Lana Wells

Lana is Associate Professor and the Brenda Strafford Chair in the Prevention of Domestic Violence at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary where she is leading a primary prevention initiative called Shift: The Project to End Domestic Violence (www.preventdomesticviolence.ca). Since her appointment as the Brenda Strafford Chair in 2010, Lana has held over 7 million in research funding/grants and has received numerous awards. She was bestowed the Alberta Inspiration Award in Leadership in Family Violence, recognized as a PEAK scholar from the University of Calgary, received the John Hutton Memorial Award for Social Action/Policy from the Alberta College of Social Workers and honoured in the YW’s She Who Dares 150 Women Project. In 2017, she received the University of Calgary Teaching Award for Curriculum Development for the co-creation of Advancing Healthy and Socially Just Schools and Communities graduate certificate program. 

Lana actively supervises graduate students within the Faculty of Social Work and the School of Public Policy where in 2012, she became a Research Fellow and Instructor. Her passion includes advocating for the prevention of family and sexual violence, advancing gender equality and equity, developing social policies to prevent and respond to complex social issues, preventing teen dating violence, advancing social justice and creating transformational change. Lana loves to collaborate with leaders from diverse disciplines and sectors and works closely on organizational, system and policy change processes within government and the not-for-profit sector. Lana has advised, consulted and partnered with all orders of government in Canada on prevention research and social policy. She has also collaborated with numerous international organizations, where she has contributed to panels, led workshops and supported the development of international resolutions. Her current research interests include engaging and mobilizing men as allies and advocates in gender equality and violence prevention, advancing collective impact and systems change to stop gender-based violence, and advancing innovation in the not-for profit sector by going beyond programs and policy change. 

Since COVID-19 there has been an increase in domestic and sexual violence in Alberta and around the world, and this is challenging our sector’s ability to implement primary prevention approaches – yet they are more critical now, than ever. To continue to advance primary prevention efforts, Lana and her team are leading and supporting a number of initiatives and projects that aim to understand the impact of COVID-19 on domestic and sexual violence and to identify and mobilize effective approaches to prevent and respond 

The Data2Action initiative is a partnership with HelpSeeker (a social enterprise that offers machine learning and AI), and IMPACT (a provincial collective impact initiative to eradicate domestic and sexual violence in Alberta). Data2Action will curate, analyze, and disseminate real-time and long-term information from hundreds of community stakeholders in the areas of domestic and sexual violence to inform community-based strategies, interventions, and government policies that prevent and respond to domestic and sexual violence. 

Funded in 2020, Lana partnered with Sagesse/IMPACT to design a Primary Prevention Framework for Alberta. This initiative aims to facilitate evidence-informed policy design and implementation, advance coordinated action among diverse stakeholders, and support appropriate allocation of resources to advance primary prevention in Alberta during the recovery phase of COVID. This project involves working with over 300 domestic and sexual violence organizations and policy-makers to research, design, and build the capacity for a primary prevention framework for Alberta.

For more information on these and other projects, please go to https://preventdomesticviolence.ca/covid-19/  

In 2010, Lana created Shift: The Project to End Domestic Violence. Shift’s mandate is to develop and support the implementation of research-based primary prevention strategies in partnership with government, academics, community, public, private, non-profit organization and civil society to significantly reduce and prevent gender-based violence.  

Current research priorities include: 

1. Engaging and mobilizing men in violence prevention and gender equality in male-dominated settings. 
2. Co-designing prevention policy frameworks with governments and community.
3. Scaling healthy youth relationship policies and programs.
4. Designing and implementing knowledge mobilization activities to advance primary prevention.

For detailed overview of Shift’s work, please check Our Work.

