Our Team
Catherine L. Mah
Principal Investigator
Dr. Catherine L. Mah MD (University of Calgary) FRCPC PhD (University of Toronto) is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Promoting Healthy Populations in the School of Health Administration at Dalhousie University. She is an internationally recognized scholar in nutrition and food policy and was appointed to Health Canada’s Nutrition Science Advisory Committee (2020-2023). She publishes widely in health and social science, including critical and empirical studies on the consumer food environment and its role in social equity, population diet, food access, and food affordability. In 2022, Dr. Mah was the recipient of a Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal from Nova Scotia for exemplary public service.
Dr. Mah directs the Food Policy Lab, a transdisciplinary research program on environmental and policy determinants of consumption and diet. Her team is leading Canada's first national study of diet costs at the population level, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Their recent development of a digital National Nutritious Food Basket (dNNFB) examines variation in the cost of a healthy diet across Canadian population centres.
Among her network of scientific collaborations, she is a Chief Investigator for the Australian NHMRC-funded Remote Food Security study, an innovative co-design trial to examine the effect of a maternal-infant-directed store loyalty card price subsidy on diet quality and food security, led by University of Queensland (PI Dr. M Ferguson). Dr. Mah is co-investigator in INFORMAS Canada led by Université Laval (PI Dr. L Vanderlee); an Associate Investigator in the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Food Retail Environments for Health at Deakin University, Australia (PI Prof A Peeters); and member of the International Advisory Group for the first-ever study of the role of retailers and food environments in nutrition in Southeast Asia, funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), led by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (PI Prof BK Poh).
Previously, she was a Chief Investigator (senior) for the NHMRC Healthy Stores 2020 trial based at Monash University, Australia (PI A/Prof J Brimblecombe), a world-leading effectiveness trial of a complex healthier merchandising intervention on the nutritional quality of store purchases. Dr. Mah was Atlantic co-lead investigator for FLEdGE, a SSHRC global partnership on sustainable food systems based at Wilfrid Laurier University (PI Prof A Blay-Palmer); and a founding co-investigator of the CIHR PROOF food insecurity research team at the University of Toronto (PI Prof V Tarasuk).
Earlier in her career, Dr. Mah practiced community general paediatrics (2002-2009), and was a visiting scholar in medical humanities at Columbia University (2001), where her research focused on intertextuality theory. She has served in several appointments in municipal public health, as research and policy fellow with the Toronto Food Strategy team at Toronto Public Health, cross-appointed to the School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Toronto. She was a fellow in political sociology at Kyoto University (2009-2010), where she examined intersections in public/private sphere governance in Japan's national food education policy, an extension of her doctoral work on immunization policy in Canada.
Dr. Mah was a former citizen member of the Toronto Food Policy Council (2011-2014); and founding member of the St. John’s Food Policy Council (2014-2017). Nationally, she was Canadian Public Health Association liaison member of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (2014-2019) and appointed to the inaugural Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council reporting to the federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food (2020-2022).
Currently, in addition to her role at Dalhousie, Dr. Mah holds scientific and academic affiliate appointments at Nova Scotia Health, Saint Mary’s University, and the Maritime SPOR SUPPORT (Support for People and Patient-Oriented Research and Trials) Unit.
Dr. Mah identifies as a racially visible 5th-generation Chinese-Canadian and a daughter of migrants. She resides in Nova Scotia.
Emily Jago
Research Manager
Emily Jago is Research Manager with the Food Policy Lab at Dalhousie University. Emily provides strategic and cross-project leadership as a chief of staff to lab members. In addition to her management role, Emily is project lead for Healthy Stores NL, funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and Grocery Gateways, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She also provides team leadership and capacity-building for our Canadian Institutes of Health Research-funded COVID-19 dietary intake and consumer spending project, and the APPLe study addressing purchasing behaviour in a health care setting cafeteria, in partnership with Nova Scotia Health.
