Leia Minaker

Associate Professor | Director, Future Cities Institute
School of Planning Associate Professor Leia Minaker

Degrees

Ph.D. Public Health Sciences, University of Alberta, 2013

M.Sc. Health Promotion, University of Alberta, 2006

B.Sc. Health Studies, University of Waterloo

Contact information

lminaker@uwaterloo.ca
519-888-4567 ext. 45615
Location:  EV3 3239

Academic honours

  • Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute Career Development Award in Cancer Prevention (2016-2019)
  • Faculty of Environment: Environment Research Excellence Award

Research interests

  • Healthy Cities
  • Healthy environments for chronic disease prevention
  • Food systems, food environments, and nutrition
  • Youth mental health
  • Health equity
  • Population health intervention research

Research grants/projects

  • Urban environments and youth mental health: examining how adolescent mental health indicators are associated with urban design and cognitive architecture in a mid-sized Ontario city. 
    (NPA: L.M. Minaker Co-applicants: J. Dean, S. Doherty, C. Ellard.) 
    • Funded by: CIHR Operating Grant $100,000

    • Grant Period 2021-2022

  • Exploring children and teens’ engagement with restaurant marketing in Canada.
    (NPA: L.M. Minaker Co-applicants: M. Potvin Kent.)
    • Funded by: Health Canada Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion contract $40,000
    • Grant Period 2021-2022
  • An analysis of the food environment in Canada: INFORMAS Canada.
    (NPA: Lana Vanderlee, Mary L’Abbe Co-applicants: L.M. Minaker, S. Kirk, J. Moubarac, V. Provencher, M. Labonte, C.Mulligan, K. Raine, C. Mah, D. Olstad, A. Schram, M. Potvin Kent, L. Vergeer.)
    • Funded by: CIHR Operating Grant $585, 226
    • Grant Period 2020 – 2023
  • Food Retail Environment Surveillance for Health and Economic Resiliency (FRESHER) Ontario.
    (NPA: Jason Gilliland Co-Applicants: L.M. Minaker, S. Doherty, et al.)
    • Funded by: Ontario COVID-19 Rapid Research Fund $114,460
    • Grant Period 2020-2021
  • Food Retail Environment Surveillance for Health & Economic Resiliency: The FRESHER Futures Project.
    (NPA: Jason Gilliland Co-Applicants: L.M. Minaker, S. Doherty, et al.)
    • Funded by: Western Catalyst Grant $48,187
    • Grant Period 2020 – 2021
  • Smart Cities, Healthy Citizens? Optimizing Health and Equity in City Policy Making.
    (Winters M, Cloutier MS (co-PI) Fuller, D, Brauer M, Breux S, Riva M, Holden M, Minaker L, German M, Belaye H.)
    • Funded by: CIHR Planning and Dissemination Grant (Healthy Cities) $23,235
    • Grant Period 2019 –2020
  • The role of retailers in food availability, food prices, and population dietary risk: a mixed-method study of the consumer food environment.
    (NPA: Catherine Mah. Co-As: Kristie Jameson, Leia Minaker, Yanqing Yi.)
    • Funded by: Heart and Stroke Foundation $287,500
    • Grant Period 2019 – 2022
  • Creating healthier cities through monitoring Canadian retail food environments: using a novel administrative database to establish valid, small-area, Canada-wide, open-access measures to monitor the retail food environment for population health intervention research and municipal food environment policy action.
    (NPA: Minaker, LM, Co-As: Ross, N, Widener M.)
    • Funded by: CIHR Operating Grant: Data analysis using existing databases and cohorts $99,628
    • Grant Period 2019-2021
  • Reducing retail merchandising of discretionary food and beverages in remote Indigenous community stores.
    (PI: Julie Brimblecombe. Co-Applicants: Leia. M. Minaker, Catherine Mah, Anna Peeters, Erica Miles, Tom Wycherley, Megan Ferguson, Emma McMahon.)
    • Funded by: National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Government $940,176 (AUD) (approx. $874,000 CAD)
    • Grant Period 2017-2020

Contact Leia Minaker for more information on research opportunities for students. 

Graduate student supervision

  Number of students currently supervising/co-supervising Total number of student supervisions/co-supervisions
Masters 4 11
PhD 3 4

Recent/key publications

[* = student co-authors]

