Institutional representation and health equity
How indicators, administrative categories, evidence frameworks and institutional narratives make some people, places and needs visible while obscuring others, with consequences for health equity.
Health systems • Equity • Accountable innovation
Research for decisions that matter.
I study how health systems and public institutions assess evidence and represent people through indicators, administrative categories and algorithms; how those judgments and representations shape consequential decisions; and how those decisions become embodied as health inequities.
Profile
Evidence does not make decisions. People and institutions do.
My doctoral dissertation gave me a foundation in governance, equity and complex systems. My postdoctoral engagements have extended those concerns into health-system decision processes and patient pathways.
I am building a coherent research program that examines the policy and governance decisions shaping whether evidence is acted on, how it is adapted and whether resulting changes improve outcomes equitably. My work combines epidemiological analysis with policy, document and mixed-methods research.
- Current work
- Health systems, equity and AI governance research
- Practice role
- Scientific Director, Evidence Adoption Institute
- Methods
- Mixed methods, policy analysis, evaluation, epidemiology and spatial analysis
- Based in
- Canada
Research
How institutions represent people, make decisions and shape health.
Governance and consequential decisions
How health systems, public agencies and cross-sector institutions interpret evidence, allocate authority, negotiate competing priorities and remain accountable for decisions that shape population health.
AI, data and accountable innovation
How algorithmic systems, data-driven tools and health innovations can be evaluated and governed so that human judgment, equity, safety and accountability remain meaningful.
Current projects and initiatives
Research and practice for accountable decisions.
Evidence Adoption Institute
As Scientific Director of EAI, I lead applied research and practical work on how institutions can interpret evidence, exercise judgment, allocate authority and remain accountable for consequential decisions.
Threshfield Health Intelligence
Threshfield is an early-stage health-intelligence and AI-assurance initiative focused on identifying representation, equity and accountability risks in health decision tools and patient pathways.
Simulated Subjecthood Risk Framework
I am developing research on how AI systems construct representations of people, how those representations can fail, and how health institutions can evaluate and govern the resulting risks.
Doctoral dissertation · Governance, representation and health equity
The Land-Water-Energy Nexus in Rural and Remote Landscapes: Navigating toward Health Equity
My doctoral dissertation examines how cross-sectoral governance of land, water and energy shapes the distribution of health and well-being in the Nechako watershed of northern British Columbia. It considers how institutions represent places, communities, impacts and evidence through policy frameworks, administrative categories, data and development narratives; how these representations shape authority and decision-making; and how tensions among energy, environmental, economic and community priorities become consequential for health equity.
Using sequential mixed methods, the dissertation develops a place-based account of how cumulative change and institutional decisions are experienced in communities, and how governance processes can contribute to inequitable health outcomes.
Doctoral dissertation defense presentation.
Publications and selected writing
Peer-reviewed research, reports and policy-oriented writing.
- Systems Thinking for Global Health: How Planetary Health and Wellbeing Economics Can Restore the Sustainable Development Goals' Transformative Potential
Challenges, 17(3), 35. Read the article ↗ - Exploring Cross-Sectoral Implications of the Sustainable Development Goals: Towards a Framework for Integrating Health Equity Perspectives with the Land-Water-Energy Nexus
Onabola, C.O., Andrews, N., Gislason, M.K., Harder, H.G., & Parkes, M.W. Public Health Reviews, 43, 1604362. Read the article ↗ - Advancing the Scholarship and Practice of Stakeholder Engagement in Working Landscapes: A Co-Produced Research Agenda
Eaton, W.M., Burnham, M., Robertson, T., et al., including C.O. Onabola. Socio-Ecological Practice Research, 4(4), 283–304. Read the article ↗ - The Interface between the Lassa Virus Epidemic, the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the Food Environment in Nigeria: A One Health Approach
Olufemi, O., Joe-Ikechebelu, N., Onabola, C.O., Ogundeji, Y., & Akanwa, A. Journal of Inclusive Cities and Built Environment, 2(3), 13–30. Read the article ↗ - Planetary Health as a Central Context to the Sustainable Development Goals
Journal of Environmental Health and Sustainable Development, 4(3). Read the article ↗ - Health and Safety Aspects of Demand Response on Electric Storage Water Heaters: A Mini Literature Review
UBC Sustainability Scholars report prepared for BC Hydro. Read the report ↗ - Greening Hospital Pharmacies in BC Lower Mainland Health Authorities
UBC Sustainability Scholars report prepared for Fraser Health. Read the report ↗ - Greening Medical Imaging in BC Lower Mainland Health Authorities
UBC Sustainability Scholars report prepared for Fraser Health. Read the report ↗
Selected funding received
Support for research, training and applied innovation.
- Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship
Canadian Institutes of Health Research. $150,000. - Environment, Community, Health Observatory Network Graduate Scholarship
University of Northern British Columbia, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. $40,000. - African Leaders of Tomorrow Scholarship
Global Affairs Canada and the Canadian Bureau for International Education. Approximately $120,000. - Knowledge Translation Summer Institute Award
Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. $3,000. - Evidence Adoption Institute Stakeholder Discovery and Feasibility Assessment
Labs4 Market to Lab Program. Lead. $4,000.
Teaching and mentorship
Teaching for analysis, reflection and practice.
I teach and support learning in population health, health promotion, human development, epidemiology, statistics, environmental governance and health innovation. My approach connects analytical rigour with lived experience, institutional context and practical action.
- Health promotion and health equityInstitutions, social conditions and equitable change.
- Population health and human developmentLife-course, social determinants and community contexts.
- Statistics and epidemiologyEvidence appraisal, interpretation and applied analysis.
- Climate, environmental governance and health equityHow environmental change, infrastructure, resource decisions and governance shape mental health, socio-economic conditions and population well-being.
- Health innovation, decision systems and commercializationHow health-care innovations are assessed, adopted, governed and scaled, with attention to evidence, implementation, equity, accountability and real-world value.
Invitation
Invite me to contribute.
I welcome occasional invitations to speak, teach, facilitate a discussion, contribute to an advisory group, collaborate on research, or support an evidence and decision-making initiative.