Dr. Judy Gillespie’s primary interests are in the role of communities and their social, physical, and political infrastructures in the promotion of child welfare. Judy is also interested in place; the role of place in well-being, the interactions of person and place, including the ways in which professional practice is shaped by place. Judy holds a BSW and MSW from the University of Calgary and a PhD in Urban Planning from the University of British Columbia. Judy’s social work practice experience includes child protection, mental health therapy with children, adults and families, and co-facilitation of group treatment programs for perpetrators of intimate partner violence. Judy has practiced community organizing in a variety of settings with much of this occurring in rural areas and Aboriginal communities in northern Alberta. Judy’s current research focuses on understanding the role of Indigenous ways of knowing in evaluating the impacts of Indigenous led multisector community change initiatives.