Faculty Members

Leonora (Nora) C Angeles is Associate Professor at the School of Community and Regional Planning and the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia. She is currently the Graduate Program Advisor of the Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies. She is also faculty research associate at the UBC Centre for Human Settlements where she has been involved in a number of applied research and capacity-building research projects in Brazil, Vietnam and Southeast Asian countries.

Dr. Cindy Barha is an assistant professor at the University of Calgary. She is a translational neuroscientist with training in behavioural neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary biology, epidemiology, and neuroendocrinology. Her research examines how genetics and hormone-related life events interact to alter cognitive and brain trajectories across the lifespan and to determine how these factors affect pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatment efficacy in older age. Currently, Dr.

I earned my PhD in Neuroscience (2009) from Universidad Complutense Madrid (Spain) under the supervision of Dr. Luis Miguel Garcia-Segura, studying the effects of neurosteroids on reactive glia with aging. My post-doctoral training at Stanford University School of Medicine (2009-2011), under the mentorship of Dr. Rona Guiffard, focused on addressing the role of astrocytes activation following stroke and enhance astrocytic functions targeting neuronal protection. Nowadays, I am an Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Cell Biology/Immunology at University of Limerick, Ireland.

Dr. Hamideh Bayrampour, PhD, MSc is an Assistant Professor in Midwifery Program, Department of Family Practice, an associate member in the School of Population and Public Health and a faculty member in Reproductive and Developmental Sciences program at UBC. Dr. Bayrampour's research interests are in the areas of maternal mental health and substance use and pregnancy outcomes. She is particularly interested in maternal anxiety and its assessment during the perinatal period.

Annaliese Beery studies the neurobiology of social behavior, impacts of experience on development, and the importance of using diverse organisms (both sexes and multiple species) in biological research. In the latter area, she has contributed to multiple efforts to promote inclusion of females as research subjects, as well as commentaries on the importance of comparative research.

Since joining the Anthropology Department at UBC in 2000, my research has focused on two key areas: the transformations in daily life, social relationships, and well being brought about by the end of socialist states; and how the substantial influx of undocumented migrants and refugees into Europe and other destination countries has influenced new forms of citizen activism, especially educational and health initiatives.

Dr. Katrina Bouchard is an Assistant Professor in the UBC Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She received her PhD in clinical psychology from Queen’s University and is a registered psychologist. The overarching goal of Dr. Bouchard’s research program is to enhance the assessment and treatment of sexual health concerns, with a focus on women and couples. She adopts a multi-method approach to studying women’s sexual response and couples’ sexual well-being.

Jade Boyd, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia​, and a Research Scientist with the BC Centre on Substance Use. She draws upon qualitative, ethnographic and community-based methods to examine social, structural and environmental factors that impact people who use drugs, with particular emphasis on how gender—intersecting with race, class and sexuality, influences drug policy and practice. In her role with the BCCSU, Dr.

Dr. Brown's program of research brings critical perspectives to studies aimed at improving health and social equity for rural and remote Indigenous communities. Using community-based and participatory methods she has worked with First Nations communities across Western Canada on projects that align with community priorities around health, wellness, cultural continuity and language revitalization.

Hilary Brown, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, in the Department of Health & Society (Scarborough Campus) and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. She is cross-appointed to the Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and is an Adjunct Scientist at Women’s College Hospital and ICES. Dr. Brown holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Disability & Reproductive Health.

Dr. Mary K. Bryson is Senior Associate Dean, Administration, Faculty Affairs & Innovation and Professor, Department of Language and Literacy Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Bryson’s program of research is designed so as to contribute foundational scholarship concerning access to knowledge, gender and sexual marginality and resilience.

Joined UVic Gender Studies in 2011

I am a Registered Midwife and an Associate Professor of Teaching in the Midwifery Program at UBC, where I teach, develop curriculum, and support the learning of aspiring midwives through a social justice, anti-colonial and anti-capitalist lens. My PhD work in the Institute for Studies in Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice focuses on reproductive justice and perinatal health experiences in (and in relation to) prisons in Canada.

Kristin Campbell, BSc, PT, PhD is a licensed physical therapist and a Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She also an Affiliated Scientist in the Cancer Control Program at the BC Cancer Research Institute.

Co-PI Dr. Suzanne Campbell (Applied) is an Associate Professor and former Director of the School of Nursing at UBC. Her research program examines the use of innovative teaching pedagogy to teach clinical and non-technical skills such as health communication, including testing a global interprofessional therapeutic communication scale. Her clinical practice focuses on reproductive social justice through the promotion of lactation - specifically for priority populations. She is co-editor of the award winning Interdisciplinary Lactation Care text (2018).

Prapti Chauhan is a professor of Genetics in Bangalore. She has contributed to several online research papers. However, she passionately develops contents on pregnancy, childbirth, childcare and stem cell banking and umbilical cord lining and more.

Dr. Frances Chen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. Her research combines approaches from health psychology, social psychology, and neuroendocrinology to investigate how our social lives are connected to our mental and physical health. Her work examines how loneliness and social contact “get under the skin” to affect our physical health, and how hormonal changes during puberty affect teenagers’ social and emotional development.  

