Alexandra King Lowitja Institute International Indigenous Health and Wellbeing Conference 2016

Alexandra King

Dr. Alexandra King, MD, FRCPC, is a member of the Nipissing First Nation (Ontario). She is an Internal Medicine Specialist with a focus on HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C (HCV) and HIV/HCV co-infections, for which First Nations, Inuit, and Métis bear a disproportionate burden. She works at the Lu’ma Medical Centre (Vancouver), an Indigenous health and wellness centre providing excellence in wholistic care using both Indigenous and Western healing approaches. She also co-leads a collaborative project to provide Williams Lake and surrounding communities with a shared model of hepatitis C care.  As a First Nation researcher, Alexandra is a Principal Investigator on various CIHR research grants related to Indigenous people and HIV, HCV and co-infections. Other research interests include Indigenous wellness; Indigenous research ethics; peer-based navigation, support and research; land-based cultural healing and wellness retreats; and land-based research. She works in community-based research centred on Indigenous ancestral wisdom and lived experience; similarly, she develops intervention research that is grounded in Indigenous epistemology, culture and wellness. Indigenous research philosophies and methodologies, as well as Two-Eyed Seeing, are combined to produce innovation and excellence in both the research processes and outcomes. Alexandra has co-developed and co-teaches Indigenous health courses at Simon Fraser University. She serves on many local and national initiatives, including the CanHepC: the Canadian National Aboriginal Working Group on HIV & AIDS, the Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development, and the CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network (CTN) Working Group for Health for People Who Use Drugs (co-lead), and the CIHR HIV/AIDS Research Advisory Committee (CHARAC).