1997 MSW (International Specialization), University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada 

1996 BSW, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada 

1994 BA (Women & Religious Studies, Honours), McMaster University, Ontario, Canada 

1991 Overseas Undergraduate Program (Middle Easter Studies), Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel

Lana Wells is involved with various professional and community initiatives. Lana is a member of the Calgary Domestic Violence Collective, whose aim is to create a collaborative community response to end domestic and family violence, and a Board member of PREVNet (Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network), a national network of leading researchers and organizations, working together to stop bullying in Canada. In 2013, Lana was appointed to the Alberta Family Violence Death Review Committee whose purpose is to conduct a systematic and methodical analysis of homicides and suicides related to intimate partner violence in order to prevent future deaths. Lana has participated as an external expert for the Support for Albertans in Need Alberta Panel that was lead by the Alberta Treasury Board and Finance. Lana coaches and supports many executive directors throughout the not for profit sector to articulate their strategic vision for their organization and the community. She volunteers widely on many local and provincial social change initiatives.

Since 2010, Lana Wells held over 7mln in research funding. Examples include:

Wells, L. (2020-2022). Designing Online Modules to Increase Capacity on Primary Prevention. Silver Gummy. $75,000

Wells, L. & Stika, J. (2019-2020). Building and Developing a National Pro-feminist Network. Department for Women and Gender Equality. $125,000

Wells, L. (2019-2021). Engaging Parents to Prevent Teen Dating Violence and Promote Healthy Youth Relationships. Calgary Foundation. $75,000

Wells, L. (2018-2019). Insights and Reflections from Canadian Men about Supporting Gender Equality. Women and Gender Equality Canada. $87,604.06.

Wells, L. (2018). The Perceptions of Gender Norms amongst Sub-groups of Men and Boys in Canada and Abroad. Status of Women Canada. $24,937.50

Wells, L. (2018-2019). Building a Comprehensive Response to Support Men and Women to Stop Violence Against Women and Advance Gender Equality in Alberta. Government of Alberta. $20,000

Wells, L. (2017-2021). Engaging Men in Violence Prevention and Gender Equality: Changing Contexts. Government of Alberta. $585,600

Wells, L. (2016-2021). An Alberta Strategy to Promote Healthy Youth Relationships. Government of Alberta. $800,000

Wells, L. (2017-2019). Engaging Men and Boys in Domestic Violence Prevention. United Way of Calgary and Area. $120,000

Wells, L. (2015-2018). The Fourth R: Promoting Youth Well-being through Health Relationships. Sub-agreement to the Public Health Agency of Canada grant held by Dr. Claire Crooks at Western University. $67,000

Wells, L. (2015-2017). Advancing Innovation Projects: Fourth R Parent, Community and Evaluation Components. Anonymous Donor. $281,075

Wells, L., & Esina, E. (2015-2016). Family Violence Prevention: Best and Promising Practices. Public Health Agency of Canada. $24,976.88

Lana is engaged with the media often. For selected stories, please see list below. 

 Wells has over 50 additional publications including reports and issue briefs that can be found in Shift’s library. 

Wells, L., & Fortheringham, S. (Accepted, 2020). A global review of violence prevention plans: Where are the men and boys? Violence Against Women

Exner-Cortens, D., Spiric, V., Crooks, V.C., Syeda, M., & Wells, L. (2020). Predictors of Healthy Youth Relationships Program Implementation in a Sample of Canadian Middle School Teachers. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 35(2): 100-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/0829573519857422

Fotheringham, S., Wells, L., & Goulet, S. (2020). Strengthening the circle: An international review of government domestic violence prevention plans and inclusion of Indigenous peoples. Violence Against Women. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801219897846 

Corcoran, L., Exner-Cortens, D., & Wells, L. (2019). Advancing healthy and socially just schools and communities: An interdisciplinary graduate program. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 31(2). Retrieved from http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE3401.pdf

Exner-Cortens, D., Wells, L., Lee, L., & Spiric, V. (2019). Building a culture of intimate partner violence prevention in Alberta, Canada through the promotion of healthy youth relationships. Prevention Science. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31025288 

