Matthew Yau is in his final year of the Health Sciences program at McMaster University. His passion for public policy stems from a desire to improve population health and reduce inequality. Matthew is interested in developing policy to address the social determinants of health, such as affordable housing, social security nets, and accessibility of healthcare.As a Queen Elizabeth Scholar, Matthew completed a joint internship at the British Medical Journal and the University of Cape Town to develop clinical decision support tools. He currently supports evidence-informed policymaking by maintaining a health systems evidence database as a research assistant at the McMaster Health Forum.
At McMaster University, he has served as an Editor-in-Chief of McMaster’s Undergraduate Health Sciences Journal and established the Youth Housing Working Group, funded by the Ontario Public Interest Research Group. Matthew has volunteered with special needs children for 3 years and conducted research on the relationship between infant motor coordination and neurodevelopmental disorders. In his spare time, he curates his ever-expanding collection of green tea.