Jo-Ann Episkenew
(1952 – 2016)
B.A. (with distinction), Hons. Cert., M.A. (Regina), Ph.D. magna cum laude (Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University, Greifswald, Germany)
Jo-Ann Episkenew (1952 – 2016) was Director of the Indigenous People’s Health Research Centre a partnership between the University of Regina, University of Saskatchewan, and First Nations University. She was also Associate Faculty in Kinesiology and Health Studies at the University of Regina and in the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan.
Her research interests included Indigenous Literature as applied literatures, narrative medicine, narrative policy studies, and trauma studies. She was an active researcher and Co-PI on several Operating Grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and NPI for a team awarded a Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation Health Research Group Grant for Iyiniw-Iskâtisak Pamihisowak: Using Indigenous Knowledge for a Healthier Aboriginal Youth.
Jo-Ann’s book Taking Back Our Spirits: Indigenous Literature, Public Policy, and Healing (2009) won the Saskatchewan Book Award for Scholarly Writing in 2009 and the First Peoples Writing Award in 2010. She was a member of the Boards of Directors of the Aboriginal Health Research Network and of the Lung Association of Saskatchewan. Jo-Ann was also a member of the Regina Riel Métis Council.
Jo-Ann passed away on Feb. 18, 2016 in Regina. She leaves her husband, Clayton, their blended family of 13 children; and more than 30 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
