Our Team
The First Nations Lung Health Project Team is made up of researchers, community members, and staff from a number of different groups.
A. (Sentil) Senthilselvan
Senthil is a co-investigator with the project. His interested in biostatistics, epidemiology of respiratory diseases including asthma and genetic epidemiology including gene-environment interaction. Senthil is a professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta. Dr. Senthilselvan received his PhD from Tyne, United Kingdom in 1980.
Bonnie Janzen
Bonnie is a Social Epidemiologist and a University Team member with the project.
C. Roy Petit
Roy is a councilor in charge of Public Works and Housing at Beardy's and Okemasis First Nation. He has experience as an employment and training councilor, life skills coach, mediator, director, board manager and manger. Roy is a father, grandfather, leader, culture keeper, son, uncle, nephew and cousin.
Caroline Beck
Caroline is a policy research assistant from the University of Regina and is involved with the Sleep Apnea portion of the project. Caroline is working to clarify the complex policy issues in health and the way that they are understood. Finding ways to redress these policies to better serve the communities is an important issue for Caroline.
Chandima Karunanayake
Chandima is the data manager and analyst for the First Nations Lung Health Project. She is a Professional Research Associate in the Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture at University of Saskatchewan and working at the Centre since 2005. Chandima received a B.Sc. in Statistics from University of Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1997, Masters Degrees from University of Hasselt, Belgium and University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and a Ph.D. in Statistics from University of Saskatchewan in 2007. Her areas of interest are longitudinal data analysis, multivariate data, and genetic data analysis. She has over 20 years of experience as an Applied and Biostatistician. She is currently involved with several research projects including the First Nations Lung Health Project and the Saskatchewan Rural Health Study. She is happily married to Dr. Sumith Kahanda.
Clarice Roberts
Clarice is involved with collecting environmental data from houses in Montreal Lake. Her duties include: collecting household dust, performing household surveys and recording other scientific data. Clarice is married and has 3 boys and 3 girls. She has worked for Housing in Montreal Lake off and on for 10 years. She volunteers her time for the Youth Sports and Rec program as well as the Red Cross for the community and surrounding areas. Clarice has a position on the health committee and is working to better the lives of her community members. She would like to see the day when Housing and Health are no longer problems for First Nations.
Daisy Gamble Housing Manager
Daisy is a Housing Manager and Bookkeeper with Montreal Lake Cree Nation. Her and her husband live in Prince Albert and commute daily to Montreal Lake. She has 22 grandchildren, 3 great grandchildren, 7 daughters and 1 son.
Donna Rennie
Donna is a professor in the College of Nursing and the Canadian Centre for health and Safety in Agriculture. Her research interests are in respiratory and environmental (domestic and outdoor) health particularly as it relates to the health of rural children. Her area of expertise in practice is asthma management and asthma education.
Emelda Seeseequasis
Emelda is a member of the Beardy's and Okemasis First Nation community. She is involved with collecting environmental data from houses in Beardy's community for the project. Her duties include: collecting household dust, performing household surveys and recording other scientific data. Emelda is a proud Grandmother and Mother as well as a retired school teacher. She is currently operating a family restaurant in Duck Lake, SK.
Eric Russell
Eric was involved with coordinating the household environmental assessments in Montreal Lake Cree Nation and Beardy's & Okemasis First Nation. Eric was also involved with data organization and other various information management duties with the project. Eric graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering. He enjoys music, and spending time with family and friends. He is now pursuing further education in the area of occupational hygiene
Florence Ross
Florence is a community health representative and community team member in Montreal Lake Cree Nation.
Greg Marchildon
Greg assisted the team with his expertise in policy development. He currently holds an Ontario Research Chair in Health Policy and System Design with the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Prior to this, he served as a Canada Research Chair in Public Policy and Economic History, and professor in the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Regina. Greg was recently the Executive Director of the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada. Greg is also a former Executive Director of the Romanow Commission for provincial governance. Greg is an outdoor enthusiast, avid canoeist as well as an advocate for pristine spaces and outdoor living.
