Associate Professor, School of Planning
![Leia Minaker](/geographies-of-health-in-place/sites/default/files/uploads/images/leia_minaker_0.jpg)
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