We are particularly interested in various regulatory and modulatory aspects of social behavior. Among many, we are investigating the neurobiological bases of (1) social learning whereby an individual acquires information from another individual, (2) social recognition, individual identification and memory (3) sociability, an individual's tendency to prefer to spend time with social vs non social stimuli, and (3) agonistic interactions in males and females.

Dr. Christie obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Otago, where he worked in the world-renowned Graham Goddard laboratory complex with Dr. Cliff Abraham and studied long-term depression of Synaptic efficacy. Dr. Christie then completed post-doctoral training at the University of Otago as a Health Research Fellow before moving to Houston, Texas, where he received post-doctoral fellowship funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to work with Dr. Daniel Johnston at Baylor College of Medicine. He then became an HHMI post-doctoral fellow working with Dr.

Focusing on biological psychiatry, I research on the influence of sex hormones on women's brain and behaviour. 

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death for women worldwide. Largely protected in their early years by hormones such as estrogen, women are not tuned in to the CVD risk factors they may possess as they approach middle age. More recently, additional sex-specific risk factors have been associated with an increased risk of CVD such as a prior adverse pregnancy outcome(s).

Dr. Geoffrey Cundiff is Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of British Columbia. His research interests are broad-based including epidemiology of pelvic floor disorders, surgical education, and prevention of maternal obstetrical trauma, and patient reported outcomes. He is perhaps, best known for outcomes research on pelvic floor disorders, and complications of surgery. Dr. Cundiff is a longstanding contributor to the medical literature with an H-index of 45, and more than 10,000 citations.

Dr. Ashley Curtis is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing at the University of South Florida (USF) and Director of the Cognition, Aging, Sleep, and Health (CASH) Lab. Her research focuses on bidirectional associations between sleep and cognition in healthy and pathological aging populations, and how sex-related mechanisms (biological sex, menopausal transition) interact with other factors (pain, alcohol use, inflammation) to impact these associations.  She also investigates effects of cognitive training on cognition, sleep and associated functions. Dr.

Dr. Sarah Cuschieri graduated as a medical doctor in 2011. After completing her medical training, she took up a full-time academic and research career at the University of Malta in 2013. In 2023, she was appointed as an Adjunct Research Professor with the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, within the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, at Western University, London, Canada. In addition, she was elected as Vice-President of the chronic diseases section of EUPHA (European Public Health Association) in 2023.

Dr. Da Costa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at McGill University and Scientist at the Centre for Outcomes Research & Evaluation at the RI-MUHC. Her research focuses on  conducting prospective studies to better understand determinants of psychological difficulties (i.e. depression, anxiety, stress) and health behaviours (e.g. sleep, exercise) for mothers and fathers during the transition to parenthood.

Dr. Anita Datta is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia. She is the Program Director of the Epilepsy Fellowship training program and Director for medical students for Neurology at BC Children’s Hospital. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and is also Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, in both Child Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology.

Dr. Samantha Dawson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia and a Michael Smith for Health Research Scholar. She is the Director of the Sexuality and Well-being Lab (SWELL Lab), an affiliate member of the Women’s Health Research Institute, and is in the process of registration as a clinical psychologist in BC. Her research program focuses on identifying mechanisms contributing to sexual function in individuals and couples, including during periods of known vulnerability (e.g., the transition to parenthood).

Dr. Claire de Oliveira is an associate professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME), Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, a senior scientist/senior health economist at the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, a senior adjunct scientist in the Mental Health and Addictions Program at ICES, and an honorary senior lecturer at the Hull York Medical

Dr. Dev received a BScN degree in Nursing from the B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Nepal in 2007. She completed her Master’s of Public Health with a specialty in Maternal and Child Health at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle, USA in 2014 and her PhD in Nursing Science from the UW in 2018. Dr. Dev completed her postdoctoral fellowship from the Sun Yat-sen University Global Health Institute, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China in 2020 and from the Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada in 2022.

Elvisha Dhamala, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Behavioral Sciences at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health where she directs the Brain-Based Predictive Modeling Laboratory. Her research program seeks to characterize the neurobiological underpinnings of human behavior, with an emphasis on understanding the extent to which these brain-behavior relationships are shared or unique across sexes and genders in healthy and psychiatric populations.

Dr. Paula Duarte-Guterman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Brock University and the Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Neuroscience. She completed her PhD at the University of Ottawa investigating the interactions of thyroid and sex steroid hormones during frog development. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Ulm, Germany, probing the neuroendocrine mechanisms of paternal care in mice, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia in the laboratory of Dr. Liisa Galea.

Dr. Annie Duchesne is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Northern British Columbia. Dr. Duchesne obtained her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from McGill University in 2014, where she studied the stress processes across the menstrual cycle in Dr. Jens Pruessner’s lab. She pursued postdoctoral research in neuroendocrinology at the University of Toronto in Dr. Gillian Einstein’s lab, investigating the brain and cognitive correlates of surgical menopause. Dr.

