Jennifer Brady

Speaker Profile

Jennifer Brady

Associate Professor, PhD, RD

  • School of Nutrition and Dietetics, Women's and Gender Studies
  • Acadia University

Presentation

Integrating Lived Experience into Nutrition Research and Care: A Lived Experience Researcher's Perspective

Researchers and health professionals are increasingly looking to integrate the lessons of lived experience to enhance their research and clinical practice. Yet, research and health professional training rarely requires the kind of knowledge- and skills-based learning and preparation researchers and clinicians need to comprehend, value, and act on their participants’ and patients’ lived experiences. In this presentation a lived experience researcher and health professional will share her story of living with lymphedema and her ongoing advocacy for treatment, which resulted in an Auditor General’s review and sweeping policy change to Nova Scotia’s out-of-province/country care program. She will also share recommendations on how researchers and health professionals may better prepare themselves to centre those with lived experience.

Speaker / Chair Bio

About Jennifer Brady

Jennifer Brady is an Associate Professor in Women’s and Gender Studies and the School of Nutrition and Dietetics at Acadia University. Her research comprises topics in food, health, and social justice, with an emphasis on socially just health professional practice and heath professionals’ roles in advocacy/activism for structural change. Jennifer also has lived experience of chronic disease. Treatment for cervical cancer in 2020 left her with lymphedema. Lymphedema is a common chronic and progressive condition for which management and treatment services exist around the world, but is grossly underserved in Canada. Denied funding for out-of-country surgery by Nova Scotia Health, Jennifer’s pursuit of and advocacy for treatment led her to file a judicial review against the government of Nova Scotia in 2022. Her fight for care was widely covered by several national news outlets, including a CBC documentary. The court ultimately decided in her favour, which forced changes to the government policy that prevented her and countless other Nova Scotians from accessing lifesaving care abroad.