Josephine Auger
Josephine Auger, Ph.D. - I serve as Strategic Lead for the Wapanachakos Indigenous Health Program at the University of Alberta, where I bring together years of experience in Indigenous governance, public health, community-led research, and teaching. My journey began with a Baccalaureate in Native Studies, followed by a Master of Science and a PhD in Public Health. I’ve worked in addictions training, health promotion, and First Nation administration, and from 2014 to 2018, I was honoured to be elected by my Treaty 8 Nation to lead as a servant leader. Teaching Indigenous Studies, developing curriculum, and leading research with and for Indigenous peoples has been a passion – especially in areas that utilize Indigenous research methods, healing trauma, ethics, and self-determination. Today, I continue this work through the Northern Alberta Medical Program at the University of Alberta, weaving together knowledge, lived experience and a commitment to wellness. Patrick Lightning, Sr. - Elder in Residence in the College of Health Sciences at the University of Alberta.
Patrick Lightning
Rick (Patrick) Lightning is a Mosom/Elder from Maskwacis, raised in the traditions of Plains Cree, Nehiyaw. He is a third-generation residential school survivor.
Through his consulting company, Lightning Camp and Associates, Rick has facilitated cross-cultural training, youth workshops, grief recovery, and program assessments. He is certified as a mental health therapist/counsellor and is trained in suicide and gang intervention. Rick also has mediation, negotiation and restorative justice certification.
As a policy technician, he had assisted with the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples for approximately 25 years. He has also been a cultural advisor to Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner, Wilton J. Littlechild. Rick was a former council member for Ermineskin Cree Nation.
Rick has been a Cultural Support Worker to the Indian Residential Schools (IRS), Mental Health, Aboriginal Youth Communities Empowerment Strategy (AYCES), and the National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program (NNADAP) programs at Maskwacis. He also participates in the Deadly Dads (men’s support group), the IHelti Alberta Health Research, Infectious Diseases Research group among other Indigenous health research projects within Maskwacis.
Currently, Rick is the resident Elder, or Mosom, as he prefers to be called, for the Wapanachakos, Indigenous Health Program, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, at the University of Alberta.