Colleen Davison
Colleen spent her QES-AS placement in Thailand at Mae Fah Luang University in Chiang Rai. She also worked with the Burma Medical Association based in Mae Sot (a border town between Thailand and Myanmar). Colleen helped in some analysis and reporting of the ‘Parenting in Adversity International Comparative Study”. She also assisted with aspects of reporting from the 2019 Eastern Burma Retrospective Mortality Survey. During her community engagement, Colleen visited migrant schools with a local artist and talked about human rights and the place of art in advocacy and health communication.
“Having the opportunity to do a QES-AS placement in Thailand has given me the time to really focus on my research, to strengthen research collaborations and to deepen my understanding of boarder issues here. I also have been able to discuss practicum and research placements for future students, so it has been a very enriching experience all around.”
"Colleen at the School of Health Science, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai"
"QES-AS outgoing scholars Colleen Davison and Eva Purkey pose with Research Assistants for the Parenting in Adversity International Comparative Study that was part of Colleen and Eva’s placement activities with MFU faculty Dr. Tawatchai Apiddechkul and Thai QES-AS scholars and MFU faculty Drs. Supaporn Trogsakul and Katemanee Moonpanane."
"Students at a Mae Sot migrant school drawing during a human rights awareness workshop with Colleen and Burmese artist Maung Maung Tinn."
Eva Purkey
Dr. Purkey is a family physician who provides primary care and intra-partum obstetrics. She has worked in family practice in a small northern community and in Kingston Community Health Centres prior to coming to Queen’s. She has worked in refugee communities on the Thai-Burmese border providing clinical care and education around women’s health and human rights as well as research capacity building for community-based healthcare organization. She has also worked briefly in Inuit communities in Quebec and Nunavut. She is passionate about working with people experiencing structural violence and health inequities, and about examining and advocating to change the structures that inflict this violence in society but also within the healthcare system. She has completed an MPH at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with a specialization in Global Health. She is currently the Global Health/Health Equity Director, and the Associate Research Director for the Department of Family Medicine.
Dr Purkey works on local and international global health issues. In Canada, her work focuses on equity-seeking populations and equity-oriented care. Internationally, she works on the Thai-Burmese border with ethnic health organizations who work in the border area and in Eastern Myanmar. She is also leading a developing partnership between Queen's Department of Family Medicine and the Northern Thai University Mae Fah Luang, a University whose focus is to prepare well-rounded physicians for work in hill-tribe areas of northern Thailand.
As a QES scholar, Dr Purkey worked in Chiang Rai, Thailand, with Mae Fah Luang University rolling out a study called "Parenting in Adversity". She also worked with community based organization from Mae Sot, Thailand, including the Child Protection program of the Mae Tao Clinic, supporting them in rolling out the "Parenting in Adversity" study to inform their child protection work.
Reshma Parvin Nuri
Victoria Sicilia