CRHESI is led by two co-directors
Nadine Wathen, Academic Co-Director
Nadine Wathen, PhD, FCAHS is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Mobilizing Knowledge on Gender-Based Violence in the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing at Western University, and Academic Director of the Centre for Research on Health Equity and Social Inclusion. She is a Research Scholar at Western’s Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children, and a Member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada.
Nadine’s research examines the health and social service sector response to gender-based violence, interventions to reduce health inequities, and the science of knowledge mobilization. A particular focus is developing person-centred interventions that enhance health equity, and take a gendered, trauma- and violence-informed approach to providing services for those experiencing violence and/or marginalization. She is deeply committed to a partnership approach to research and knowledge sharing and has led a number of federally funded research initiatives, and international research and knowledge mobilization networks.
nadinewathen.ca | nwathen@uwo.ca | @NadineWathen
Heather Lokko, Community Co-Director
In her current role as the Corporate Nursing Executive at the London Health Sciences Centre, Heather Lokko (RN, MPH, CCHN(C)) provides leadership to advance nursing excellence, innovation, and equity-oriented care. She is responsible for supporting nurses across the organization in their critical work of care, teaching and research, and ensures nurses are consulted and engaged in organizational nursing initiatives. Heather also leads LHSC’s Office of Health Ethics, a key resource for addressing ethical issues that arise in patient care, health care management and research. Before coming to LHSC, Heather worked in public health for 26 years, in direct service provision, practice consultant, and progressive leadership roles. In addition to program and nursing leadership in public health, she guided the organization’s efforts related to health equity, including anti-Black racism and Indigenous reconciliation. Heather is an active community partner with past and current involvement in many collaborative initiatives, many of which address health inequities. She is the Community Co-Director of Western University’s Centre for Research on Health Equity and Social Inclusion and is an Adjunct Research Professor in the Arthur and Sonia Labatt School of Nursing at Western University. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the London Intercommunity Health Centre. With a combination of direct service provision, consultant, and leadership experience, Heather is known as a collaborative innovator in our health system. She is committed to healthcare excellence with focused expertise in the areas of health equity, nursing practice excellence, collective action, evidence-informed decision-making, and leadership.