Health Talks

Director, Indigenous Women & Family Health | Vancouver Coastal Health

Miranda Kelly (she/her) is Stό:lō and was raised in her home community of Soowahlie First Nation (near Chilliwack, BC). She has ties to Cowichan, Snuneymuxw, and Sumas First Nations through her dad’s side and mixed Russian, Scottish and Welch ancestry on her Mom’s side. Since 2007, she has held positions in Indigenous health research, planning, policy, education, engagement, and community care. Her love for supporting Indigenous women and families grew from her own experience of becoming a parent. After the birth of her second child, she was called to birth work. She practiced as a full spectrum doula with the ekw’i7tl Indigenous doula collective and served primarily Indigenous families in the Metro Vancouver area. Since February of 2021, Miranda has been humbled to hold the role of Director, Indigenous Women & Family Health with Vancouver Coastal Health.

Education & Community Partnerships Manager | BC Dairy Association
Adjunct Professor, Land & Food Systems | University of British Columbia

Joel Barohn is a Chef and Registered Dietitian in Vancouver, BC.  He holds a Masters in Nutrition from the University of Kansas Medical Centre and is an alumnus of the Culinary Institute of America.  His passion is to transform the landscape of healthcare through the adoption of teaching kitchens.  He currently works as an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia.  In this role he teaches future dietetics professionals to combine food skills with principles in nutrition in hands-on food labs.  Since 2019, Joel has led interprofessional hands-on and virtual culinary medicine workshops with medical, nursing, and dietetics students at UBC-Vancouver, UBC-Okanagan, and with Alberta Health Services and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.  In addition to this work, Joel is the Community and Education Manager at BC Dairy Association, where he provides nutrition and education support to schools and health professionals across the province.

Scientific Director, Environmental Health Services | BC Centre for Disease Control
Scientific Director | National Collaboration Centre for Environmental Health

Sarah Henderson is the Scientific Director of Environmental Health Services at the BC Centre for Disease Control and Scientific Director of the National Collaboration Centre for Environmental Health. She oversees a broad program of applied research, surveillance and knowledge translation to support evidence-based environmental health policy and practice in BC and across Canada. Sarah loves big data, public health and helping stakeholders get the answers they need. She has been studying the health effects of climate catastrophes for more than 20 years, which makes for some awkward conversations at parties.

Student, Year 2, Doctor of Medicine Program | University of British Columbia

Born in Tokyo and raised in Vancouver, Judy is currently a medical student studying at the University of British Columbia. She’s dreamed of being a doctor since age of six when she started to look up to them during visits to the hospital for sick family members. Through her experiences working on quality improvement research projects under great mentors, Judy has become passionate about continuously striving to better the patient experience.

Judy is our Health Talks Student Contest winner – learn more.

Medical Director, Mental Health, Telus Health

Matthew Chow is an experienced leader, clinician and innovator. He served as President of Doctors of British Columbia in 2021, supporting physicians through the challenges of a global pandemic, mass immunization campaign and multiple climate-related disasters. Matthew is a clinical specialist in child and youth mental health and was one of the first physicians in Western Canada to regularly see patients by video— years before the COVID-19 pandemic. He has recently joined TELUS Health to provide leadership to a growing mental health program that serves patients across Canada.

President & Chief Executive Officer | Genome BC

Pascal is a seasoned leader known for bringing forward innovation and commercialization at the intersection of industry and academia. He has held several senior roles, in both Europe and Canada, across industry sectors ranging from technology, not for profit organizations and academia. His experience spans general and change management to broad based stakeholder relations.

Prior to joining Genome BC, Pascal held the position of Vice President Communications and Community Partnerships at the University of British Columbia after having served as President and CEO in the private technology sector for the preceding 20 years.

Pascal has also served on a number of private and not for profit boards and currently is a member of the Board of Governors of the BC Business Council and is a Director of Life Sciences BC.

Pascal holds a law degree and a PhD in law from the University of Basel, Switzerland and a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD in France.

Deputy Chief, Vancouver Police Department