CSAHS Welcomes Dr. Diana Lewis

Dr. Diana Lewis has recently joined the Department of Geography, Environment, and Geomatics. With a Master of Resource and Environmental Management degree and doctoral studies that focused on the environmental health of an Indigenous community in Nova Scotia, impacted for over half a century by a nearby pulp and paper mill, Diana brings a unique perspective to the University of Guelph.

She is a member of the Sipekne’katik First Nation in Mi’kma’ki (the Atlantic Provinces) and continues to focus her work with Indigenous communities across Canada to explore limitations of current federal/provincial/territorial environmental health risk assessment approaches.

She will work with researchers and students to develop and disseminate leading edge and adaptive Indigenous models of health risk assessment that reflects the needs, interests, and worldviews of Indigenous peoples. In a relational worldview, human health is intricately tied to the health of the land, water, animals, and plants of a shared environment.

Her approach provides a transformative opportunity to advance research within Indigenous epistemologies. Diana is committed to the recruitment, development, and promotion of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous trainees in an environment that fosters collaborative engagement with communities, that respects Indigenous autonomy over decisions that affect their lives, and the right for communities to have control over the data that belongs to them.