Emilia Gillies

Emilia is a Research Manager and Assistant to Dr. Barb Fornssler in the School of Public Health at the University of Saskatchewan. She is very involved with both academic and community work relating to the health of communities. She has contributed to multiple provincial and national initiatives pertaining to education about and data quality improvements for substance use and sexual violence. She has also heavily contributed to the development of an Agent-Based Model describing the networks of people who use drugs and the health outcomes of interactions among those networks.

Emilia is formerly a student volunteer and member of the Board of Directors for the Student Wellness Initiative Toward Community Health (SWITCH) Clinic in Saskatoon, SK. Currently, she volunteers at pop-up community events to assist in community health education and training in the administration of Naloxone.

In her free time, Emilia enjoys rock climbing, creating amigurumi, reading library books, organizing crafts and experiments for her nephews, and taking long walks with her dog.

Bachelor of Arts and Science in Health Studies (minor Psychology), Department of Psychology and Health Studies, College of Arts and Science, University of Saskatchewan

Master of Science in Community and Population Health Science, Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan

Graduate Certificate in Substance Use Health and Wellbeing, School of Public Health, University of Saskatchewan

Gillies, E. Substance Use in Saskatchewan: Calibration and Parameterization for a Computational Epidemiology Approach to Substance Use Research. (2025). University of Saskatchewan. Master's Thesis.

Owili, A.O., Wright, J., Gillies, E., Hanson, Y., Ng., J., Lysyshyn, M., Yao, S., Elamoshy, R., Ieren, I., Onaemo, V., & Neudorf, C. (2024). Canadian Urban Substance Use Surveillance Project (CUSSP): Feasibility Study. Urban Public Health Network.

Dixon, J., Owili, A.O., Ieren, I., Gillies, E., Hanson, Y., Bandara, T., Plante, C. & Neudorf, C. (2023). Canadian Substance Use Surveillance Project (CUSSP): Towards a Comprehensive and Integrated Public Health Surveillance System. Urban Public Health Network.

Tabassum, S., Lovrod, M., Findlay, I.M., White, S., Gillies, E., Mir Miri, H. (2023). Learning is Healing - Saskatchewan Sexual Violence Education Initiative. 210. Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan. https://sassk.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/CUISR_SV-Rprt_Digital-Sngl.pdf

Community Health and Epidemiology 50th Anniversary Legacy Award

This award is targeted to CPHS graduate students nearing the end of their program of studies or recently completed. It recognizes community-university collaborations in graduate student research, and/or expression of the values and principles of the department, as described on the department web site, in contributions to university or community throughout their program of studies.

Owilli, A.O., Wright, J., Gillies, E., Hanson, Y., Ng, J., Lysyshyn, M., Yao, S., Elamoshy, R., Ieren, I., Onaemo, V., and Neudorf, C. (2025). Canadian Urban Substance Use Surveillance Project: Towards a Comprehensive and Integrated Public Health Substance Surveillance System. Canadian Public Health Association Annual Conference 2025, Winnipeg, Canada.

Wright, J., Gillies, E., & Hanson, Y. (2024). Canadian Urban Substance Use Surveillance Project (CUSSP). Urban Public Health Network 2024 Conference, Ottawa, Canada.

Gillies, E., Mikuliak, J., Shojaati N., Starling Freitas, M., Stilling, L., Osgood, N.D. (2024). Substance Use in Saskatoon: Using hybrid modeling techniques to understand challenges and explore solutions. University of Saskatchewan Arts & Science Gala, Saskatoon, Canada.

Owilli, A.O., Dixon, J., Gillies, E. (2023). Canadian Urban Substance Use Surveillance Project (CUSSP): Towards an Integrated Urban Public Health Surveillance System for Substance Use, Determinants, Interventions and Impacts. Urban Public Health Network 2023 Conference, Montreal, Canada.

Tabassum, S. and Gillies, E. (2022). Learning is Healing - Saskatchewan Sexual Violence Education Initiative (SSVE). Healing Together Through Kindness: Understanding the Effects of Intergenerational Trauma, hosted by the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations and the Office of the Treaty Commissioner, Saskatoon, Canada.