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Professor at the University of British Columbia; Cofounder of Blueprint.ngo
Dr. David Kuhl grew up on a farm on the Canadian prairies. Through his travels he learned of his love of the ocean and for that reason chose to live in a coastal city. He is a Professor in the Departments of Family Practice and Urologic Sciences, Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Integrating medicine, psychology and the social sciences is fundamental to his worldview and to his work as a clinician/researcher. Dr. Kuhl graduated with a Masters in Health Sciences (University of Toronto) in 1981, and a medical degree (McMaster University) in 1985. After completing his training in Family Practice (1987) he practiced medicine as a family physician and was a founding member of the palliative care program at St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver. He was the physician leader for palliative care at Providence Health Care for many years, providing leadership for the program and care for persons at the end of life. The research he conducted in that capacity served as the basis for his PhD (UBC, 1999).
As part of his doctoral work, David worked with veterans who were making the transition from military to civilian life. Subsequently he worked with Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officers, corrections officers, men living with prostate cancer, and young men who were in challenging relationships with their fathers. It was in listening to the stories of men that David began to understand the depth of their suffering, affecting them physically, emotionally and spiritually. He also witnessed their personal growth, deepening relationships, and commitment to justice, peace and collaboration. He learned that issues not resolved within are often projected onto others, and at times result in violence, estrangement, addiction and compromised health and wellbeing.
Beginning in 2015 David focused his work on the health, integrity and well-being of men for the benefit of families and communities. In that context, along with 2 co-founders (Drs. Duncan Shields and John Izzo) he created a university-based non-profit organization (Blueprint.ngo) that strives, through research, service and influence to impact society by improving men’s well-being and enhancing their positive contributions to families and communities. Under the auspices of Blueprint, the team conducts research to develop and evaluate programs, education and training models to transform masculine norms and to reduce negative health outcomes. We collaborate with community partners to reach men and boys where they live, work and play with a focus on families, protective services (firefighters, police, and military), business, and collegiate and professional sports. We adopt a gendered approach to engage men, and work with all members of communities to transform the systems that foster harmful behaviours. Our research, in-person and virtual clinical interventions, and educational program offerings have been successfully adopted by NATO, the NHL Alumni Association, UBC athletics, the United States Military Academy at West Point (football), Stanford University (soccer), BC Professional Fire Fighters Association, etc. Features of fatherhood are significant to global and public health issues. We seek to understand the experience of the impact of fathering and that of being fathered, inquiring how fathers’ behaviours, values and norms affect the health, morbidity and mortality of their children. While David continues to participate in the work and the research pertaining to the areas mentioned above, the Fatherhood Project is David’s primary interest. Read more