Elizabeth Onyango, PhD, MPH, BSc. Env
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Contact
Assistant Professor, Healthy and Sustainable Communities, School of Public Health
- eonyango@ualberta.ca
- Phone
- (780) 492-9072
- Address
-
3-319 Edmonton Clinic Health Academy
11405 - 87 Ave NWEdmonton ABT6G 1C9
- Availability
- Wednesdays 12pm-1pm (also by appointment)
Overview
Area of Study / Keywords
Food Security and Nutrition Social Equity Health and Wellbeing of Immigrants Intersections of Gender and GBV Community Engagement Healthy Communities
About
Dr. Elizabeth Onyango is an Assistant Professor of Healthy and Sustainable Communities in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta.
She holds a PhD in Health Geography of the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and a Master's of Public Health, Epidemiology and Population Health of Maseno University in Kenya. Current teaching and research focuses on healthy and sustainable communities, community-based and health promotion research, community engagement in food security initiatives, and leadership and professional skills in public health practice.
Dr. Onyango's research work is grounded in eco-social framework, Afrocentrism, critical theory, community engagement and community-based participatory research approaches. She employs mixed methods approaches including both qualitative (interviews, focus groups, Afrocentric sharing circles, photovoice, and document reviews) and quantitative (survey methodologies) techniques. She has done research in Kenya, Ecuador, South Africa, and Canada and her work has been published in a variety of peer reviewed journals including Social Sciences & Medicine, PLos One, Wellbeing, Space & Society, Environments, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Public Health Nutrition, and Journal of Maternal & Child Nutrition.
Dr. Onyango’s research interests include explorative studies of what matters to communities/populations with a focus on food security and nutrition of populations and social inequalities in health and wellbeing. Her work also extends into intersections of gender, gender-based violence and household food security and the associated health outcomes in women, children, and youth.
Dr. Onyango is passionate about community engagement and service and has worked in different capacities within the academic and non-academic communities. She is currently an associate member of the Women & Children's Health Research Institute at the University of Alberta, and an associate member of the Tshepo Institute for the Study of Contemporary Africa at Wilfrid Laurier University and the Centre for Studies in Food Security at Ryerson University. Dr. Onyango is a board member of the African Community Wellness Initiative a Waterloo Region, a member of the Edmonton Food Council, and a board of directors, of Pamoja Community-Based Organization (CBO), Kisumu, Kenya.
Research
- Food insecurity, nutrition and wellbeing
- Intersections of gender, gender-based violence and household food security
- Social inequality and health and wellbeing of immigrants
- Community engagement and community-based health research
- Mixed methods research - Afrocentric sharing circles, photovoice, and survey methodologies
Teaching
- Community-based and health promotion research methods
- Leadership and professional skills in public health
Announcements
Currently accepting students!!!
Courses
SPH 546 - Public Health Practice & Professional Skills II
Building on SPH 541- Public Health Practice and Professional Skills I, students continue to practice and strengthen professional competencies through working in teams to address complex public health scenarios. This course highlights the action implementation and evaluation phases of the assessment-planning-action-evaluation cycle, and emphasizes the knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed in inter/intra-organizational teamwork and collaboration, including: assessment of the implementation context - such as the political climate and political will - ethics and values in decision-making, financing of health initiatives in the Canadian context, budget cycles and accountability, economic evaluation and resource allocation considerations, and governance. Teams continue to build stakeholder assessment skills - who needs to be at the table and their roles and responsibilities and accountabilities; and project management skills - scoping the work, developing a resource plan, including budget, work plan, and evaluation plan, and developing an advocacy briefing note in support of their proposed initiative. Particular attention is given to the implications for, and impacts of, policy making on, Indigenous people and other equity seeking groups. SPH 546 is a required course for the degree of Master of Public Health in General Public Health. Prerequisites: SPH 530, SPH 535, SPH 536, SPH 541, SPH 562. Corequisite: SPH 537, SPH 563, or consent of instructor.
Scholarly Activities
Research - COVID-19 pandemic and food insecurity in African Caribbean Black identifying households in Ontario
Started: 2021-09-01
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Funded
Research - Early Career Research Fellow, Hungry Cities Partnership, BSIA, WLU
2019-07-01 to 2020-12-31
Queen Elizabeth Advanced Scholarships funded: https://www.univcan.ca/programs-and-scholarships/queen-elizabeth-scholars/qes-advanced-scholars/
Research - Food Insecurity Consequences of COVID-19 on Marginalized Refugees and Migrants in Canada, Latin America, and Africa
Started: 2022-09-01
Funded by Canadian Institute of Health Research COVID-19 Research Grant
Research - Migration & Food Security in the Global South Research Project (MiFOOD)
2021-07-01 to 2022-06-30
https://hungrycities.net/about-mifood/
Funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council - SSHRC
Research - Post-doctoral Fellow, Toronto Metropolitan University
2021-01-05 to 2022-04-30
Canadian school system and experiences of Black Youth in schools in Waterloo Region and Black youth mentorship.