People

ALPHABETICAL LIST

The Youth Voices Research Group is a partnership between innovative action scholars dedicated to promoting the health of our communities and supporting youth and young adults as emerging leaders through social innovation. Our team comprises on-site staff and community-based consultants working together to advance health promotion on issues locally, nationally and internationally.

Jill Charnaw-Burger, MSc
Manager (Community Partnerships)

Jill Charnaw-Burger has focused on design, implementation, dissemination, and evaluation of interventions and programs for children and youth, as well as broad-based population approaches since completing her Masters in Family Relations and Human Development from the University of Guelph. A member of the Youth Voices team for over four years, Jill enjoys working with community partners to enable new and emerging leaders to dive into exciting initiatives that increase sustainability and advance youth engagement. Passionate about mixed methods research, particularly qualitative approaches, Jill is currently coordinating a number of projects including Food4Health (food systems, food security, and education), and The Access Project (access to tobacco products, access to addictions treatment).

Alison Crepinsek, BA
Campus Health Specialist

Alison Crepinsek is currently enrolled in the MPH in Health Promotion program at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. A recent graduate of St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Alison has worked with a variety of projects and organizations including the National Collaborating Centre for the Determinants of Health, International Management Group Maternity Waiting Homes Project in Laos (PDR), the Antigonish Area Partnership, the St. Francis Xavier Public Policy and Governance Research Centre and the Halton Catholic District School Board. She is currently working alongside the Youth Voices team on a systematic review while investigating factors related to undergraduate students' uptake and attitudes of HIV testing. A new found interest in health care marketing and art's based approaches in public health has inspired Alison to incorporate alternative practices into her work.

Nadia Fazal, MPH
Global Health Specialist

Nadia Fazal received her MPH in Health Promotion and Global Health from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. She has been involved in a variety of global health promotion efforts internationally, including projects in Israel, Palestinian Territories, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and the Dominican Republic. Nadia is particularly interested in looking at the concept of peace-building, and how health can be used as a bridge for peace.

David Korn, M.D., D.T.M.&H., D.T.P.H., C.A.S
Principal Investigator (Gambling Projects)

David Korn is an addiction specialist, public health physician, and Project Director of the Youth Voices Gambling Project (YouthBet.net). David holds a faculty position in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and an affiliate position at Harvard Medical School, Division of Addictions. As a visiting professor at Harvard Medical School, his research focus was in the emerging area of gambling and its implications for the health of individuals, families and communities. A monograph entitled Gambling and the Health of the Public: Adopting a Public Health Perspective, authored in collaboration with Howard Shaffer, was published in 2000. His current gambling research includes youth and the role of Web-based technology for prevention, the impact of commercial gambling advertising on youth, as well as gambling on ethno-cultural families.

Charlotte Lombardo, MHSc
Consultant

Charlotte Lombardo has been a member of the Youth Voices Research Group for more than 6 six years. She is a founding member of the team that created the Youth Voices process for youth expression and action, and author of a seminal article on the use of information technology for youth networking and social activism. She was also an integral member of the Global Youth Voices Middle East project for cross-cultural exchange between Arab and Jewish youth in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories. Charlotte has extensive front-line experience designing, facilitating and evaluating youth-driven programming, with a focus on the use of creative and arts-based approaches. Charlotte has also served as a youth engagement consultant for the UNESCO associated schools project, the Arts Network for Children and Youth and the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Cameron Norman, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator

Cameron Norman is an Assistant Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and the Director of Evaluation for the Peter A. Silverman Global eHealth Program. Dr. Norman seeks to understand ways collaborative learning and inquiry contribute to social innovation for health and how information technologies can support this process.

Jennifer Reynolds, M.Ed
Manager (Gambling Projects)

Jennifer Reynolds has spent the past 4 years as a project manager, researcher, and consultant, specializing in gambling prevention, education and policy. Currently she is the Project Manager of the Youth Voices Gambling Project (YouthBet.net). Jennifer works with Dr. David Korn on a number of gambling research projects at the University of Toronto: Prevention and Intervention of Youth Gambling Projects using the Internet; and Commercial Gambling Advertising: Understanding the Youth Connection. In September 2006, Jennifer began Doctoral Studies in public health at the University of Toronto, under the supervision of Dr. Harvey Skinner, in the area of gambling research, prevention and education.

Sam Saad
Civic Engagement Coordinator

Andrea Yip, MPH
Social & Visual Media Specialist

Andrea Yip is a health promoter, aspiring documentary filmmaker, and scientist at heart. Her interests in public health research and practice focus on youth peer education, design thinking, participatory action research, and youth engagement. She is particularly intrigued by the ways in which social, mobile and visual media have transformed the way we interact, connect, share knowledge, and shape our own conceptions of health and well being. Her goal is to use filmmaking as a tool for health education, participatory action research, and as a product of the research process.