Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures

Watch our inspiring session on how organizations across BC are working towards building a foundation of health and wellness in children and youth. Our first presentation will be on the Live 5-2-1-0 initiative. Led by the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Live 5-2-1-0 uses a proven, evidence-based approach to make it easier for children and families to adopt healthy habits. Our second presentation will spotlight The Coalition for Healthy School Food which is a group of over 150 organizations from across Canada advocating for a national school food program to support the health, wellbeing and education of all Canadian children.

Speaker Bios

Shazhan Amed

Shazhan is a pediatric endocrinologist – a doctor who specializes in childhood diseases related to hormones such as diabetes, puberty, thyroid, growth, etc. She is also a public health and health services researcher where her specific interests are childhood obesity prevention through community-based participatory research as well as health services research related to maximizing the quality of and access to diabetes care for children and youth with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Shazhan’s career objectives are: 1) to be an empathetic, highly proficient, and innovative health professional; 2) to do inventive and pioneering research that truly impacts the long-term health of children and youth; and 3) to remain balanced in her life as a professional, a mother, and a wife.

Samantha Gambling

Samantha is a senior programs advisor for the Public Health Association of BC. She currently coordinates the BC Chapter of the Coalition for Healthy School Food to advocate for public investment in a universal, cost-shared, healthy school food program that meets the diverse needs of BC students. She is a graduate of the sustainable agriculture practicum at UBC Farm, and an MSc. alumna from University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems where she studied agricultural policy and food sovereignty.