C. Nadine Wathen, PhD, FCAHS

GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE × knowledge MOBILIZATION × health equity 

I am a Full Professor and Canada Research Chair (SSHRC, Tier I) in Mobilizing Knowledge on Gender-Based Violence in the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, and Academic Director of the Centre for Research on Health Equity & Social Inclusion at The University of Western Ontario. I’m also a Research Scholar at the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children in Western's Faculty of Education, and hold cross-appointments in Western's Faculty of Information & Media Studies (FIMS), and Department of Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies.  I also founded Western's Joint Graduate Program in Health Information Science (HIS).

I am an inter-disciplinary researcher, with well-established and productive partnerships with scholars, clinician-scientists, and community partners from a number of academic institutions, governments, non-government organizations, and community agencies. Through a social justice lens, I take a collaborative research approach to answer – both theoretically and at a more practical level – important questions in the area of  gender-based violence and health equity.

My research develops and evaluates interventions for women experiencing violence and seeks to enhance the science of knowledge mobilization (KMob) to ensure that new knowledge emerging from research is made available, in appropriate ways, to decision-makers including policy actors, health and social service providers, advocates, and members of the public. A particular focus is developing interventions that enhance health equity, and take a gendered, trauma- and violence-informed approach to providing services for people experiencing violence and/or marginalization.

You can hear me describe my research below.

My teaching focuses on educating future health information professionals, nurse-researchers, and scholars. I teach courses mainly in the HIS program, including graduate courses on Interdisciplinary Issues in HIS, and Social Contexts of Health Information, as well as electives on evidence-based health care methods and searching for health-related evidence; the role of information and information professionals in the health care system; and research methods.

I’m grateful to work with many excellent people - please visit my Team page to view current staff and students, and links to research teams.