Aline Philibert

 

 

Affiliation

Research associate
Department of Biology
Tel: 613-562-5800, ext. 7305
Fax: 613-562-5486
Email: aphilibe@uottawa.ca
Skype: alinephilibert

Research interests

Ecosystemic studies related to human health (Ecohealth)
Indigenous populations
Climate change
Food security
Modeling and biostatistics
Community-based studies and interventions
International development

 

 

Bio

Throughout my career, I have been enthusiastically engaged in interdisciplinary studies and international programmes addressing human health, environment sustainability, women empowerment and social and environmental justice, notably in low and middle-income countries. My academic and professional experience provided me with a strong expertise in ecosystem approaches to human health (Ecohealth) at the international level. I have a strong interdisciplinary background, ranging from ecology, to climatology to epidemiology. With the diversity of the themes addressed, all research projects I have been involved in, were seeking the understanding of environmental changes and their potential impacts on human health. Trained as an ecologist and climatologist, I have acquired wide modelization and biostatistical skills. With my research at the Université du Québec à Montréal, I contributed to develop an ecosystemic understanding of the sources and health effects of mercury in riverside communities of the Brazilian Amazon. While working as a research associate at Unité de Santé Internationale (USI), I have developed and conducted research and interventions in West Africa, in the fields of maternal health, agriculture, food security and climate change. My main interest for working here is to participate to ecosystem-based and action-oriented research projects among indigenous populations, and eventually to promote the scaling-up of research results in changes in policy and practice.

I am passionate about…

Professionally: to collaborate in interdisciplinary projects that embrace participatory research and action-driven initiatives, that recognize the socio-cultural and ecological dimensions of complex public health challenges while also fostering environmental sustainability.

Personally: to travel across the world.

Research Project

  • 1-ICC platform

Development and implementation of the International Inuit Circumpolar Cohort, that will combine data from three research projects located in the circumpolar region (Nunavik Inuit Health Survey 2004, Inuit Health in transition Greenland 2005-2010, and the IPY adult Inuit Health Survey 2007-2008).

  • 2- Ecohealth and indigenous populations

Collaboration in environmental studies related to human health and well-being among indigenous communities:

  1. To review the effects that mining activities can have on health and well-being in indigenous communities worldwide.
  2. To develop and standardize a suitable instrument in food security, whose content, construct and criterion validities addresses the environmental and socio-cultural factors in the Inuit circumpolar region.

Publications

  • Philibert A, Fillion M, DeGuire JR, Weiler HA, Passos JC, Lemire M, Mergler D. Plasmaphospholipid omega-3 fatty acids and freshwater fish consumption in the Brazilian Amazon, Food and Nutrition Sciences (FNS) Vol. 4 No. 9A1, 2013, pp. 137-149. doi: 10.4236/fns.2013.49A1021.
  • Philibert A. Shaping research methodology in ecohealth studies A ‘research-methods loop’ in an iterative process of research for development. Accepted for the Copeh-LAC book in Ecohealth: libro sobre el enfoque ecosistémico en salud y ambiente. Estado actual y perspectivas. Editors Óscar Betancourt, Frédéric Mertens & Manuel Parra. Accepted, under publishing.
  • Fillion M, Lemire M, Philibert A, Frenette B, Weiler HA, Deguire JR, Guimarães JR, Larribe F, Jr FB, Mergler D, 2013. Toxic risks and nutritional benefits of traditional diet on near visual contrast sensitivity and color vision in the Brazilian Amazon. Neurotoxicology. 2013 Jul;37:173-81. doi: 10.1016/j.neuro.2013.04.010.
  • Arsenault C, Fournier P, Philibert A, Sissoko K, Coulibaly A, Tourigny C, Traoré M, and Dumont A., 2013. Emergency Obstetric Care in Mali: Catastrophic Spending and its Impoverishing Effects on Households. Accepted for the Bulletin of the World Health Organization Journal: 91:207-216. doi: 10.2471/BLT.12.108969.
  • Faye A, Fournier P, Diop I, Philibert A, Morestin F and Dumont A, 2013. Developing a tool to measure satisfaction among health professionals in Africa. Human Resources for Health. doi:10.1186/1478-4491-11-30.
  • Philibert A, Tourigny C, Aliou Coulibaly A, Fournier P, 2012. Birth seasonality as a response of a changing rural environment (Kayes’region, Mali). Journal of Biosocial Science. Dec 12:1-19.
  • Fillion M, Philibert A, Lemire M, Sousa Passos CJ, Frenette B, Guimarães JRD, Mergler D, 2011. Neurotoxic Sequelae Of Mercury Exposure: An Intervention And Follow-Up Study In The Brazilian Amazon. EcoHealth, 2011 Jun;8(2):210-22.
  • Fillion M, Lemire M,  Philibert A, Frenette B,  Weiler HA, DeGuire JR, Guimarães JRD, Larribe F, Barbosa F Jr, Mergler D,  2011. Visual Acuity In Fish-Consumers Of The Brazilian Amazon: Risks And Benefits From Local Diet. Public Health Nutrition, Sep 6:1-9
  • Philibert A, Tibby J, Williams M, 2010. A Pleistocene diatomite from the western piedmont of Jebel Marra volcano, Darfur, western Sudan, and its hydrological and climatic significance. Landscape Evolution and Geoarchaeology Quaternary International, 216 (1-2): 145-150. 
  • Philibert A, Schwartz H, Mergler D, 2009. An Exploratory Study of Diabetes in a First Nation Community with Respect to Serum Concentrations of p,p’-DDE and PCBs and Fish Consumption. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 6(12), 3179-3189.