“I was so happy to be invited to the conference. It always refreshes my goals.  It was so good to see everyone. Thank you for letting me present. I think our presentation went better with Kelly and I taking turns with the slides. I do think that approach was a good lesson to use in further presentations, if there is more than one member there.”
-Debra Hanson

From ICPAC conference in Barbados:


Mo Korchinski


Marla Buchanan and Mo Korchinski


Marla Buchanan and Mo Korchinski

A little bit about the presenters:

Amber Christie

I am an aboriginal woman who has a passion to help create change in my community. I do whatever I can on a daily basis to help my community.  I am a research assistant for the CIHR funded project, “Doing Time”.  I have been on the team of Women in2 Healing since 2005.  I have worked with 3 Participatory action research projects to date.  I have been out of prison for almost 4 years and free from addiction the same amount of time. Previous to that I had been in addiction on the streets of Hastings for almost 8 years. I live in the town of Mission and raise my 1 yr old son. I am now more fluent with excel, office, power point and publisher since coming to work with Women in2 Healing. I have helped write grants and submit ethics applications. I hope to go to these conferences to open the doors to getting more “policy makers” to hear what we have to say and hopefully make some changes in the system.

Debra Hanson

I was released from prison 3 years ago.   I was coordinator of the prison participatory research group from Dec 2006-May 2006.  I know that the prison participatory research project healed me to learn about myself and my addictions.  My passion has been to develop more supportive housing for women when they leave prison so that they do not return to crime and drugs. I taught myself how to use the computer inside prison for the research work.  I then taught myself how to do PowerPoint from a manual.  I then taught other women how to do PowerPoint.  I have just completed with a 90% average an 8-week computer course at our local resource centre.  I now want to share my computer skills with other women who are leaving prison, to help them.  I am involved in Women in2 Healing because I want to help other women inside prison and when they leave prison.

Kelly Murphy

Kelly Murphy lives in Vancouver and is employed as an administrative and research assistant with the Canadian Institute of Health Research funded “Doing Time” project.  She also worked part-time as a Community Based Peer Researcher with Women in2 Healing.  She is passionate about demonstrating that mothers with their babies in a prison setting can improve the health and well being for all women who are incarcerated.

Mo Korchinski

I have a long history of substance abuse and incarceration.  I overcame these obstacles and am now living independently.  I engaged in part-time studies at Nicola Valley Institute of Technology and an online research course with the University of the Victoria.  I worked part-time as a community based researcher with the Women in2 Healing project and I now work as a research assistant with the Canadian Institute of Health Research funded “Doing Time” project.  I know that the key to turning one’s own life around and keeping it moving in the right direction is to help others turn their lives around, to get the voices of women who are still inside of prison heard and to get policy makers to understand that change is needed in the prison system. 

Jennifer McMillan

Jen McMillan is a woman with a long history of substance abuse, homelessness, and incarceration that has overcome these obstacles and now lives a completely different lifestyle. This new lifestyle includes working as a live in house facilitator for a housing first project, engaging in full time studies at University of the Fraser Valley’s School of Social Work and Human Services where she is also working part time as a research assistant. Jen holds the belief that the key to turning one’s own life around and keeping it moving in the right direction is walking with others on their own personal journeys. She has spoken at numerous community and academically based forums and co-facilitated several community based research workshops. Her other employment history includes owning and operating a hot-dog stand, driving tractor, working construction clean up, coordinating and recruiting for a series of focus groups, and as a nanny. Some of Jen's recreational passions include strength training, photography, electric scooters, and community theatre.