Lori Wozney, PhD, is the Scientific Lead for Mental Health and Addictions (IWK), Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry (Dalhousie) and Affiliated Scientist at the Centre for Research in Family Health. Her role in IYS-NS is to help build a bold, uplifting, clear, ethical, and inclusive vision for research across IYS-NS.
Growing up in rural NS she learned why access, participation, human rights, and equity are foundational to a just society. Through research, she builds coalitions with scientists, youth, community-based organizations, universities, policy-makers and others to challenge legacy approaches to health care and build something better together. The core principles of Integrated Youth Services are the same ones that guide her research.
She has advanced degrees in Educational Studies and Human Performance Technology (Concordia University) and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Psychology (IWK). Her ability to bridge disciplines has sparked diverse research collaborations and publications in fields across psychiatry, psychology, computer-science, community health, nursing, social work, emergency medicine, and implementation science. Her work has improved equitable access to mental health services, advanced the way we co-design health interventions with youth and reimagined the way we teach health care providers about the role of socio-historical context in mental health.
Lori currently leads multiple national and international grant funded research and policy initiatives and is an invited speaker and senior advisor. She is co-leading Nova Scotia’s five-year IYS- Learning Health System research project and is a Principal Applicant on the Pan-Canadian Digital, Inclusive, Virtual, and Equitable Research Training in Mental Health Platform (DIVERT). She has been a subject matter expert on youth mental health service standards in multiple provinces. She led a provincial team at Nova Scotia Health that was awarded the Quality Award of Excellence in 2022. Her work in digital mental health has been promoted by the Mental Health Commission of Canada and eMental Health transnational implementation platform in North - West Europe (eMEN).
Lori has read and collected comicbooks for almost twenty years, studies the history of censorship in the 1950s, enjoys making strange art and finding secluded places in nature to think. She lives with her husband and three children in Alusulue'katik (Lower Sackville).
