Promoting Health Equity: Mental Health of Black Canadians Fund Community Report (2018-2024) : Working group

Brooke Chambers

• Community mental health advisor, Pause Technologies Inc.
• Mental health consultant, speaker, and trainer with expertise in cultural inclusion and belonging, Herbert H. Carnegie Future Aces Foundation

In 1989, at the age of 19, Ms. Chambers was the youngest police officer hired by the Ontario Provincial Police and the only Black female at the time. In this role, Ms. Chambers served in traffic enforcement, accident investigation, officer training, community engagement, strategic policy and planning and fraud investigation. After 9 years, she left policing to pursue a career as a financial advisor working with institutions such as Investors Group and CIBC, where she managed assets of over $60 million. She has also served on the board of directors of the Herbert H. Carnegie Future Aces Foundation, a community organization founded by her late grandfather Dr. Herbert H. Carnegie, Canadian hockey icon. Ms. Chambers holds an Advanced Certificate in Policing from the Ontario Police College and Professional Financial Planning Designation from the Canadian Securities Institute.

Dr. Bukola Salami

• Full professor, Canada Research Chair in Black and Racialized Peoples Health, Department of Community Health Services, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary
• Founder and lead, Black Youth Mentorship and Leadership Program, University of Calgary
• Vice president, Canadian Nurses Association
• Board member and health working group co-chair, Black Opportunity Fund
• Founder, African Child and Youth Migration Network

Dr. Salami's research program focuses on policies and practices that shape immigrant health. As of January 2019, she has been involved in 38 funded research projects. She is the lead on 17 of these projects with funding from national and international agencies.

Dr. Salami has published over 70 papers in peer reviewed journals over the last 7 years, as well as 2 book chapters and 8 reports. She has led research projects on parenting and mental health promotion practices of African immigrants and currently leads projects on mental health of African immigrant children and Black, African and Caribbean youths. She represents the University of Alberta on the steering committee of the Worldwide Universities Network Global Africa Group.

She also leads a 2019 to 2020 WUN-funded project with 20 scholars from 4 continents and 9 countries conducting a scoping review of the global literature on African child health. She has co-led the research committee for the Edmonton Local Immigrant Partnership and was a committee member of the Edmonton Community Foundation Vital Signs Report on the Social Inclusion of Immigrants. She is a council member of the Alberta College of Social Workers. In addition, she is the co-chair of the health caucus of the Black Opportunities Fund, a national initiative to raise funds to address anti-Black racism in Canada.

Dr. Salami has received several awards for research excellence and community engagement:

• 100 Accomplished Black Women in Canada
• Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing Emerging Nurse Researcher of the Year Award
• College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CARNA) Award for Nursing Excellence
• Alberta Avenue Edmonton Top 40 under 40

Dr. Carl James

• Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community, and Diaspora and Professor, Faculty of Education, York University

Dr. James holds the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community & Diaspora in the Faculty of Education at York University, where he is also the Equity Advisor to the Dean. He was also the senior advisor on equity and representation in the office of the Vice President of Equity, People & Culture. In addition to teaching in the Faculty of Education, Carl holds cross-appointments in graduate programs in sociology, social and political thought, and social work. In addition, Dr. James:

• has served as Affirmative Action, Equity & Inclusivity Officer (2006 to 2020)
• was the founding director of the York Centre on Education & Community (2008 to 2016)
• was the director of the graduate program in sociology (2007 to 2008)

A distinguished research professor, James is known for his mentorship of students and colleagues.

Dr. James is a former youth and community worker with a PhD in Sociology. He is widely recognized nationally and internationally for his research contributions in the areas of race, racialization, racism, and inequity as they affect the educational, social, athletic, occupational and health experiences of Black community members. His work explores:

• the ways in which accessible and equitable opportunities in education and employment account for the lived experiences of racialized (particularly Black) community members
• the limits to the Canada's multiculturalism and its promise of equity
• the complementary and contradictory nature of sports in the schooling and educational attainments of Black youth
• the health situation and related access to healthcare of Black community members

In advocating for systemic changes in schooling and education, Dr. James brings attention to the difficulties, obstacles and barriers that stifle the interests, expectations, ambitions and dreams of Black youth at all levels of the education system in Canada. He has also researched and written on the experiences of Caribbean peoples in Canada, as well as on the education and inter-island migration patterns and experiences of people in the Caribbean.

