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Leah Shipton

Term Instructor

Biography 

Leah Shipton is a Term Instructor at the School of Public Policy. With a background in political science, public health, and disability studies, Leah studies the politics behind health policy processes and outcomes, with a primary focus on non-state actors, and across sub-national, national, and international scales of governance. Often, her work explores these dynamics at the intersection of global health issues and environmental politics — bringing a health angle to environmental issues, or vice versa. Leah’s research and commentary has been published in a co-edited book (with Peter Dauvergne), Global Environmental Politics in a Turbulent Era, and, reflecting her interdisciplinary training, in peer-reviewed journals reaching multidisciplinary audiences, including Social Science & MedicineExtractive Industries and SocietyThe Lancet Global HealthJournal of Environment and DevelopmentCanadian Journal of Public HealthBMC Public HealthHealth and Human Rights Journal, and the Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities

Prior to joining SFU, Leah co-founded and directed a grassroots mental health nonprofit and held positions with the Public Health Agency of Canada, World Health Organization, and Aga Khan University - Karachi. Overall, her teaching and research fuses global health governance, environmental politics, and disability studies. Leah holds a Bachelors Degree in Health Sciences from the University of Calgary and Master of Public Health from the University of Toronto. She is currently completing her PhD at the University of British Columbia. 

Research Interests 

  • Health Policy and Politics, Global Health Governance, Environmental Politics, Qualitative Methods