Emily's research interests focus on access to healthy food, understanding food acquisition and consumption behaviours, and strategies to reduce adverse health outcomes through interventions in community settings. Her previous academic work includes completing a Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Arts, and Master of Human Kinetics. Her Masters research validated an alternative food journaling method and examined the interaction people have with food and technology.
Emily’s interest in health stems from an intense passion for fitness and a long-term relationship with rowing. Competing for both Canada and University varsity teams has allowed Emily to explore Canada and other countries around the world.
Outside of her research management role with the lab, Emily is a leading voice and champion in Canadian sport, and a sought-after advisor on the future role and impact of sport training in competition and society. She is the President of Row Nova Scotia, the Provincial Sport Organization (PSO), and works collaboratively with provincial and advisory groups to administer all competitive and recreational rowing in Nova Scotia. Included in this, she provides strategic direction and governance support, and work with our National Sport Organization, Rowing Canada (RCA) to support the development of the sport nation-wide. She serves on the Provincial Advisory Council and is a Lead on the SafeSport Implementation Committee (RCA), as well as the provincial SafeSport Lead for Nova Scotia. Through these roles she plays a critical mentorship role to emerging athletes and sport leaders in strategic planning, governance, and stakeholder outreach.
Graduate TRAINEES and Fellows
Nathan G. A. Taylor
PhD Health, Dalhousie University
Nathan Taylor MSc MPH is a PhD candidate with the Food Policy Lab (on leave), and a MD candidate at Memorial University. Nate has received a Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship and a Scotia Scholars Award to support his doctoral research.
Nate began his research career in immunology and virology, and was part of the CIHR National Training Program in Heptatis C for his Masters research. He has since found his way to Food Policy and public health nutrition through the Public Health program at Memorial University, and subsequently Dalhousie.
Nate's nutrition expertise is in social and spatial epidemiology approaches to dietary risk. He is currently focused on developing new tools for food environment research in the digital space, including measurement of the rapidly evolving online food environment, while contributing to community initiatives on food policy from farm to table. He is a co-investigator in the CIHR-funded CELLAR study that will examine the effect of COVID-19 on diet in Atlantic Canada.
He hopes to one day see his work guide the development of prudent policies and effective interventions to prevent diet-related diseases.
Helen Wong
PhD Health, Dalhousie University
Helen is currently a PhD student within the Food Policy Lab. Her research is supported by a Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship, the Vitamin Scholarship, and a Scotia Scholars Doctoral Award.
Helen graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Nutrition and Food from Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario. Helen went on to completed her dietetic internship at The Hospital for Sick Children. As a dietitian, Helen has worked in both clinical and research settings, specializing in areas such as obesity and hyperlipidemia. In 2015, she completed her Master of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics from Central Michigan University. Since moving to Halifax, Helen has provided research coordination and management for a wide range of clinical intervention studies and in applied health services research. For her PhD, Helen will focus on how accurately food purchases predict individual dietary intake.
Helen is a 2021-2022 executive member of the PhD Health Student Society as VP (Internal). In her spare time, Helen can be found on a run within the lovely coastal city, testing new recipes in her kitchen, or enjoying the beautiful beaches with her family and friends.
Laura Kennedy
PhD Health, Dalhousie University
Laura Kennedy, RN, BScN, MPH has years of experience working as a Registered Nurse in medical and surgical environments. Her nursing experiences have spanned both urban and rural Nova Scotia, as well as Angola, Africa. Laura is currently a PhD student in the Food Policy Lab supported by a Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship. In 2021, she received an award from the QEII Foundation Chris Power Leadership Development Fund to support emerging and established healthcare leaders. Her proposed thesis research assesses the Healthy Eating Policy at Nova Scotia Health and its role in enhancing continuous quality improvement for population health.
In addition to her nutrition research, as a Registered Nurse, Laura has contributed to healthy public policy development in smoke-free housing and alcohol sponsorship through her work for the provincial government as a health promoter at Nova Scotia Health and previously the NS Department of Health and Wellness.
