Indigenous Community & Planetary Health Research Lab
Meet the Team
Dr. Nicole Redvers
(she/her/hers)
Principal Investigator, Western Research Chair, and Director of Indigenous Planetary Health.
Dr. Nicole Redvers, DPhil, ND, MPH, is a member of the Denı́nu Kų́ę́ First Nation (Northwest Territories, Canada), and is an Associate Professor, Western Research Chair, and Director of Indigenous Planetary Health at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University. She also currently serves as the Vice President Research at the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC). Dr. Redvers has had previous appointments in both the Department of Family & Community Medicine and the Department of Indigenous Health at the University of North Dakota where she helped co-develop the first Indigenous Health PhD degree program in North America. She has been actively involved at regional, national, and international levels promoting the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives in both human and planetary health research and practice. Dr. Redvers sits on the Canada Research Coordinating Committees’ Indigenous Leadership Circle in Research (ILCR), the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA), and is a commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Arctic Health as well as the Lancet Commission on the Prevention of Viral Spillover. She additionally sits on the steering committee for the Planetary Health Alliance (PHA) based out of John Hopkins, is an advisory member to the World Health Organization (WHO) Technical Advisory Group on embedding ethics in health and climate change, and serves on the Climate Impacts Advisory Committee for the Wellcome Trust. Her scholarly work engages a breadth of scholarly projects attempting to bridge gaps between Indigenous and Western ways of knowing as it pertains to individual, community and planetary health. Dr. Redvers is the author of the trade paperback book titled, ‘The Science of the Sacred: Bridging Global Indigenous Medicine Systems and Modern Scientific Principles’.
Current Trainees
Post-Doctoral Associate:
Dr. Danya Carroll
Dr. Danya Carroll, PhD, MPH, is Diné (Navajo) and White Mountain Apache from Arizona in the Southwestern United States. She has a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the University of Arizona and a Master of Public Health in Community Health Education from the Colorado School of Public Health. She recently graduated from the University of North Dakota with a PhD in Indigenous Health. Danya has worked in various capacities including with the Tribal, nonprofit and research sectors. Her public health work and practice has evolved around building culturally relevant models and practices to improve healthy food access in American Indian communities. She has worked with school gardening and nutrition programs for Indigenous youth. Her work on the Navajo Nation included delivering and refining the Healthy Navajo Stores Initiative and Fruit & Vegetable Prescription (FVRx) programs. More recently, Danya focused on building Tribal capacity to strengthen Tribal food systems, and agricultural and culturally-based programming for White Mountain Apache communities.
(she/her/hers)
email: dcarro4@uwo.ca
PhD Candidate:
Dr. Yasaman Mohammadi Kamalabadi
Dr. Yasaman Mohammadi Kamalabadi, DDS, MSc, is originally from Iran, where she completed her Doctor of Dental Surgery in 2018. She spent three years teaching and practicing dentistry at Rafsanjan Dental School. The year of 2019 ignited her interest in research, which led her to a role at a local Cohort Studies Centre. This newfound passion for epidemiology brought her to Canada, where she completed her Master’s in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Western Ontario in 2023. Shortly after, she began a PhD in Oral Health Sciences at McGill University, but soon realized her true calling was in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Yasaman is excited to start her PhD in this field at Western University in the fall of 2024. Her time in Canada has been enriching, allowing her to work as a Research Assistant on various projects across dental education, teledentistry, and community engagement, furthering her commitment to impactful research in public health.
(she/her/hers)
email: ymoham24@uwo.ca
Research Assistant:
Yasir Essar
Yasir Essar, MSc, is a former refugee from Afghanistan and holds an MSc in Global Health from McMaster University. Before moving to Canada, he lived as a refugee in Tajikistan after fleeing Afghanistan, where he actively raised awareness about refugee experiences through research, advocacy, and public engagement. Yasir is currently a Visiting Academic at the University of Southampton’s Faculty of Medicine in addition to his role at Western University. His research has been published in leading journals, including The Lancet, BMJ, and PLoS. He is additionally a certified Project Management Professional (PMP®️) and has earned multiple credentials from Wayne State University, the University of Geneva, McGill University, and the LinkedIn Learning Academy. During his tenure as a Research Assistant at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center, he contributed to tuberculosis research, further strengthening his expertise in infectious diseases and global health. Yasir is eager to connect with professionals in global health and humanitarian research. He welcomes opportunities for collaboration, guest lectures, and discussions on refugee health and global health challenges.
(he/him/his)
email: messar@uwo.ca