Leia Minaker

Associate Professor, School of Planning
Leia Minaker

Leia Minaker is an associate professor in the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo and an Affiliated Scientist at the Propel Centre for Population Health Impact. She received a PhD in public health from the University of Alberta in 2013, and currently holds a Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute Career Development Award in Cancer Prevention. Her research focuses on healthy cities and on policies that support health and health equity, with a particular focus on nutrition and tobacco control.

Recent Publications

  • Wray, A.J.D. & Minaker, L.M. (2019). Is cancer prevention influenced by the built environment? A multidisciplinary scoping review. Cancer. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.32376
  • Faught, E.L., McLaren, L., Kirkpatrick, S.I., Hammond, D., Minaker, L.M., Raine, K.D. & Olstad, D.L. (2019). Socioeconomic disadvantage across the life course is associated with diet quality in young adulthood. Nutrients, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11020242
  • Acton, R.B., Nguyen, N. & Minaker, L.M. (2018). School food policies and student eating behaviors in Canada: Examination of the 2015 cancer risk assessment in youth survey. Journal of School Health, 88(12): 936-944. doi: 10.1111/josh.12702
  • Wray, A., Olstad, D.L. & Minaker, L.M. (2018). Smart prevention: A new approach to primary and secondary cancer prevention in smart and connected communities. Cities, 79: 53-69. doi: 10.1016/j.cities.2018.02.022
  • Wiggers, D., Vanderlee, L. White, C.M., Reid, J.L., Minaker, L.M. & Hammond, D. (2018). Food sources among young people in five major Canadian cities. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 109(4): 506-515. https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-018-0083-0
  • Widener, M.J., Minaker, L.M., Reid, J.L., Patterson, Z., Ahmadi, T.K. & Hammond, D. (2018). Activity space-based measures of the food environment and their relationships to food purchasing behaviours for young urban adults in Canada. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 21(11): 2103-2116. doi: https://doi-org.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/10.1017/S1368980018000435
  • Nadalin, V., Marrett, L.D., Cawley, C., Minaker, L.M. & Manske, S. (2018). Intentional tanning among adolescents in seven Canadian provinces: Provincial comparisons (CRAYS 2015). Preventive Medicine, 111: 225-230. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2018.03.004
  • Camden, A., Levy, J., Bassil, K., Vanderlinden, L., Barnett, O.W., Minaker, L.M., Mulligan, K. & Campbell, M. (2018). A census of midsize to large supermarkets in Toronto: A cross-sectional analysis of the consumer nutrition environment. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behaviour, 50(6): 573-581. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2017.12.002
  • Mah, C.L., Pomeroy, S., Knox, B., Rynard, V., Caravan, M., Burgess, L., Harris, R. & Minaker, L.M. (2018). An assessment of the rural consumer food environment in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/10.1080/19320248.2018.1465000
  • Mah, C.L., Hasdell, R., Minaker, L.M., Soo, S.D., Cook, B. & Demaio, A.R. (2018). Entrepreneurialism and health-promoting retail food environments in Canadian city-regions. Health Promotion International, 33(6): 1055-1065. doi: 10.1093/heapro/dax049
  • Minaker, L.M., Lynch, M., Cook, B.E. & Mah, C.L. (2017). Exploring sales data during a healthy corner store intervention in Toronto: The food retail environments shaping health (FRESH) project. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada, 37(10): 342-349. doi: 10.24095/hpcdp.37.10.04
  • Mahendra, A., Polsky, J.Y., Robitaille, E., Lefebvre, M., McBrien, T. & Minaker, L.M. (2017). Geographic retail food environment measures for use in public health. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada, 37(10): 357-362. doi: 10.24095/hpcdp.37.10.06
  • Olstad, D.L., Lamb, K.E., Thorton, L.E., McNaughton, S.A., Crawford, D.A., Minaker, L.M. & Ball, K. (2017). Prospective associations between diet quality and body mass index in disadvantaged women: The Resilience for Eating and Activity despite Inequality (READI) study. International Journal of Epidemiology, 46(5): 1433-1443. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyx040
  • Olstad, D.L., Ancilotto, R., Teychenne, M., Minaker, L.M., Taber, D.R., Raine, K.D., Nykiforuk, C.I.J. & Ball, K. (2017). Can targeted policies reduce obesity and improve obesity-related behaviours in socioeconomically disadvantaged populations? A systematic review. Obesity Reviews, 18(7): 791-807. doi: 10.1111/obr.12546
  • Widener, M.J., Minaker, L.M., Farber, S., Allen, J., Vitali, B., Coleman, P.C. & Cook, B. (2017). How do changes in the daily food and transportation environments affect grocery store accessibility? Applied Geography, 83: 46-62. doi: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2017.03.018
  • Olstad, D.L., Teychenne, M., Minaker, L.M., Taber, D.R., Raine, K.D., Nykiforuk, C.I.J. & Ball, K. (2017). Qualities of robust systematic reviews and theoretical frameworks: a response to Backholer and Peeters. Obesity Reviews, 18(2): 273-276. doi: 10.1111/obr.12483
  • Pomeroy, S.J., Minaker, L.M. & Mah, C.L. (2017). An exploration of citizen science for population health research in retail food environments. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 108(5-6): e636-e638. doi:10.17269/CJPH.108.6099
  • Minaker, L.M., Tait, H., Ong, M. & Nguyen, N. (2017). Slim cigarette smoking prevalence among Canadian youth smokers: Implications for federal standardized packaging legislation. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 108(5-6): e565-e570. doi:10.17269/CJPH.108.6197
  • Mah, C.L., Minaker, L.M., Jameson, K. Rappaport, L., Taylor, K., Graham, M., Moody, N. & Cook, B. (2017). An introduction to the healthy corner store intervention model in Canada. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 108(3): 320-e324. doi: 10.17269/CJPH.108.5801