  • Olstad, D.L., Nejatinamini, S., Victorino, C., Kirkpatrick, S.I., Minaker, L.M., McLaren, L. (Accepted). Socioeconomic inequities in diet quality among a nationally representative sample of adults living in Canada: An analysis of trends between 2004 and 2015. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
  • Smith, L., Liu, B.*, Farber, S., Larsen, K., Patterson, Z., Minaker, L.M., Gilliland, J., Widener, M. (2021). Comparing household and individual measures of access through a food environment lens: what household food opportunities are missed when measuring access to food retail at the individual level? Annals of the American Association of Geographers. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2021.1930513
  • Liu, B., Widener, M., Lindsey, S., Farber, S., Minaker, L.M., Patterson, Z., Larsen, K., Gilliland, J. (Accepted). Disentangling Time Use, Food Environment, and Food Behaviors using Multi-Channel Sequence Analysis. Geographical Analysis.
  • Buttazzoni, A.,* Parker, A.,* Minaker, L.M. (2021). Investigating the mental health implications of urban environments with neuroscientific methods and mobile technologies: A systematic literature review. Health and Place. 70, 102597. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/10.1016/j.healthplace.2021.102597
  • Ong, V.,* Skinner, K., Minaker, L.M. (2021). Life stories of food agency, health, and resilience in a rapidly gentrifying urban centre: Building a multidimensional concept of food access. Social Science and Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114074
  • Nejatinamini, S., Godley, J., Minaker, L.M., Sajobi, T.T., McCormack, G.R., Cooke, M.J., Nykiforuk, C.I.J., de Koning, L., Olstad, D.L. (2021). Quantifying the contribution of modifiable risk factors to socio-economic inequities in cancer morbidity and mortality: a nationally representative population-based cohort study. International Journal of Epidemiology. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/10.1093/ije/dyab067
  • Mollaei, S.,* Dias, G., Minaker, L.M. (2021). Development and Testing of the Sustainable Nutrition Environment Measures Survey for Retail Stores in Ontario. Public Health Nutrition. DOI: 10.1017/S1368980021000446 
  • K. Brar,* L.M. Minaker. (2021). Geographic reach and nutritional quality of foods available from mobile Online Food Delivery Service applications: novel opportunities for retail food environment surveillance. BMC Public Health. 21(458). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10489-2
  • A. Buttazzoni,* S. Doherty, L.M. Minaker. (2021). How do Urban Environments Affect Youth Mental Health? A Novel Conceptual Framework to Bridge Public Health, Planning, and Neurourbanism. Public Health Reports. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033354920982088
  • Buttazzoni, A.,* Brar, K.,* Minaker, L.M. (2021). Smartphone-based interventions and internalizing disorders in youth: systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 23(1), e16490.
  • Huang, Y.,* Parker, D., Minaker, L.M. (2021) Identifying the latent demand for transit-oriented development neighbourhoods: evidence from a mid-sized urban area in Canada. Journal of Transport Geography. 90 (102940). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2020.102940
  • Buttazzoni, A.,* Tariq, U., Thompson-Haile, A., Burkhalter, R., Cooke, M., Minaker, L.M. (2021). Adolescent gender identity, sexual preference, and cannabis use: potential mediations by internalizing disorder risk. Health Education & Behavior. 48(1) https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198120965509
  • Brimblecombe, J. McMahon, E., Ferguson, M., De Silva, K, Peeters, A., Miles, E., Wycherley, T., Minaker, L., Greenacre, L., Gunther, A., Chappell, E., Chatfield, M.D., Mah, C.L. (2020) Effect of restricted retail merchandising of discretionary food and beverages on population diet: a pragmatic randomized controlled trial.  Lancet Planetary Health. 4(10):e4630e473. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30202-3.
  • A. Buttazzoni,* U. Tariq, A. Thompson-Haile, R. Burkhalter, M. Cooke, L. M. Minaker.(2020). Cannabis use and stigma among Canadian high school students: results from the 2015 and 2017 Cancer Risk Assessment in Youth Survey. Addictive Behaviors. 111:106547 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106547.
  • Michelle Aktary, BSc; Stephanie Caron-Roy; Tolulope Sajobi; Heather O'Hara; Peter Leblanc; Sharlette Dunn; Gavin R. McCormack; Dianne Timmins; Kylie Ball; Shauna Downs; Leia M. Minaker; Candace I. J. Nykiforuk; Jenny Godley; Katrina Milaney; Bonnie Lashewicz; Bonnie Fournier; Charlene Elliott; Kim D. Raine; Rachel J. L. Prowse; Dana Lee Olstad. (2020). Impact of a farmers' market nutrition coupon program on diet quality and psychosocial well-being among low-income adults: Protocol for a randomized controlled trial and a longitudinal qualitative investigation. BMJ Open. 10: e035143.http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-035143.
  • A. Buttazzoni,* M. Veenhof,* L.M. Minaker. (2020). Smart city and high-tech urban interventions targeting human health: an equity-focused systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 17(7): 2325. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17072325.
  • S. Turner,* L.M. Minaker. (2020). The value in community gardens: a return on investment analysis. Canadian Food Studies. 7(1):154-177.DOI: https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v7i1.332 .

Courses taught

  • ENVS 178: Environmental Research Methods
  • PLAN 432/HLTH 420/GEOG 432: Health, Environment and Planning
  • PLAN 639: Health, Environment and Planning
  • PLAN 700: Planning Paradigms and Theory