IMPACT REPORT 2023
FACULTY OF HEALTH | FALL ISSUE 2023
AS DEAN OF THE FACULTY OF HEALTH, I have had the pleasure to connect with many faculty, staff and students over the past year to develop our Faculty’s new strategic plan. This has been a highly participative and collegial process, resulting in an inspiring new vision for our Faculty – to be leaders and partners for a healthy and just 21st Century world. To fulfill this vision, we’ve described our mission to positively influence health, wellness, and their determinants through leading-edge education, research, and practice.
In our Fall 2023 Impact Report, you will read about the many initiatives and success stories that highlight our vision and mission in action. From innovative and unique experiential education opportunities for students; to local partnerships to advance health and wellness for children, and globally to address the dangers posed by threats like the growing problem of wildfires; to our profound research expertise in a wide range of areas from discovery of mechanisms to improve muscle health to influencing how to frame health systems changes. And finally, we recognize the generosity of our donors in support of our academic and research programs. Our faculty, staff, students, and donors are creating positive change that is having an impact.
I hope you will enjoy the stories in this Report. We welcome any feedback you may have, and we invite you to join us in bringing our vision and mission to fruition in the years to come.
David H. Peters, MD, MPH, DrPH
Dean, Faculty of Health
Faculty of Health at a Glance
10,162
Undergraduate students
249
Full-time faculty
186
Researchers
$22M+
generated by Faculty of Health researchers annually
Creating Opportunity for Student Engagement and Impact
Experiential Education and Student Success
Enhancing our students’ opportunity and capacity to succeed in their education, including community engagement through experiential and work-integrated learning.
African Perspectives on Health, Culture and Societal Wellbeing
Travelling to a country you have never visited to learn about their health care system may seem daunting but for York Faculty of Health students who travelled to Ho, Ghana, as part of the University of Health and Allied Sciences’ (UHAS) Summer School Programme, the experience was life changing.
World Health Assembly Simulation: An immersive experience in collaborative global health governance
Fellowship in Learning & Teaching Excellence aims to make York a leader in equity for first-generation students
Partnering for Positive Change
Partnerships – Local to Global
Our goal is to build and strengthen ethical, respectful, collaborative, and reciprocal relations with governments, health organizations, and community groups.
Tackling TB stigma through a partnership in India
York Global Health Professor Amrita Daftary (3rd from left in photo) has been involved with several tuberculosis studies in partnership with the Foundation of Medical Research (FMR), a national research organization affiliated with Mumbai University, where she is acting as an adviser on qualitative research methods and providing her expertise as a social scientist to improve clinical care for TB.
Rethinking the potential long-term health risks of wildfires
Advancing youth mental health research at York
Research Impact
We are committed to being leading innovators, collaborators, and changemakers in health research, education, and practice, locally to globally.
York’s world-leading vision research program looks towards the future
VISTA: Vision Science to Applications, York University’s first large-scale research program to receive support from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF), will enter a new phase in 2024 after marking its seven-year milestone.
Global Health Professor Tarra Penney awarded the 2023 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research for her research into global food systems and disease prevention policy
Kinesiology & Health Science professor David Hood received a $1-million+ CIHR grant to study the role of lysosomes in muscle health and decline
Fit-For-Purpose Health Policy and Health Systems Approaches Essential to Better Health Outcomes in Low and Middle Income Countries
Philanthropy in Action
The support of our donors through Endowed Chairs and major gifts continues to advance our mission to positively influence health and wellness through leading-edge education, research, and practice. We are grateful to our donors for their generosity.
Honouring a Beloved Friend through Philanthropy
Nancy R.’s journey to establishing the Marianne S. and Nancy R. Nursing Bursary at York University’s School of Nursing is a heartfelt story of compassion and generosity, inspired by the exceptional care her best friend received from York student nurses.
Empowering the Next Generation: How the Jackman Foundation is Shaping the Future of Child and Youth Psychology