Dr Dumanski is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Calgary. She received a Medical Degree from the University of Saskatchewan, followed by clinical residencies in Internal Medicine and Nephrology, a Master of Medical Science from the University of Calgary, and a Master’s Certificate in Health Systems Management from the Johnson-Shoyama School of Public Policy. 

Guy A. Dumont received his Diplôme d'Ingénieur from ENSAM, Paris, France in 1973 and his PhD in electrical engineering from McGill University in 1977. In 1973-74, and again from 1977 to 1979, he worked for Tioxide France. From 1979 to 1989, he worked with Paprican, the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada. In 1989, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UBC where he is a Professor. From 1989 to 1999, he held the Senior NSERC/Paprican Industrial Research Chair in Process Control.

Teal S. Eich, PhD, is a cognitive neuroscientist whose research explores age-related changes to executive function. She is particularly interested in the neural mechanisms supporting cognitive inhibition, and understanding how morphological changes to neuroanatomy affect the ability to successfully inhibit information across different levels (during response, when selectively attending to stimuli, and in memory).

Reda Mohamed Elbadawy, MD is a Professor of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Infectious Diseases at Banha University, Egypt.

Dr. Ruth Elwood Martin is a family physician who worked in British Columbia’s provincial correctional centres starting in 1994.

C. Neill Epperson, MD, is the Robert Freedman Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine-Anschutz Medical Campus (CU-AMC) where she is also the Executive Director of the Helen E. and Arthur Johnson Depression Center. Before being recruited to CU-Anschutz, Dr.

Dr. Nichole Fairbrother is a registered psychologist and Clinical Associate Professor with the UBC Department of Family Practice and the Island Medical Program. She a perinatal mental health investigator and head of the UBC Perinatal Anxiety Disorder Research Lab (PARLab). Dr. Fairbrother’s research is in the area of perinatal anxiety disorders and epidemiology, with a focus on new mothers’ thoughts of infant-related harm and perinatal obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Dr. Thalia Field is a stroke neurologist and clinician-researcher with a focus on clinical trials. She has a particular interest in process improvement in clinical trials, which includes optimizing strategies for participant recruitment and retention, investigating strategies for efficient use of resources, and selecting outcomes that are of relevance to patients.

Dr. Frangou, MD, PhD, FRCPsych serves as Research Chair in Brain Health at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and Professor of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA. She received her Master’s Degree in Neuroscience and her PhD from the University of London, UK and completed her psychiatric training at the Maudsley Hospital, UK. Her work has greatly advanced the understanding of the pathophysiology of mood and psychotic disorders and made groundbreaking contributions to the characterization of brain mechanisms of “resilience”.

Associate Vice-President, Research, Mount Saint Vincent University Medical sociologist (PhD) and credentialed evaluator (CE) conducting sex- and gender-based analysis (SGBA) of health promotion and public health interventions aimed at understanding their impacts on equity-deserving populations in relation to housing, primary health, and education.

Nicole’s research programme aims to identify how and why individual factors (particularly sex) and different environmental conditions (social interactions, access to shelter, food) contribute to neuropsychiatric disease and treatment effectiveness by focusing on specific phenotypes relating to sleep-wake patterns, social interactions, and cognition across species. Previously, Nicole has studied the importance of female physiology in sleep and cognition in rats, mice, marmosets, and humans.

Dr. Paula Gordon is Clinical Professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests include breast ultrasound for diagnosis and for supplemental screening for women with dense breasts. She is best known academically for her paper in Cancer in 1995, the first to prove that ultrasound could find cancers missed on mammograms in women with dense breasts. 

Grounded in my professional practice as a nutrition educator in the community and in academia, my research activities have focused on: Gaining understanding of how decision-making processes influence women’s food choices and examining use of this information to improve food choice behaviours. Examining processes used to develop nutrition communication/education resources for the purpose of improving knowledge translation and consumer education.

Dr. Hayden is a Clinical Neuropsychologist and Clinical Assistant Professor with the Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. She has served as a clinical neuropsychologist at UBC Hospital in the Clinic for Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Disorders for over 27 years.  Dr.

Dr. Saima Hirani is an Assistant Professor at the UBC, School of Nursing. Her research experience includes working with multidisciplinary teams to promote mental health among socioeconomically disadvantaged and vulnerable populations in Canada and Pakistan. Her research focuses on what factors and interventions can enhance the capacity of individuals, families, and communities to take control over their own mental health and support others’ well-being. Dr. Hirani has expertise in the areas of intervention development, quantitative methodology, measurement, and analysis.

Dr. Shela Hirani is an Associate Professor at the University of Regina, Faculty of Nursing, Canada. She is a neonatal and child health nursing professional, academician, researcher, and an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant. She is actively involved in work surrounding the improvement of health equity, health systems, programs and policies that often negatively affects the health and well-being of marginalized and vulnerable groups of women and young children affected by migration, disaster, displacement, and pandemic.