James A. Dosman
Jim is one of the Principal Investigators on the project. His role on the project involves thinking of the big-picture ideas for the project, and consulting on the breathing tests, among many other things. He has been studying the lung health of people in rural Saskatchewan for over thirty years. Jim is a Distinguished Research Chair at the University of Saskatchewan. He is married to Sue and they have five children.
Janet K. Smylie
Janet is a research collaborator with the project from the University of Toronto. Her research interests include health indicators of relevance to indigenous communities in Canada and internationally; interfacing indigenous knowledge and western science to improve the health of young aboriginal families; improving the quality and coverage of birth outcomes data in partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities; gathering and applying oral history to current First Nations, Inuit and Metis infant, child and family health.
Janet Roberts
Janet is involved with collecting environmental data from houses in Montreal Lake.
Jarret Nelson
Jarret is the Health Councilor at Montreal Lake Cree Nation.
Jeremy Seeseequasis
Jeremy was born and raised around and on the Beardy's and Okemasis First Nation. He spent the first 20 years of his life in this area. After 13 years he returned home from Edmonton and in 2012 became the Health Director for the Willow Cree Health Centre in Beardy's and Okemasis First Nation. In 2014 Jeremy was elected as a Councilor for the Beardy's and Okemasis First Nation and continues to help move the project forward.
Jo-Ann Episkenew
Jo-Ann was a researcher and Co-Principal Investigator on the project. She was Director of the Indigenous Peoples' Health Research Centre and was a Professor of English at the First Nations University of Canada. Jo-Ann was also Adjunct Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan. Jo-Ann was an active researcher whose interests include Aboriginal youth, health, applied literatures, narrative medicines, narrative policy studies, and trauma studies. She was author of Taking Back Our Spirits: Indigenous Literatures, Public Policy, and Healing (2009), winner of two Saskatchewan Book Awards. Jo-Ann was also a loving Mom, Kohkom and Great Grandmother. Jo-Ann passed away in February 2016, and is dearly missed by all who knew her.
Josh Lawson
Josh's primary role on this project is as an epidemiologist to work on the children's study. He is an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. His research is based out of the Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture (CCHSA), also in the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. His primary areas of interest are pediatric asthma and respiratory epidemiology but he is also interested in various aspects of child health, lung health, and rural health.
Judy MacDonald
Judy is the Health Director at Montreal Lake Cree Nation.
Kathleen McMullin
Kathleen McMullin, B. Ed, M.Ed. is a member of the Lac La Ronge Cree nation and resides in Prince Albert. She is working on a PhD with the Focus Group findings of the FNLHP at the University of Saskatchewan and is working to address housing and health issues for First Nations. She teaches Native Studies in the University and is an Elder's Helper.
Lesley McBain
Lesley is an Assistant Professor at the University of Saskatchewan and in the Department of Interdisciplinary Programs at the First Nations University of Canada. Her current research activities include the delivery of health care services to rural and remote First Nation communities using telehealth technology. She is also examining the availability of long term care facilities for the aging population on Reserves in Saskatchewan. Lesley was born and raised in Vancouver and has lived in the Saskatchewan for 30 years. She is married with 2 sons and 5 grandchildren.
Lynda Gamble
Lynda is a Community Health Representative with Beardy's and Okemasis First Nation. She is helping implement the Green light project in the community and also volunteers her time with the Midget AAA Blackhawks hockey team and her local church group. She has been a Community Health representative for 26 years.
Malcolm King
Malcolm was involved with the initial creation of the project with James Dosman and provides a wealth of knowledge for the team. In his career in pulmonary research, Malcolm has developed new approaches to treat mucus clearance dysfunction in chronic lung disease, and is now working on addressing issues in airborne disease transmission. Since January 2009, he has led the CIHR Institute of Aboriginal Peoples’ Health as its Scientific Director. In this role, he leads the development of a health research agenda aimed at improving wellness and achieving health equity for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples. He is a member of the Mississauga's of the New Credit First Nation and a health researcher at Simon Fraser University.
Mark Fenton
Mark is a physician who specializes in Sleep Medicine, and researcher at the University of Saskatchewan. Other areas of interests include general respirology, lung transplantation, pulmonary hypertension and sleep-disordered breathing. Mark was born and raised in Saskatoon and is a graduate from the University of Saskatchewan. He is married with 2 sons and also has a daughter-in-law.
