Featured Speakers

PHABC is thrilled to feature the following speakers for our 2022 Conference, “Our Planet, Our Health: Creating Well-Being Societies and Making Peace with Nature.”

Our speakers include the Co-chairs of the Scientific Program Committee (which organizes the Conference program): Dr. Margot Parkes and Dr. Trevor Hancock. Margot is a Professor at UNBC School of Health Sciences, Co-lead of the UNBC Health Research Institute and an Honorary Professor at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Now a retired Professor and Senior Scholar, Trevor spent the last 30 years consulting for communities, governments, health care organizations and the World Health Organization.

PHABC is honoured to spotlight Dr. Danièle Behn Smith, the Province’s Aboriginal Health Physician Advisor. She works closely alongside Dr. Bonnie Henry, the Provincial Health Officer. We are pleased to headline Jade Yehia, the BC Ministry of Health’s Climage Change and Health Lead. Our outstanding list of speakers also remarkably include: Dr. Shannon Waters, the Medical Health Officer at Island Health; Dr. Lindsay McLaren, Professor of Population and Public Health at the University of Calgary; and of course, Jessica (Jessiquita) Madrid, the front-line Team Lead for Xaaynanga Naay (Skidegate Health Centre) at First Nations Health Authority.

The list of speakers will only continue to grow with high-calibre presenters. Follow PHABC on social media, and read our website news, to stay updated.

Read Speakers’ Biographies

Conference Details

Dates: November 9th and 10th
Venue: Victoria Conference Centre
Address: 720 Douglas Street Victoria, BC

Early-Bird Registration

Call for Abstracts

PHABC’s 2022 Conference is now open for abstract submissions. The abstract submission deadline is September 30th at 5:00pm PST.

If you have research on or are part of a promising practice you think aligns with our conference themes, we welcome your contribution to our dialogue. The conference plenary sessions will focus on four inter-related themes:

1. Making Peace with Nature for Public Health
2. Ecojustice/Eco-social Equity and Public Heath
3. Well-being Societies
4. Local (Practice) and Action

The conference organizers request that you submit abstracts that align with one or more of the four themes of the conference; however, additional themes may also be identified from the selected abstracts.

We encourage submissions from the full spectrum of public health practice and endeavor to be inclusive of quality submissions even if they do not fit under the above thematic areas.

All successful abstract submissions will have access to a discounted conference registration rate. Learn more

Conference Sponsorship Opportunities

Our conference is only possible thanks to the continued efforts of numerous volunteers and the support of various partners and sponsors. Your support will help ensure public health professionals and community partners have access to evidence-based knowledge to improve public health and environmental health outcomes locally, and globally.

If you are interested in sponsoring the PHABC conference, or if you would like more information about the details of our request, please reach out! We welcome the opportunity to discuss any arrangements with you and answer any questions you may have.

As a sponsor for this event, your organization can be seen as a positive force for change in this province and beyond.

Contact us to learn more conference@phabc.org

Dr. Margot W. Parkes

Margot Parkes is a Professor in the UNBC School of Health Sciences, past Canada Research Chair in Health, Ecosystems and Society, and current Co-lead of the UNBC Health Research Institute with three decades of learning from eco-social approaches to public health.

Dr. Parkes’ research connects social and ecological determinants of health especially in rural, remote and Indigenous communities, drawing on background in medicine, public health, human ecology and eco-health, and collaborations spanning New Zealand, Oceania, Europe and the Americas.

In all her work, Margot prioritizes working and learning with others – across regions, cultural contexts, disciplines and sectors – to foster better understanding of land, water and living systems as foundational for health, equity and well-being; and to strengthen collaborations that reflect these connections and foster capacity for integrative approaches to research, education and practice that address health, environment, and equity concerns.

Margot has a strong history of partnered research, involving health authorities, watershed organizations, not-for-profit groups and Indigenous-led organizations especially in rural and remote contexts.

