Holly Longstaff, Ph.D. Fellow

CIHR Ethics of Heath Research and Policy Training Program
Individual Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program, CIHR Institute of Genetics

The W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics
The University of British Columbia
227 - 6356 Agricultural Road
Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2

E-mail: longstaf@interchange.ubc.ca

Research Interests
I am interested in experimenting with and evaluating new methods of deliberative risk communication. The objective of my research is to help people make better decisions concerning systemic hazards. The subjects I primarily focus on in the environmental domain are salmon aquaculture, global climate change, and fostering disaster-resilient infrastructures. In the health domain, I am primarily interested in pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), and stem cell research. My mentors are Dr. Michael McDonald and Dr. Tim McDaniels.

How an individual processes information and their ultimate actions depend on many influences including knowledge of the issue, personal values, and the influence of norms. The communication materials I create attempt to reflect the complex nature of these relationships. Learning more about the factors that influence an individual's decisions will help me to create tools that reach beyond the factual information model of communicating risk. The information gathered in my research should advance the study of risk communication generally while also informing standards and methods of risk communication with laypeople and experts on a range of health related issues for government departments like Health Canada.

I am particularly proud of my work on innovative projects that explore new methods of public engagement. Although I am interested in conventional approaches to risk communication, I also explore the potential of theatre, genomic art, and others novel methods. My genomic artwork has been shown in galleries in both the U.S. and Canada.

In the last few years I have had the opportunity to join many interesting research teams. Please visit the links below to learn more about some of these projects.

•  The Norm Evolution in Response to Dilemmas (NERD) project funded by Genome Canada and Genome British Columbia http://gels.ethics.ubc.ca:8213/ge3ls-arch/nerd/
• Face to face (F2F) research group funded by Genome Canada and Genome British Columbia  http://gels.ethics.ubc.ca:8213/ge3ls-arch/face-to-face
• Analyzing Infrastructures for Disaster-Resilient Communities funded by the Knowledge-building, Outreach and Awareness (KOA) program of Infrastructure Canada. http://www.chs.ubc.ca/dprc_koa/index.html
• The UBC component of the Climate Decision Making Centre at Carnegie Mellon University funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). http://compassrm.com/climate%2Ddecisions/index.htm
• The stem cell research environment: Drawing the evidence and experience together project funded by the Stem Cell Network http://www.stemcellnetwork.ca/projects.php#12

List of recent publications (selected)

1.       Caulfield et al. (2009). The Stem Cell Research Environment: A Patchwork of Patchworks. Nature Reports Stem Cells. Retrieved April 21, 2009 from http://www.nature.com/stemcells/index.html

 2.       McDaniels, Timothy, Chang, Stephanie, Cole, Darren, Mikawoz, Joey and Longstaff, Holly. (2008) Fostering resilience to extreme events within infrastructure systems: characterizing decision contexts for mitigation and adaptation. Global Environmental Change. Volume 18, Issue 2, May 2008, Pg 310-318

 3.       Marden, Emily, Longstaf, Holly and Levy, Ed. (2006) The Policy Context and Public Consultation: A Consideration of Transgenic Salmon. Journal of Integrated Assessment. Vol 6, No 2. pg 73-97

 4.       Rana Ahmad, Zosia Bornik, Peter Danielson, Hadi Dowlatabadi, Edwin Levy, Holly Longstaf, and Jennifer Wilkin (2006). A web-based instrument to model social norms: NERD design and results. Journal of Integrated Assessment. Vol 6, No 2.

 5.       McDaniels, Timothy, Longstaff, Holly, and Dowlatabadi, Hadi. (2006). A Value-Based Framework for Risk Management Decisions Involving Multiple Scales: A Salmon Aquaculture Example. Journal of Environmental Science & Policy. 9, pg 423-438.

6.       Longstaff, Holly. (2005). Frankenfish, Monsatan, and Killer Canola: Making Good Decisions in the Midst of Environmental Controversy. Journal of Environmental Informatics V6, No1.

 7.       Caulfield et al. (Forthcoming). The Stem Cell Research Environment: A Patchwork of Patchworks. Stem Cell Reviews and Reports.

 8.       Longstaff, Holly, Catherine A. Schuppli, Nina Preto, Darquise Lafrenière and Michael McDonald. (Forthcoming). Scientists’ perspectives on the ethical issues of stem cell research. Stem Cell Reviews and Reports

 9.       Longstaff, Holly and Burgess, Michael. (Forthcoming). Recruiting for representation in public deliberation on the ethics of biobanks. Public Understanding of Science.

 10.   Chang, Stephanie, McDaniels, Timothy, Fox, Jana, Dhariwal, Rajan, Longstaff, Holly. (Under review). Towards Disaster-Resilient Cities:  Characterizing Vulnerability of Infrastructure Systems. Journal of the American Planning Association

11.   Longstaff, Holly. (Under review) Characterizing expert mental models for systemic hazards: the case of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. Journal of Risk Research.

12.   Longstaff, Holly and Secko, David. (Under review) Media influence on biobank deliberations. The Journal of Public Deliberation.

Editorially reviewed

13.   Chang, Stephanie E., McDaniels, Timothy L., Longstaff, Holly, and Wilmot, Sarah. (2006) Fostering Disaster Resilience through Addressing Infrastructure Interdependencies. Plan Canada. December issue. Vol. 46, No. f, pg 33-36.

14.   Longstaff, Holly. (2006). Distorted Conversations: On and Offline Explorations of Genomic Art. Tenth International Conference on Information Visualization (IV'06). IEEE Computer Society. pp. 677-680. Retrieved on September 29, 2006 from http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/IV.2006.44

Book chapters

15.   Longstaff, Holly. (September, 2008). Genome Project.  In: Artistic Bedfellows: Histories, Theories, and Conversations in Collaborative Art Practices, edited by Holly Crawford. Published by University Press of America.

16.   Marden, Emily, Longstaf, Holly, and Levy, Ed. (2009). Transgenic Salmon: Regulatory Oversight of an Anticipated Technology. In: Emerging technologies: hindsight and foresight, edited by E. Einsiedel. UBC Press, Vancouver