Alison Gerlach

Alison Gerlach is an Assistant Professor who joined the School of Child & Youth Care at the University of Victoria in British Columbia in August 2018. Alison’s research and scholarship focuses on informing systems change for equity-oriented child- and family-centred care in diverse early years and healthcare contexts with Indigenous and non-Indigenous families and children who experience structural forms of marginalization and a greater risk of health inequities.

Alison’s work draws on 25 years of providing occupational therapy with dis/abled children in diverse community and family contexts, and in partnership with Indigenous organizations and First Nations in British Columbia. Alison is particularly interested in the continuities between children’s early experiences of adversity, dis/ability, and health inequities and the development of inclusive, responsive, and equity-oriented structural, organizational, and practice level approaches. She is committed to community-based participatory research that engages with communities, organizations, families, and children as research partners.