CO-DIRECTORS
Kelli-an Lawrance, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences
Brock University
Principal Investigator & Co-Director LTPB
Ph.D. psychology, University of New Brunswick
Dr. Kelli-an Lawrance is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at Brock University, a small liberal arts university in Ontario, Canada. Dr. Lawrance has been involved in tobacco control research and advocacy for over a decade. She is co-author of a self-help smoking cessation program that is distributed nationally by the Canadian Cancer Society. As well, she is a co-investigator with the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, whose mandate is to undertake a program of research, development and dissemination of knowledge about effective tobacco control programs and policies. Her research addresses smoking cessation preferences, norms, and behaviours of teens and young adults.
As one of the Co-directors of Leave The Pack Behind, Kelli-an designs and implements research protocols to evaluate the reach and effectiveness of key components of the initiative.
Melodie Shick-Porter
RN, BA (Community Nursing)
Director, Student Health Services
Co-Director LTPB
Registered Nurse, Vanier College, Montreal,
B.A., Community Nursing, Concordia University, Montreal
Ms. Shick-Porter is the Director of Student Health Services, at Brock University, a small liberal arts university in Ontario, Canada. In that capacity, she manages a staff of 12 physicians, 4 nurses and 5 support staff, and directs a team of 20 students who provide peer education programs on campus. She brings to the position over 20 years’ nursing experience which extends to both Student Health Services and Public Health Departments.
Ms. Shick-Porter was president of the Ontario College Health Association, and continues to be an active member. As one of the Co-directors of the Leave The Pack Behind project, Melodie coordinates the administrative aspects of smoking cessation programming for all participating campuses, and establishes protocols for hiring, training and managing student-staff teams across all campuses.
Sharon Lawler
RN, MEd
Manager & Co-Director LTPB
Brock University
As a Health Promoter and Public Health Nurse, Sharon has been a key partner with Brock University in the development of the proposal for Leave The Pack Behind (LTPB) in spring of 2000. Since March 2000, Sharon has been Co-director and Manager of this initiative, working with twelve different campuses across the province, coordinating health care professionals and teams of student staff as they establish this comprehensive tobacco control program on each campus. Previously, Sharon developed a very successful Clinical Tobacco Intervention (CTI) program for the Niagara Regional Public Health Department.
Sharon is a member of the RNAO Best Practices Guidelines Committee for Smoking Cessation, and the OTS Cessation Subcommittee. In 1999, Sharon graduated from Brock University with her Master of Education in health behaviour research.