Author: Christina Lavoie

Public Health Summer Institute 2025: Building Wellbeing Societies – Registration Now Open!

#PHSI25: Building Wellbeing Societies

Wednesday, June 25th, 2025 – ONLINE!

Registration is Now Open, Click Here to Register!

 

The Public Health Association of British Columbia is proud to host the 2025 Summer Institute, a virtual event that will explore what it means to build a Wellbeing Society—one that prioritizes people, planet, and future generations. Drawing inspiration from the World Health Organization’s Geneva Charter for Well-being (2022), this year’s Institute invites public health professionals, researchers, academics, policymakers, and advocates to reimagine the role of public health in shaping a fairer, healthier, and more sustainable world.

The 2025 Summer Institute offers more than dialogue—it is a space for strategic thinking, systems exploration, and cross-sector collaboration. Through keynote discussions, facilitated conversations, and interactive sessions, attendees will reflect on how the public health field can lead in co-creating communities that are just, regenerative, and deeply rooted in wellbeing.

Join us as we imagine—and begin to build—a future in which public health is a driving force for societal transformation.

Summer Institute Details

Dates: June 25th, 2025
Venue: Online via Zoom
Price: $40 +GST
Member/Student/Retiree Price: $30 +GST

 Register Today!

Summer Institute Goal

The goal of the 2025 Summer Institute is to convene a diverse group of public health professionals and practitioners, students, researchers, scholars, academics, thought leaders, intersectoral partners, activists, and allied organizations to collaboratively explore and advance the concept of Building Wellbeing Societies & Communities.

The Institute will aim to introduce this theme through the prioritization of health and equity, cross-sector collaboration, holistic solutions, and inclusive approaches, while emphasizing methods for addressing social and structural determinants of health and translating ideas into actionable public health strategies.

Scientific Program Committee Co-Chairs

Dr. Trevor Hancock

Retired Professor & Senior Scholar
School of Public Health & Social Policy
Associate Member of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Victoria

Dr. Trevor Hancock is a public health physician and health promotion consultant. He ‘retired’ in 2018 from his role as Professor and Senior Scholar at the School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria.
He is one of the founders of the (now global) Healthy Cities and Communities movement and co-founded both the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care, and was the first leader of the Green Party of Canada in the 1980s.
His recent focus has been the combination of his two main areas: The relationship between human health and the natural environment – among other things he led a major CPHA report on the Ecological Determinants of Health, released in 2015 – and linking the healthy and sustainable community approaches through the concept of a ‘One Planet’ region.
In ‘retirement’ he has started a new NGO, Conversations for a One Planet Region, to explore and popularise these ideas locally; works with Doctors for Planetary Health in BC; is the interim Convenor of the emerging Canadian Coalition for Planetary Health and a Wellbeing Society, and is a member of the IUHPE’s Global Working Group on Waiora Planetary Health.

Dr. Lindsay McLaren

Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary
Research Associate, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Lindsay McLaren PhD is a Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary where her scholarship and teaching focus on social determinants and political economy of health. She is also a Research Associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (National Office).
For her research in dental public health, Lindsay held a CIHR/PHAC Applied Public Health Chair award (2014-19) and received the 2019 CIHR-IPPH Trailblazer Award (mid-career category) which is a career achievement award that recognizes exceptional contributions in population and public health research.
Lindsay is past-president (2014-18) of the Alberta Public Heath Association and currently serves as Senior Editor for the Canadian Journal of Public Health. She also serves as Co-Editor in Chief for the Journal of Critical Public Health, which is a community non-profit journal formed following a mass editorial board resignation from corporate publishers.

#PHSI25: Building Wellbeing Societies & Communities

Click Here to Learn More

PHABC expresses our deep sorrow to the Filipino community

The Public Health Association of BC (PHABC) expresses our deep sorrow to the Filipino community for the tragic loss of their loved ones during a peaceful celebration.

We send you our love and strength.

Please know that we grieve with you in this unbearable loss of life and security.

Public Health Week 2025

“Public health professionals provide essential programs, services and guidance that keep us and our loved ones safe. Through actions such as disease and injury prevention, health promotion and health protection, our public health professionals empower people to live healthy lives.”

-Josie Osborne, Minister of Health. Read the full statement here.

PHABC celebrates this historic investment in healthy school food.

British Columbia announced a deal with the federal government as part of the National School Food Program. The deal was announced on March 7th, 2025. British Columbia will receive approximately $39 million over 3 years, further enhancing school food programs in British Columbia.

The Public Health Association of British Columbia (PHABC) has served as the secretariat for the BC Chapter of the Coalition for Healthy School Food for the past five years. PHABC is encouraged by this commitment on behalf of the federal and provincial government’s dedication to support school meal programs.

Every aspect of childhood development is impacted by the food they eat and the environment in which they’re supported. This announcement demonstrates a meaningful shift forward for children in the province.

Thank you to our federal and provincial governments for their incredible leadership on this significant public health strategy.

British Columbia now joins Northwest Territories, Quebec, Nunavut, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Ontario, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Hilleman Essay Contest: Now Open!

Visit the Hilleman essay contest webpage to learn more: https://hillemanfilm.com/contest

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Conference 2023: Thank You and Survey

Thank you for attending our gala and conference!

The Public Health Association of BC (PHABC) extends our heartfelt THANK YOU to all gala and conference attendees, presenters, and volunteers. Your presence and engagement further activates and enhances our collective commitment to a fair and healthy British Columbia for all.

We want to offer our utmost gratitude to the Honourable Janet Austin, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia; Dr. Bonnie Henry, Provincial Health Officer of British Columbia; and André Picard, Health Columnist, The Globe and Mail. Their dedication to advancing health, well-being and equity through their leadership in public health aligns with PHABC’s mission statement. We are honoured to have featured them at our gala, 70 Years Forward.

Please note that all gala and conference photos and slideshows will be shared in the coming weeks, as PHABC’s team consolidates and prepares the assets for circulation.

Please continue to follow #PHABCCon23 on social media to re-live and appreciate conference speakers and presentations.

Public health and digital equity is just a sample of what the future offers. PHABC will continue to provide exemplary professional development opportunities to support public health growth within the province and beyond.

 


Take the Survey

Thank you again for attending our gala and conference! PHABC would greatly appreciate your feedback and insights to ensure we can continue to provide events that strengthen the public health community.

Complete the survey by December 16th to enter to win a complimentary registration to our 2024 conference.

Take the Survey Now

 


Thank You to Our Conference Sponsors!

Our conference is only possible thanks to the continued efforts of numerous volunteers and the support of various partners and sponsors. We want to specially highlight the Ministry of Health as a platinum sponsor.

PHABC’s professional development work strengthens essential knowledge and skills required of public health professionals and provides us with the opportunity to proactively respond to the educational needs of the public health workforce.

Our conference topic, Public Health and Equity in the Digital Age, aims to invigorate public health practice, education and research towards a healthy, just and sustainable digital ecology. As a sponsors for this event, we recognize our partners as champions for a digitally equitable and constructive future.