New assistant professor aims to build happier and healthier communities through interdisciplinary research

“How do we build happier and healthier communities?” That’s the question that drives Dr. Kiffer Card, a new Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Health Sciences.

“I’ve always believed the saying that ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,’” says Card. “That’s why my work explores the big questions of life: How can we be happier, healthier, and more fulfilled? If you can answer those questions – you can alleviate much of the pressures on today’s health system.”

Dr. Card’s career in public health began as an indoor environmental quality specialist for his university’s off-campus housing program where he studied the health impact of poor student housing conditions. “It was the first time I started to understand that health emerges from a tangled web of interactions: interactions between landlords and tenants, carpets and lungs, roommates and dishes.”

During his PhD and postdoctoral research, Dr. Card applied his research skills to a variety of behavioural health topics, including substance use, sexual behaviour, internet use, and mental health. “Behaviour, at the end of the day, is where the rubber hits the road,” he says. “However, if we stop at behaviour – we miss virtually everything that’s important to shaping it. We fall into the neoliberal trap of only seeing what’s in front of our eyes.” That’s why he is an advocate for the Socio-Ecological Model of Health Behaviour – which situates individuals in their social, political, and environmental contexts. Dr. Card calls it “the ‘everything matters model,’” and he goes on to say “The question, then, is what matters most.” In search of answers to these questions, Dr. Card has focused on human connection, which he believes is a key ingredient to health, happiness, meaning, and fulfillment.

“We are social animals, but we’ve built our communities, cities, and schedules in ways that pretend that social connection is merely a nicety, a frivolous pleasure, or a privilege,” he explains. “As a consequence, we live in an anti-human society – the evidence for which you can see all around us: our mental health, the ways we try to cope. These aren’t abnormal reactions – they’re the reactions of humans in the sort of environments we live in.”

Dr. Card’s current research focuses on four main areas: (1) the impact of social connection on health and wellbeing; (2) environmental influences on mental health; (3) use of psychoactive substances as a coping tool; and (4) the socio-political foundations of perpetuated health inequities.

Dr. Card collaborates with health authorities and community-based organizations, such as the GenWell Project Society – a national non-profit organization focused on generating wellness through the power of human connection. Card is also Director of the Mental Health and Climate Change Alliance and President of the Island Sexual Health Society – which operates one of the largest community-health centre’s and sexual health education programs in British Columbia.

 “These connections and collaborations bridge my passion for applied public health action and systems change with my deep commitment to and interest in the theoretical underpinnings of our lived experience and reality,” he explains. “I’m excited to be a new professor with SFU. As a former grad student here, I understand the exceptional opportunity that comes from our Faculty’s interdisciplinary approach to public health research and practice. I’m excited to collaborate with students and faculty members in advancing our shared goals to build happier and healthier communities in British Columbia.”