Dr. Bernadette Kina Kombo is a medical anthropologist and community health researcher whose work is shaped as much by lived experience as by academic training. She grew up in rural Taita-Taveta, Kenya, listening to stories from her mother about how alcohol had quietly disrupted opportunities in their family and community. Those stories stayed with her and eventually became the foundation of a research path devoted to examining how inequality, everyday survival, and social relationships shape health and wellbeing. Bernadette’s academic journey spans several countries and disciplines. She first studied Anthropology at the University of Nairobi, later earning a Master of Science in Public Health from Leeds Beckett University in the UK and a Master’s degree in Peacebuilding from Coventry University. She completed her PhD in Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba in Canada. Her doctoral research examined alcohol not simply as a substance but as something that organizes relationships, survival strategies, and moral economies among young people in Kenya. Over more than a decade of research in Africa and Canada, Bernadette has worked with communities navigating HIV prevention, mental health challenges, and structural inequities. Her work emphasizes collaboration; treating community members not only as research participants but as partners who help shape the questions, methods, and outcomes of research. Bernadette currently serves as a board member of the Afrimama Peace and Cultural Initiative in Winnipeg, where she supports programs that strengthen community connection, cultural wellbeing, and mentorship among immigrant families. As an IMPaCT fellow, she is developing the Family Circles for Perinatal Wellbeing project, which explores how culturally grounded, family-centered approaches can strengthen mental health support for Black immigrant mothers in Winnipeg. Her work has been recognized through several awards, including the University of Manitoba Graduate Fellowship, the David G. Fish Scholarship for community-engaged global health research, and the Commonwealth Scholarship that supported her public health training. Outside the academy, Bernadette is a mother, community organizer, and mentor. She approaches scholarship as a form of care; an effort to translate lived experience into knowledge that can reshape systems and expand possibilities for health, dignity, and collective wellbeing.