Sandy Pitzel
Research Associate
Sandy Pitzel (she, her) is a member of the English River Dene Nation of Saskatchewan. Her great-grandfather was Cree/Dene from Buffalo River, Saskatchewan, and she descends from the Bear Clan. She embraces her Scottish and German heritage. Her belief is that we are here to heal and help others do the same. She has a community approach to healing, which embraces all cultures and spirituality that enhance the lives of people to live a healthier life.
Sandy Pitzel has spent more than 30 years in the human service and social work fields. Her experiences have led to her working with all age groups: children, youth, adults, seniors and Elders.
Her work is based on Medicine Wheel teachings (as well as other education modalities) and addresses trauma, intergenerational trauma, disenfranchised grief and ambiguous loss. She has worked with First Nations people experiencing crisis due to various traumas throughout central and northern Saskatchewan.
She teaches about addictions, violence against women, First Nations historical trauma, community development, Peers Helping Peers, parenting and more. Ms. Pitzel has also worked in the field of intimate partner violence. For more than a decade, she has educated communities about the issues of violence affecting women, seniors and children. In 2011, she spoke at the Women’s World Conference about using a community development framework to educate an entire community about domestic violence.
She believes in advocating and speaking about issues that are important to her. She was a toastmaster for six years. Ms. Pitzel is a recipient of the Toastmasters Communicators Gold Award, which is the highest level attainable on the speaking side of the organization. Sandy has written a book which she hopes to have published within a year about her 30 year old son and how he died a preventable death, while injured overnight, at the Prince Albert Police Services in Saskatchewan. She hopes to expand presentations on change needed to keep individuals safe who
Ms. Pitzel received the Innovative Program Award at the International Community Development Society’s World Conference in 2008. In Saskatchewan, she was recognized in 2009 at the National Council of Women’s Conference for her work with women and children in the community. She was a Board of Governor member with Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) from June, 2023 until June, 2026. She is currently a family representative with Tracking (In)Justice and an Associate Researcher for the project. She is an Associate Member of the Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine in Saskatchewan (CSAM).