Global Health Graduate and Professor Explore the Impact of Education on the Health of First Nations People

Global Health program graduate Dan Korpal (’13) and GH faculty member Dr. Anne Wong, Professor in the Department of Anesthesia, have been published in the latest issue of Australia’s AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples Volume 11, Issue 2. The article, which went live on June 1, is entitled Education and the health of the First Nations people of Canada.

In the article, Wong and Korpal explore education as a social determinant of health, as it has been shown to be a robust predictor of health outcomes.

Wong says, “I supervised Dan for his scholarly paper on Aboriginal health and education. I was impressed with it, and encouraged him to develop it into a manuscript for publication.” The two continued their collaboration, which was accepted for publication last month.

Korpal says, “Through partnership with Dr. Wong and other key stakeholders, I have been able to apply many key themes of the Global Health course to important real-world issues, such as the role of social determinants in First Nation health and education.”

This article, he explains, “emphasizes the importance of appreciating the often-subtle idiosyncrasies that are, in fact, pertinent to implementing policies within the particular context they aim to impact.”

Korpal hopes the article will help contribute to the discussion that is “imperative in closing the gap in education for First Nations people.

AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal that aims to present indigenous worldviews and scholarly research from native indigenous perspectives from around the world.

 Global Health News