This episode features Dr. Bernice Downey. Dr. Downey is a woman of Ojibwe and Celtic heritage, a mother, and a grandmother. She is a medical anthropologist whose current research interests include Indigenous women's heart health, health literacy, Indigenous Traditional Knowledge, and health and research system reform for Indigenous populations. She is a Heart & Stroke Foundation-CIHR Early Career Chair in Indigenous Women's Heart and Brain Health. She is also the inaugural Associate Dean, Indigenous Health for the Faculty of Health Sciences, and a former Acting Director of the McMaster Indigenous Research Institute.

Dr. Downey has participated in multiple national and international Indigenous research policy initiatives, including serving as a two-term member of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research's Institute of Aboriginal Health Advisory Board, helping plan and participate in the International Network of Indigenous Health Knowledge Development, and serving as Chief Executive Officer of the National Aboriginal Health Organization, whose mandate included a strong research and knowledge translation focus.

As part of her post-doctoral fellowship role with the Department of Graduate Studies at McMaster, Dr. Downey led the development of the innovative Indigenous Undergraduate Summer Research Scholars Program and the McMaster Indigenous Research Institute.

This episode features Dr. Christopher Mushquash. Dr. Mushquash is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Mental Health and Addiction, and Professor in the Department of Psychology at Lakehead University and the Division of Human Sciences at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine University. He is also Vice President Research at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and Chief Scientist and Chief Operating Officer at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute. He is the Director of the Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research at Lakehead University. In addition to his academic appointments, Dr. Mushquash is a registered clinical psychologist providing assessment, intervention, and consultation services for First Nations children, adolescents, and adults at Dilico Anishinabek Family Care. In 2025, Dr. Mushquash was inducted as a Fellow in the Royal Society of Canada. Dr. Mushquash is Anishinawbe (Ojibway) and a member of Pawgwasheeng (Pays Plat First Nation).

https://amshealthcare.ca/

This episode features Dr. Gus Hill, who earned his PhD in Social Work from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2008, following his MSW from Laurier and a BSW in Indigenous Social Work from Laurentian University.

Gus is a Full Professor and Hallman Research Chair in Child and Family Wellness. He teaches in the Indigenous Field of Study at the MSW and PhD levels in the Faculty of Social Work at Laurier.

His research practice is guided by OCAP (Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession) and relational accountability, and generally focuses on improving the well-being of Indigenous peoples in Canada. His research is guided by wholism and a commitment to placing control of Indigenous knowledge firmly in the hands of Indigenous communities.

Dr. Hill's current work focuses on Indigenous family wholistic wellness, Indigenous community capacity building, Indigenous community engagement with water safety and protection, and Indigenous worker wholistic wellness.

https://amshealthcare.ca/