Hepatitis C Care and Elimination in Nation: An Indigenous community-led model for HCV Webinar- Kick-Off to North American Hepatitis Elimination Summit

Bios

Report authors

Noreen Reed, Health Centre, Canada Noreen Reed has been a registered nurse for 28 years working in a variety of nursing practice areas. She holds a Diploma, Bachelor of Science and Master Degree in Nursing. Noreen is an Indigenous nurse who up until recently worked for her First Nation Community, Ahtahkakoop First Nation, as Nurse Manager. She has recently accepted a Nursing Faculty Position with Saskpolytechnic School of Nursing. During her time working for her community she was very active in the planning and development of the Know Your Status Program in the area of Hepatitis C care. She is very passionate about nursing and the opportunity to impact positive change specifically in the care of Indigenous people.

Stuart Skinner, Health Authority, Wellness Wheel, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Dr. Stuart Skinner received his Medical Degree in 2002 from the University of Saskatchewan. He also received his Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the University of Alabama-Birmingham in 2005 and Infectious Diseases fellowship from the University of in 2007. Currently, he works as an Infectious Disease specialist in Regina, Saskatchewan, with a focus on HIV and Hepatitis C for vulnerable populations and Indigenous communities. He is the Section Lead for the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Regina COVID-19 Pandemic Area Chief of Staff. Dr. Skinner founded and is the Clinical Director for the Wellness Wheel Medical Clinic & Indigenous Community Research Network, which is a holistic approach to communicable and chronic diseases combining Western and Indigenous approaches in care that is driven and led by people with lived experience and Indigenous communities. These Initiatives have included community-based Hepatitis C elimination programs since 2017

Discussants

Jodie Albert, Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation Health Centre, Canada Jodie Albert a Nehiyaw Iskwew from the Ahtahkakoop First Nation. She works as an Outreach Worker for Mental Health and Addictions for the Ahtahkakoop Health Centre. She is currently a part time student enrolled in the Mental Health and Addictions program to become an Addictions Counselor. She is a recovering addict who was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in 2004, and in 2017 she started treatment and was cured in 2018.

JoLee Sasakamoose, nātawihowin (art of self-healing) Health and Wellness Network, Saskatchewan First Nations and Métis Health and Wellness Research, Training, and Knowledge Mobilization Network, Canada

Dr. JoLee Sasakamoose is the Interim Co-Scientific Director of nātawihowin (art of self-healing) First Nations Health and Wellness Network, Saskatchewan First Nations and Métis Health and Wellness Research, Training, and Knowledge

Mobilization Network. She is the Research Director of Well ness Wheel, responsible for leading the Research Team in supporting Traditional ways of knowing alongside Western approaches to wellbeing. JoLee works tirelessly to stay on top of grant opportunities and is incredibly skilled at translating those opportunities into responsive community- led programming. JoLee has a knack for picking out valuable skills in others and bringing them on board to support the community.

She is a proud Anishinabe (Ojibwe) with membership in M’Chigeeng First Nation in Ontario, an active citizen of Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, and an Associate Professor in Educational Psychology and Counselling at the University of Regina where she teaches Group Counselling, Counselling Girls and Women, Counselling Children and Youth, Indigenous Family Therapies, and Decolonizing Research Methodologies. She co-authored the Indigenous Cultural Responsiveness Theory and has an exceptional way of working in the “middle ground” between Western and Indigenous ways. Jessica Leston, Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB), United States Jessica Leston, MPH is the Clinical Programs Director the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB) where she focuses on systems and policy change. She began her public health career working at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium in 2004 and has worked in tribal health since then. She believes strongly in learning from traditional indigenous ways of knowing to help guide, direct and strengthen our public health systems. Her mother’s side of her family are settlers to Turtle Island, originally from Germany, Sweden and Ireland. Her Father’s side of the family is originally from Austria, Finland and Tsimshian from British Columbia/Southeast Alaska. She grew up in Chicago but spent many summers in Southeast Alaska with her Grandmother’s family – climbing Deer Mountain, picking huckleberries around Ward Lake and watching the salmon make their way to the Ketchikan Creek Falls. In her life and work, she honors the Alutiiq cultural value, “we are responsible for each other and ourselves.”

Brian J. McMahon, Alaska Native Medical Center, United States Brian J. McMahon is a clinical Liver Specialist (Hepatologist) and the Director of the Liver Disease and Hepatitis Program at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska. He is a guest researcher at the Arctic Investigations Program of the Centers for Disease Control in Anchorage, Auxiliary professor at University of Alaska Health Sciences Program and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington. He has directed the vaccination programs in Alaska Natives that have reduced the rates of acute hepatitis A and B from the highest in the US to the lowest in the world. He has been active in research in viral hepatitis A, B, and C, as well as other liver diseases among Alaska Natives/American Indians, for over 35 years. Dr. McMahon is a co-author of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) US Practice Guideline on Chronic Hepatitis B and co-chair of the WHO hepatitis B Guidelines Committee. He was on the Institute of Medicine Committee that published recommendations for Hepatitis and Liver Cancer in 2010. He is the author or co-author of more than 170 peer- reviewed papers, 50 book chapters, review articles, or editorials.