Disrupting the Status Quo: Intersecting Inequities Impacting Women in the FoM and Opportunities for Change

Dr. Terri Aldred is Carrier from the Tl’Azt’En territory located north of Fort St. James. She is Lysiloo (Frog) Clan who are traditionally known as the voice of the people. She follows her mother’s and Great-Grandmother’s line Cecilia Pierre (Prince).  Terri grew up in both the inner city of Prince George and on the Tachet reserve (in Lake Babine Territory) and these experiences helped motivate her to go to medical school so she could give back to her community. Terri has a Bachelor of Health Science Degree and a Doctor of Medicine Degree from the University of Alberta. She then went on to complete the Indigenous Family Medicine residency program through the University of British Columbia. At present, Terri is the Site Director for the Indigenous Family Medicine Program, Family Physician for the Carrier Sekani Family Services Primary Care team that serve12 communities in north-central BC, the Medical Director for Primary Care for FNHA, and the Indigenous Lead for the RCcBC. 

Derek Thompson – Thlaapkiituup is an advisor in the Faculty of Medicine Office of Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (REDI). Thlaapkiituup is from the diitiidʔaaʔtx̣ – Ditidaht First Nation, one of fourteen Nuuchahnulth Nations on the west coast of Vancouver Island. As the REDI Indigenous Advisor, Derek provides leadership and support across the Faculty to help create and sustain learning and work environments that incorporate standards of cultural safety and humility and that are free from Indigenous specific racism and discrimination. Derek promotes inclusion of an Indigenous perspective in all Faculty initiatives. Derek also works closely with the Director, Indigenous Engagement to implement the Faculty’s response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action in a way that will best support the formal commitments made to Indigenous peoples for a better and just future. This important work will also create opportunities for students, staff and faculty to engage with Indigenous people and communities in meaningful ways, and to begin anew the creation of redressing what we believe ourselves to be – as Indigenous peoples, and as Canadians.

Dr. Bonita Sawatzky is an Associate Professor and Director of READI (Respect, Equity, Anti-Racism, Diversity and Inclusion) for the Department of Orthopeadics. Key initiatives so far have been on awareness and education with department grand rounds, resident training, website creation, and spotlights on department members who exemplify READI principles. Dr Sawatzky is now bringing a READI perspective to all departmental staff/faculty  and resident recruitment interview panels. She has worked in spinal cord injury research as a clinical biomechanist. She is a dedicated teacher in UBC’s Faculty of Medicine, working  with medical students, residents and graduate students for the past 25 years. 

Dr. Brittany Bingham, MPH, PhD is of mixed ancestry and a proud member of the Shíshálh Nation and inaugural Director of Indigenous Research at the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity. She has worked in various capacities in research with Indigenous communities and policy for over 15 years. She is passionate about community-driven research, Indigenous research methods, health equity, Indigenous women’s health, Indigenous housing and homelessness, cultural safety and reconciliation. Dr. Bingham has overseen Indigenous cultural safety and humility efforts across research practices at CGSHE/University of British Columbia.

I believe everyone has the right to be an occupational human being. “The personal is political” – whether I am playing basketball, biking, cooking with my children, reading, watching a movie with my partner, talking to my mother, working on a research project, or marking an assignment – I am always occupied. I believe that everyone has the right to participate in meaningful occupations.

Our world is facing serious problems that affect the occupational performance of many people: violence, wars, chronic diseases, unemployment, poverty, and lack of acceptance and tolerance toward groups of people who differ from us. I am interested in looking at the relationship between the person, the environment and the occupation, to enhance health and well being of individuals and of society as a whole. That’s why I am an occupational therapy scientist!

Dr. Tatiana Sotindjo is currently part of the pediatric care team at the Provincial HIV care program and consultant Adolescent Medicine Specialist at BC Children’s Youth Health Clinic. She was appointed as inaugural Hudson Scholar for Equity Diversity and Inclusion for the UBC Department of Pediatrics.

Dr. Tatiana Sotindjo is an exemplary leader in equity, diversity and inclusion, and in her clinical work in pediatric HIV care and addictions care. As the Hudson, ‘Scholar for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion she has been a leader, a mentor and an inspiration to residents and fellows from pediatrics, infectious diseases, medical microbiology and adolescent medicine. She advocates tirelessly for patients and staff facing racism and discrimination; she constantly challenges us to do better and never accepted the status quo as sufficient – as such, those around her have all been raised to a higher bar because of her impact and influence.

