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.