Opening Remarks & Keynote | Child Health Equity: Ensuring that all children thrive

Welcome and Opening Remarks provided by Emily Gruenwoldt, President & CEO, Children’s Healthcare Canada.
Opening Session | Child Health Equity: Ensuring that all children thrive
Description:
Dr. Nicole Catherine will discuss how core principles of child health equity are embedded throughout her work. She will provide four exemplars of her child health equity research: (1) illustrating the unacceptable levels of cumulative disadvantage reported by a cohort of 739 pregnant girls and young women in British Columbia (BC); (2) reporting results from a large, public-health randomized-controlled trial showing the impact of an early prevention program prenatally to early childhood in this cohort; (3) conducting community-based participatory research with equity-deserving mothers on their perceived barriers to programs and services; and (4) informing policymakers on sustained efforts to address barriers to inclusion and engagement for underserved families. Central to Dr. Catherine’s work is a focus on children’s rights and to ensuring that families’ voices are centered and amplified. Her investment in sustained and reciprocal research-policy-practice collaborations have ensured effective uptake of findings into policy and practice-to better support underserved families and ensure that all children thrive.
Speaker:
Dr. Nicole Catherine, Associate Director, Children’s Health Policy Centre
Dr. Nicole Catherine is an Assistant Professor and Associate Director, Children’s Health Policy Centre in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Dr. Catherine also holds the Canada Research Chair in Child Health Equity and Policy, Tier II. Dr. Catherine's research focuses on three areas: (1) generating new evidence to ensure inclusion of children who are experiencing disadvantage in both research and policy making; (2) informing the development and evaluation of interventions that address avoidable early childhood adversities; and (3) informing and supporting policymakers, practitioners, and child-serving organizations in implementing effective programs and options to reduce child health inequities. Dr. Catherine works with senior leaders in the British Columbia government, including the Ministries of Health, Children and Family Development, Mental Health and Addictions, and in regional Health Authorities including Fraser Health, Interior Health, Island Health, and Vancouver Coastal Health, as well as with other child-serving organizations, Indigenous leaders and communities. These partnerships ensure that her research is informed by policy and practice priorities and is embedded within reciprocal policy and practice relationships-also ensuring that results are used to improve conditions and services for children.