She aspires to promote policy advocacy in the nursing community and watch public policy build healthy environments where populations live, work and play. She holds a Bachelor or Science in Nursing from McMaster University and Masters of Public Health from Memorial University. She is a member of the 2021-2022 Executive for the PhD Health Student Society at Dalhousie.
Gabriella Luongo
PhD Health, Dalhousie University
Gabriella Luongo, MPH, is a PhD in Health candidate within the Faculty of Health at Dalhousie University. She holds a CIHR Doctoral Research Award and was also awarded a Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship and a Scotia Scholars Award for her doctoral research. Gabriella is a member of the 2021-2022 Executive for the PhD Health Student Society at Dalhousie, serving as VP (External).
Her interest in food policy and nutrition health promotion began while facilitating and evaluating the Community Cooking Workshops for international students at Simon Fraser University, where she completed a BSc (Honours) in Health Sciences.
Gabriella's doctoral thesis will focus on investigating the cost of a healthy diet in Canada using the 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey - Nutrition. She is also a co-investigator in the CIHR-funded CELLAR study that will examine how COVID-19 is affecting population diet and nutrition in Atlantic Canada. Gabriella hopes that her research will inform the development of healthy public policies and population level nutrition interventions to reduce non-communicable disease risk.
Prior to her PhD studies, Gabriella completed a Masters of Public Health (Health Promotion) from the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, where she was Co-President of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health Students’ Association and held a SSHRC Bombardier CGS-Masters Award and an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. In addition, she currently serves in the federal government as an Epidemiologist-Biostatistician with Health Canada, in the Tobacco Control Directorate.
Alisson Dykeman
MAHSR, Saint Mary's University
Alisson is a second-year student in the Master of Applied Health Services Research program at Saint Mary’s University. Her MAHSR degree is a program of the Atlantic Research Training Centre for Health Services Research, where trainees from diverse disciplines develop skills and capacity to tackle complex health policy issues of today and the future.
Alisson is conducting her Masters thesis research with the Food Policy Lab. Her research focuses on the role of supermarket flyers in shaping health behaviours in the consumer food environment. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Waterloo, she is conducting a national content analysis of major food retailer flyers, including how they align with Canada’s Food Guide 2019.
Alisson previously studied at the University of Ottawa, where she was an undergraduate in health science and working with the school’s Health Promotion department. There, she developed a keen interest in the nutritional determinants of health and their implications on our population’s state of health and disease.
In her down time, Alisson enjoys doing yoga and trying colourful new recipes.
Ryan Lukic
CELLAR Research Coordinator
Ryan Lukic joined the Food Policy Lab in 2020 after completing his Masters in Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary, where his research focused on sleep and neighbourhood design. Ryan has longstanding experience in health and social policy advocacy with the ONE Campaign and previously conducted a content analysis of Canadian legislation over two decades presented in the name of addressing household food insecurity.
Ryan will commence a PhD Health at Dalhousie in 2021 with the lab and is excited to be once again working on food insecurity and nutrition, an area he is very passionate about. He has received a Nova Scotia Graduate Scholarship to support his doctoral work. His thesis research will examine the population health risks associated with elevated alcohol consumption during COVID-19.
Outside of work, Ryan enjoys weekends in the mountains, attending what some would think is an outrageous number of concerts, watching his favourite soccer team, Liverpool FC, or reading a book.
Korede Esan
CELLAR Research Coordinator
Korede Esan joined the Food Policy Lab as a Research Coordinator for CIHR-funded CELLAR project in 2020. She holds a Master’s degree in Human Nutrition and BSc in Nutrition and Dietetics from University of Ibadan and Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta Nigeria, respectively. She is a member of the Canadian Nutrition Society and Canadian Society of Nutritional Management and aspires to become a global public health nutrition leader.
Korede has more than ten years of experience as a nutrition educator and researcher in post-secondary institutions both in Canada and Nigeria. Her research interests centre on community nutrition, maternal and child nutrition. Her postgraduate thesis explored the knowledge, attitude and practice of mothers regarding iodized salt in selected communities in Ibadan, Nigeria. Korede in her spare time enjoys cooking, walking and spending time with family and friends.