Niels Koehncke
Niels completed his undergraduate training in Zoology in 1991 and graduated from Medical School in 1995 (University of Alberta). He completed his Residency training in Occupational Medicine in 2000 (University of Alberta), which included the completion of a Masters Degree in Public Health Sciences, Specialization in Occupational Health.
Punam Pahwa
Punam is a Professor at the Community Health and Epidemiology and the Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture. There are two facets of her research: methodology and application. The methodological aspect of her research consists of integrating advanced statistical theories to analyze longitudinal complex health data. The applied aspect of her research consists of evaluating health determinants that are associated with chronic conditions, with a special focus on rural occupational and environmental exposures.
Rifat Zahan
Rifat is a graduate student working on the project. Currently, she is doing her M.Sc. in the Collaborative Biostatistics Program. Her role on the project involves statistical analysis of the lung function data of Aboriginal school-age children. She received the Western Regional Training Centre (WRTC) fellowship for a full-academic year to work on the project and to receive training on applied health research. She is working with other health professionals and policy makers. She completed her B.S. and M.S. in Applied Statistics from University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. She worked at International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) in Emerging Vaccines under the Centre for Vaccine Sciences.
Roland Dyck
Roland is a professor at the University of Saskatchewan.
Shelley Kirychuk
Shelley is involved with the household environment study for the project with an emphasis on particulate exposures and health outcomes. Shelly obtained a PhD in interdisciplinary studies (emphasis on Occupational Hygiene) from the University of Saskatchewan joint with Colorado State University. She has a MSC in Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health (emphasis in Industrial Hygiene) from the University of Iowa. Her interests relate to respiratory exposures and health effects. She is the Director of the CCHSA National Hygiene Laboratory - LCP/MS, RT-PCR, arrays, airborne monitoring, spectrophotometry.
Suzanne Seeseequasis
Suzanne is a respected elder with the Beardy's and Okemasis First Nation. She works as a Health Board Member and Elder with the Willow Cree Health Centre.
Sylvia Abonyi
Sylvia is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan and a research faculty member with the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit. Trained as an anthropologist, she holds a Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Health with a research program focused around understanding culture as a health determinant. Areas of interest include population health research ethics, and the use of multimedia strategies in research and knowledge exchange.
Tarun Katapally
Tarun's work with this project involves the promotion of Active Living. His interests focus on upstream policy and community interventions. Within the population health intervention realm, his expertise is to utilize quantitative and objective methods to understand how environmental exposures influence physical activity and sedentary behavior. Tarun is a medical doctor with clinical experience in India and the United Kingdom. Tarun obtained a masters in health administration before he decided to pursue his PhD in population health science.
Tom Smith-Windsor
Tom is a graduate of the College of medicine at the University of Saskatchewan and has worked as a full service family physician in Prince Albert for over 20 years. He has provided itinerant clinic service to Montreal Lake for the entire period. Tom also works as the Associate Dean for Rural and Northern Medical Education for the College of Medicine which is responsible for distributing medical education around the province.
Vivian Ramsden
Vivian is working to initiate the Green Light Program with communities throughout the province. The Project involves a community owned approach that promotes smoke-free homes by installing green lights at the entrances of houses to signal that a home is smoke-free. Vivian's interests include research in the following areas: primary health; health promotion; stroke and cardiovascular disease prevention; cross-cultural learning; clinical research methods; participatory research methods; participatory program development and evaluation; and, interdisciplinary education, evaluation and research. She obtained a PhD from the University of Saskatchewan.
William Albritton
Bill is Professor of Pediatrics and former Dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. With this project he is studying the prevalence of ear infections in First Nations and rural school-aged children. He has practiced pediatric infectious diseases since 1976 and general pediatrics since 1994. He has special interests in frequent infections, immune deficiency states, including HIV/AIDS. In addition, he has special clinical interests in providing general pediatric continuity care to children with special needs, development delay, and a wide variety of clinical conditions in early infancy. Bill’s current research interests are in the evaluation of healthcare delivery systems for the underserved and a variety of interest in medical education, including admissions policies, undergraduate and graduate curricula, especially in areas related to social accountability and professionalism.