LEPH Oration
Chair:
Mark Moore, Research Professor of Public Leadership and Management, Harvard Kennedy School
Securing the Public’s Health and Safety: A Challenge to Democratic Self-Governance
How do we best understand and resolve some key philosophical, ideological and partisan tensions that arise in using state authority to protect individual liberty on one hand, and to improve individual and aggregate health and safety on the other?
[speaker TBC]
The new Africa Law Enforcement and Public Health Network
Munyaradzi I Katumba, Africa Law Enforcement and Public Health Network
The ALEPH network launch in 2024 was a milestone, the first regional LEPH network. In 2025 the project has launched national ALEPH networks in Burkina Faso, Burundi, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe. These brought together Civil Society Organisations including vulnerable and marginalised populations; law enforcement including police, prisons, justice departments, security sector, drug and crime prevention; Public Health including National Aids Councils, public health practioners, academia, health professionals and experts. The network is dealing with problems like ciminalisation, poverty, violence and HIV which affect everyone in society: seraching for alternative and decolonised approaches to the criminalisation of public health issues across Africa, and raising awareness of the public health role of law enforcement.
M4.1 The Need for More Effective Academic and Law Enforcement Collaboration
Convenor: Richard Southby
Chair:
Panellists:
- Nick Crofts, Executive Director, GLEPHA; University of Melbourne
- Richard Bent, President, GLEPHA; Simon Fraser University
- Brandon del Pozo, Assistant Professor, Brown University
M4.2 Law Enforcement, Vulnerability and Public Health Approaches: Opportunities and challenges to achieve meaningful change.
Convenor: Larissa Engelmann
Chair: Isabelle Bartkowiak-Theron, University of Tasmania
Discussants:
ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre, Universities of Leeds and York:
- Professor Charlie Lloyd
- Roz Cumming
- Dr Claire Warrington
- Dr Laura Bainbridge
- Dr Andrew Papworth
M4.3 Bridging Borders to Serve American & Canadian Communities: Protecting Deep and Enduring Traditions on the Front Lines of CSWB
Convenor: Norm Taylor
Chair: Norm Taylor, Founding Editor, Journal of Community Safety and Well-being
Panellists:
- Dan Meloy, Retired Police Chief, Public Safety Director, Ohio Deflection Association, Pioneering QRT Initiatives across US
- Lisa Taylor, Co-founder and Expert in Canadian Situation Tables, Public Health & CSWB; Advocate, Strategic Foresight professional
- Rachel Huggins, Independent expert advisor and recognized researcher in drug policy and emerging Canadian diversion models
- TBD – Additional USA representative anchored in diversion, deflection and drug policy
M4.4 Alternative Response Research Roundtable
Convenor: Jason Tan de Bibiana, Amy Watson
Chair: Leah G. Pope, Research Scientist, New York State Psychiatric Institute
Panellists:
- Eleven-month arrest outcomes among three crisis response models in Michigan
Leonard Swanson, University of Chicago
Co-authors: Catherine Zettner, Amy Watson, Melanie Hinojosa, Juliette Roddy, Sheryl Kubiak
- Evaluating Community-Led Crisis Response: Lessons from Toronto’s Fourth Emergency Service
Andrea Morales Caceres, City of Toronto
Co-authors: Carolyn Rowan, Nicole Watson
- Partnering for Systems Change for Alternative First Response Implementation: Lessons from New Orleans Mobile Crisis Intervention Unit
Jason Tan de Bibiana, Vera Institute of Justice
Co-authors: Dominique Austin, Jackson Beck, Brenique Bogle
1330 » M5 MAJOR SESSIONS
M5.1 Where to now? Considering the big picture in integrating organisational joint strategies and working relationships
Convenor: Inga Heyman
Chair: Nadine Dougall
Panellists:
- Professor Nadine Dougall, Edinburgh Napier University
- Justin Srivastava, Justin Srivastava Consulting
- Dr. Arun Sondhi, Therapeutic Solutions
M5.2 Building Trust-Based Partnerships between Law Enforcement and Alternative Emergency Response Teams: Insights from Texas, Florida, and Kansas
Convenor: Gabriela Solis Torres
Chair:
Panellists:
- Mike Lee, Director of the Office of Strategic Projects, Legislative Liaison, Harris County Sheriff’s Office, Texas
- Anthony Holloway, Chief of Police, St. Petersburg Police Department, Florida
- Rich Lockhart, Chief of Police, Lawrence Police Department, Kansas
M5.3 LEPH Education? What for, what’s important and how to make it happen?