Friends of the lab (Past Trainees and Staff)
MARY Myketyn-Driscoll
Updated bio forthcoming
REBECCA HASDELL
Updated bio forthcoming
Daniel Kogan
Dani started working with the Food Policy Lab in January 2019 during his major research project through the Advanced Diploma in Geospatial Data Analytics at the Centre of Geographic Sciences, NSCC. The project’s focus was validation of secondary food store datasets using geospatial techniques.
Dani officially joined the lab as a Research Analyst in June 2019. He provides cross-cutting support for social and health research projects in the lab, including using his GIS skills to create maps of the community food environment in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. Dani co-leads data management for the Lab and co-edits the newsletter.
Dani's research interests include healthy cities and communities, and transportation. He hopes to promote the use and understanding of GIS in the field of public health. In 2021, Dani will commence the Master of Spatial Analysis at Ryerson University.
Maria Clarke
Maria joined the Food Policy Lab after completing the cartography program at the NSCC Centre of Geographic Sciences and has a background in political science. In her second semester at COGS Maria led a policy data visualization project for the lab's SSHRC-funded Grocery Gateways study. She created a Food Policy Map designed to visualize how key interest groups are the beneficiaries of specific food policy instruments in Atlantic Canada.
Maria was the co-lead of communications strategy for the Lab from 2020-2021 and provided cross-cutting design support, web development, and knowledge translation and mapping for several projects and theses. Maria's research interests include public understanding of health and science, and she deploys a varied combination of social and health data to design infographics and fact sheets for diverse lab audiences. She was also a staff team member of the CIHR-funded CELLAR Study, focusing on marketing, communications, and data-sharing.
Noel Guscott
Noel was a member of the lab during his MA in Political Science at Dalhousie University and held a SSHRC CGS Masters Award. He is an aspiring political and public policy scholar with research interests covering Canadian federalism and intergovernmentalism, health care federalism in Canada and health care policy formulation. His research is informed by a varied professional background. He has served as a communications operator in the Canadian Armed Forces, worked as a junior policy analyst with a health regulatory body, and assisted a range of supervisors with important political and policy research across sectors. Noel worked as Research Assistant for the Food Policy Lab's Grocery Gateways and Healthy Population Institute’s Designing Supportive Environments for Chronic Disease Prevention projects.
Outside of work, Noel can often be found around the Halifax-area trying new restaurants or perusing various community markets, watching science fiction or reading fantasy, cheering on the best soccer team in the world (Liverpool FC), or discussing public policy and other contemporary issues with whoever will listen.
Erica Corbett
Erica partnered with the Food Policy Lab during her GIS Advanced Diploma at the Centre of Geographic Sciences (COGS). Her term project was a spatio-temporal analysis of the food retail landscape in Atlantic Canada over 14 years. Her baseline work will help to advise the Lab on spatial methodologies for analyzing longitudinal sector changes. Erica is interested in potential planning and policy levers for restructuring the Atlantic food environment towards supporting population health. Erica now works with Esri Canada as a GIS Analyst.
Jillian Stymest
Jillian first worked with the Food Policy Lab in May 2018 through a partnership with the College of Geographic Sciences (COGS) Advanced GIS program. Her capstone study used GIS to model a business decision-making process for locating a new grocery retailer, and addressed the shortcomings of the process in terms of public health and accessibility. She joined the Lab as a Research Analyst in August 2018. Jillian also has a BSc in biology from St. Francis Xavier University and is passionate about health promoting GIS applications. She is interested in strengthening food distribution policies and reducing food insecurity among Indigenous communities in Canada.
Julie Kang
Julie worked in the Food Policy Lab as a Master of Public Health practicum student in 2013 as part of a small group of students working on the PROOF project. She examined the way that food insecurity was framed politically in Ontario in relation to income inequality. She most enjoyed the synergy of teamwork and friendship that took place over good food and fun. She continues to work in health policy at the provincial government in Ontario, and is interested in finding innovative ways to address social determinants of health, merging disciplines such as design and adult education.
