Biography:

 

Sukhman Phangura is an emerging public health professional completing her Bachelor of Arts in Public Health at the University of Victoria, where she focuses on women’s health, health equity, and chronic disease. Her developing research interests lie at the intersection of women’s health, immigrant health, and health system reform, with a particular focus on how healthcare structures, communication practices, and management processes influence women’s access to care and overall well-being, especially among Indigenous, immigrant, and other marginalized populations.

Sukhman’s research goals are rooted in her own and her family’s experiences navigating complex healthcare systems. Living with a chronic illness and supporting a family member through cancer care have shaped her dedication to developing patient-centered research that leads to more inclusive and equitable healthcare policies and management practices. She is particularly interested in exploring how communication, interprofessional collaboration, and organizational design affect women’s experiences within healthcare, as well as how policy and leadership structures can better support both patients and healthcare providers. Through both lived and professional experience, Sukhman has observed how women’s health concerns are often overlooked or minimized in healthcare and research. These systemic patterns contribute to delayed diagnoses, fragmented care, and inequitable outcomes, especially for racialized and immigrant women. Her experiences have deepened her commitment to advancing research that challenges bias, strengthens system accountability, and places women’s perspectives at the center of policy and care delivery.

Her long-term objective is to develop as a researcher who bridges public health, health systems design, and women’s chronic disease management. She is eager to build her skills in qualitative inquiry, community engagement, and applied health policy through mentorship and collaboration with WHRI researchers. Through WHRI, Sukhman hopes to contribute to interdisciplinary projects that amplify women’s voices in research and advance equitable, culturally safe, and sustainable models of care that support patients and healthcare providers alike.