Nasim is a researcher and educator in the field of Education with specific attention to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. She is a Research Assistant for Breaking the Glass Ceiling: An Appreciative Inquiry and Recommendations for Faculty Gender Equity and Inclusivity in the UBC Faculty of Medicine (FoM). Her teaching involved various courses in the field of Adult Education and Lifelong learning. Her research work has mainly focused on equity-seeking groups and individuals such as racialized minority women, First generation immigrants and students, as well as refugees. She studied the impediments to economic and social inclusion faced by these populations. She is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Educational Studies at UBC Faculty of Education. Her dissertation focuses on the issues of inclusion and belonging within the context of cognitive imperialism approached through a transnational feminist lens.Nasim is currently working as an educational Resource Development Co-Ordinator at the Respectful Equity Diversity Inclusion (REDI) office of the Faculty of Medicine.

Sonia Medel is an interdisciplinary researcher-curator-artist completing a PhD in Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia as a Public Scholar, whilst leading diverse curatorial, filmmaking, choreographic, and publishing projects. She has been promoting decolonial intersectional feminist engagement with arts, culture, and education across the Americas for over a decade. She is a Research Assistant for Breaking the Glass Ceiling: An Appreciative Inquiry and Recommendations for Faculty Gender Equity and Inclusivity in the UBC Faculty of Medicine (FoM). Her doctoral project centers the experiences of racialized women, bridging the fields of arts and policy for socio-political transformation. Her broader research interests and areas of expertise include anti-oppressive curricular initiatives and qualitative methodologies, responsible curation, Latin American diaspora and youth, and sustainable intercultural development and education. Medel is also a college and university instructor, always open to teaching engagements. She strives to merge her academic institutional and creative sector experiences to further the inclusion of vulnerable peoples (as identified by the United Nations) and their knowledges in formal physical and virtual spaces of publishing, policy-making, and governance. Most of Medel’s peer-reviewed works can be found on Academia.edu, including her co-edited two-part Special Issue of the journal Postcolonial Directions in Education, 8(2) 2019 and 9(1) 2020, on the (de)colonial power of film and film festivals, a publication project which included mentoring film practitioners and artists in publishing and decolonizing editorial decision-making. Her co-directed film project, From Chile to Canada: Media Herstories, premiered at the 2022 Vancouver International Film Festival, and is currently making its way around the world. A proud Spanglish speaker, Quechua learner, daughter of Peruvian and Chilean parents, and Indigenous-Afro-European descendant, Medel is grateful to the Coast Salish Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples and their lands on which she was born and carries out her work.

Maria Hubinette (she/her) is a community-based family physician with a special interest in youth and women’s health, including survivors of gender-based and sexualized violence. She is Affiliate Faculty at CGSHE, a Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Practice at UBC and a Scholar at the UBC Centre for Health Education Scholarship. Dr. Hubinette is the Family Medicine Undergraduate Program Director at UBC and a former Assistant Dean, Equity Diversity Inclusion for the UBC Faculty of Medicine.
Maria engages in multiple forms of scholarship, in the domain of health professions education through lenses of social justice, equity, advocacy and social accountability. Broadly, her program of research (scholarship of discovery) explores how we conceptualize and operationalize social accountability and equity as health professionals. For example, one area of research unpacks how our curriculum including clinical learning reifies certain values, worldviews and abilities. Starting with her masters’ thesis exploring the construct of health advocacy, she has pursued a line of research around understanding health advocacy in health professions: how it is learned, how it is enacted, what motivates advocacy, etc. Another area of research considers the experience and professional identify formation of learners, particularly those that identify with groups that are traditionally under-represented in medicine. Scholarship of application includes assuming leadership roles and working with programs to address policies, processes and procedures that disadvantage certain groups using various forms of knowledge. Finally, scholarship of teaching includes translating these various forms of knowledge and perspectives into health professions education through development of curriculum, education tools and education practice.

Neila Miled is the Antiracism Advisor in the UBC Faculty of Medicine Office of Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (REDI). Her role includes providing advising, training and skill-building in anti-racism education and developing, implementing and sustaining strategic best practices in equity, diversity, and inclusion to ensure a respectful, safe, equitable and inclusive learning and working environment. She graduated from UBC Educational Studies with an MA (2012) in Educational Administration and Leadership and a Ph.D. (2020). She was a sessional lecturer in the Teacher Education Program for five years. Her research focuses on anti-racism education, social justice, critical multiculturalism and the schooling experiences of refugee and immigrant students in Canada. Her research is framed by multiple critical theories and epistemologies, including post/decolonial theories, critical race theory, intersectionality, transnational feminism and anti-racism. She also examines the systemic barriers that reproduce inequality, especially as she identifies as a transnational, diasporic and immigrant woman. During her graduate journey, she received several scholarships and awards, including the Canadian Federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Joseph Armand Bombardier Doctoral Fellowship, Killam Trust Doctoral Award, and UBC Public Scholar Initiative award. Neila was born and raised in Kairouan (Tunisia), and she became an uninvited guest on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) First Nation. Her journey of migration and immigration has informed her academic interests and career choices.