This award recognizes outstanding contribution to research by faculty members in the Faculty of Health.
Dr. Tarra Penney’s research focuses on the application of novel methods in global food systems and disease prevention policy and a commitment to sharing these novel methods with global organizations and policymakers. Her research characterizes disease as an emergent property of a set of complex social, economic, political and environment systems.
Penney’s research is collaborative and multidisciplinary, and often includes extensive consortia style projects with collaboration between several multidisciplinary academic colleagues within and across institutions, international academic colleagues working in lower middle-income countries (LMIC) (e.g., Philippines, Senegal, DRC, India) and a range of government partners.
Penney is committed to sharing the outcomes from her novel research methods with global organizations and policymakers. She worked with the WHO Department of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) Prevention Office to develop and publish international guidance on the use of systems thinking for chronic disease prevention policy. This evidence was then used to develop guidance that could facilitate moving systems approaches into practice throughout the policy process to support member states.
Since she joined York in 2019, Penney, a prolific researcher, has received 14 external research grants totaling over $25 million, with seven projects as nominated principal investigator totalling nearly $1.2 million. She is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), International Development Research Centre (IDRC), World Health Organization (WHO), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Wellcome Trust and others, demonstrating the wide appeal of her research and the potential for informing policy as evidenced by the collaborative nature of the grants. During this time, she has had 33 peer-reviewed publications in prominent journals in her field including PLOS Medicine, Journal of Community Health Epidemiology and BMJ. Penney has also published book chapters in BMC Public Health.
“Congratulations on receiving this award. Your dedication, expertise and leadership in your field of research is contributing to York University being recognized as a global leader in global health policy and practice,” said Peters.
Reproduced from original YFile story October 6, 2023