Melody E. Morton Ninomiya

I am an Assistant Professor in Health Sciences at Wilfrid Laurier University and Affiliate Scientist in the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. I teach courses in Indigenous health, critical public health, knowledge translation and exchange in health research, and the Canadian health care system and am involved in numerous community-partnered or community-driven research projects. I am part white settler Mennonite from southern Ontario and part Japanese, raised as a child in Japan and moved to Canada as an adult, where I am often assumed to be First Nations or Inuit. Engaging in critical thinking and self-reflexivity on my privileges, social location, and racial profiling in different contexts (i.e. Japan and various parts of Canada) continue to shape how I approach and position myself in research contexts. My commitment to working with Indigenous communities, organizations, and people is unwavering however, I only get involved in community-based research projects where I am invited.