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Faculty of Health

Meet Lansdowne Scholar in Public Health, Karen Urbanoski

August 31, 2026

Karen Urbanoski

Karen Urbanoski is the Faculty of Health’s inaugural Lansdowne Scholar in Public Health. A professor in the School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria, Urbanoski held the tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Substance Use, Addictions and Health Services for two terms, ending in late 2025. She is also a scientist with the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at UVic and served as acting associate dean research for the Faculty of Human and Social Development during the transition to the Faculty of Health. Here, Urbanoski talks about what drew her to study substance use and how her research has evolved to inform policy in the context of a public health crisis that has killed more than 56,000 Canadians, including nearly 19,000 people in BC.

What brought you to this area of research?

I was originally drawn to brain health through my first degree in physiology. As that was wrapping up, one of my professors encouraged me to look into public health. Coming out of a bachelor of physiology, many people are headed to medical school or dentistry. Once I got more familiar with public health and started my master's in epidemiology, it really clicked for me. I completed my master’s in 2003 at Western University in epidemiology and my PhD in 2010 in public health from the University of Toronto.

Where did your PhD studies lead you?

After that, I did a postdoc with Harvard University with a substance use researcher there. By then I was really focused on substance use services and the ways in which people who use drugs interact with health systems. I worked for several years at the Centre for Mental Health and Addictions in Toronto in their epidemiological department leading a research unit on health services research in substance use and mental health. When the tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Substance Use, Addictions and Health Services came up at UVic, and I was successful, I relocated to Victoria and set about rebuilding a research program in substance use and services in the BC context.

You arrived in BC a year before the toxic drug crisis was declared a public health emergency. What was it like coming into this crisis as a researcher?

There was such a need for research that would help inform the changing context. The shifting nature of the drug supply, particularly the combinations and the strength of the substances that people are buying in the unregulated market, has a lot of repercussions for service systems. It affects what types of services people need and how well they work. In my case, my research is informed closely by the community it affects. I work closely with people who use drugs, community health centres, and inner-city clinics to generate evidence needed to support services as they evolve to meet the new context of the toxic and volatile drug supply. 

How does your research intersect with policy?

As a field, public health research is applied, meaning that it prioritizes work that informs the development and implementation of policy and practice.  Government and organizations are constantly engaged in processes of decision-making, around funding, resource allocation, responding to emerging threats to health, and supporting the evolution of services and systems. They often come to researchers for evidence on a particular area. That’s how I got into research around pregnant people who use substances. That came through a series of conversations I had with the Ontario government when I was based there. In the case of my more recent work done around prescribed safer supply, I came to that research through a partnership with community and questions they had around these new programs. It is so important that we listen to community as we navigate the emergency situation that we are in.

Can you tell us more about your research on prescribed safer supply?

In partnership with community members and service providers, and a large team of academic researchers, including Bernie Pauly and others based at the First Nations Health Authority, Simon Fraser University, and UBC, we have been evaluating BC’s prescribed safer supply programs over the past four years. This is a large mixed-methods study, meaning we use many different research approaches and pull them together to identify key messages and findings. It has been incredibly challenging given the context but at the same time has been excellent learning about the role of research in policy development and how researchers can work with policy makers in an effective way.

You recently received funding for a new CIHR study that focuses on the evolution of prescribed safer supply in Canada. Can you tell us more about it?

This new project, which I’ll be co-leading with Bernie and researchers based across the country, will synthesize what we’ve learned about prescribed safer supply in Canada and generate new evidence on how these interventions are evolving in different parts of the country. This is exciting because it’s an opportunity to identify lessons learned and shape future responses to the toxic drug crisis—not only in Canada, but also to share with other countries. Drug markets globally are shifting to greater synthetic substances, instead of plant-based crops, and as we’ve seen in Canada and the US, that shift has major impacts on population health. Canada has many lessons it can share around what has and hasn’t worked, and what we may do differently as we try to address this horrible situation.

As we mark International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31, can you share any closing thoughts about an issue that continues to affect so many people?

There isn't one policy option that is going to work, that is going to solve situation we’re in now. That dichotomy of treatment vs harm reduction, it’s a false dichotomy, it always was. There is a large wealth of international literature that suggests well-functioning service systems include both.

On International Overdose Awareness Day, I reflect on the enormous losses in the community. This crisis has touched us all and my heart breaks for families and communities that lose loved ones. This is an incredibly challenging area to study. At the same time, it’s rewarding to be doing science in an area that is so topical and needs solutions so badly. We have to do this work. We get into these lines of research because we care about the injustices and because of our own lived experiences. It takes an emotional toll, but I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.