Dr. Young is a Director of the School of Rural and Northern Health at Laurentian University and holds a Research Chair in Rural and Northern Children's Health. She represents Laurentian University on several national child health councils. In addition to her primary appointment at Laurentian, she holds appointments as a Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children's Research Institute and Senior Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). These linkages support her research focus on rural and northern children and youth.
Dr. Nancy Young is working to ensure that the voices of children and youth are heard when it comes to their health. Since health and quality of life are specific to the perspective of the reporter, child-centric methods are of critical importance in the measurement of children's health. Dr. Young's research has proven that children are as good as their parents and clinicians in reporting on the state of their health. Her expertise in cross-cultural adaptation of child health measures is reflected in her collaborative research internationally (e.g., with Beijing Children's Hospital in China). This expertise is being applied in many countries around the world.
For the past decade, Dr. Young's research is increasingly focusing on Indigenous children. She played a critical role in the development of the Aboriginal Children's Health and Well-being Measure (ACHWM) in collaboration with many partners including children and youth. This measure is now known by the name the children have given it: Aaniish Naa Gegii (meaning How are you? in Ojibway). She has worked in collaboration with First Nations, Métis and Inuit groups to adapt this child-self-report tool for different regions and cultural contexts. This work is generating numeric data to augment traditional understandings of Indigenous children's health and is another step towards better health outcomes. See www.ACHWM.ca for more information. A webex presentation of this work is available at: http://lul.ca/u/aUsNfhttp://lul.ca/u/aUsNf
Dr. Young is also a leader within the Laurentian University research community. She was the founding Director of the Research Centre for Evaluating Children's Health Outcomes (ECHO) and remains an active member of ECHO. She is the primary supervisor to a cadre of Masters and PhD students. Training the next generation of HQP is essential to her mandate. Investing in our children's health is essential to our future. Dr. Young's research bridges from bench to bedside to backyard to improve the lives of our children.
Her publications are available on line:
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1739-3299
ResearcherID: G-3934-2011
Scopus Author ID: 56426762600
Some of her collaborative research grants are included on these sites.
