Qoqoq Consulting Ltd.

Joe Gallagher, k’ʷunəmɛn, is Coast Salish from the Tla’amin Nation. His mother Ann was from the Xwe’malhkwu First Nation; his father Norman the Tla’amin Nation. For over a decade, Joe worked to address health inequities faced by First Nations people in BC through the First Nations Health Authority. He was the executive lead in the formation of a new health governance partnership between BC First Nations, the province of BC and the government of Canada. Innovative elements included negotiating and implementing the transfer of federal health services to BC First Nations control, establishing First Nations holistic perspectives of health and wellness as foundational, and establishing meaningful partnerships with the provincial health system at all senior levels to improve services to First Nations peoples in BC. This work, a first for Canada, led to Joe being the founding Chief Executive Officer for the First Nations Health Authority, the largest First Nations owned and run public service in the country.​

Joe brings over 30 years’ experience working with Indigenous Peoples in areas such as health, governance, community and economic development, business development, intergovernmental affairs and treaty negotiations. Joe has a proven track record as a successful and visionary Executive Leader with the ability to create new and meaningful partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Institutions based on cultural values and principles to advance issues for mutual benefit.​

Joe has been the Vice President, Indigenous Health & Cultural Safety with Provincial Health Services Authority since 2021.

I am a white occupier living on the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. I am an epidemiologist and mixed methods health researcher with 15+ years of experience documenting and responding to the impacts of settler colonialism and Indigenous-specific racism on health and wellness of Indigenous Peoples. I am honoured to serve as an Associate with Qoqoq Consulting and as founding Co-Principal Investigator of the Unlearning and Undoing White Supremacy and Indigenous-Specific Racism Lab for Population and Public health (U&U Lab). ​

I completed my PhD in epidemiology with the Cedar Project at UBC School of Population and Public Health in 2020. I was a consultant to the First Nations Health Authority from 2017-2020. From 2021-23, I undertook a two-year CIHR Health Systems Impact Post-Doctoral Fellowship mentored by Dr. Danièle Behn Smith in the BC Office of the Provincial Health Officer. At present, I am also Senior Scientist at BC Centre for Disease Control and adjunct professor at the University of Victoria School of Public Health & Social Policy.

Fancy is a public policy professional with more than 15 years of progressive experience in the government and not-for-profit sectors, working on Indigenous issues, labour force programming, social issues, and health and wellness policy and programming. She currently works as Director, Indigenous Cultural Safety Development with Providence Health Care, as well as running her own consulting company. Past employers include Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (now Indigenous Services Canada); Employment and Social Development Canada, First Nations Health Authority, and City of Burnaby. Fancy holds a Bachelor of Arts (political science and history) from the University of Alberta, and a Post-Baccalaureate Diploma and Master of Public Policy from Simon Fraser University. She also volunteers with organizations such as Culturally Committed, which focus on delivering education about Indigenous peoples, history, and current affairs.

Janelle Tom is from Sḵwx̱wu7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) and Syilx (Okanagan). Going back further, she also has family ties to Nquat’qua of the St’át’imc Nation and Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw of the Kwakwaka’wakw peoples. Janelle has 10+ years of administrative experience including supporting teams as well as at the executive level. Through her current role of Specialist, Partnership Development & Initiatives, CMO Office at the First Nations Health Authority, she provides subject matter expertise in Indigenous-specific racism and Cultural Safety and Humility provided in committees, guidance on policies, templates, strategies, and action plans related to Indigenous-specific racism across the health system. As a BC First Nations woman, mother, partner, sister, daughter, and community member, she is passionate in continuing the path of health system transformation and recognition of First Nations rights and self-determination.