Margot is a founding Co-lead of the Canadian Community of Practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health; Co-lead of the pan-Canadian and internationally partnered Environment, Community Health Network; Co-chair of the Ecological Determinants Group on Education in Canada; founding member of the Global Working Group on Waiora Planetary Health for the International Union of Health Promotion and Education; member of the Editorial Advisory Group for The Lancet Planetary Health; and an Honorary Professor at the University of Otago, Aotearoa/NZ.

See the full list of PHABC’s 2022 Conference speakers here.

Dr. Trevor Hancock

Dr. Trevor Hancock is a public health physician, health promotion consultant and recently retired Professor and Senior Scholar at the School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria.

His main areas of interest are population health promotion, healthy cities and communities, public health, healthy public policy, environment and health, health policy and planning, and health futurism.

Trevor is one of the founders of the (now global) Healthy Cities and Communities movement and co-authored the original background paper for the European Regional Office of the World Health Organization in 1986.

Over the past 30 years he has worked as a consultant for local communities, governments, health care organizations, NGOs and the World Health Organization. He is a frequent keynote speaker at national and international conferences, and community group engagements.

He was a member of the Canadian Council on the Social Determinants of Health, the Board of the Child and Nature Alliance of Canada. He is currently on the Advisory Council of the Arts and Health Network Canada.

Trevor is the Vice-President of the Board of BC Healthy Communities, co-founded both the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care. Trevor was the first leader of the Green Party in both Canada and Ontario.

In 2015 Trevor was awarded Honourary Fellowship in the UK’s Faculty of Public Health. In 2017 he was awarded the Defries Medal – the Association’s highest honour – by the Canadian Public Health Association.

See the full list of PHABC’s 2022 Conference speakers here.

Dr. Danièle Behn Smith

Dr. Danièle Behn Smith is the Province’s Aboriginal Health Physician Advisor and works alongside Dr. Bonnie Henry, the Provincial Health Officer.

Dr. Behn Smith provides independent advice and support to the Ministry of Health on First Nations and Aboriginal health issues. In support of the Ministry’s strategic agenda, Dr. Behn Smith focuses on closing the gap in health outcomes between First Nations and other British Columbians.

Dr. Behn Smith is Eh Cho Dene (Big Animal People) of the Fort Nelson First Nation in B.C. with French Canadian/ Métis roots in the Red River Valley. Since getting her Doctor of Medicine from McMaster University and completing residencies at the universities of Ottawa and Manitoba, Dr. Behn Smith’s career has spanned the country and the globe.

She has practiced rural medicine in remote communities across Canada and is currently a family physician at Tse’wulhtun Health Center in the Cowichan Valley. She was a Board Director for the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada, the Director of Education for the University of Alberta’s Indigenous Health Initiatives Program and the Site Director of the University of British Columbia’s Aboriginal Family practice residency.

Dr. Behn-Smith was also the host of “Medicine Woman,” a 13-episode television series which explored traditional healing practices in ten countries on six continents.

See the full list of PHABC’s 2022 Conference speakers here.

Jade Yehia

Jade Yehia is a Human Geography and Environmental Health specialist with a Master of Science (MSc) in Health Impact Assessment. She is a certified Environmental Health Officer and Consultant with fourteen years of experience working for the Federal and Provincial governments.

Jade led Island Health’s Healthy Built Environment program for almost a decade before moving to the BC Ministry of Health to support the development of their newly minted Climate Resilience Unit as their Climate Change and Health Lead.

Most recently, she stepped into the private consulting world, teaching at Royal Roads University and carrying out equity and holistic health assessment projects.

Her passion is to work collaboratively across departments in partnership with local governments, academics, and civil service organizations, supporting a grounded Health in All Policies approach.

She has expertise in the linkages between climate and health, housing and homelessness, air quality, food safety and security, transportation planning, natural assets, and risk analysis.

See the full list of PHABC’s 2022 Conference speakers here.