Dr. Charmaine Williams

• Dean, professor, and Sandra Rotman Chair in Social Work
• Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work University of Toronto

Dr. Williams has been a faculty member at the University of Toronto since 2002. On January 1, 2023, she was appointed Dean for a 5-year term. Professor Williams also holds the Sandra Rotman Chair in Social Work. Prior to taking on the role of Dean, Williams was the Vice-Dean of Students at the School of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto. She has also held positions as the:

• Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Officer (2003 to 2004)
• Associate Dean Academic for Social Work (2009 to 2014)
• Provostial Advisor on Access Programs (2014 to 2015)

Dr. Williams' research focuses on health equity issues affecting various populations, including racial minority women, 2SLGBTQIA+ communities and families affected by mental illness. As a social worker in the mental health care system, Dr. Williams worked with individuals, families and organizations to help increase access to mental health services for racial and ethnic minority populations. She has extensive experience developing and delivering professional education in the areas of anti-racism, cultural competence, mental health and addictions.

Recent activities include serving on the Anti-Racism Advisory Panel that developed the Toronto Police Service's race-based data collection policy. She is the principal investigator for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council funded project titled, "United we stand, divided we falter: Advancing a family-centered agenda for research on caregiving."

Dr. Kwame McKenzie

• CEO, Wellesley Institute
• Full professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
• Director of Health Equity, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
• Practicing psychiatrist

Dr McKenzie is a policy advisor, clinician and academic with over 200 papers and 5 books. Dr. McKenzie is an international expert on health equity and the social determinants of health, working across a broad spectrum to improve population health and health services. A Southampton University Medical School graduate, Dr. McKenzie trained as a specialist at the Maudsley Hospital, Institute of Psychiatry, London and Harvard University. He is a former Harkness fellow in Health Policy and a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK). His early clinical and academic work focused on developing community informed innovative strategies to increase access and quality of services. This led to advisory roles to the UK Government and election to the executive of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. His more recent work has investigated the social determinants of health and how they can be used to decrease illness and improve wellbeing.

Dr. McKenzie is also:

• a commissioner at the Ontario Human Rights Commission
• chair of the Research and Evaluation Advisory Committee for Ontario's basic income pilot
• special advisor to the ministers responsible for the basic income pilot

He also sits on advisory committees for the Ontario Ministries of Education, Health and Long-Term Care (Ontario) and the Anti-Racism Directorate in the Cabinet Office. Dr. McKenzie co-chairs the Population Health Leadership Table for Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network and Health Equity Advisory Committee for Health Quality Ontario. Nationally, he is also the chair of Community Food Centres Canada and a member of the National Advisory Council on Poverty. He recently co-chaired Canada's Expert Task Force on Substance Use. Provincially, Dr. McKenzie is co-chair of the Ontario Black Health Plan.

In addition to his academic, policy and clinical work, Dr. McKenzie is a past BBC Radio presenter and columnist for the Guardian and Times online. Dr. McKenzie holds an African Canadian Achievement Award for Science, the Dominican of Distinction Award and the Herry Jerome award.

Dr. McKenzie mentor residents, researchers, community members and young people of African and Caribbean origin who want to become doctors. His work has been recognized by the Harry Jerome award.

Dr. Myrna Lashley

• Associate professor, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University
• Adjunct researcher, Culture and Mental Health Research Unit, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research
• Associate Dean, John Abbott College

Dr Lashley is the first Black Associate Dean of John Abott College in Montreal, Quebec. She is a consultant and recognized as an authority in cultural psychology to institutions, including justice and security systems. She has been:

• a teacher and consultant to First Nations communities
• the Cross Cultural Trainer for the Grievance Committee office of the secretariat for McGill University
• a director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation
• on the Comité consultatif sur les relations Interculturelles et Interraciales de la Communauté Urbaine de Montréal
• Chair of the Cross Cultural Roundtable on Security (2008 to 2017)
• vice-chair of the board of the École Nationale de Police du Québec (2004 to 2017)
• a member of the Comité expert en matière de profilage racial of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal
• a member of the Comité-conseil sur l'organisation d'une consultation sur le racisme et la discrimination systémique
• the author of 2 training manuals on intercultural issues in the workplace44

She has won several awards, including:

• the 2015 Woman of Merit Award from the Playmas Montreal Cultural Association
• the Queen Elizabeth II 2012 Diamond Jubilee award
• the 2006 Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Award for Holocaust studies
• the 2004 Martin Luther King legacy award;
• the 1995 Merit Award for the Kanawake Native survival school

Her current research focuses on the intersections of culture, terrorism and national security. She is currently Barbados's Honorary Consul to Montreal.