Bruce Knox
Bruce started working in the Food Policy Lab as a research assistant in 2013, exploring legislators' framing of food insecurity archetypes (read the final article here) in the political debate as part of the PROOF Household Food Insecurity project. During his Masters in Public Health in 2014-2016 he also worked on the cleaning and collection of field data for the Healthy Corner Stores NL project, including store audits, surveys, and coordination of knowledge exchange events in St. John's and communities across the rural Avalon Peninsula. After his MPH, Bruce headed up Healthy Communities for the City of St. John’s and was a member of the St. John's Food Policy Council. Since 2021 he has been project coordinator for a healthy communities initiative called I-CREAte Kingston: Innovation for Child and Family Resilience, Equity and Advocacy in Kingston at Queen's University. He credits the Food Policy Lab as the driving force behind his passion to help build healthier, equitable, food secure communities.
Michelle German
Michelle worked in the Food Policy Lab as a Master of Environmental Studies practicum student between 2012-2013. Together with the team she worked on the program design and the developmental evaluation for the City of Toronto's Mobile Good Food Market, which formed the basis for her Masters research. Michelle also supported the Canada-Japan Food Systems Resilience Symposium, hosted by the Lab in 2012 to bring together academics, public health practitioners, and local governments from Canada and Japan to discuss the Fukushima nuclear crisis and its implications for global food systems and health. Michelle was previously Senior Lead at Evergreen, where she managed a portfolio of action labs, blending together research and action to advance innovative solutions. She has a BA from the University of Toronto and a Master’s of Environmental Policy from York University. Michelle is now VP Policy & Strategy at WoodGreen Community Services. She is a champion for building parades of people from diverse sectors behind bold policy and program ideas.
Stephanie Pomeroy
Dr. Stephanie Pomeroy started at the Food Policy Lab in 2015 as an MPH practicum student. She was Research Coordinator from 2015-2017, leading the CIHR-funded FRESH-IT project and Healthy Corner Stores NL. In 2015, she organized The Food in this Place, a citizen science workshop to sleuth the local food environment in the City of St. John's (read about the event here). The workshop emphasized the direct links between the public health evidence on measuring consumer food environments, to local knowledge and citizen engagement in policy decisions about food access. Stephanie always made sure the lab was well stocked with delicious baked goods and coffee from local businesses around St. John's. She is a fierce advocate for reducing sugar-sweetened beverages in stores and policies to prohibit food marketing directed toward children. In 2021, she commence her postgraduate residency in Internal Medicine at Memorial University.
Andrew Thomas
Dr. Andrew Thomas served as a research assistant in 2011/2012. He was involved in an evaluation of several diabetes prevention programs in Ontario. On another project, he interviewed independent and chain restaurant executives and managers to understand their perspective on introducing nutrition information on menu boards, evidence that informed the Toronto Board of Health's policy recommendation on menu labelling legislation. Dr. Thomas is now a practicing physician in Durham Region, Ontario. He a recent graduate of the Queens Family Medicine Residency Program, and Vice President of the Black Physicians Association of Ontario.
Emily Taylor
Emily began working at Food Policy Lab in 2013 as the coordinator of the CIHR-funded FACE (Food Advertising to Children: Ethics for Policy) study. This study tapped into her passion for non-judgmental understanding of how and why people think and act the way they do, exploring the way diverse actors present, frame and adapt arguments related to the ethics of advertising food to children. She was a research coordinator until 2015, and is thrilled to be re-joining the team once again in the fall of 2018. Emily has an educational background in biology, psychology and international development studies. She began her career in research at the International Development Research Centre, and has worked as a Research Officer in the School of Public Health at the University of Toronto since 2010 coordinating a wide variety of research and evaluation studies on topics including, tobacco control, substance use, and food literacy. Emily is also the Editorial Coordinator for the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation.