Natalie Kallio joined the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives as Professional Research Associate in the fall of 2022. While new to the Centre, she is not new to the University of Saskatchewan: she is a 3rd generation alumnus, former Learning Communities Program Coordinator (2009-10) and, prior to joining us, served as the lead research officer managing multidisciplinary, cross-university, community-engaged collaborative research projects based out the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Unit (SPHERU), led by Dr. Nazeem Muhajarine.
She is a tireless advocate for the kind of community-based engagement that is at the heart of the co-operative movement. In the decade leading up to her time at SPHERU, Natalie helmed harm reduction and supervised consumption programs, advocating for and with people who use drugs and do sex work on the front lines of the HIV/AIDS/HCV and overdose epidemics, working on dozens of advocacy and research teams and projects, locally and internationally. She also brings experience coordinating communications in the arts and cultural sector and volunteering as a board member.