Pascale Kaniasta Annoual

• Art therapist and ethnopsychiatry practitioner
• Founder and director, Arts, Racine et Thérapies

Ms. Annoual is originally from Haiti and brings an understanding of life as complex world of class, power inequities and spiritualities. She uses identity and narratives to help practitioners comprehend how the interpersonal-cultural-disciplinary knowledge informs practice. Having studied the impact of oppressions on identity and on mental health, she:

• coordinated research, titled, "Developing A New Model of Service: Enslavement, Colonization, Racism, Impacts on Identity and Mental Health" (2008)
• works directly with the families and survivors of transgenerational traumas through creating spiritual self-care with engaged quilting and beaded prayers circles
• provided holistic health support and training for support workers and doctors in Haiti following the devastating 2010 earthquake
• developed the concept of capacity bridging as a method to attain cultural competence when working across cultures, disciplines, and various levels of governance
• published in the textbook: "Tapestry of Cultural Issues in Art Therapy"

She also founded Arts, Racines & Therapies, a holistic therapy center that integrates traditional cultures, spirituality and creativity into an integrated clinical practice. Her work extends into Kemetic Initiatic Training where she received the spiritual name of Kaniasta of the Boumaaktem generation.

Learn more:

• Arts, Racines et Thérapies

Robert Wright

• Social worker and sociologist
• Director emeritus, consultant, and therapist, Peoples' Counselling Clinic
• Executive director, African Nova Scotian Justice Institute

Robert Seymour Wright is a queer, African Nova Scotian social worker and sociologist whose 35-year career has spanned the fields of education, child welfare, forensic mental health, trauma, sexual violence and cultural competence. He recently completed terms of service as the founding executive director of both the Peoples' Counselling Clinic (November 2017 to March 2024) and the African Nova Scotian Justice Institute (Fall 2021 to March 2024). He continues his work at the Peoples' Counselling Clinic as Director emeritus, consultant and therapist. Robert's identity and work are grounded in his integrated and activist spirituality.

Robert has served in developmentally critical and notable positions throughout his career. He was the first race relations coordinator for the Dartmouth District School Board, the executive director of Family and Children's Services of Cumberland County and the executive director of the Child and Youth Strategy of Nova Scotia. He was an early practitioner of what has come to be known as equity, diversity and inclusion work and he pioneered the introduction of impact of race and culture assessments, a specialized, forensic, clinical presentence report for people of African descent. This latter work has received national attention. In August of 2021, the Government of Canada funded to expand the implementation of these assessments nationally.

Dr. Sophie Yohani

• Registered psychologist and professor, Faculty of Education, Educational Psychology Department, University of Alberta

Dr. Yohani's research examines the mental health and psychosocial adaptation of refugee and immigrants influenced by pre- and post-migration experiences, and program and policy implications in education, healthcare and community settings. Dr. Yohani's focus on trauma and adaptation stems from over 20 years of clinical work in private practice and extensive community-based work with refugee and immigrant groups. Her work is integrative and resilience-focused, and guided by a number of theoretical orientations including ecological systems theory, theory (critical) of multicultural counselling and therapy, feminist and constructivist theories.

Dr. Wesley Crichlow

• Professor, critical race intersectional theorist, Criminology and Justice, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, University of Ontario Institute of Technology (Ontario Tech University)
• Visiting scholar, Egale Canada
• Past Associate Dean (Equity), University of Ontario Institute of Technology (Ontario Tech University)
• Director for Youth in Foster Care Pathways to University (University of Ontario Institute of Technology)

Dr. Crichlow's scholarly and community work has focused on the challenges of implementing policies and practices that strengthen broader notions of equity, diversity, social justice and human rights within educational institutions and organizations across Canada. In particular, he foregrounds the intersections of anti-Black racism, race, gender, class and 2SLGBTQIA+ identities. His research interests include:

• Black and Caribbean 2SLGBTQIA+ rights
• queer criminology
• gender and Caribbean masculinities
• critical race theory and anti-Black racism
• decolonization and storytelling as pedagogy
• youth in foster care pathways to university

He is currently investigating the experiences of 2SLGBTQIA+ incarceration, victimization and reintegration. This project aims to understand the myriad of issues related to trauma and over-criminalization of 2SLGBTQIA+ people (especially of transgender, gender-fluid, non-binary and queer people), including:

• physical and sexual abuse while incarcerated
• a lack of 2SLGBTQIA+-affirming programming within carceral institutions
• inappropriate use of solitary confinement
• ineffectual services post-release

His current community engagement includes serving:

• on the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Service's Community Advisory Board (CAB) at the Toronto South Detention Center
• on the City of Toronto's anti-Black racism: Partnership and Accountability Circle
• as the director of Equity and Diversity for the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
• as a member of the Equity Issues Committee for Canadian Sociological Association
• as vice-president of the Black Canadian Studies Association