Susan Jack RN BScN PhD

Founder, PHN-PREP

I have always valued the important work of public health nurses in promoting the health of individuals and families during pregnancy and the early years, and especially the critical care that they provide to families experiencing social and economic disadvantage. My knowledge of public health nursing practice is grounded in my early experiences as a public health nurse in both Alberta and Ontario. As a Professor, School of Nursing, Associate Member in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, and a Core Member, Offord Centre for Child Studies, I have had the opportunity to develop a program of research focused on the development, evaluation, and dissemination of public health nursing interventions, specifically home visiting, to improve maternal-child health outcomes, and those developed to prevent family violence, including child maltreatment and intimate partner violence. More recently, building on my expertise as an applied qualitative health researcher, I have begun to explore, document and share the tacit knowledge of public health nurses – or that professional knowledge that is rooted in context, their experiences, practice and values – as a way to make visible the complex, critical processes used by these professionals to influence health outcomes.

I completed a Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University of Alberta (1993) followed by a PhD (Clinical Health Sciences) at McMaster University (2003). I completed a post-doctoral fellowship (2004-2006), funded by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University and at the Knowledge Utilization Studies Program at the University of Alberta, with a policy practicum at the Public Health Agency of Canada. The foundation of my research program was supported with a CIHR New Investigator Award (2007-2012)./p>

Emily Belita RN PhD

Emily is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Nursing at McMaster University and the School of Public Health and Health Systems at the University of Waterloo. Emily has experience working as a frontline public health nurse in the areas of chronic disease prevention and school health. Her research interests include evidence-informed decision-making and knowledge translation in the context of public health and exploring the critical roles of public health nurses as leaders in protecting and promoting the health and well-being of individuals, communities, and populations.

Karen Campbell RN PhD

I am a post-doctoral fellow and an Ontario Women’s Health Scholar at Western University, Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing. I completed a Master of Nursing at Ryerson University and received a PhD in Nursing from McMaster University. My doctoral work focused on the influence of geography on the Nurse-Family Partnership® program in British Columbia. I have over 20 years of experience as a Registered Nurse and my clinical background is in public health nursing, with a focus on reproductive and child health. My program of research is at the intersection of women’s health and physical and social geography. I am most interested in how community health nursing intervention programs can improve health and quality of life for women experiencing health inequities across diverse geographical settings, including rural communities and women with disabilities.

Sarah Carsley MSc PhD

I joined the PHN-PREP team in February 2021. I am the Applied Public Health Science Specialist in Healthy Growth and Development in the department of Health Promotion, Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention at Public Health Ontario (PHO). I have a Master of Science degree in Epidemiology from McGill University and a PhD in Health Policy, Management and Evaluation from the University of Toronto. In my position at PHO, I Chair the Healthy Growth and Development Evidence Network, a group of public health practitioners working on maternal, child and family health in public health units across Ontario. I have also previously worked on the Rourke Baby Record and Greig Health Record evidence updates and as a Clinical Research Project Manager on the TARGet Kids! Study at the Hospital for Sick Children. My research interests include applied public health research, early childhood growth and development, adverse childhood experiences, reproductive health, and health services research.

Andrea Gonzalez PhD

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, and a core member of the Offord Centre for Child Studies. My research focuses on 1) the intergenerational transmission of risk; 2) the impact of early adversity on later outcomes and physiology; 3) preventive interventions and the role of biological mechanisms; and 4) evaluation of preventive parenting interventions. I adopt a multi-levelled, multi-method approach, collecting behavioural, cognitive, and biological measures from mothers and their children (ages 0-6 years) within longitudinal studies or the context of evidence-based interventions. I am an Editorial Board Member for the journals Archives of Women’s Mental Health, Child Abuse & Neglect and Child Maltreatment and currently hold a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Family Health and Preventive Interventions.

Elizabeth Orr RN MSC PHD

I am an Assistant Professor in the Nursing Department at Brock University. My research is focused on understanding the complex processes of hospital-to-home transitions – especially for mothers and infants experiencing vulnerability – and building connections between acute care and community services. I also bring 13 years of experiences as an RN in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to my current academic and research roles.