Dr. Travis Hodges is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Travis studies sex differences in stress, as well as how stress affects cognitive biases. He completed his PhD at Brock University and was then a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Laboratory of Behavioural Neuroendocrinology of Dr. Liisa Galea at the University of British Columbia. His research there investigated the sex-specific and age-specific biological mechanisms involved in negative cognitive bias, a treatment-resistant symptom of major depressive disorder.

Dr. Susan Holtzman is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Lead Investigator of the Health Psychology Lab at the University of British Columbia (Okanagan). She is a Registered Psychologist with the College of Psychologists of British Columbia. Dr. Holtzman received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She completed a clinical internship at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a post-doctoral research fellowship at the University Health Network, University of Toronto. Dr.

My research interests are mainly how sexual hormones could impact our behavior and lead to some pathologies. I studied my PhD in Mexico City and my research was to elucidate the HPA axis activity in response to hormonal absence or an abrupt drop of them, such as progesterone withdrawal (PW).

Emily holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. in Neuroscience from Smith College. Prior to moving to UCSB in 2016, she was an Instructor at Harvard Medical School and the Department of Medicine/Division of Women's Health at Brigham & Women's Hospital.

Professor in the UBC School of Population and Public Health,  Perinatal Epidemiologist and Senior Scientist at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Trained in nursing and midwifery, Dr. Janssen leads an International Cluster of Research Excellence entitled Advancing the Science of Physiologic Birth with the goal of preventive approaches and early strategies to avoid the need for complex interventions and their sequelae leading to complications of labour and birth. She has led several clinical trials to evaluate methods for managing pregnancy and labor.

Dr. Mahsa Jessri is Faculty at the UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, Assistant Professor of Food, Nutrition and Health in the UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems, and an Associate Member in the Division of Health Services and Policy at the UBC School of Population and Public Health. She is Principal Investigator of the Nutritional Epidemiology for Population Health Lab in the Food, Nutrition and Health Program, where she holds the Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Nutritional Epidemiology for Population Health.

Dr. Juster's research focuses on stress and resilience using a sex and gender lens. His research focuses on teasing apart the role of biological sex and socio-cultural gender in explaining pathways that render us vulnerable or resilient to stress-related disease. Dr. Juster has become an expert in the measurement of allostatic load, the "wear and tear" of chronic stress and unhealthy behaviors first developed by the great late Bruce McEwen. In much of Dr.

Dr. Angela Kaida is an Associate Professor and global health epidemiologist in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Global Perspectives on HIV and Sexual and Reproductive Health. Dr.

Dr. Shirin Kalyan - Adjunct Professor (Medicine, University of British Columbia), Lead Scientist (Clinical Research Development Laboratory, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute), Chief Scientific Officer (Rare Disease Foundation), and Director of Scientific Innovation (Qu Biologics)

Dr. Kejal Kantarci is a Consultant and Professor of Radiology at the Division of Neuroradiology Mayo Clinic Rochester. She is Katherine B. Andersen Endowed Professor in Women’s Health. She is also the Director of the Women’s Health Research Center, Associate Director of the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center; Associate Director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCaTS) KL2 Program; and Director of the Building Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) K12 Program.

Arminée Kazanjian, DrSocis Professor, School of Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Kazanjian is a recognized Health Services & Policy Researcher whose work incorporates social epidemiology and health technology assessment, social and cultural dimensions of care seeking and service provision, and health workforce policy. Dr. Kazanjian is expert in data linkage of large administrative databases and population-based surveys.  Her early work  “Understanding Women’s Health Through Data Development and Data Linkage was published in the CMAJ.

Dr. Elizabeth Keys, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at UBC Okanagan. She is a registered nurse with a clinical background in community and public health nursing focused on promoting maternal, child, and family wellbeing in the community. Dr. Keys obtained her PhD and BN from the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary and completed an interdisciplinary CIHR-funded postdoctoral fellowship at Dalhousie University in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience.

My primary interests involve the neural mechanisms of learning and memory with a focus on changes across the lifespan and under different fitness, hormonal, and disease states.

I, Dr. Maryana Kravtsenyuk (MD, MSc, FRCPC), am a medical doctor with a speciality in psychiatry, and a subspeciality in forensic psychiatry; I am on the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada subspeciality register. I completed psychiatric training at the University of Alberta in 2015 and a forensic psychiatry fellowship at the University of Toronto in 2016.

Andrea Krüsi, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and a Research Scientist with the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity. Dr. Krüsi’s work focuses broadly on the criminalization of sexuality, with a particular focus on how intersecting social and structural contexts, such as laws and policies, shape the health, safety and wellbeing of marginalized cis and trans women.

Hagar I. Labouta is an Assistant Professor at the College of Pharmacy, with extensive research experience in nanomedicine, drug delivery, and biomedical engineering. She got her Ph.D. in pharmaceutical nanotechnology from Saarland University (Germany). She completed several Postdoctoral fellowships at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland – HIPS (Germany), and the Departments of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering, University of Calgary (Canada).

