Research Talks | Research | University of ��ݮ��Ƶ

Rural community development and wellbeing

Tuesday, May 20 | 6 - 9 p.m. (Doors open at 6:00 p.m. | Event begins at 6:30 p.m.)

St. Jacobs Lions Club, 31 Parkside Drive, St. Jacobs, ON

You’re invited to Research Talks, a public event and panel discussion, featuring guest speakers Karla Boluk, Feng Chang and Tejal Patel from the��University of ��ݮ��Ƶ, and Jay Bailey ��Ի��Ellie Joseph, co-founders of Two Row on the Grand.

The presentation on rural community development and wellbeing will highlight key strategies and initiatives to improve the quality of life in rural areas.��It will emphasize the importance of sustainable economic growth, access to quality healthcare and education, and the promotion of social inclusion.

About the panelist:

After 35 years teaching French, Jay Bailey has been baptized as an authentic voyageur, paddling over 4,000 km on the fur trade routes of North America: birch bark canoes, bedroll on the ground, cold pea soup and bannock, flint and steel for fire. His over 600 voyageur events at schools and in communities, from Eastern Ontario to NW Alberta, bring Canadian history and la joie de vivre to our students. He is a published author, software designer/programmer, curriculum writer, Presbyterian elder, father of three, grandfather of five, and co-founder and volunteer committee member of�� with Ellie Joseph.

Dr.��Karla A. Boluk (she/her/hers)��is an Associate Professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies��at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ, Visiting Professor in the York Business School at York St John University, York, UK, Co-chair of Tourism Education Futures Initiative (TEFI), and appointed to the International Science Council’s Global Roster of Experts.��Guided by a social justice orientation and feminist theory, the broad goals of Karla’s research program are to examine ways tourism may enhance the well-being and quality of life for those involved in or affected by tourism, positioning tourism as a mechanism for the creation of positive change.��Boluk’s relationship with Six Nations partners has grown through consistent, respectful engagement grounded in listening, learning, and collaboration. Her work is guided by community-based participatory action research, recognizing community members as equal partners in the research process.

Dr.��Feng Chang is a geriatric pharmacist, Associate Professor at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ School of Pharmacy, and Research Chair and Board Director with the Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health. Dr. Chang has over two decades of experience working in acute and primary care settings in urban and rural communities. Her research engages widely with different community sectors and people with lived experience. Dr. Chang received her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy degree from the University of Toronto and completed her Doctor of Pharmacy degree and post-Doctoral Fellowship in Geriatric Pharmacotherapy in the United States.

Ellie Joseph is of the Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan, born, raised, and still lives on Six Nations of the Grand River Territory along the bank of the Grand River. Ellie retired from a thirty-seven-year tenure as a classroom teacher of ��Elementary Schools in their public school system many years ago, but remains an active volunteer in education.

After participating in the sixteen-day Two Row Renewal Campaign, whose aim was to honour the Guswenta, or Two Row Wampum, from Albany to Manhattan, New York, on the Hudson River in 2013, Ellie was one of four participants who established what is now known as "." This ten-day paddle excursion, from Cambridge to Port Maitland, brings our Six Nations Community together with ally participants. Cultural teachings are presented along the way, encouraging healthy relationships and connections to Mother Earth.

As a grassroots volunteer committee, they have seen participation in this project more than double over its eight-year history. Plans are already underway for Two Row on the Grand 2025, marking its tenth anniversary.

Dr. Tejal Patel is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ, School of Pharmacy and Schlegel Specialist in Medication Management and Aging with the Schlegel-UW Research Institute of Aging.��

Dr. Patel’s clinical practice is focused on the pharmacotherapeutic management of cognitive disorders, seizures, and Parkinson’s disease. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Patel established the role of a pharmacist in interdisciplinary, primary care-based MINT memory clinics by modeling the medication review process in persons with cognitive impairment.

Dr. Patel’s research centers on medication use by older adults, specifically addressing the design and role of technology in the management of medications in the home, the development of tools to support pharmacists in identifying and addressing medication-related concerns in persons diagnosed with cognitive impairment and dementia.