Anti-Indigenous Racism Knowledge Sharing Event 2025

Monica McAlduff RPN, B.H.Sc., MA CEO, First Nations Health Authority

Monica McAlduff is of mixed ancestry from the Secwepemc Nation on her mother's side and with French Canadian background on her father's side. A proud member of the Adams Lake Indian Band, Monica brings with her over 30 years of experience from numerous roles across the system of care, working directly with patients as a Registered Psychiatric Nurse before progressing to several leadership roles.

Monica holds a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree in Psychiatric Nursing from Thompson Rivers University and a Masters of Arts in Leadership and Training from Royal Roads University. She is known for her strong client and family advocacy and passion for improving quality and safety in the health-care system. Monica's leadership approach is from a humility lens and seeing the strengths and resilience that First Nations people possess, as the way to change the system.

Outside of her professional life, Monica enjoys experiencing the outdoors with her husband and son in the territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations where she and her family now live. She has a passion for connecting with people and experiencing the fullness that life has to offer.

Stephanie Tuurngaq RN, BN, CRN CNA Board Director

Stephanie Tuurngaq is an Inuk nurse from Iglulik, Nunavut. She has spent recent years advocating for Inuit within health care and has emphasized the need for co-creating safe spaces and good relationships between health-care professionals and Indigenous people and communities, as well as health policy changes using Indigenous rights-based approaches. She is a CNA board member, CNA Indigenous Relations Action Council member, and also works with other organizations with the goal to advance cultural safety and humility within health care.

Sophie Pamak RN, CCHN(C) Community Health Nurse, Hopedale, Nunatsiavut

Sophie Pamak is an Inuit Nurse who is fluent in her Inuktitut language and a beneficiary of the Nunatsiavut Government land claim agreement, formerly known as the Labrador Inuit Association. Sophie with her partner Martin have raised two sons in their traditional lifestyle of hunting, fishing and gathering through the seasons.

Sophie, in addition to the traditional lifestyle activites, enjoys sewing, beadwork, and crochet. The majority of crafts are around the traditional Inuit clothing such as Aigiliuk (parka), silapaliiuk (outer shell) and akuliliuk (special occasion attire).

Most of Sophie’s nursing career has been serving her fellow Inuit in various roles as regional clinic nurse, public health, with a very brief time in long term care. The last 20 years of her near 30-year career has been in the role of home care nurse. Becoming CNA certified as a community health nurse, as well as completing Pallium Canada’s palliative care course, has added to her working knowledge in providing care for her community.

Cheyenne Joseph RN, BScK, BScN, MPH, DrPH(c) Director of Health, Assembly of First Nations

Cheyenne Joseph is a member of L'sitkuk First Nation, NS, in Mi’kmaq Nation, Wabanaki territory. She lives near her husband's home community of Elsipogtog First Nation, NB. Cheyenne has over 22 years of experience as a Registered Nurse, specializing in community and public health nursing. She is currently pursuing her doctorate degree in public health (DrPH) from the University of Toronto. Cheyenne has worked in many sectors including government, academia, not-for-profit, and small business. Before joining AFN, Cheyenne was the Associate Vice-President, Indigenous Engagement, at the University of New Brunswick, with a mandate to guide the university in its commitment to Indigenous reconciliation and engagement. As the Director of Health at the Assembly of First Nations, Cheyenne brings a strong focus on integrating First Nation knowledge systems, addressing systemic barriers, and advocating for community-driven solutions to improve health outcomes.

Savannah Large LPN Bachelor of Nursing Student

Savannah Large is a Plains Cree and from the Treaty Six Territory in Alberta. Her nation is Whitefish Lake First Nation #128, just 2 hours North of Edmonton. Whitefish Lake has a small population of roughly only 1,200 people. This is where she grew up. Whitefish Lake is where her Father is from and Saddlelake Cree Nation is where her Mother is from. She graduated from the Licensed Practical Nurse Program in 2022 through NorQuest College in Edmonton and has worked as an LPN for over 2 years. Savannah’s area of work is acute care. She currently works at 3 different hospitals, one urban hospital in Edmonton and two rural hospitals. She’s a casual float at all 3 hospitals, picking up shifts when she can or during her time off from school. Savannah is currently enrolled in the Bachelor of Nursing Program through the University of Calgary and in her fourth year. She is part of the St. Paul rural cohort, which is a small town located in Northern Alberta. Aside from school and work, she enjoys travelling to the mountains, going to the gym, bike riding, and spending time with her family.

