Staff Bios

Donna Turner is an Epidemiologist and Provincial Director of the Population Oncology portfolio at CancerCare Manitoba. She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. She began her training at the University of Victoria in Health Information Science, followed by graduate work in epidemiology and oncology at the Universities of Calgary and Alberta and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy. She further developed her interest in cancer epidemiology by working at two Canadian cancer agencies (the Alberta Cancer Board and CancerCare Manitoba).

As a result of these experiences, her research interests revolve around the use of population-based cancer registry data, particularly record linkage using cancer registries and administrative data (information collected as part of the management of health care insurance plans or employment) as a means of informing cancer control activities. Her current position allows her to work in various aspects of cancer control research - from prevention/etiology to early detection to diagnosis/treatment to outcomes - using the population-based data resources of the provincial health department and the cancer agency in Manitoba.

Dr. Kathleen Decker is a Scientist in the Research Institute of Oncology and Hematology and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. She leads the Health Services Research Group in the Research Institute and works closely with the Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Registry at CancerCare Manitoba. Her research examines how and when Manitobans use health care across the cancer control continuum from screening to survivorship. The goal of her research and that of the Health Services Research Group is to investigate the reasons that contribute to the challenges that face cancer control (e.g. inequities in access, increasing costs, rising incidence), and generate new knowledge and evidence-based solutions to achieve better health outcomes, improve the health and quality of life of Manitobans diagnosed with cancer, and optimize health system performance and sustainability. She currently holds research grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the CancerCare Manitoba Foundation. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba, an MHA from Dalhousie University, and an Honours B.Sc. from the University of Waterloo.

Gail Noonan is the Manager of the Cancer Registry and a certified tumour registrar. She has spent her career at CancerCare Manitoba worked at CCMB for 30 years now with most of those years in the Cancer Registry as a cancer registrar.

Her research interests revolve around the collection and quality of the data in the Manitoba Cancer Registry and staying up-to-date with all the current coding and staging classifications to assist researchers, analysts and/or physicians looking to the Registry for information. She chairs the Committee on Data and Quality Management which provides recommendations and advice to the Canadian Council of Cancer Registries on matters relating to the quality and the standardization of the Canadian Cancer Registry data collection, storage, analysis and reporting. The membership includes representatives from across Canada and allows her to network, leverage knowledge and keep current with all aspects of cancer data collection in the Registry.