Convenor: Isabelle Bartkowiak-Théron
Chair:
Panellists:
- Inga Heyman, Edinburgh Napier University
- Larissa Engelmann, VPFKRC
- Denise Martin, Northumbria University
- Yasmeen Krameddine, University of Alberta
1330 » P6 PROFFERED PAPERS
P6.1 Dementia and ABI
Chair:
- Prevalence, Characteristics, and Outcomes of Critical Wandering and Missing Incidents Among Adults Living with Dementia: A Multi-Database Analysis
Antonio Miguel Cruz, School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo
Co-authors: Lili Liu, Christine Daum
- Missing incidents involving persons living with dementia: Resources for prevention and response
Lili Liu, Dean (Faculty of Health) and Professor (School of Public Health Sciences), University of Waterloo
Co-authors: Antonio Miguel Cruz, Christine Daum
- Evaluation of Return Discussions for Missing Persons with Dementia – A New Model
Nadine Dougall, Professor, Edinburgh Napier University
Co-authors: Inga Heyman, Andy Tatnell
- Catch-22 Conditions of Community Supervision: Understanding the Challenges of Compliance for People with Brain Injury
Arthur McLuhan, Senior Research Associate, MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Co-authors: Madison Ford, Flora I. Matheson
P6.2 In and out of Corrections
Chair:
- Only Young Once: Youth Incarceration in the Deep South
Delvin Davis, Senior Policy Analyst, Southern Poverty Law Center
- Improving Outcomes for Contra Costa Public Defender Clients
Robert Kenter, Vice President, Center for Policing Equity
Co-author: Paula Ionaide, Robert Kenter
- A linked administrative data study of continuity of care for patients in contact with Alberta corrections
Katerina Dolguikh, MSc student; University of Calgary
Co-authors: Reed Beall, Paul Ronksley
- COVID-19 impacts on decarceration for Indigenous, Black, and other racialized people in Ontario, Canada: An interrupted time series study
Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, University of Toronto
Co-authors: Nina Lamberti, Ruth Croxford, Beverley Osei, Amanda Butler, Ruth Elwood Martin, Jessica Jurgutis, Kate McLeod, Martha Paynter, Howard Sapers, Raya Semeniuk, Fiona G. Kouyoumdjian
- From Punishment to Health: Reducing Drug Toxicity-Related Risk among Recently Released Individuals
Safiyah Husein, Meaghan Costa, Director of Policy and Research & Evaluation Specialist, John Howard Society of Ontario
Co-authors: Capryce Taylor, Sara Fructman
- Incarceration and Intersectionality: Perinatal Care Barriers Faced Marginalized
Populations
Xaand Bancroft, PhD Candidate, University of Ottawa
Co-author: Wendy Peterson
Chair(s):
Rapporteur’s report from the conference
Brandon del Pozo
Report from the GLEPHA strategic planning meeting
Nick Crofts
Thanks
Vanessa Gruben
Introducing LEPH2026 Leeds, UK
ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre
The next International LEPH conference, the 8th in the series, will be hosted by the ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre (jointly led by the Universities of Leeds and York), in Leeds, UK in September 2026. The conference theme will be ‘Vulnerability, Policing and Public Health’.
Professor Charlie Lloyd, University of York, Deputy Director
Dr Larissa Engelmann, University of Leeds, Researcher
Dr Claire Warrington, University of York, Researcher
Dr Inga Heyman, Associate Professor (Policing & Public Health), Edinburgh Napier University & Research Affiliate