public-professor-rebecca-schiff

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Dr. Rebecca Schiff

Ending Homelessness

The rate of homelessness has exploded across Canada, doubling in recent years, and Dr. Rebecca Schiff has an important message: Hope is not cancelled. For nearly two decades, Dr. Schiff has worked with individuals experiencing homelessness, as well as homelessness agencies and organizations across the country on diverse homelessness research and action-research projects to understand how we can move towards a society where everyone is safely housed. Her talk, Ending Homelessness, shares lessons learned from across Canada on foundational principles and approaches that need to be adopted if we are to finally put an end to homelessness.

Dr. Rebecca Schiff, a transdisciplinary scholar and administrator whose research spans the fields of health sciences, social sciences, humanities and environmental sciences, began her role as Deputy Provost at the University of Lethbridge in May 2024. Dr. Schiff comes to ULethbridge from an appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Human and Health Sciences at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). In that role, she led the Schools of Education, Nursing, Social Work and Health Sciences, as well as the Department of Psychology. Prior to her time at UNBC, she held teaching and administrative positions at Lakehead University, including Professor of Indigenous, Rural and Remote Health and Chair of the Department of Health Sciences in the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences. Dr. Schiff’s research work has included funding from a wide array of sources, including the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). She has been a principal or co-applicant on 50-plus research projects totalling over $13 million in grants and has authored/co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications. She has also produced three books, with her most recent — Pandemic preparedness and homelessness: International lessons from COVID-19 — released in September 2024.