Sherri Pooyak

Sherri Pooyak is of Cree ancestry from Sweetgrass First Nation, Saskatchewan and is a visitor on the Lekwungen and WSÁNEC Nations of the Coast Salish people also known as Victoria, as a Community-based Research Manager (CBRM) with the AHA Centre a project with the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network. Sherri assists Indigenous communities in developing their research capacities specific to HIV and AIDS with Indigenous people and communities. She is also the first Indigenous Co-Chair at Island Health’s Human Research Ethics Board. And is a Sessional Instructor at the University of Victoria and First Nations University of Canada. In her work with CAAN, she is the nominated principal investigator on the Weaving Our Wisdom grant, which is looking at using land-based methodologies that are aimed to optimize Indigenous people’s health who are living with HIV as well as on the Making It Work Project with the Pacific AIDS Network. The Making It Work project is Making it Work is an Indigenous focused community-based research study that is looking at what services work well for people living with HIV, hepatitis C, and/or challenges with mental health and/or substance use. This project is looking to understand why, when and how certain services work, with a specific interest in the following program models.