I am fundamentally an advocate who got ahold of some credentials

Broadly, Barb focuses on advancing harm reduction and evidence-based substance use policy, with emphasis on amplifying voices of people with lived and living experience. These contributions can be categorized in the following key areas: 

1. Voices of Lived and Living Experience: People with lived and living experience (PWLLE) of harmful substance use are active partners throughout Barb's research program.  PWLLE are included in Barb's work as co-applicants on funded research projects, co-authors on publications, and co-presenters at academic conferences and community gatherings.  

2. Partnership and Stakeholder Collaboration: Barb also works to build and sustain partnerships with municipal leaders, health care decisionmakers, justice system leaders, community-based organizations, and frontline service providers. She also works closely with Indigenous knowledge keepers, researchers, and community advocates. Her research program responds to the needs and priorities identified by these partners. 

3. Policy and Public Advocacy: Barb frequently provides her research evidence to promote policy change to improve health outcomes for people who use substances. For example, providing a rapid review and subsequent report on the impacts of decriminalization of personal possession of substances for the Saskatoon and Regina boards of police commissioners in 2023, providing a substance use framework approach for municipal leaders at the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association annual conference in 2022 and subsequently joining the mayor’s caucus mental health and addictions task force working group as an expert member, and leading multiple meetings with provincial policy makers, community based organizational leaders, and being called upon to speak with media to address substance use policy changes in Saskatchewan.  

4. Knowledge Mobilization and Education: Barb draws on her background in communications and existing research partnerships to mobilize knowledge through education to facilitate systems change across health sciences and the wider community. She developed and now directs the Graduate Certificate in Substance Use Health and Wellbeing program, the first graduate-level certificate at the University of Saskatchewan. Additionally, she developed and now directs the micro-credential ‘Municipal Leadership in Addressing Substance Use Harms’. She has also co-developed episodes and content for the streaming platform Hard Knox Talks, a Saskatchewan-based show addressing all things substance use.