Lifecourse Series: Kiffer G. Card

DATE: November 19, 2025
TIME: 1:00 – 2:00pm (ET) 
METHOD: Virtual 
REGISTRATION: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/m3EvcjauSiuzo0-5uGhGsw

Click to register

This is a collaboration between the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Children and the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging.

SPEAKER: 

Kiffer G. Card is an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and has received training as a behavioural epidemiologist, social ecologist, and health services researcher. Over the past six years, Dr. Card's research program provides training to future scholars and raises awareness of key social reforms and policies that aim to help Canadian leaders build happier and healthier communities. In pursuit of this aim, Dr. Card has participated in nearly 100 funded research projects, published more than 200 articles, and trained more than 50 early career scholars. With a focus on loneliness and social isolation, Dr. Card's work is helping reform Canada's health systems to better attend to the social health needs of individuals and communities.

TITLE: The Importance of Healthy, Happy, and Connected Communities for Lifelong Health

DESCRIPTION: This presentation explores the evolutionary, psychological, and social foundations of human connectedness, illustrating how social relationships are integral to physical and mental health across the life course. Drawing on evidence from neuroscience, epidemiology, and public health, it traces the biological roots of loneliness, its health consequences, and the importance of fostering social connection through individual, community, and policy-level interventions.

OBJECTIVES: 

By the end of this event, participants will: 

• Understand the Evolutionary and Biological Basis of Social Connection. Explain how human social behaviour evolved as an adaptive response to environmental and social pressures, and describe the neurobiological mechanisms—such as the HPA axis—that link social connection and stress regulation.
• Recognize the Health Consequences of Loneliness and Social Isolation. Summarize key evidence showing how loneliness predicts poorer physical and mental health outcomes, including increased morbidity and mortality, and compare its impact to other major health risk factors.
• Identify Strategies and Interventions to Foster Social Health Across the Life Course. Evaluate approaches such as social prescribing, prosocial design, and national loneliness strategies that promote belonging, resilience, and social cohesion at individual and community levels.