For more than a decade, Dr. Nancy Poole has led Canada’s Network Action Team on FASD Prevention from a Women’s Health Determinants Perspective (pNAT). The pNAT is a pan-Canadian network that brings together researchers, service providers, policymakers, health planners, community partners, and women with living experience focused on supporting healthy pregnancies and preventing alcohol and substance use during pregnancy. The goal is to connect, inform, and inspire all those working on this highly stigmatized issue.
As the future of women’s health and substance use research continues to evolve, we are excited to announce that a new face will be joining the Prevention Team leadership at the Canada FASD Research Network. Dr. Kelly Harding will be joining Dr. Poole as Prevention Co-Lead and will be co-leading the pNAT. Together, their shared expertise across women’s health, FASD prevention, research, education, policy, and knowledge sharing, creates a strong foundation for the next chapter of the pNAT’s work.
Pictured: Dr. Poole (front, second from left) and Dr. Harding (back, fifth from left) with members of the CanFASD team.
Meet Dr. Nancy Poole
Dr. Poole is recognized in Canada and internationally as a global expert in research and knowledge sharing on women’s health and safety, including expertise in sex- and gender-based analysis, trauma-informed practice, and women’s substance use recovery. Her contributions in Canada and beyond have spanned more than 40 years. Dr. Poole has led the pNAT for well over a decade, bringing together diverse interest-holders who have participated together in this national network designed to advance FASD research, programming, and policy across the country. She is delighted now to share the Network leadership, and in future, to pass the torch to Dr Harding.
Meet Dr. Kelly Harding
Dr. Harding is an interdisciplinary feminist women’s health and disability scholar with a background of diverse interdisciplinary training in sport psychology, human development, and rural and northern health services and policy. She started her career supporting caregivers and families raising children with neurodevelopmental disabilities, including FASD, which grew into a passion for educating professionals and frontline service providers about FASD and the prevention of alcohol and substance use during pregnancy. Dr. Harding’s interests have evolved to explore many areas related to the prevention of alcohol use during pregnancy, including the influence of popular media and the ways in which evolving social media discourses about alcohol, pregnancy, and mothering intersect with FASD prevention. Dr. Harding’s work spans both FASD prevention and the support of people with in-body and in-home living experience of FASD including work in FASD assessment and diagnosis, family wellbeing, mental health, and human rights.
Working together to support healthy pregnancies
Dr. Harding reflects on her new role: “I am thrilled and very honoured to be stepping into this role alongside Dr. Poole, someone I have had the privilege of working with and learning from for many years. Dr. Poole has been an important mentor to me throughout my career and someone that I have looked up to. Dr. Poole’s research and community-based work have been highly influential in my own career in women’s health and FASD prevention. She was even the external examiner for my PhD! I am incredibly excited to build on the strong foundation Dr. Poole has created through the pNAT and to continue this work together as we look to the future of FASD prevention in Canada. And, as two feminist scholars – and lovers of the Toronto Blue Jays! – I can’t think of a better person to share this next chapter with.”
CanFASD is grateful to Dr. Poole, Dr, Harding, and the many dedicated members of the pNAT who contribute their expertise, experience, and perspectives to our prevention work. Their ongoing engagement is central to advancing dialogue, knowledge sharing, research, and action related to the prevention of alcohol and substance use during pregnancy across Canada. As the field continues to evolve alongside changing social, cultural, and policy environments surrounding alcohol use, the pNAT will continue to provide an important space for collaboration and knowledge exchange.
If anyone is interested in joining the pNAT, please contact info@canfasd.ca or lindsay.wolfson@gmail.com for more information.
To learn more about FASD Prevention and the work of the pNAT, visit our prevention webpages or visit the Girls, Women, Alcohol, and Pregnancy Blog.