Working directly with Indigenous communities across Canada to inform our research
Who we are
We are a group of researchers, educators, and Indigenous community members (youth, Elders, educators, parents, health practitioners and policy makers) from Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey, Tsuut'ina Education Department (Alberta), Chilliwack School District (British Columbia), Three Nations Education (New Brunswick), Dalhousie University, Alberta Health Services and University of British Columbia Faculty of Education. We are funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to lead the project entitled, Developing, Evaluating and Sustaining a School-Based Mental Health Literacy Resource for Indigenous Youth.
This project is also supported by Women and Children's Health Research Institute at the University of Alberta and the Max Bell Foundation.
Project partners
Chilliwack School District (British Columbia)
Alberta Health Services / MentalHealthLiteracy.Org
Tsuut'ina Board of Education (Alberta)
Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey (Nova Scotia)
Our team
Dr. Yifeng Wei, Principal Investigator
Dr. Yifeng Wei, MA, PhD, has worked as a researcher and school mental health lead with MentalHealthLiteracy.org since 2008. She is currently assistant professor with the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Alberta and adjunct assistant professor at Dalhousie University. Her research interests focus on promoting mental health literacy in schools (both secondary and post-secondary settings) to help students gain better understanding about mental health and mental disorders, reduce stigma against mental illness, obtain and maintain good mental health and enhance help-seeking behaviors. She has made a significant contribution to school mental health research, program development, and education across Canada and around the world. Dr. Wei continues to work with school districts and educations institutions to improve health outcomes for students and educators. Dr. Wei has co-authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and one book on school mental health. She has led/co-led more than 30 school mental health projects, locally, nationally and internationally. She has also presented at regional, national and international scientific meetings and conferences. Dr. Wei was awarded the Canadian Institute of Health Research Doctoral Research Award in 2011 and the Dalhousie University President’s award in 2011 and 2012.
British Columbia
Dr. Jan Hare, Co-PI
Dr. Jan Hare is an Anishinaabe scholar and educator from the M’Chigeeng First Nation, located in northern Ontario, and current Dean pro tem of the UBC Faculty of Education. She seeks to transform education in ways that are more inclusive of Indigenous ways of knowing. Her research is concerned with improving educational outcomes for Indigenous learners by centering Indigenous knowledge systems within educational reform from early childhood education, K to 12 schooling, through to post-secondary learning, recognizing the holistic and multidisciplinary nature of Indigenous education. In her role as a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Pedagogy, Dr. Hare is examining the complex processes of learning to teach using Indigenous knowledge frameworks. Focusing on instructor knowledge, beliefs and practices, she and her team seek to establish evidence-informed practices for improving how instructors teach and students learn from Indigenous intellectual traditions and practices.
Dr. Hare has centred the importance of mental wellbeing in much of her educational leadership and community outreach, most notably in her recent role as Director of UBC’s Indigenous Teacher Education Program (NITEP). She recognizes that Indigenous identity, balance, positive relationships and connectedness, and Indigenous ways of knowing as core elements that can exist alongside Western/Eurocentric approaches to mental health and wellbeing for Indigenous people.
Dr. Wendy Carr
Dr. Wendy Carr is a Professor of Teaching in Language and Literacy Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. She has had a long career in education in the school system as teacher and district level consultant as well as in post-secondary as a teacher educator and administrative leader. Her work in recent years in mental health literacy education has included the co-creation of a curriculum for pre-service teachers to develop their understanding and skills related to youth mental health, completion of a number of research studies that have been published nationally, mobilization of BC school district leaders to build staff professional capacity in mental health literacy, and collaborative projects with a number of partners including the Ministry of Education, various mental health agencies and other provincial organizations.
She is honoured to work alongside Indigenous leaders, educators, health professionals, elders and youth in co-developing a curriculum resource that is strengths-based, holistic in its approach and guided by Indigenous knowledges and perspectives. We have much to learn in this project as we work towards the overarching goal of providing meaningful, culturally respectful support for Indigenous youth wellbeing.
Brenda Point
Brenda Point is Anishinaabe and has made her roots in the Sto:lo territory. She is a wife, mother and grandmother. Born in Port Arthur, Ontario Brenda’s family moved to British Columbia where she completed her Grade 1-12 education. Her mother, a residential school survivor of the Birtle school, is from Tootinaowaziibeeng First Nation in Manitoba, her father is Metis from the Red River Valley and she is married into Skowkale First Nation, in Chilliwack BC.
Brenda has been supporting Indigenous students and families in Chilliwack School District since beginning her career in 1994. Over the years her leadership as an Indigenous Educator has included roles as Indigenous Education Enhancement teacher, School Principal and most recently as District Principal for Indigenous Education. Her passion and commitment to improve school experiences for future generations drives her to work collaboratively with the local Sto:lo people as well as all other Indigenous folks in the territory.
