Shaping a Healthy Future for Young Women

Join the Women's Health Research Institute for a fun and informative evening learning about healthy living for young women!

About this Event

The evening will feature four short presentations on mental wellness, sexual health, physical activity, and STI prevention, as well as a Q&A with the speakers.

The evening will be emceed by Dr. Liisa Galea, Professor in the Department of Psychology and Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, Director of the Graduate Program in Neuroscience, and a Scientific Advisor at Women’s Health Research Institute at the University of British Columbia.

Light refreshments will be served.

Speakers:

Dr. Dzung X. Vo - Mental Wellness

Dzung X. Vo, MD, is a pediatrician specializing in Adolescent Medicine, and a Clinical Associate Professor and Division Head for the Division of Adolescent Health and Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, at BC Children’s Hospital and the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Vo earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his residency in Pediatrics and fellowship in Adolescent Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. His main clinical and research areas of interest are in stress and health, resilience, care and advocacy with vulnerable and marginalized adolescents, integrative health, and mindfulness-based interventions with youth. In partnership with Dr. Jake Locke, Dr. Vo co-developed MARS-A (Mindful Awareness and Resilience Skills for Adolescents), an eight-week mindfulness training program for adolescents with depressive symptoms, with or without other co-occurring chronic illness or chronic pain. Dr. Vo is the author of The Mindful Teen: Powerful Skills to Help You Handle Stress One Moment at a Time. Learn more about Dr. Vo’s work in mindfulness at www.mindfulnessforteens.com. He is the founding Director of the BC Children’s Hospital Centre for Mindfulness, which has the vision of supporting “Mindful community, compassionate care” throughout BC Children’s Hospital and beyond.

Nicole Pasquino - Sexual Health

Nicole is a Registered Nurse and the Clinical Practice Director at Options for Sexual Health. She has a Master’s Degree in Health Studies & Leadership. In her role at Options she provides practice support for over 100 nurses and clinical staff, helping to create provincial practice standards for nurses in sexual and reproductive health. She was also the driving force behind the creation and implementation of the Contraception Management and STI Management courses in BC, which allows nurses to provide contraception and STI care after becoming certified. .

Nicole is the faculty lead for sexual health at where she leads advance practice education for nurses in contraception, pelvic exams, and sexually transmitted infection care. She continues to practice and provide patient care at Options clinics and with the BC Women's Hospital Sexual Assault Service.

TBD - Physical Activity

Stay tuned!

Dr. Monika Naus - STI Prevention

Monika Naus is a public health physician who has worked in communicable diseases, immunization and vaccine preventable diseases at the provincial level in Ontario and BC. She is currently the Medical Director for Communicable Diseases & Immunization Service and Medical Lead for Immunization and Vaccine Preventable Diseases at the BC Centre for Disease Control.

She was a member of the Canadian National Advisory Committee on Immunization for 12 years, and has been on the Canadian Immunization Committee since its creation in 2004. She’s been engaged in operational, policy and applied research in this area for over 25 years, and every aspect of public health immunization programs including the HPV vaccine program for girls, and now also boys, in BC.

Dr. Liisa Galea - Emcee

Liisa Galea is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, Director of the Graduate Program in Neuroscience, and a Scientific Advisor at Women’s Health Research Institute at the University of British Columbia. Her research goal is to improve brain health for women and men by examining the influence of sex and sex hormones on normal and diseased brain states such as depression and Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Galea obtained her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Western University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Rockefeller University. Dr. Galea is a Distinguished University Scholar, is a twice winner of the NSERC-Discovery Accelerator Supplement, and has won the Michael Smith Senior Scholar Award, Cattell Sabbatical Award, and the Vancouver YWCA Women of Distinction award (Technology, Science, Research). She was recognized as a Fellow at International Behavioral Neuroscience Society (IBNS). She has over 130 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals with an H index of 49. Dr. Galea is the chief editor of FiN (Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology IF: 9.425), an editor of eNeuro, and serves/served on the editorial boards of Endocrinology, Hormones and Behavior, and Neuroscience. Dr. Galea served on peer review panels for National Institute of Health, CIHR, and NSERC. She has held operating grants from CIHR and NSERC for 15-20 respectively, and secured over $6.5M as PI. She is an elected council member of Organization for the Study of Sex Differences (OSSD) and IBNS, and serves on the Advocacy and EDI committees for Canadian Association for Neuroscience.