Hello, my name is Shannon Struck (she/elle), and I am a PhD student in Community Health Sciences (September 2025 – present), supervised by Dr. Nathan Nickel. I am a returning fellow, having been part of the first cohort of SPECTRUM Fellows during my MSc studies from September 2019 to December 2020.

I am a lifelong learner and have built a career in public health and social services. I completed a Baccalauréat es Sciences and a Bachelor of Human Ecology at the University of Manitoba. I returned to the UoM to pursue graduate studies and completed my MSc in Community Health Sciences in 2021.

My research focuses on measuring population-level outcomes associated with public programs and policies. For my MSc thesis, I used data from the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP) to examine the relationship between a mother’s participation record in the Healthy Baby Community Support Program and her child's developmental health outcomes in kindergarten. For my doctoral research, I plan to investigate population health and health services outcomes associated with the new national Pharmacare Program in Manitoba.

Outside of school, I have over 20 years of experience in community, regional, provincial, federal, and academic public health and social service roles. My time as a fellow will be informed by my experience across multiple content areas, including maternal-child health, child development, knowledge translation, science communication, public health surveillance, and health policy.

As a descendant of British and Scandinavian settlers, I am committed to relearning and reconciliation with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples. Outside of work, I love to cook, garden, and spend time at the cottage with friends and family. You will often find me at a youth hockey game, cheering from the sidelines, or at the dog park with my three border collies.