Chenoa Cassidy-Matthews, MPH on Indigenous research and shark tank diving

Chenoa Cassidy-Matthews is a rockstar PhD student in epidemiology at the University of British Columbia School of Population and Public Health.  She is a member of the Sachigo Lake First Nation, which is an Oji Cree First Nation band government in an area that colonizers now call Northwestern Ontario Canada. Chenoa  is an indigenous health researcher and epidemiologist. She studies the impacts of overdose and COVID-19 on urban Indigenous young people, and develop recommendations for a holistic, self-determined, Indigenous response. Chenoa talks with me about her Indigenous background and research and how they conflict with her current training and how she takes care of herself in a time when Indigenous Nations and Peoples’ human rights are violated. Chenoa and I discuss how she pushes back on academic norms, how she stays connected to her culture, and many of the enriching outside of work activities that make her a very whole person. You'll learn something here as I did! Enjoy!

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