The Indigenous Youth Mental Health Literacy project is an important strategy for all young people to gain an understanding about their own wellbeing through Indigenous ways of knowing and being.
Melanie Nelson
Melanie Nelson is Samahquam, which is one of the First Nations communities that make up the In-SHUCK-ch Nation, who are part of the larger St’at’imc people in BC. She is also Squiala from the Stó:lō Nation. Melanie has experience as an Indigenous Education & Inclusive Education teacher, she has taught K-12, and has taught in mainstream, adapted, modified, and alternate settings.
Currently a school psychologist, she is completing her PhD in School and Applied Child Psychology at UBC. Her dissertation is being completed in collaboration with a local Nation exploring how their youth identify and access mental health supports in their communities, in schools, and in the public/Western community. Elder Gerry Oleman (Tsal’alh First Nation, St’at’imc) has been Eldering for Melanie since November 2017, sharing traditional approaches to wellness while she receives Western training. Melanie is the graduate student coordinating the BC portion of the IYMHL project.
As the granddaughter of two Indian Residential School Survivors, this project is important to heal our Ancestors, to enhance educator capacity through a meaningful tool, and to improve supports for current and future generations of Indigenous youth.
Saylesh Wesley
Saylesh Wesley is an Indigenous educator of Coast Salish and Tsimshian descent. Currently she works as the District Indigenous Education Resource Enhancement Teacher for the Chilliwack School District and also continues to present at a wide variety of events as it relates to her varied Indigenous knowledge and lived experience. Given that Saylesh is steeped in her own Coast Salish Indigenous culture, she always aims to share her story and her compassionate listening ears as a junior elder. Saylesh continues her aspirations towards her own wellness and healing and she has committed to ‘share back’ what she has learned. This important project that supports the wellness of our Indigenous youth is one of her biggest reasons that she invests so much time and good energy towards our future’s generational healing.
Northwest Territories
Joel Dragon Smith
Joel Dragon Smith is from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and is the Indigenous Youth Representative on the project. Joel has grown up experiencing the effect of colonization on Indigenous ways of being and is passionate about giving Indigenous youth a voice and the resources to be able to reclaim a holistic relationship with health for themselves. He has been through the mental health system which gives him knowledge and understanding of what currently exists for mental health support and of mental illness itself, from the perspective of Indigenous youth.
This project is important because I see the trauma and hurt that Indigenous people carry as a result of colonization and systems that broke their original way of life. I strongly feel that Indigenous youth deserve thoughtful tools to heal the intergenerational trauma in a way that speaks to them from their perspective. I want them to have the resources to guide them towards a worldview on health that resonates with them and their ancestors. I want to help them to find harmony within all areas of their life, so their lives may flow with ease, their relationships may flourish and their mind may remain peaceful.
Brenda Dragon
Brenda Dragon is a volunteer from the Northwest Territories. Having navigated the health care system in dealing with mental health recovery for her son, she developed unique understanding becoming an advocate for youth mental health. Brenda has had in-depth experience as a parent in the broader educational system and cultural inclusion and has contributed and volunteered in many organizations and boards in the NWT. Having had career experience in the fields of Health, Education, Indigenous Tourism and currently, she is the President and Founder of her own business, Aurora Heat, Inc.
This project is important to me because I feel my role representing parents/grandparents is an important voice that I can contribute to the project. Just as students and youth need the tools for literacy for healthy mental health, parents/grandparents also need their care and concern to be reflected as a part of the process of defining those tools.
Alberta
Valerie McDougall
Bio coming soon.
Andrew Baxter
Andrew Baxter is the Mental Health Literacy Program Director within the Team for Innovation in Medicine and Education for Mental Health (TIIME4MH) Centre at the University of Alberta. His work focuses on helping schools implement practical, evidence-informed approaches that improve mental health literacy among educators and students.
Prior to joining the University of Alberta, Andrew spent more than a decade at Alberta Health Services working with education and youth serving agencies to translate mental health research into clear, practical knowledge for teachers and school leaders. Since 2013, he has supported the delivery of mental health literacy training to over 50,000 educators across Canada. His work focuses on equipping educators with the knowledge and confidence to recognize mental health problems, reduce stigma, and support early help-seeking among students.
Earlier in his career, Andrew worked as a mental health therapist supporting children, adolescents, and young adults from kindergarten through post-secondary education. In this role, he regularly consulted with educators and parents to help them understand and respond to student mental health needs.
Andrew also evaluates mental health literacy approaches in schools, examining how training and educational resources influence knowledge, attitudes, and help-seeking behaviours.
Internationally, he has collaborated with partners, including the Pan American Health Organization and Caribbean education ministries, to adapt and implement school mental health literacy programs across diverse education systems.
Stacey Runningrabbit
Bio coming soon.
Georgina Bird
Bio coming soon.
Nova Scotia
Ann Syliboy
Bio coming soon.
Elizabeth Cremo
Bio coming soon.
New Brunswick
Katalin Koller
Bio coming soon.