Throughout her career, she has had the privilege of working with committed teams and generous partners to help advance community-centered initiatives. Shellina is honoured to continue that work at the Foundation, where she strives to listen deeply, lead with humility, and contribute to building healthier, more equitable communities.

“This role feels deeply personal — it’s a chance to give back, to listen, to build trust, and to support solutions that come from within communities themselves. I’m honoured to be part of a team working toward a healthier future for everyone, especially those who have too often been left behind.”-Shellina Lakhdhir, CEO, Pacific Public Health Foundation

We are delighted to have Shellina join our team, and we look forward to continuing our work to solve some of BC’s most pressing public health issues, with Shellina leading the way. We are grateful to our Board of Directors, who took on the task of finding the right person for the position, and for never forgetting our mission — to provide a healthier, safer, and more equitable future for British Columbians.

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As a passionate advocate for health promotion, equity, the determinants of health, and upstream, preventative actions, Kristy has always been steadfast and clear in vision. As she grew the organization and team, she secured investments and built partnerships, seeking solutions for some of BC’s most pressing and complex priorities.

We know that Kristy will remain passionate about public health, and we thank her for her dedication, expertise, and vision over the years. We will ensure that the organization can continue to advance our purpose and impact. A search process for Kristy’s successor is underway and Matthew Wright will be Acting CEO during this time.

Doug Nelson
Chair, Board of Directors

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Which is why we want to share our immense gratitude for one of our generous donors, TD Bank Group (TD). Through the Better Health driver of the TD Ready Commitment, the Bank’s corporate citizenship platform, they support research, technology, and innovative solutions that are focused on helping to improve access to equitable care, while trying to address long-standing systemic structures in health care. They support countless initiatives across their North American footprint aimed at increasing access to health education, screening, and early interventions that can improve health status.

We want to thank our friends at TD for their generous support of a program called Test, Link, Call, led by Dr Sofia Bartlett, the Interim Scientist Director Clinical, Prevention Services at the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC). This innovative work supports people at risk for hepatitis and HIV who experience barriers to accessing the care and treatment they need due to poverty, unstable housing, or other determinants of health. This program is such a great example of how public health initiatives can improve the lives of people across our province.

Strong relationships with leaders like TD help us to develop a comprehensive and coordinated approach to addressing complex public health challenges. Together, we are helping build a healthier, safer, more equitable future for all.

In the photo from left to right: Grant Minish (National Manager, LGBTQ2+ Business Development, TD Bank Group), Nadine Nickull (Associate Director of Development, PPHF), Adrienne Wood (Manager, Community Banking Pacific Region, TD Bank Group), Maddie Mackenzie (Senior Marketing & Communications Coordinator, PPHF).

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So, we are thrilled to announce a new partnership with Michael Smith Health Research BC (MSHRBC) — British Columbia’s research agency, supporting BC’s top health researchers through funding programs and increasing impact through active partnerships with organizations who collaborate on funding, training, and other initiatives.

“One fundamental way that we implement evidence-based and equity-driven work that has an immediate impact on the health of people in British Columbia is through partnership and collaboration. We believe that by convening, collaborating, and leveraging relationships with partners, we can collectively, and responsively, advance projects grounded in the most pressing public health priorities for BC.” – Kristy Kerr, CEO, Pacific Public Health Foundation  

We share with MSHRBC a commitment to collaboration, and to advancing health for British Columbians. Through the pandemic, we joined forces to fund rapid response vaccine research, and in 2022 we came together with other partners to host a dialogue event with key stakeholders at the interface of public health practice and public health research, to distill key lessons from the pandemic. The aim was to strengthen partnerships in responding to public health emergencies and it is imperative that we continue this work.

Our Priorities

Many lessons have been learned from the pandemic response and we need to apply what we are learning so that we can help to strengthen public health infrastructure and capacities  to respond to future threats. One critical area is knowledge synthesis and translation — meaning that research is developed by the needs of the users and evidence is transferred back into changes for practice, programs, services, decision-making, and policy that directly benefit the people of BC. We are making investments in these areas as a recurrent theme that has arisen through many conversations, reports, dialogues, and engagement activities over the last few years.

Our Impact

Through this partnership, we will be jointly funding public health projects that demonstrate impacts on practice, programs, service, decision-making, or policy, especially with Indigenous communities and/or in rural and remote areas, making improvements to population health outcomes. Specifically, funding will support teams of health researchers and research users to co-develop research that can have direct impacts on people and to disseminate research evidence with those who can directly benefit from it to impact health in BC.

This program will advance pandemic learnings and recovery efforts, address key public health priorities that were amplified during the pandemic, including societal consequences, and strengthen public health systems to better respond to emergencies and crises. Projects will be grounded in health equity; Indigenous Rights, and Truth and Reconciliation; building an effective and responsive public health system; actions on the determinants of health as core themes across all our activities.

We partnered with Michael Smith Health Research BC to co-fund the 2024 Convening and Collaborating Awards (C2) . The winners have now been announced. Learn more about the work they are doing to improve the health of communities across the province.

Our unique, collaborative, and nimble role allows us to bring together philanthropy, funding, and partnerships to advance a healthier, safer, and more equitable future for all. And we’re proud to undertake our work with such a great organization like MSHRBC.

The post Advancing Public Health Impact: A Dynamic New Partnership for BC appeared first on Pacific Public Health Foundation.

We’re pleased to bring you an exciting announcement today. As we launch into this new year, we are thrilled to introduce our refreshed brand, including a new name – Pacific Public Health Foundation.

Our bold new brand has been created to convey our unique role in public health philanthropy and action. Pacific Public Health Foundation is the only charity in BC actively fundraising for public health and framing public health as a cause.

We are the same small and mighty organization doing good things for public health. But our Foundation has grown, and as the health landscape in BC changes, so too does our work. Our new name distinguishes us while simultaneously showcasing our commitment to public health in every corner of our beautiful province, and all its diversity.

Since we formed, our Foundation has closely aligned with the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC). As BC’s provincial public health service, BCCDC remains as strong and committed a partner as ever and critical to our work. Over the past 10 years, we have also built partnerships across all areas of public health, ensuring that we continue to make a difference in communities where, how, and when they need it most.

By collaborating with the BCCDC and all of our partners, we can continue to positively influence population health outcomes by advancing programs and projects grounded in today’s priorities that will have a long-lasting impact.

The inspiration for our new brand concept comes from a mosaic, of distinct parts coming together to form a whole. The triangles in our new logo represent communities coming together, and the essence of public health being about groups and partnerships, working together, diversity and equity. It puts people at the centre of public health. We hope you appreciate this beautiful concept.

Part of the refreshed brand is a new website showcasing our campaigns and our impact. We invite you to visit our new website, enjoy reviewing our collective impact over the past 10 years, and learn about our current fundraising campaigns.

We are confident that this exciting new brand and name will reinforce and emphasize the recognizable, trusted work for which we are known, and our dedication to public health philanthropy that allows us to transform public health throughout British Columbia.

We invite you to look around this new website to learn more about us, our collective impact, and how you can support.

Thank you for continuing to be a committed supporter and partner. We look forward to showcasing our work ahead, and together advancing our vision of a healthier, safer, more equitable future for all.

Kristy Kerr, BSc, MPH-HP,
CEO, Pacific Public Health Foundation

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