Katrina Plamondon is an Assistant Professor at the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. She is a mother, artist, sister, and friend—a Canadian woman of Cree and settler ancestry whose heartstrings are tied to the Kootenay and Okanagan regions of British Columbia. The stories of her family reflect those of Canada in the twentieth century, of different cultures blending together through marriage and navigating family-level impacts of colonization. These roots influence and shape the work she does, where she leverages her work and position to create opportunities to advance equity in both content and process.
A 2020 Michael Smith Health Research Scholar, her program of research focuses on questions of how to advance equity action. Dr. Plamondon’s clinical foundations are in critical care/emergency and street outreach. She completed a Master of Science in Community Health & Epidemiology in 2006 (University of Saskatchewan) and doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia under a Banting & Best Canada Graduate Scholarship, for which her research extended a decade of research and practice in knowledge translation with a focus on advancing health equity. She works with people across sectors and systems, in a variety of settings, to ask critical questions about the equity implications of their work so they can advance practices and policies that contribute to more equitable futures. She plays a national leadership role in global health. She was the Principal Investigator for the multi-year Gathering Perspectives Studies that led to the creation of the equity-centred CCGHR Principles for Global Health Research (available here), named as a core element of implementing a commitment to equity in CIHR’s Framework for Action on Global Health Research (see details here). She leads national dialogue about equity and Canada’s role in global health research, with a special focus on issues of vaccine equity. Dr. Plamondon co-chairs the Canadian Association for Global Health’s University Advisory Council and sits on Canada’s National Scientific Advisory Committee on Global Health.