Our Team
Danielle N. Soucy PhD(c)
Executive Director | dsoucy@ncime.ca
Ms. Soucy comes to the NCIME with extensive experience working at the national level and frontlines of medical education. For 11.5 years, she served as the Director for the Indigenous Students Health Sciences office (ISHS), Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University. Before this, she was a Senior Policy Analyst and Research Officer for the National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO). Her ability to work collaboratively with Indigenous governance within the university, along with community consultations and partnerships led to an international Best Practice recognition for her office. Her leadership has been one of innovation, she developed new programs and services that targeted inclusion of Indigenous priorities throughout the faculty’s programs.She has a proven track record and solid reputation as someone passionate, committed, and of the highest integrity in her work ethic and relationships. This accounts for her success in partnership development, student best practices, and working with government and regulatory bodies and networks in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.As a Settler ally, her goal is to transform our institutions of higher learning towards safe, equitable, diverse and inclusive supportive spaces for Indigenous persons within medical education as led and determined by them while honouring the many community teachers, Elders and Knowledge Keepers. She is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Health, Aging and Society, Faculty of Social Sciences, at McMaster University, Hamilton, ON. Her research focuses on non-Indigenous medical educators’ competency to teach Indigenous health in undergraduate medicine.For Danielle, the role of the Executive Director represents the ability to contribute to systemic institutional change responsive to the goals of the NCIME, its governing council and partners. She is excited for the opportunity to work with the elite Indigenous leaders in medical education, mentoring of future leaders and the academic space in which Indigenous medical students, residents and faculty thrive.
Kody Doxtater, MPH
Project Manager | kdoxtater@ncime.ca
Kody Doxtater is Mohawk Turtle Clan (maternal) and Ojibwe (paternal) from Six Nations of the Grand River, Indian Reserve No. 40. Growing up in his community has instilled a strong sense of identity and a passion for Indigenous health, rights, justice, equality, and accountability. He has extensive experience working with Indigenous communities, organizations, and individuals across a broad range of settings from speaking engagements to front lines delivery of emergency services as a fire fighter and primary care paramedic.
Kody is educated in both traditional Iroquois/Ojibwe ways of knowing and post-secondary education. He graduated the first year of Onkwawen:na Kentyohkwa an Adult Mohawk Immersion program. He is an AEMCA certified primary care paramedic. He possesses a 4-year Bachelor of Arts’ degree comprised of an Honors Specialization in First Nations studies and a Major in Health Sciences Western University as well as a Master of Public Health with a specialization in Indigenous Health from University of Victoria.
Kody will be on leave from his PhD in health sciences at Simon Fraser University where he specializes in the development of a culturally appropriate and effect Indigenous strategy to counter the harms associated with the use of tobacco products.
He is committed to lifelong learning and is highly motivated to effect change and contribute to the improvement of Indigenous health. His two children keep him positive and hopeful about the future.
Jordan Carrier
Director of Community Engagement | jcarrier@ncime.ca
Jordan Carrier, a nêhiyaw-iskwêw (Plains Cree Woman – uses she/her pronouns), currently resides in the lands protected by the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Agreement in Hamilton, Ontario. Originally from Regina, Saskatchewan, she is a member of Piapot First Nation in Treaty Four and mom to twin teenage boys, Mahingan and Nikik.
Jordan holds a Diploma from Mohawk College in Native Community Care, a Bachelor of Education in Aboriginal Adult Education from Brock University and is currently completing a second degree (Hons BA) in Indigenous Studies at McMaster University. She has worked within the Urban Indigenous Community of Hamilton since 2005 at various organizations, such as De dwa da dehs nye>s Aboriginal Health Centre, Niwasa, and McMaster University. While at McMaster University, she has held roles as an Indigenous Student Success Advisor within Indigenous Student Services, Assistant Program Coordinator, Indigenous Recruitment and Liaison Officer for the Indigenous Students Health Sciences Office. In these roles, she was responsible for recruitment, retention, transition, advocacy, admissions, and the development of scholarships and bursaries. Jordan has focused her career on working collaboratively with many Indigenous voices on campus and in the community with the Indigenous Education Council, Faculty, Staff, Students, Traditional Knowledge Keepers and Elders. Most recently, she has held the position of Coordinator, Indigenous Programming with the Indigenous Initiatives Unit at the University of Toronto Mississauga.
Jordan also volunteers with grassroots community projects and events. She is a member of the Inaugural Board of Directors for the Hamilton Anti-Racism Resource Centre, a parent member of the Human Rights & Equity Advisory Committee and the Indigenous Education Circle with the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.
Joseph B. Nguemo Djiometio, PhD, MPH
Evaluation and QI Specialist | jnguemo@ncime.ca
Dr. Joseph B. Nguemo is a Black Africa-born Public Health Researcher. He is bilingual in both French and English. Joseph always generates evidence to support decision-making and has extensive experience in Research. His research has been focused on addressing health inequities and disparities among disadvantaged groups such as Black and Indigenous peoples. Joseph loves interacting with different stakeholders to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities.