Dr. Holly Graham PhD, RD Psychologist, RN, BA, BScN, MN Professor Indigenous Research Chair in Nursing

Dr. Holly Graham is a member of the Thunderchild First Nation, SK. She has worked as a Registered Nurse (RN) in northern communities and various other health-care environments since 1985. Currently, Holly is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, at the University of Saskatchewan. She also maintains an active practice as a Registered Doctoral Psychologist, working primarily with individuals who have experienced trauma and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Dr. Wanda Phillips-Beck BN, M.Sc. RN, PhD Seven Generations Scholar Adjunct Professor, University of Manitoba Indigenous Research Chair in Nursing

Wanda is Anishinaabekwe from Hollow Water First Nation in Manitoba and an advocate for anti-racism in health systems. Wanda is an active practising nurse and a research scholar with the First Nation Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba and CIHR Chair in Indigenous Health Nursing. She works to challenge and transform colonial and racist structures in health care through Indigenous-led approaches in research. An adjunct professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Manitoba, Wanda earned her PhD in Community Health Sciences in 2021, with a focus on Indigenous methodologies and decolonization of population health research. Her work is informed by ceremony and the guidance of Knowledge Keepers. Wanda’s current research advances the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action in nursing, with a particular emphasis on embedding anti-racist practice at all levels of health systems.

Denise McCuaig

As the Executive Director, Healthcare Transformation and Capacity Building, Denise McCuaig works to enable health-care leaders and teams across Canada to enhance their ability to make improvements and to sustain them. Denise leads a team providing a focus for subject matter expertise and knowledge translation in key areas of Healthcare Excellence Canada’s mandate, such as patient safety, health equity and lived experience of patients, caregivers, and communities. Denise also lends her leadership to our team-based executive training program EXTRA and focus on leadership and governance.

Her lived experience as a Métis woman, patient and caregiver supports her passion for justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. She is currently supporting several Metis & First Nation graduate students as they embark on their research. Denise is a collaborator for Indigenous Graduate Education in Nursing (IGEN), a member of the Indigenous Guidance Circle with CMA and Chair of First Peoples Wellness Circle.

Denise has been recognized for her many years of leadership in the not-for-profit sector with a Professional Champion Award from Clinical Counselors & Psychotherapy Association of Canada (CCPA), Champion Mental Health Award from the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health (CAMIMH). Closer to home in Kamloops, British Columbia, the YMCA awarded Denise with a Woman of Distinction Award.

Dr. Mona Lisa Bourque Bearskin RN, PhD, FAAN, FCAN

Mona Lisa Bourque Bearskin nitisiyihkâson êkwa amiskosâkahikan nêhiyaw peyakôskân, ostêsimâwoyasiwêwin nikotwâsik ohci niya mâka lək̓ʷəŋən traditional territory e-wîkiyân mêkwâc. Mona Lisa Bourque Bearskin is from Beaver Lake Cree Nation, Treaty 6 Territory, colonial known as Alberta, and currently lives on the lands of W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples, colonially known as Victoria, BC.

In service to the local host Nations, Mona works as an Associate Professor and holds an inaugural Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) Indigenous Health Nursing Research Chair at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. She says her heart is with the People, and that she is known for her expertise in Indigenous health nursing leadership, access to health care, and Indigenous knowledge in nursing. Mona is honored to have a good relationship with the community and students she works with, saying it is a generative and principled process to upholding Indigenous rights in advancing Indigenous health nursing knowledge. The collective research she values is leading a relational, rights, and strength-based inquiry that sustains healing and wellness while advancing Indigenous health rights. As the former president of the Canadian Indigenous Nursing Association (CINA) under the mentorship of many great nursing leaders, Mona led organizational changes and program development across the nursing discipline and diverse First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities. Her current research focuses on supporting intergenerational mentorship through reconciling parallel pathways to Indigenous health nursing research in the context of community wellness. She says it is within the work of our healers, helpers, and health professional where she apprentices, a space where she thrives and embodies her Cree ways of knowing, to give back and support the new generation of healers and helpers and health professionals of the future.

Dr. Christina Chakanyuka RN, BScN, MN, PhD

As a Métis nurse, educator, and researcher, I honour that the source of my situatedness and knowledge that I hold stems from who I am as a person, where I come from, and to whom I am connected. Growing up on Dené, Cree, and Métis homelands in rural-remote Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, I had the privilege of connecting with the land, water, and my Indigenous roots in ways that shaped my sense of belonging as a Métis woman from a young age. My matrilineal roots are with the Villebrun and Gladue families of Thebacha and Athabasca. I hold strong family ties to my mother’s British, Dené, and Cree-Métis relations, as well as my father’s Scottish-Canadian settler relations. I care deeply about affirming the rights of Indigenous Peoples to self-determination in healing and wellness. I am passionate about co-creating culturally secure space, place, and base for Indigenous nurse wellness in the community, and I am committed to working collaboratively with others in Indigenist research-activism guided by the core tenants of anti-racism and love. I am currently teaching and completing my PhD in nursing on unceded Coast Salish homelands at the University of Victoria.