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

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.

Juls Budau, Research Advisor and PERCH Facilitator
Email: juls.budau@phsa.ca

Juls Budau is our Research Advisor and facilitator of PERCH, our peer advisory committee. She holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Northern British Columbia, where her thesis examined user perspectives on stimulant agonist therapy. Her expertise includes qualitative research, community-based research, substance use, and harm reduction. Juls mentors our peer advisors, conducts community-based qualitative data collection, and contributes to research design, analysis, and knowledge translation across multiple projects. She also brings nearly a decade of frontline experience in harm reduction, peer support, and low-barrier overdose response services as well as relevant lived experience as an OAT and prescribed safer supply patient that informs her research and community engagement.

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

Sidney Hoolsema joined CCPHE in 2023 as a Research Coordinator. She is working on a five-year project examining the Geography of Overdose. Sidney holds a BA in Psychology with Honours from the University of the Fraser Valley, where her Honours thesis examined how stigma varies depending on the type of substance use disorder. She is also pursuing a Master of Science in Population and Public Health at UBC. Sidney is passionate about reducing stigma around substance use and incarceration and improving access to stigma-free health care.

Lisa McQuarrie, Senior Statistician
Email: lisa.mcquarrie@ubc.ca

Lisa McQuarrie joined CCPHE as a Statistician in 2023. She is leading the statistical design and analysis of the PRISM project, an evaluation of the health, criminal justice, and service use outcomes of the Ministry of Health assuming responsibility for prison health care services in BC. Lisa graduated with a BSc in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Victoria and a MSc in Statistics from Simon Fraser University.

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.

Sarinn Blawatt, Project Coordinator
Email: sarina.blawatt@ubc.ca

Sarinn is a PhD candidate and sessional lecturer at the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health, trained in community-based participatory research using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. Sarinn joined CCPHE in 2024 as a coordinator developing and updating best practice guidance for engagement with people with lived/living experience of substance use and/or incarceration. Bringing over 15 years of frontline experience in substance use service development and delivery, Sarinn blends theory and practice in an ongoing effort to reduce disparities in health and resource access for priority populations.

Adiba Chowdhury, Research Assistant
Email: achowd03@student.ubc.ca

Adiba Chowdhury is a fifth-year UBC student completing a double major in Integrated Sciences and Creative Writing, with a focus on neurobiology, psychology, and public health. They are interested in how stigma, trauma, policy, and access to care shape the experiences of people who use substances and other marginalized communities facing barriers within healthcare systems. Their experience includes working as a Peer Leader with UBC’s Student Recovery Community supporting students navigating substance use recovery, and as a Research Assistant with CCPHE and the Trans Women and Gender Diverse People HIV/STBBI and Health Research Initiative (TWIRI). Adiba is particularly passionate about the intersections of HIV, substance use, harm reduction, gender-affirming care, and health equity. They hope to pursue graduate studies in public health focused on improving access to care for queer and trans communities and people affected by HIV and substance use.

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.