Positionality Statement

I have reflected on how my identity, lived experiences, and professional role shape my understanding and practice of health equity and health promotion.

I am a white, cisgender woman and a settler living and working on the unceded traditional territory of the Syilx Nation in British Columbia. My location includes privileges embedded in systems historically shaped by colonial and Eurocentric values, particularly within healthcare, education, and employment. I hold a Bachelor of Health and Science with a major in Leadership, am currently pursuing a Master’s in Health Sciences, and have over two decades of experience in healthcare, particularly in acquired brain injury (ABI).

In my current role as a Case Manager within Interior Health, I lead a regional quality improvement initiative—the Community Brain Injury Service Integration Project. This project focuses on improving access to services for individuals living with brain injury, particularly those facing intersecting barriers related to substance use, mental illness, homelessness, intimate partner violence, or historical and ongoing marginalization, including Indigenous identity.

Health promotion, as I understand it, is not limited to providing services but the process of empowering individuals and communities to take control over their health and addressing the social determinants that influence it. This includes recognizing how structures and systems reinforce health inequities and taking action to remove those barriers.

My positionality as both an insider within the healthcare system and an outsider to many of the lived experiences of those we aim to serve shapes my work. I benefit from institutional privilege, including access to decision-makers and influence over how service gaps are defined and addressed. Yet I do not share lived experience with disability, poverty, substance use, IPV, or trauma, all realities that are central to many of the people I work with. This disconnect requires me to practice humility, engage in ongoing reflexivity, and create intentional space for voices that are too often excluded from decision-making.

These lived experiences are often read through social identity markers such as gender, race, and weight—characteristics that, as Blair et al. note, silently exert influence on perception, memory, and behaviour”* (Blair et al., 2013, as cited in Maggio & Gachoud, 2023). Without active reflection and intervention, implicit biases like these can unconsciously shape healthcare practices and contribute to unequal outcomes.

As a researcher, I am guided by the recognition that the relative differences and similarities between the characteristics of the researcher and the participants have implications for the research process” (Olukotun et al., 2021). My privilege impacts how I interpret data, engage with participants, and advocate for policy changes. Health equity and health promotion require that I recognize these dynamics and act on them.

Ultimately, my commitment is to use my position to remove inequities, support inclusive service design, and promote systems of care that are accountable to the people they serve. By integrating critical reflexivity and equity principles into both research and practice, I aim to contribute to a healthcare system that is more just, person-centered, and capable of promoting health for all.