Debra Hanberg, Project Manager
Email: debra.hanberg@ubc.ca
Phone: 604-827-4976

Debra Hanberg joined CCPHE in 2011. Since then she has managed several prison health projects both inside federal correctional facilities and in the community. She is currently the Project Manager for the Peer Health Rep Program which is a five-year project focused on preventing sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections among people who are federally incarcerated in BC. Debra graduated from UBC with a BA in Philosophy and SFU in Sustainable Community Development. She is passionate about using participatory approaches to promote health equity and reduce disparities.

Kate Roth, Research Manager
Email: kate.roth@ubc.ca
Phone: 604-822-9057

Kate Roth is a Research Manager with CCPHE. Since 2016, Kate has been dedicated to community-based, participatory research that promotes the health and well-being of people with a history of incarceration. Kate completed her Masters degree in Anthropology at UBC in 2015.

Sidney Hoolsema, Project Coordinator
Email: sidney.hoolsema@phsa.ca

Sidney Hoolsema joined CCPHE in November 2023. Sidney is working on a five-year project that seeks to understand the Geography of Overdose. Sidney graduated with a BA in Psychology with Honors from the University of the Fraser Valley. Her Honors research examined how stigma changes depending on the type of addiction someone has. Sidney is passionate about decreasing stigma around addiction and incarceration and improving access to stigma-free health care.

Nelson Luk, Project Coordinator
Email: nelson.luk@ubc.ca
Phone: 604-827-4976

Nelson joined CCPHE in October 2019. He is currently assisting on a five-year project focused on participatory approaches to preventing sexually transmitted and blood-born infections among federally incarcerated men in BC as well as the Unlocking the Gates Peer Mentor Program. Nelson completed his undergraduate degree in Life Sciences from UBC. He previously assisted with public health research projects at the Centre of Excellence for Research in AIDS in Malaysia and the BC Injury Research & Prevention Unit at the BC Children’s Hospital.

Heather Palis, Evaluator
Email: heather.palis@bccdc.ca

Heather is currently the evaluator on a five-year project focused on participatory approaches to preventing sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections among federally incarcerated men in BC. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at UBC in the Department of Psychiatry and at the BC Centre for Disease Control. Her research seeks to investigate recent interventions introduced in response to the overdose crisis in British Columbia (e.g. expanded opioid agonist treatment, pharmaceutical alternatives to the toxic drug supply), with a focus on the impact of these interventions on overdose risk among people who have been recently incarcerated.