The research focus of Ardene Vollman, PhD, MA, BScN, is vulnerable populations, communicable diseases and health promotion. A founding member of the University of Calgary community health nursing research unit, she also chaired the university’s health promotion research group, which embraced health promotion researchers from multiple disciplines both within the university and the community. She was an executive member of the Canadian Consortium for Health Promotion Research, a member of the U.S.-based Society for Health Promotion and Education and the Paris-based International Union of Health Promotion and Education. Dr. Vollman supported public and population health initiatives at the University of Calgary from 2004-2008 and was influential in establishing the Population Health Institute.
She is past president and honorary life member of the Alberta Public Health Association, member of the Community Health Nurses of Canada and its Alberta counterpart and incoming chair (2015) of the Canadian Public Health Association.
Dr. Vollman was co-author of Canadian Community as Partner: Theory and Multidisciplinary Practice, a book adopted by nursing, practical nursing and community-based education programs across Canada. It has also become the basis for health-promotion education in the master of public health program at the Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences-Bugando in Tanzania. Dr. Vollman also assisted in developing the blueprint for public health nursing in Canada (2011), a visionary document that sets the stage for the advancement of the profession for the coming decade.