The overarching theme of my research is nutrient adequacy for optimal health and development. My enthusiasm for human nutrition research draws from my interest in the physiology and biochemistry of nutrition-related diseases and in targeted and population-based strategies of chronic disease prevention and optimal health promotion. My research specifically focuses on B-vitamins and their kinetics and functions in human metabolism. B-vitamins are required for normal cell growth and neurological function and thus have an impact on human health from the embryo to the older adult.

Dr Bernard Le Foll, MD PhD MCFP (AM), is a clinician scientist specialized in drug addiction. He did specialized training in addiction and cognitive behavioural therapy in France. He obtained a PhD in Pharmacology at University of Paris Sud in France and has performed post-doctoral training in behavioral pharmacology and brain imaging within the intra-mural program of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Bernard Le Foll is senior scientist within the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). Additionally, Dr.

Dr. Joelle LeMoult is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. She is the Director of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Laboratory, a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Women’s Health Research Institute, and a registered clinical psychologist. Her research examines the cognitive, emotional, and biological responses to stress that contribute to symptoms of depression and anxiety in adolescents and adults.  

Dr. Leuner’s research investigates experience and hormone driven changes in the brain and behavior with a specific focus on brain regions regulating emotional and cognitive function and questions of relevance to the female brain and women’s brain health.

Dr. Maya Libben is an Associate Professor of Psychology and the lead investigator of the PLAN Lab at the University of British Columbia – Okanagan. She is also a registered clinical psychologist (#2167) with the College of Psychologists of British Columbia. Dr. Libben completed her Bachelor of Science at the University of Alberta and received her PhD in clinical psychology from McGill University.

Dr. Teresa Liu-Ambrose, PhD, PT, is a Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, and Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity, Mobility, and Cognitive Health. She is the Research Director of the Vancouver General Hospital Falls Prevention Clinic (www.fallsclinic.ca) and Director of the Aging, Mobility, and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory (https://cogmob.rehab.med.ubc.ca). Dr. Liu-Ambrose is an associate member of the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health.

Dr. Mackay spent 40 years at St. Paul’s Hospital, 25 of which as the Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) in Cardiology at the Heart Centre. For the last 12 years she has functioned as a clinician-scientist, combining the roles of CNS and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia School of Nursing, and she continues on faculty at the School of Nursing.

Dr. Anna MacKinnon's research focuses on social determinants of child health and development, risk and resilience for perinatal mental health, as well as intervention programs for psychological distress and parenting. She recently completed her postdoctoral work at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, in the Departments of Psychology and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary.

Dr. Malhotra's work is that of an inter-disciplinary social scientist with a strong interest in questions related to Development, Gender and Global Health. Her recent work focuses on gender based violence and socio-economic determinants of health related behaviour (mostly in South Asia). Her current research examines the gender differences in risky behaviour with respect to HIV transmission in Zambia, and domestic violence within consanguineous marriages in Pakistan.

Nice is an Associate Professor in the Department of Musculoskeletal and Sports at Acharya’s NR Institute of Physiotherapy, Bengaluru. She is the founder of Founder of Dr. Nice Physiotherapy Centre and has a  passion in women’s health and extensive experience in supporting women of all ages. Nice received her PhD in physiotherapy under RGUHS with Ramaiah Medical College and has Lamaze certification in child birth education (USA). 

Dr. Kelsey McLaughlin is an Assistant Professor and Early-Career Researcher in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the University of Toronto. Dr. McLaughlin’s research program is embedded in the Department of Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at Sinai Health System, focusing on advancing maternal cardiovascular health through hospital- and community-level initiatives. Dr. McLaughlin’s research focuses on hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, postpartum cardiovascular health, and Indigenous maternal health.

Dr. Robyn McQuaid is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Carleton University and a Scientist at the Royal Institute of Mental Health Research (IMHR) in the Culture & Gender Research unit. Dr. McQuaid's research examines the impacts of stressors and traumatic experiences on mental health disorders among various populations. She examines the neuroendocrine, inflammatory and genetic/epigenetic pathways through which early-life adversity and adult stressors promote depression and comorbid disorders.

Dr. Tina C. Montreuil is an Associate Professor in the department of Educational and Counselling Psychology and an Associate Member of the Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at McGill University, as well as the director of Childhood Anxiety and Regulation of Emotions Laboratory C.A.R.E.Research Group. She is a Scientist at the Research Institute of McGill University Health Centre, a Regular Investigator of the Research Unit of Children’s Psychosocial Maladjustment (GRIP), and a Full member of the McGill Centre for Research on Children and Families (CRCF).

Dr. Sarah Munro is an Assistant Professor with the Health Systems and Population Health at the University of Washington School of Public Health. Using qualitative and knowledge translation methods, she investigates the factors that influence implementation of evidence-based innovations in health services and systems, with a focus on improving equity and access to sexual and reproductive health care for underserved populations. Dr.

Dr. Karthryn Murphy

Professor

McMaster University

Taniya Nagpal is an Assistant Professor at The University of Alberta with the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport and Recreation. She completed her PhD from the University of Western Ontario with the Exercise and Pregnancy Lab and Exercise and Health Psychology Lab. Her dissertation work included developing and testing strategies to improve adherence to physical activity in pregnancy, and measuring downstream health outcomes for both mother and newborn.

