Executive Team
Dr. Vicki Kristman
Director and Scientist
- CIHR New Investigator in Community-based Primary Health Care
- Associate Professor, Department of Health Sciences
Dr. Kristman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Lakehead University and the Inaugural Director for a new Research Institute at Lakehead University: EPID@Work – Enhancing the Prevention of Injury and Disability@Work. She also holds appointments in the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto. She holds a doctoral degree in epidemiology from the University of Toronto and completed the CIHR Work Disability Prevention strategic training program as a postdoctoral fellow at the University Health Network in Toronto. In 2014, Dr. Kristman was awarded a prestigious CIHR New Investigator Award for her program of research on “Preventing Work Disability through Accommodation”. She is currently leading projects to test the effectiveness of a supervisor training program to prevent prolonged work disability; to identify factors associated with Indigenous work, health and safety, and to determine factors associated with supervisors’ support for providing work accommodations for workers with mental health disorders.
Dr. Kathy Sanderson
Associate Director
- Associate Professor, Human Resources and Organizational Behaviour in the Faculty of Business Administration
Dr. Kathy Sanderson is an Associate Professor of Human Resources and Organizational Behaviour in the Faculty of Business Administration at Lakehead University. Her PhD in Management is from St. Mary’s University in Halifax, NS. Kathy’s research focuses on reducing pain at work. She holds a research grant with Future Skills, examining the effects of Covid-19 on new immigrant women in northern Ontario (RenewNWO.ca). She is the Canada research lead on an international project funded through the TransAtlantic Platform that will examine the workplace realties for Personal Support Workers and Home Case Workers in Ontario. Previously, Kathy has been conducting research which explores emotional abuse and coercive control at work, workplace ostracism, organizational welcoming, and job rejection. She is a Registered Psychotherapist (Ontario), and has provided mental health and addictions counselling, and workplace crisis interventions for over 20 years while holding managerial positions. With a focus on human resources and change, Dr. Sanderson works with employers to address sensitive and trauma-informed organizational responses for both groups and individuals.