Alysha McFadden, MSc (PhD candidate), RN, CCHN (c)

Assistant Professor of Nursing
Guided by the Christian vision of Shalom, I strive to walk alongside communities and learners in co-creating caring, relational spaces that uphold equity, honour multiple ways of knowing, and support the ongoing decolonization of nursing practices, research, and education.

Alysha McFadden has worked at the intersection of community health, health promotion, and disease prevention, with a focus on reducing preventable suffering and advancing health equity. Her scholarly interests are grounded in clinical practice and informed by the voices of patients, community members, and research partners. These experiences highlight how global and local histories of oppression continue to shape health inequities—unjust, avoidable differences in health outcomes.
Alysha has studied and worked in diverse settings, including the United States, Vancouver, northern Canada, and Haiti. Her doctoral research explores how healthcare and social services can be transformed to better support children, youth, and their families through equitable, responsive, and inclusive practices. Specifically, her work seeks to identify and implement structural and relational processes that enable the delivery of anti-oppressive care that aligns with community-defined indicators of health and well-being.
Her broader research program investigates the social and structural determinants of health and how intersectoral collaboration can address the systemic injustices that hinder human flourishing—particularly among children and families within their community contexts.

  • PhD(c) in Nursing (University of British Columbia, Canada)
  • Masters of Science in Health Sciences - Medical Anthropology (Simon Fraser University, Canada)
  • Bachelor of Science in Nursing (Calvin University, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA)

 

 

Expertise

Research Topics: McFadden’s research interests stem from clinical experiences and community-identified priorities. Alysha’s research topics have included: breastfeeding; nursing knowledge & racism; processes & impacts of racialization; child-led tours; young children’s participation in research; intersectional feminist theory; public health critical race theory; equity-oriented approaches for early years systems; Two-Eyed Seeing; decolonizing nursing knowledge.

Nursing education: Community health nursing (NURS 317 & 318)

Knowledge mobilization: Integrated knowledge translation; collaborative data analysis

Research methodology: critical inquiry; critical ethnographic methods; intersectional feminist theory; public health critical race theory; community-engaged research; child-led methods; Two-Eyed Seeing

Alysha has co-received multiple community engagement research funds to support community-identified priorities. 

Selected Research

  • Rieger, K.L. (Nominated Principal Applicant), Tuppurainen, A. (Principal Applicant - Knowledge User), Co-investigators: Reimer-Kirkham, S., Burton, B., Duff, M., Liuta, N., McFadden, A., Sawatzky, R., Schwarz, K., Smoker, S., Steeves, K. Taylor, E.J., Teakle, A., West, C., Younie, L., Collaborators: Anderson, C., Creighton, A., Horton, M., Lanz, A., Laurel, S., Rankin, C., Sharma, S., Stevenson, M., Victor, P., Warkentin, K., Wilkinson, K., Woodland, G. Trainees: Agoston, I., Lounsbury, K., Wilson, J. (2023-2024). Advancing Equity-oriented Arts-based Spiritual Care in Healthcare Services through an Interdisciplinary Investigation. CIHR Project Grant Priority Announcement: Patient-Oriented Research. $100,000.
  • Carwana, C., (Nominated Principal Investigator), Stoindjo, T., Loock, C., Bland, C., Jassemi, S., Moore, E., McIntosh, G., Hanson, D., Pikksalu, K., Hodgson, K., Samji, H., Duffy, D., & McFadden., A. (2021-2022). 2021 Clinical Research Capacity Building Award RICHER Social Pediatrics Research Support Grant: Building Capacity to Leverage Past Successes into Ongoing Excellence in Community-Based Clinical Research from BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute: $65,000.

Awards & Honours

  • Canadian Nurses Foundation: Carolyn Sifton Research Award (2022-2023); Lundbeck Research Award (2018-2019); Military Nurses Association Award (2014-2015)
  • UBC President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award (2020-2023)
  • UBC Four-Year Doctoral Fellowship (2018-2023)
  • Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Doctoral Award (2018-2022)   
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Masters Award (2014-2015)
  • Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing (2007)

Recent Publications

Selected Publications

  • McFadden, A., Lynam, M. J., & Hawkins, L. (2023). Two-Eyed Seeing as a strategic dichotomy for decolonial nursing knowledge development and practice. Nursing Inquiry. https://doi.org/10.1111.nin.12574
  • McFadden, A., Varcoe, C., & Brown, H. (2023). Examining Child-Led Tours and Child Standpoint Theory as a Methodological Approach to Mitigate Asymmetrical Adult-Child Power Dynamics in Ethnographic Research: A Child-Led Tour of Elfish Antics and Sensorial Knowledge. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 22. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069231182878
  • Gerlach, A., & McFadden, A. (2022). Re-envisioning an early years system of care towards equity in Canada: A critical, rapid review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(15). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159594
  • Gerlach, A., & McFadden, A. (2021). Orienting an Early Years System of Care towards Equity: Research brief for the Office of the Representative of Children and Youth in British Columbia (Research brief). Retrieved from the Office of the Representative of Children & Youth BC. DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.31333.52961
  • McFadden, A., & Erikson, S. L. (2020). How nurses come to race: Racialization in public health breastfeeding promotion. Advances in Nursing Science, 43(1), E11-E24. doi:10.1097/ANS.0000000000000288
  • Hilario, C. T., Browne, A. J., & McFadden, A. (2018). The influence of democratic racism in nursing inquiry. Nursing Inquiry, 25(1), e12213-n/a. doi:10.1111/nin.12213

  • NURS 127 Indigenous Health and Health Promotion
  • NURS 137 Indigenous Health
  • NURS 317 Community Health
  • NURS 318 Clinical Practice: Community Health