Joseph completed a Ph.D. in Pharmacology obtained in 2006 at the University of Vienna, and a Master of Public health in Epidemiology completed in 2016 at Lakehead University. Over the last 6 years, he has conducted more than 15 projects and published over than 30 peer-reviewed articles and technical reports. He worked in various research settings such as Universities, Hospitals, Community Health Centers, government, and Public Health services. He has extensive experience in research and evaluation including development and validation of data collection instruments, sampling strategy, data collection, and analysis using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Joseph has been using these experiences to develop the capacity of organizations and individuals in research and program evaluation. He has recently worked as a Research and Policy Analyst at Sioux Lookout First Nation Health Authority where he supported the COVID-19 Regional Respond Team with the development of policy/strategic documents. Also, he supported the evaluation of the activities of the COVID-19 regional Respond Team and the assessment of health service utilization before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Joseph has four children including two boys and two girls.
Sara Natsiq Ayaruak-Thomson
Associate Project Manager | sayaruak@ncime.ca
Sara Natsiq Ayaruak-Thomson is Inuk, born in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut to the Ayaruak family and adopted/raised in the traditional territory of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation by the Thomson family. They now reside on the traditional territory of the T’Souke and Sci’anew Nations, now known as Sooke, BC on Vancouver Island.
Sara holds a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in French and German, having graduated on the Dean’s List. They are relatively new to Indigenous healthcare and medical education but have a background working on large, multi-stakeholder projects within non-profit organizations. Sara most recently held the role of Membership & Mentorship Manager at the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada (IPAC).
Sara is excited to join the NCIME team and is looking forward to bringing their knowledge and insight gained from hearing the real-life experiences of IPAC medical learners and physicians in order to effect change at systemic levels.
They believe this change will create a more equitable future filled with Indigenous ways of knowing and doing, a higher representation of Indigenous physicians and anti-racist medical education which will help create a culturally safe healthcare system for all Indigenous people.
Alexandra Nychuk
Evaluation Assistant | anychuk@ncime.ca
Alexandra Nychuk is a Michif woman from Treaty One Territory and a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Nation. She currently resides as an uninvited guest in what is now referred to as Hamilton, on the traditional territories of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee Nations and within the lands protected by the “Dish with one Spoon” wampum agreement. She holds a Bachelor of Science Majoring in Athletic Training from Minot State University where she competed in collegiate level women’s hockey. After graduating, she went on to pass her Board of Certification Exam, becoming a Certified Athletic Trainer in 2015. Recently she completed her Master’s in Development Practice in Indigenous Development from the University of Winnipeg and is currently pursuing a PhD in Health and Society from McMaster University.
Alexandra strives to live by the values of being a good relative, through the centring of community voices and uplifting Indigenous understandings of health in her research. Alexandra has received many awards based on her scholarship including the Canadian Institute of Health Research Fredrick Banting and Charles Best CGSM Award, Research Manitoba Master’s Studentship Award, Prairie Indigenous Knowledge Exchange Network Award, Harvey E. Longboat Scholarship, and most recently the Weweni Future Scholar’s Award.
She has experience working with the Manitoba Métis Federation, First Nations Social Secretariat and Health of Manitoba, Métis National Council and Kishaadigeh Collaborative Research Centre. Alexandra is ecstatic to be provided with the opportunity to make valuable contributions on the national stage with the NCIME while following her passion for improving Indigenous health.
Arlana Redsky (Bennett) PhD(c)
Indigenous Research Methods, Research Assistant |abennett@ncime.ca
Arlana Redsky (Bennett), M.Sc., is an Anishinaabekwe member of the Shoal Lake 40 First Nation in Northwestern Ontario, born in Tk’emlúps unceded Secwepemc territory and currently resides in Treaty 7, the traditional territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy. Arlana holds a BA in English, a BA (Hons) in Sociology, and an M.Sc. in Risk and Community Resilience from the Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology in the Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Alberta. Currently, Arlana is completing her Ph.D. in Indigenous Studies in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. She is a member of the Indigenous Science and Technology and Society Studies research and teaching group (I-STS) and a former faculty member of the Summer Internship for Indigenous Peoples in Genomics (SING Canada). Arlana has worked as a Jr. policy analyst with Indigenous organizations such as the Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations Health. She has held several research positions with Alberta Environment and Parks, Indigenous STS, and Genome Alberta and has assisted in Indigenous course and program development. Arlana has spent considerable time volunteering within the University and Alberta community for organizations such as the Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science, and Technology (WISEST) program and the Tracking Change Indigenous youth fair. She has organized several international conferences, including the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC). Her current research specialization includes decolonial and Indigenous research methods, qualitative and quantitative analyses, and relational/Kincentric frameworks.