Speaker
Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Health, Laurentian University Core Scientist and Indigenous Health Lead, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences
Jennifer Walker, PhD
Jennifer Walker is a Haudenosaunee member of Six Nations of the Grand River with a Ph.D. in Community Health Services (Epidemiology). Dr. Walker’s work focuses largely on Indigenous community-engaged health research on aging, chronic disease management, and assessment of quality in programs and services for older adults. Her research program is supported through a Canada Research Chair for Indigenous Health at Laurentian University and her work as a Core Scientist and Indigenous Health Lead at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). Dr. Walker’s primary academic appointment is at Laurentian University within the School of Rural and Northern Health; she is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Dr. Walker’s research prioritizes community-driven projects that use Indigenous principles of data governance and ownership as a foundation. Through her role at ICES, she works with Indigenous data partnership and governance agreements that ground research and surveillance initiatives in Indigenous perspectives. Dr. Walker has recently collaborated on a project using data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) focused on understanding aging and cognition in Indigenous populations in Canada.