Sunday, July 12, 9:30AM

From Research to Action: Promoting Health in the Circumpolar Regions

NELLIE COURNOYEA, O.C.

Nellie is the Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC). The corporation was established after the 1984 land claim settlement. Today it has assets in excess of $492 million. Before her election as Chair of IRC, Ms. Cournoyea was Premier of the Northwest Territories for four years beginning November 1991. Representing the riding of Nunakput from 1979 to November 1995, Ms. Cournoyea held a number of portfolios. Nellie was also a founding member, and later administrator and land rights worker, of the Committee of Original Peoples’ Entitlement (COPE).
Ms. Cournoyea was the first managing director of the Inuvialuit Development Corporation after being part of the land rights negotiating team. She also held the position of implementation coordinator for the Inuvialuit Final Agreement (IFA) and served on the Board of Directors of Inuvialuit Petroleum Corporation, Inuvialuit Development Corporation, the Enrollment Authority and Arbitration Board. Having decided not to run in the 1995 NWT election, Ms. Cournoyea was elected Chair and Chief Executive Officer of IRC in 1996. In January 2008, she returned for a seventh two-year term.

Sunday, July 12, 10:45AM

JON ØYVIND ODLAND, MD, PHD

Jon is currently the president of the Norwegian Forum for Global Health Research and professor at the Centre for International Health/Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø and University Hospital of Northern Norway. He is also an editor of the International Journal of Circumpolar Health with over 100 abstracts and presentations in different international conferences, mainly on environmental and reproductive issues. He is also a leader of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), Human Health Group and coeditor and coordinator of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Human Health Assessment Group.

PAMELA ORR, MD, FRCPC

Pamela is a Professor of Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Community Health Science at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. Her interest in circumpolar health grew from her early experiences as a primary care physician working in northern Manitoba and Nunavut under the mentorship of Dr. Jack Hildes. She is currently President of both the International Union for Circumpolar Health and the Canadian Society for Circumpolar Health. She is a clinician, teacher and researcher, with an interest in the health of indigenous peoples nationally and internationally.

ALAN J. PARKINSON, PHD

Alan is deputy director of the Arctic Investigations Program of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Anchorage, Alaska. His research interests include laboratory and epidemiologic aspects of infectious disease detection, prevention, and control in Arctic and sub-Arctic populations. He is currently the chair of the International Union for Circumpolar Health’s Infectious Disease Working Group, the coordinator of the Infectious Disease International Circumpolar Surveillance project, and a coordinator of the Arctic Council’s International Polar Year Arctic Human Health Initiative.

Monday, July 13, 10:30AM

Climate Change and Health Research in the Canadian Arctic: Perspectives on the Past, Present and Future

CHRIS FURGAL, PHD

Chris is an Associate Professor in the Indigenous Environmental Studies Program at Trent University in Peterborough Ontario. He is the co-Director of the Nasivvik Centre for Inuit health and changing environments administered at Laval and Trent Universities. His research focuses on environmental health risk assessment, management and communication with northern Aboriginal communities. He has been a lead author of several national and international science assessments on Arctic environmental health issues including climate change and environmental contaminants.

Is Health a “Human Security” Issue for the Arctic?

GUNHILD HOOGENSEN, PHD

Gunhild specializes in Security Theory and Politics, Civil-Military Relations, and International Relations Theory as well as the research fields of gender politics and international political economy. She is also the International Principle Investigator and lead in the International Polar Year Project “GAPS” which examines multiple understandings of security in the Arctic region, particularly in Norway, Canada and Russia.

Tuesday, July 14, 10:30AM

Indigenous Pedagogy in Mental Health: Healing Teachings for Mental Health Workers and Valuable Knowledge for Clients

SUZANNE L. STEWART, PHD

Suzanne is a member of the Yellowknife Dene Nation. She currently works as a professor of Aboriginal healing in Counselling Psychology at OISE – University of Toronto. Research interests include mental health and healing, Indigenous research methodologies, and Indigenous post secondary success. She also works in as a mental health consultant and in client care for an urban Native health agency.

Women’s Health and Well-Being in the North: From One to Many

RHONDA M. JOHNSON, DRPH, MPH, FNP

Rhonda is Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at University of Alaska Anchorage, and Director of the distance-delivered Master of Public Health (MPH) program. She completed her Doctorate of Public Health (DrPH) as a Public Health Leadership Fellow at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (1998-2001). She has also been a nationally-certified family nurse practitioner, with more than 20 years of primary care practice and program management experience, mostly in rural, underserved areas of the US, including but not limited to service within the Tribal health system of Alaska.

Wednesday, July 15, 10:30AM

Human Health in the Russian North: Development Issues

EVGENY R. BOJKO, PHD, MD

Evgeny is the director of the Institute of Physiology, Ural Division of Russian Academy of Sciences (Syktyvkar, Russia). He was born on 16 July 1960 in the USSR and graduated from the Kursk Government Medical Institute (USSR) in 1983 and since 1987, has been actively engaged in Arctic medical research. He earned a PhD in 1991 and became a Doctor of Medical Sciences in 1995 from Moscow University. In addition to directing the Institute of Physiology, he is also the head of the Department of Biochemistry of Komi Branch of Kirov State Medical Academy, Syktyvkar, Russia.

How Maternal Health Matters for Child’s Health?

MARJO-RIITTA JÄRVELIN, MD, MSC, PHD

Marjo-Riitta was trained in medicine in the University of Oulu, Finland and in Environmental Epidemiology and Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London. She is currently affiliated at Imperial College London and has a part-time professorship at the National Institute of Health and Welfare in Finland. She is a director of the widely acknowledged Northern Finland Birth Cohort Studies (about 50 000 subjects, born in 1966 and 1986). Her special focus has been in understanding the disease development from prenatal period until adult age. She has also an active role in research training as a Divisional Director of Postgraduate Studies.

Thursday, July 16, 10:30AM

JOHN B. ZOE

John is leading statesman and key catalyst in launching and resolving the Tłįchǫ negotiations with the Canadian federal government, Zoe is currently the Chief Executive Officer for the Tłįchǫ government. One of the foremost experts on Tłįchǫ history, a custodian of Tłįchǫ culture, and a driving force in the protection and enhancement of the Tłįchǫ language, he helped to create the Behchokǫ Community Teacher Education Program which incorporates Indigenous education philosophies into a modern curriculum.