BCBusiness

BCB MayJune 2022_LR

With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.

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MAY/JUNE 2022 BCBUSINESS 23 BCBUSINESS.CA W I N N E R BRITTANY BINGHAM D I R E C T O R O F I N D I G E N O U S R E S E A R C H , V C H I N D I G E N O U S H E A L T H A N D C E N T R E F O R G E N D E R A N D S E X U A L H E A L T H E Q U I T Y ; A S S I S T A N T P R O F E S S O R , D I V I S I O N O F S O C I A L M E D I C I N E , U B C F A C U L T Y O F M E D I C I N E F or Brittany Bingham, taking over as director of Indigenous research at Vancouver Coastal Health and CGSHE with two kids during the pandemic meant juggling work and school. But she thinks the hardest part was not being able to meet the people and com- munities she typically sees in person. "We work with a lot of Indigenous elders, so keep- ing them safe was a priority," Bingham says. "The elders have been amazing at learning how to get on Zoom." A member of the shíshálh Nation on the Sunshine Coast, Bingham was previously lead re- search and evaluation adviser at VCH Indigenous Health and has worked in community-based In- digenous health research since 2004. The Vancouverite, who is also assistant professor of social medicine at UBC, earned a mas- ter's and a doctorate in public health from SFU. "I'm actually the first Indigenous person to graduate with a PhD from my department," she says. Bingham, whose work aims to decolonize health- CHANGE MAKER R U N N E R - U P BRIANNE MILLER C E O , N A D A BACK WHEN REDUCING plastic consumption typically meant buying secondhand clothing or furniture, Brianne Miller saw its role in creating a better way to sell food. Ontario-raised Miller, who holds an MSc in marine biology from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, did much international fieldwork from 2008 to 2015. Visiting remote sites littered with toothbrushes and detergent bottles prompted her to start Nada, a package- free grocery store and delivery service based in Vancouver, in 2015 as a way to close the lid on waste. "Our model essentially relies on a local and circular economy food system," Miller says. Serving customers online and in person with 46 staff, Nada started off as pop-up shops out of the Patagonia store in Kitsilano, expanded into farmers markets and community events, and now has a retail space in East Vancouver. The company's recovery program, Nada's Own, rescues food within its store and supply chain and turns it into items for sale, like carrot-top pesto. "Your average grocery store is typically wasting between 8 and 12 percent of their total inventory to food loss and waste," Miller says. "Ours has consistently been less than 1 percent." The certified B Corporation, which works with 150 B.C.-based food processors, manufac- turers and suppliers, sells products by weight, refills customer containers and delivers to most cities in Metro Vancouver. Miller also uses the retail space to host film screenings, food system repair workshops and panel dis- cussions: "We bring in farmers, scientists and food policy experts to educate our community about the importance of supporting our B.C. food system." –R.R. care research and policy, notes that First Nations com- munities have historically been misrepresented in data. "What we see is all devas- tating data," she says. "We haven't focused on using In- digenous voices for the actual recommendation." For her PhD dissertation, Bingham held a talking circle in East Vancouver that included elders, Indigenous community members, service providers and those with lived experi- ence sharing their stories about housing and homelessness. Rather than use a traditional interview or survey, Bingham turns to elders as key leaders in her research and often relies on arts-based and Indigenous approaches to data collection, such as giving participants agency over their stories through weaving, photography or carving. "Graphic facilitation is a big part of the arts-based method," she says. "We have a graphic artist draw out all of the key themes and findings from what people are sharing." For a project funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Research, Bingham is now talking to Indigenous women and two-spirit and gender- diverse people about their ex- periences accessing sexual and reproductive health care dur- ing the pandemic. "Witnessing is very important in Indig- enous culture," she says. "As a researcher, I'm simply a wit- ness to what people are shar- ing, and part of the witnessing is your duty and responsibility to take that forward and share it for good, for change." –R.R. WOMEN YEAR OF THE 2 0 2 2

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