The Health and Education Research Group (HERG) is a collaborative network connecting people interested in research across health, education, and community contexts.
Rooted in Atlantic Canada, connected nationally, and open globally, HERG creates opportunities for researchers, graduate students, practitioners, and community partners to find one another, share expertise, develop projects, and strengthen the reach and impact of their work.
HERG connects researchers, students, practitioners, and community partners to advance collaborative, inclusive, and creative research that improves health, education, and community life.
We create spaces where people can exchange ideas, develop research partnerships, support emerging scholars, and mobilize knowledge in ways that are meaningful, accessible, and responsive to communities.
HERG supports connections that can lead to new research, stronger scholarship, and meaningful community impact.
Through the HERG network, members can:
HERG is especially interested in work that crosses traditional boundaries—between health and education, research and practice, disciplines and communities, and established and emerging ways of creating knowledge.
Meet Our Executive Committee
Dr. Melissa Dockrill is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education in the Accessibility Studies in Education (formerly Exceptional Learners) MEd program. Melissa’s research, focused on increasing accessibility and equity in education through leveraging strengths-based and student-centered approaches, employs participatory action research methods. Her past professional experience as an elementary French Immersion teacher often Her academic work has been published in journals such as Canadian Modern Language Review and the Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy. With an aim to mobilize action and raise the voices of educators and learners in the system, Melissa also values public and accessible dissemination of knowledge and research, often being invited to speak on CBC radio and having co-authored editorials published in the Telegraph Journal.
Andrea is currently working as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education, Accessibility Studies in Education. She has been a teacher for 22 years across settings ranging from preschool to high school and post-secondary to outdoor therapeutic recreation. She has taken on teaching, research, and educational leadership roles while living and working in Canada, Scotland, England, and Australia. Andrea engages in community-driven participatory action research that essentializes accessible methods, such as art-based and activity-based approaches, to collaboratively conduct research alongside persons with disabilities, who are neurodivergent, and/or youth experiencing disadvantage, aiming to build collective research capacity and foster self-determined action.
Mary Lou is a Teaching Professor in the Faculty of Nursing. With a broad range of expertise, Mary Lou is primarily involved with classroom, clinical teaching and resource development within the areas of community health, perinatal health and pedagogy. Areas of special focus include positive mental health, infant mental health, population health, comprehensive school health, environmental health and strength-based approaches in education, practice, theory and research.