Lorenzetti, L., Wells, L., Logie, C., & Callaghan, T. (2017). Understanding and preventing domestic violence in the lives of gender and sexually diverse persons. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 26(4): 3-12. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/cjhs263  

Boutilier, S., Jadidzadeh, A., Esina, E., Wells, L., & Kneebone, R. (2017). The connection between professional sporting events, holidays and domestic violence in Calgary, Alberta. School of Public Policy, SPP Research Papers, 10(12): 1-27. Retrieved from http://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Domestic-Violence-Boutilier-Jadidzadeh-Esina-Wells-Kneebone.pdf

Claussen, C., Wells, L., Aspenlieder, L., & Boutilier, S.  (2017). Developing domestic violence primary prevention capacity through a community of practice project: Learnings from Alberta, Canada. Cogent Medicine, 4(1): 1-15. Retrieved from: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2331205X.2017.1333697 

Crooks, C., Zwicker, J., Wells, L., Hughes, R., Langois, A., & Emery, H. (2017). Estimating costs and benefits associated with evidence-based violence prevention: Four case studies based on the Fourth R program. School of Public Policy, SPP Research Papers, 10(10): 1-25. Retrieved from http://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Fourth-R-Crooks-Zwicker-Wells-Hughes-Langlois-Emery.pdf

Claussen, C., Wells, L., Abboud, R., & Turner, A. (2016). The role of community-based organizations in school-based violence primary prevention programming: An action research project. Cogent Social Sciences, 2: 1238609. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311886.2016.1238609

Goulet, S., Lorenzetti, L., Walsh, C.A., Wells, L., & Claussen, C. (2016). Understanding the environment: Domestic violence and prevention in urban Aboriginal communities. The First Peoples Child & Family Review, 11(1): 9-23. 

Dozois, E., Wells, L., & Crooks, C. (2016). Developing a comprehensive, evidence-based strategy for violence prevention: Lessons learned from Alberta, Canada. In M. F. Taylor, U. Khan and J. A. Pooley (Eds.) Crime and Violence Prevention: Moving Beyond Hot-Stove Policing and Perpetrator Rehabilitation (pp. 215-230). Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.

Wells, L., Esina, E., & Turner, A. (2016). The case for alcohol outlet density controls as a promising approach to prevent domestic violence. In M. F. Taylor, U. Khan and J. A. Pooley (Eds.) Crime and Violence Prevention: Moving Beyond Hot-Stove Policing and Perpetrator Rehabilitation (pp. 297-312). Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.

Wells, L., Turner, A., & Cooper, M. (2015). Overcoming the Gender Dyad: Engaging Men and Boys in Domestic Violence Prevention. In M.F. Taylor, J.A. Pooley, and R.S. Taylor (Eds.), Overcoming Domestic Violence: Creating a Resilience Dialogue Around Vulnerable Populations. (pp. 331-347). Hauppauge NY: Nova Science Publishers.

Wells, L., & Turner, A. (2014, November). Under the Influence: Liquor outlet density & Domestic violence in Alberta. LawNow. Retrieved from http://www.lawnow.org/influence-liquor-outlet-density-domestic-violence-alberta/

Wells, L., & Turner, A. (2014, January). Corporal punishment and domestic violence: The case for “anti-spanking“ legislation. LawNow. Retrieved from http://www.lawnow.org/corporal-punishment-and-domestic-violence/

Wells, L., Hurlock, D., Antonio, M., Lantion, V., Abboud, R., Claussen, C., & Lorenzetti, L. A. (2013). Context of domestic violence: Learning’s for prevention from the Calgary Filipino community. International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies, 4(1), 147-165. Retrieved from http://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ijcyfs 

Wells, L., Boodt, C., & Emery, H. (2012). Preventing domestic violence in Alberta: A cost savings perspective. The School of Public Policy, SPP Research Papers, 5(17), 1-13. Retrieved from http://www.policyschool.ucalgary.ca/?q=content/preventing-domestic-violence-alberta-cost-savings-perspective

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