Holly Mathias is an Assistant Professor (Family Science) Department of Human Ecology at the University of Alberta (starting January 1, 2026) and Research Scientist with the Inner City Health and Wellness Program (Royal Alexandra Hospital). Her program of research explores how contemporary Canadian families experience emerging health and social issues (e.g., unregulated drug crisis, climate change, housing insecurity) through community-based research methods. She enjoys working collaboratively with knowledge users and people with lived/living experience to generate policy- and community-relevant data. Holly’s dissertation research examined experiences of unpaid family caregiving for people who use drugs in rural Canada. Future research will continue to examine the relationships between families, substance use and care from the perspectives of different kinship groups. One area of interest is exploring how workplaces and work policies can both help and hinder caregivers in providing unpaid care, particularly for stigmatized conditions such as substance use.