Wendy V. Norman, MD, CCFP, FCFP, DTM&H, MHSc, is a Professor in the Department of Family Practice, and an Associate Member in both the School of Population and Public Health, and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Dr. Norman is an Honorary Associate Professor in the Faculty of Public Health and Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), in London, UK. 

Dr. Tim Oberlander is a physician-scientist whose work bridges developmental neurosciences and community child health.  He is a developmental pediatrician and works as the medical lead for the Complex Pain Service at BC Children’s Hospital.  Since 1996, Dr Oberlander has led a research program seeking to understand how early life experiences, related to in utero exposure to antidepressants and prenatal maternal mood, shapes stress reactivity, cognition and attention during childhood in ways that contribute to the early origins of self-regulation. 

Dr. Ogilvie is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Global Control of HPV related diseases and prevention. She is also Senior Public Health Scientist at BC Centre for Disease Control and Senior Research Advisor at the BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre. Dr. Ogilvie is principal investigator on over 5 million dollars in research grants and has received funding from PHAC, CIHR, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, Canadian Foundation for Innovation and private foundations.

Dr. Emmanuela Ojukwu is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia, School of Nursing. Her research focuses particularly on psychosocial and behavioral aspects of health promotion for marginalized populations, particularly African, Caribbean and Black women and youths. Her research niche intersects through major aspects of health including: racial and gender health disparities, minority health, maternal-infant health, sexual health, social determinants of health, management of chronic illnesses and infectious diseases, health promotion, among others. Dr.

Dr. Lindsay Oliver is a Staff Scientist in the Brain Health Imaging Centre at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Dr. Oliver completed her MSc in Human Cognitive Neuropsychology at the University of Edinburgh, her PhD in Neuroscience at Western University, and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at CAMH.

Dr. Ospina is an associate professor with the Department of Public Health Sciences at Queen’s University, a clinical epidemiologist, and population health researcher and former Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Life Course, Social Environments, and Health. Her research program uses a life course approach, epidemiological methods, mixed-methods, and knowledge synthesis to assess how social and environmental factors during critical periods of human development such as pregnancy, the perinatal period ,and early childhood influence future health.

Dr. Christine Ou (RN, PhD) is an Assistant Professor at the UVic School of Nursing. As a pediatric registered nurse, she continues to support children and families with a program of research focused on the sleep and psychosocial well-being of families with infants and young children. She is also a Pacific Post Partum Support Society board director and the Principal Investigator of the Parent-Child Lab. Dr. Ou is committed to improving perinatal mental health care in Canada.

Dr. Claudia Paarmann-Chien (née Chien) is a Neuroscientist and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) PI at the Experimental and Clinical Research Center, NeuroCure Clinical Research Center, and Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at the Charité- University Hospital Berlin, Germany.

Dr. Daniela Palombo, Assistant Professor in the cognitive area. I investigate cognitive and neural factors associated with how we form and retain autobiographical memories and how this may differ across individuals. I also examine how autobiographical memory influences non-mnemonic functions, with a primary focus on future imagination and decision making. My research approach is multi-faceted; I explore these topics in healthy individuals as well as in neuropsychological (e.g., amnesia) and psychiatric populations (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder).

I am interested in the experience of health and illness, particularly living with chronic conditions. I am deeply committed to feminist, gender-transformative health promotion and researching interventions that can simultaneously address harmful gender norms while improving health. Finally, I am interested in the policy process as a mechanism for social change. These interests have led to various projects over the years related to health and gender, health equity, and change—individual, organizational, and structural.

Dr. Perreault is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Guelph and is a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists in the Royal Society of Canada. She acquired her PhD in behavioural neuroscience from McMaster University followed by additional training as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Toronto. The primary research goal of Dr.

Dr. Alesia Prakapenka is an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Sciences (IL) at Midwestern University. Her research program investigates women’s health across the lifespan using translationally relevant rodent models, with a particular focus on how physiological changes contribute to age-related cognitive decline. 

The ultimate goal of my research is to identify evidence-based nutrition strategies to mitigate the burden of obesity and chronic disease. My research builds upon key concepts of nutrition, energy balance regulation, and body composition to:     1) Characterize energy intake requirements and the determinants of such     2) Assess how perturbations in energy balance (e.g., energy intake restriction, exercise) impact other physiological and behavioral outcomes

Dr. Eli Puterman is an associate professor and the Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity and Health (2015-2025), and was a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar (2016-2021). He is the Director of the Fitness, Aging, and Stress Lab where he and his team develop, evaluate, and disseminate physical activity programs and initiatives among hard-to-reach populations, and incorporates psychological and biological markers of health and wellbeing measured both within laboratory and in situ settings.

My laboratory’s work examines how our unique experiences across development have profound impacts on our brains and behavior. Our primary research interest is to uncover biological mechanisms underlying neurobehavioral deficits induced by pre- and/or early postnatal adverse experiences, with a special focus on understanding the increased vulnerability to develop psychopathologies such as depression and anxiety.

