Executive and Board of Directors

Kimberly Fairman is an Inuk woman from the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut. She is currently the Executive Director at the Institute for Circumpolar Health Research in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

After a career in the federal public service, she completed a Masters Degree in Public Health. She works with researchers, Indigenous knowledge holders, clinicians and policymakers in health systems research that impacts on the northern patient experience. Kimberly plays an important role by weaving partnerships into the research fabric, engaging with communities and building northern capacity for health research.

With continuing support from Canadian funding agencies and university partners, Kimberly is showcasing the valuable contribution of northern communities, practitioners and Indigenous knowledge holders to the modern research agenda.

Nathaniel Pollock (Settler, he/him) is a research associate and adjunct professor in the School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies at the Labrador Institute. Through this role, he works collaboratively with Indigenous governments and health and social care agencies in Labrador and elsewhere in the Circumpolar North on research, post-secondary education, and program and policy development projects.

Nathaniel completed a Masters of Social Work at Carleton University and a PhD in Community Health at Memorial University. As an interdisciplinary public health scholar, Nathaniel uses mixed methods and community-based approaches to research.

His interests include suicide prevention and mental health promotion, health services, and child and family health, particularly in rural, northern and Indigenous communities.

Wayne Clark is originally from Churchill and an enrolled Inuk beneficiary of the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement (Tikiraqjuaq). He is the Executive Director of Indigenous Health Initiatives for the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta.

Throughout his career, Wayne worked in various program management roles in the areas of Indigenous health, research, and communications. He was an inaugural board member of the Manitoba Inuit Association where he formalized a partnership with Ongomizwiin Research at the University of Manitoba and established a protocol for Inuit research engagement. Wayne is currently the treasurer for the CSCH and a member of the Social & Human Working Group for the International Arctic Science Committee. Wayne completed a Doctor of Education in Distance Education from Athabasca University and holds a Masters of Arts in Professional Communication from Royal Roads University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Winnipeg.

His research interests include Indigenous health education, Indigenous health systems, Indigenous research methodologies, and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ).

Sila Rogan is a medical student at the University of British Columbia. She is proudly Inuk, born in Iqaluit and raised in Winnipeg.

Sila has been an advocate for increasing access to quality health care in Indigenous communities, working with various health care and Indigenous organizations across Canada. She is also the Director of Community Outreach for the UBC Red Cross Club and is a co-chair on UBC’s Student Health and Wellbeing Advisory Committee.

Sila is interested in incorporating Indigenous epistemology into the health care system, the health sciences and science education.

Josée Lavoie was born and raised in northern Québec.

She completed her university education at McGill University and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she studied health care system designed from an international perspective, with a close interest to the complexity of providing access to responsive care in rural, remote and northern environments.

Josée is currently engaged in a study in partnership with Inuit Elders and the Manitoba Inuit Association, looking at access to health services delivered in Manitoba. She is also an Arctic Fulbright Scholar, pursuing two comparative circumpolar health policy projects. She is Professor in the Dept of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba, and Director of Ongomiizwin Research, which is part of the Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing.

Priscilla Ferrazzi is a long-time lawyer affiliated with both Queen’s University and the University of Alberta. She is legal counsel in the research contracts unit of the Office of Partnerships and Innovation at Queen’s University and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta.

Priscilla completed a CIHR-funded Postdoctoral Fellowship in Public Health at the University of Alberta, a SSHRC-funded PhD in Rehabilitation Science at Queen’s University, and a Master and Bachelor of Laws at Queen’s University.

Priscilla’s research interests are in health and justice with a focus on Canada’s North.

Katherine Minich is an Inuk scholar. Born to an Inuk mother from Pangnirtung and non-Inuk father, she has lived across Eastern Canada.

She completed a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology at Concordia University and a Masters in Health Science from the University of Toronto where she studied health promotion. Further interest in governance processes lead her to Toronto Metropolitan University University in the PhD program in Policy Studies (ABD).

Katherine is currently a lecturer at Carleton University in the Indigenous Policy and Administration Program at the School of Public Policy and Administration. Current areas of interest for Katherine includes freshwater in Nunavut, Inuit maternal health and midwifery, and Inuktut futures.

Dr. Alex Drossos is a Child Psychiatrist and Assistant Professor at McMaster University, where he is also the instructor of the graduate course, “Circumpolar Health: A Global Health Perspective”. He is passionate about Inuit health and, more generally, the health and human rights of Indigenous Peoples globally.

While not Indigenous nor a northerner himself, Alex has long-standing clinical experience in Canada’s north, primarily in Nunavut. He provides weekly virtual and semi-annual in-person psychiatric care to Nunavummiut. Locally in Hamilton, Alex works with the Child & Youth Mental Health Program at McMaster Children’s Hospital as well as at the De dwa da dehs nye>s Aboriginal Health Centre. Beyond medicine, Alex’s additional education includes computer engineering (BESc), biology (BSc), health services management (MBA) and health professional education (MEd) during which he completed the Collaborative Program in Aboriginal Health. He is also very involved in e-Health, Virtual Care and Digital Health Literacy/Safety initiatives and research.

Alex continues to enthusiastically struggle with learning basic Inuktitut. Prior to becoming President of CSCH from 2018-2021, Alex served as the CSCH Treasurer for two terms.