager at HELP.

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Amy Mullis
Communications Officer
604-822-0559

As the Communications Officer, Amy provides support in the knowledge dissemination and knowledge transfer activities within HELP. Her responsibilities include coordinating the creation and production of both internal and external communications materials. She also assists with HELP events and public and media relations. Amy has a B.A. in Communication from SFU and has worked in both the public and not-for-profit sectors.

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Anita Ng
Event Coordinator
604-827-5755

Anita is responsible for the coordination of HELP conferences, meetings and workshops.

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Jasmyn Roberts
Administrative Assistant
604-822-1278

Jasmyn provides administration assistance and coordination at HELP.

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Pippa Rowcliffe
Communications Director
604-827-5797

Pippa's role is to increase the visibility of HELP and its research (provincially, nationally and internationally). As the Communications Director, she oversees the creation and implementation of a communications strategy to effectively describe and promote HELP and to disseminate research findings.

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Cheryl Rubuliak
Human Resources & Administration Manager
604-822-9238

Cheryl is the Human Resources and Administration Manager at HELP and her responsibilities include providing and planning for all aspects of Human Resources for HELP. She has over 25 years of experience working with government, non-profit and legal organizations. She is born and raised in Vancouver and her favourite free-time activities include spending time with family and friends, exploring the great outdoors and traveling the globe.

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Michele Sam
Senior Aboriginal Researcher
604-822-9419

Michele A Sam is Ktunaxa, a cultural and linguistic isolate group to the world. She is the Senior Aboriginal Researcher and Liaison for HELP's Early Childhood Development Mapping Unit. Her role is to provide leadership within HELP to ensure that the research needs of Aboriginal nations and communities are met. She works extensively with the Aboriginal Steering Committee, the HELP-EDI management team and the HELP Leadership Team.

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Anthony Smith
Spatial Data Analyst and Cartographer
604-827-5388

Born and raised in Toronto, Anthony graduated from UBC in 2009 with an honours BA in Human Geography. His thesis project involved mapping the 'population ecumene' of British Columbia, and his ongoing research interests include sustainable urban design, spatial statistics and geographic data visualization. In his free time you will find Anthony running on the seawall, riding his bike up Cypress, or doing yoga in a park.

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Agata Stefanowicz
Research Assistant
604-822-9402

Agata provides support for research and administrative activities to the director, deputy director and researchers of HELP. Agata earned a double BA in Economics and International Relations with a focus on International Organizations at the University of Calgary.  Agata's research interests include health equity, gender relations and community health.

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Kimberly Thomson
MDI Project Coordinator
604-827-4050

Kim is the project coordinator for the Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI). Kim has an MA in Human Development, Learning, and Culture and wrote her thesis on protective factors during middle childhood and their relation to social and emotional health.

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Carrie Vanderhoop Bellis
Aboriginal Community Liaison Coordinator
604-827-5081

Carrie Anne’s father is Aquinnah Wampanoag from Noepe (Martha’s Vineyard) Massachusetts; and her mother is Haida from Old Masset, Haida Gwaii.  She belongs to the Gawa Gitans, Masset Inlet Eagle clan.  She comes from a family with a strong weaving legacy.  She is a weaver of cedar bark, and she is also a Raven’s Tail and Naaxiin (Chilkat) textile weaver.   Carrie Anne studied Comparative Literature and Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she earned her BA.  She went on to earn a Master’s degree from Harvard University Graduate School of Education where she focused ...

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Celina Vergel de Dios
Research Assistant
604-822-0679

Celina completed a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Psychology with Honours and Master of Arts in Human Learning, Development, and Instruction. Celina's research interests centre on program evaluation, e.g., consumer satisfaction, consumer preferences, implementation evaluation, program effectiveness.

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Emilia Walton
Cartographer
604-827-5390

Emilia provides GIS, cartographic and graphic support to the ECD Mapping Unit. In 2006 Emilia earned a BA in Geography from the University of British Columbia. Emilia's research interests include data visualization, cartographic history and urban geography.

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Michele Wiens
Librarian
604-822-2508

Michele is a Librarian (part-time) with HELP. She maintains HELP's large database and library collection of items related to child development and health. Michele has two Master's degrees, one in Geography and another in Library, Archival and Information Studies. She also teaches and provides information specialist services in environmental health.

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UBC A Place Of Mind