Dr. M. Natasha Rajah received her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Toronto, St. George Campus, and did her post-doctoral training at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California at Berkeley. She joined the Department of Psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University and Douglas Research Centre in 2005. She is currently a Professor in Psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences (FMHS), McGill University.

Morag has a PhD in the History of Science and Ideas. Her interests broadly include the history of medicine, and science and technology studies. Her PhD dissertation examined the development of abortion pills in Sweden (ca. 1965-1992) and her current research project investigates the use of the modern intrauterine device in Sweden (ca. 1963-1975). She is particularly interested in how reproductive technologies emerge and co-create values.  

Dr. Manon Ranger conducts translational research, integrating preclinical investigations with clinical studies in preterm neonates undergoing intensive neonatal care to uncover mechanisms of vulnerability to early adversity (e.g. stress/pain, inflammation, treatments) in relation to brain development. She also investigates and tests methods to mitigate the adverse effects of these undesirable events.

I completed my BSc (Hons) at the University of Toronto at Mississauga in Forensic Science and Biology. I first became interested in research working with fruit flies in the laboratory of Prof. Marla Sokolowski. I then moved on to the laboratory of Dr.

Dr. Julie Robillard is Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of British Columbia, Scientist in Patient Experience at BC Children's and Women's Hospital and Director of the Neuroscience, Engagement and Smart Tech (NEST) lab. She is Chair of the Ethical, Legal, Social Impacts Committee of the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging, a member of the Technology and Dementia Executive Committee of the International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatments, and an AGE-WELL NCE Network Investigator. Dr.

Troy's interests focus on the interactions of hormones (estrogens), diets, aging, and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDC) on neurophysiological functions controlled by the hypothalamus and other brain circuits, which control energy balance, reproduction, stress, and homeostasis.

Dr. Jessica Rosin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Oral Biological and Medical Sciences at the University of British Columbia. Her research program focuses on understanding how distinct populations of phagocytic immune cells (e.g., microglia, macrophages, etc.) signal to nearby cells during embryogenesis to contribute to normal development of the fetus. Her research also aims to understand how exposure to various forms of maternal challenge (e.g., stress, infection, etc.) during pregnancy impacts these phagocytic immune cells and alters normal developmental programs.

Larissa Rossen is an Assistant Professor in the MA Counselling Psychology Program at Trinity Western University. Her research interests span the early developmental years and focus on perinatal mental health, perinatal loss and grief, maternal identity, maternal attachment and bonding, emotional availability, family systems, and development. Her primary approach to counselling is psychodynamic (depth-oriented processing) with a focus on attachment and systems. She is a Registered Clinical Counsellor in private practice in West Vancouver, BC.

Dr. Laura Schummers, ScD, is a reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist. After completing her doctorate of science in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Schummers joined the Contraception and Abortion Research Team in the Department of Family Practice at UBC as a postdoctoral fellow. She is now an Assistant Professor of Health Outcomes in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She holds a BC Ministry of Health-CIHR Health System Impact Fellowship and a Research Trainee award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. Dr.

I teach courses in history and theory of rhetoric, and in rhetoric of science, technology, and medicine; I am a faculty member in the Science and Technology Studies Graduate Program. My research interests are both interdisciplinary, under the headings of “Science and Technology Studies” and “Health Humanities,” and disciplinary, under the headings of “History and Theory of Rhetoric” and “Rhetoric of Health and Medicine.” I am delighted currently to be on the editorial board of the brand new journal, Rhetoric of Health and Medicine.

Dr. Desiree Seib is an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department of the University of Prince Edward Island. She is interested in the effects of diet and the microbiome on the brain and behaviour during early life, pregnancy, and adulthood. Currently, her lab is examining sex differences in hormones, the brain and physiology in the offspring of rat mothers who were exposed to highly palatable diets or antibiotics during gestation. 

Dr. Shannon’s research training includes a Masters degree in Global Public Health which focused on maternal and reproductive health in rural Bangladesh, followed by a PhD in Public Health and Epidemiology at UBC which explored the social and structural factors shaping HIV acquisition risk for street-based sex workers.

I’m an Associate Professor in Reproductive and Mental Health Epidemiology and lead of the Menarche, Menstruation, Menopause and Mental Health (4M) consortium of researchers working at the intersection of female reproductive and mental health.

Dr. Jeannie Shoveller, PhD, is a Professor at UBC’s School of Population & Public Health and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. She is also the Associate Director and Director of Research at the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity and the Director of Research at the BC Centre on Substance Use.

Dr Farah M Shroff is a Canadian public intellectual with expertise in public health research and education who focuses on gender equity, reproduction, midwifery, HIV, sexuality, mental well-being and so forth.

Dr. Soucie earned her B.A. at the University of Windsor, her M.A. at Wilfrid Laurier University, and her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Wayne State University. She recently joined the University of Windsor as a tenure-track faculty member in the Child Clinical area in 2019. Her most recent research interests are in understanding the social, cultural, and institutional determinants of women’s health and chronic illness diagnosis and management (e.g., diagnosis experiences, misdiagnoses/errors, illness disclosure, patient-practitioner communications, and obesity stigma). Dr.

