About
1:00 PM PST
You are invited to attend this panel presentation on the histories and experiences of Filipino nurses in Canada
This panel is co-organized by Dr. Lydia Wytenbroek and students in NURS 586A (Nursing & Health Care in Historical Perspectives) and with APSCI EDI support.
We have three invited panelists: Dr. Charlene Ronquillo (Nursing), Dr. Jon Malek (History), and Dr. Valerie Damasco (Education).
The panel will be one hour long, and there will also be an additional half hour question period for my students (and anyone else who wishes to stay for the question period).
Panelist Bios
Dr. Charlene Ronquillo
Charlene is a Filipina scholar, Registered Nurse, and health informatician.
The goal of their program of research is to improve equity in healthcare with thoughtful, meaningful, and inclusive technologies and improve equity in health informatics through critical approaches to health technology development, implementation, and evaluation.
In this panel, Charlene presents her Masters thesis research that examined the history of immigrant Filipino nurses in Canada through oral history, which is among the first in Canada to look at this large subpopulation of nurses in the country, yet remain scarcely represented in the literature. This research and Charlene’s accompanying experiences engaging with the process have come to be crucial foundations of their current program of research in health informatics, undoubtedly enabling Charlene to employ a richer and more nuanced view of health equity in the context of health systems.
Dr. Valerie Damasco
Valerie G. Damasco is a Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Toronto. Her doctoral research focused on the migration of Filipino nurses who arrived in Canada from the Philippines and via the United States during the 1950s and 1960s, one of whom is her aunt. Currently, her current research explores how organizational healthcare policies in hospitals across Canada affect the work of racialized frontline healthcare workers. She is examining how individuals, communities, and institutions respond to health crises and inequities across local, transnational, and international contexts. In her work, she applies critical health education, participatory, and interdisciplinary approaches to examine how communities advocate and mobilize for equity in health, access health and related supports, strengthen capacity, and promote inclusion.
Dr. Jon Malek
Jon G. Malek is the 2022-2023 Riley Postdoctoral Fellow in Canadian History at the University of Winnipeg. He received his PhD from Western University in March 2019 and graduated as a member of the Migration and Ethnic Relations collaborative graduate program. His dissertation studied the various historical factors that affected Filipino immigration to Canada, and his research interests include Canadian immigration, Filipino labour, the Filipino diaspora, and post-colonial Filipino identity. He has published on history and memory and on Filipino identity in the diaspora through ethnic media and a history of Filipinos in Canada in the Canadian Historical Association’s Immigration and Ethnicity booklet series. In addition to his research, he engages the community through service as sitting as a board member of the Manitoba Association of Filipino Teachers and contributing articles to the Pilipino Express.
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