Simon Hatcher

Dr. Simon Hatcher is a psychiatrist with Ottawa Inner City Health and a Full Professor at The University of Ottawa. He trained in the UK before working in New Zealand as a psychiatrist in Auckland for 20 years. Since moving to Canada in 2012, he has worked as a "street psychiatrist" as part of a team providing healthcare to people who are vulnerable and housed in shelters, on the streets and in supported housing. He also runs a research program that investigates how best to manage the effects of trauma in underserved populations. He has published over 100 scientific papers and has been the principal investigator in numerous clinical trials, including innovative trauma-informed treatments for the vulnerably housed. He is part of a team that trains other professionals in Narrative Exposure Therapy.

Liz Frye MD, MPH is an internationally-recognized expert in street psychiatry and has worked in the field for the past 16 years. With her medical and public health background, Dr. Frye develops strategies for addressing mental health and substance use disorders among unhoused people at a population health level. Dr. Frye previously founded and directed Atlanta’s first street medicine program and worked to integrate behavioral health into the AHN Center for Inclusion Health’s services, including street medicine, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dr. Frye holds a medical degree from the University of North Carolina and a Master’s in Public Health from Emory University. She completed residency and a Community Psychiatry and Public Health Fellowship at Emory. Dr. Frye serves as the Chair for the Street Medicine Institute’s Board of Directors and has led the Institute’s annual International Street Medicine Symposium since 2017.

Ms. Kim Van Herk is the Mental Health Team Lead at Ottawa Inner City Health. She is a nurse who has worked for the last 18 years, providing mental health care to people on the streets and in shelters in Ottawa. She has completed her master's in nursing, focusing on improving access to primary care for urban Indigenous women during pregnancy and parenting. She has recently been involved in research examining the emotional and spiritual support needed for frontline workers during the COVID pandemic and the toxic drug crisis.