Dr. Rebecca Todd is an Associate Professor in the UBC Department of Psychology and a CIHR New Investigator and Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Fellow. She received a PhD in Developmental Science and Neuroscience from University of Toronto, and post-doctoral training in cognitive neuroscience at the Rotman Research Institute and University of Toronto. Her research program focuses on neurocognitive processes underlying the interaction between human emotion and cognition in health and in pathology.

Dr. Tomfohr-Madsen's research harnesses methodology from clinical and counselling psychology, health psychology and public health to understand intersectional risk and resilience factors that contribute to the development of psychological distress in parents and children. Her research aims to refine and disseminate psychological interventions to improve parent and child mental health, with a focus on developing mobile health (mHealth) interventions (e.g., psychological support provided by mobile devices) that can best engage traditionally underserved populations.

Professor Helen Tremlett, PhD is the Canada Research Chair in Neuroepidemiology and Multiple Sclerosis and Professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada in the Faculty of Medicine, Division of Neurology and Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health. Dr Tremlett’s research program is funded through operating and foundation grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the MS Society of Canada, the MS Scientific Research Foundation, the US National MS Society, among others.

Natalie Tronson is a behavioral and molecular neuroscientist interested in sex differences in learning and memory, and psychiatric/neurological disorders associated with alteration of memory, including post-traumatic stress disorder, Alzheimer's Disease and depression. Dr. Tronson's work uses mouse models to study how exposure to illness and neuroimmune activation, stress, or hormone contraceptives (among other factors) can cause both short and long-term changes in the brain, in memory processes, in emotion regulation, and in cognitive decline.

I received a B.A. in Psychology (2004) and an M.A. in Developmental Psychology (2006) from Bogazici University in Turkey. I got my Ph.D. (2017) from Northwestern University, Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program (NUIN). Following my Ph.D., I worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Northwestern University Neurology Department until I was appointed as an Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico, Department of Neurosciences.

Dr. Paul van Donkelaar is a professor in the School of Health and Exercise Sciences at UBCO. His research team examines the mechanisms and effects of traumatic brain injury on cerebrovascular, sensorimotor, and neurocognitive function. They use these approaches to better understand head impacts in contact sport athletes, and the interface between traumatic brain injury and intimate partner violence.

Prof. Neil Vasdev is the Director and Chief Radiochemist of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Brain Health Imaging Centre, and the Director of the Azrieli Centre for Neuro-Radiochemistry at CAMH. He is also the endowed Azrieli Chair in Brain and Behaviour, and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Radiochemistry and Medical Imaging. In addition, he is a full Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. 

Marianne Vidler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at UBC. Her research focus is on pregnancy complications and maternal mortality in resources constrained settings. Marianne received a Masters in Public Health at Simon Fraser University in 2011, where her research focused on the obstetric referral system in rural Mexico. Marianne completed her doctoral degree in Reproductive and Developmental Science and UBC.

Dr. Simone Vigod is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, and Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Women's College Hospital. Her background includes an Honours BSc in Psychology from McGill University (1999), an MD from the University of Toronto, U of T (2003) and psychiatric residency at U of T (FRCPC, 2009). To build her research program, she undertook a Master's of Science in Clinical Epidemiology from the U of T Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) and is a Full Member of the School of Graduate Studies at U of T. Dr.

Dr. Joanne Weinberg is a Professor Emerita and Distinguished University Scholar in the Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences at the University of British Columbia. She is a member of the Brain Research Center, and an Associate Member of the Department of Psychology and the Child and Family Research Institute.

Karline Wilson-Mitchell is passionate about reproductive justice that informs midwifery education, practice and global partnerships. Since 1992, Karline’s clinical work grew from the U.S. (urban and rural) to Canada (Ontario, remote Quebec) and then to midwifery education and leadership building in the Global South (Jamaica, Tanzania, Zambia, Burundi, South Sudan). Her scholarship explores the skills and infrastructure necessary to diversify the midwifery workforce, and explores strategies that facilitate equitable and inclusive work environments for midwives and vulnerable populations.

Dr. Whitney Wood is Canada Research Chair in the Historical Dimensions of Women's Health at Vancouver Island University. Her work focuses on histories of pregnancy, childbirth, obstetrics and gynecology in nineteenth and twentieth century Canada, and she is especially interested in exploring the historical roots of current healthcare inequities, particularly as these relate to the treatment of women's pain.

Dr. Wytenbroek is a social historian of twentieth-century health care, with a particular interest in understanding and interpreting the historical forces that have shaped the nursing profession and practice. She draws on historical research, sociology, feminist studies and social justice to explore the history of health care and nursing through the lens of race, gender, religion and politics. Her current book project, American Nursing (Inter)Nationalism in Iran, examines American mission nurses in Iran and their efforts to cultivate international nursing standards in the country.

Dr. Ycaza Herrera is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. Her research focuses on the ability of estradiol to modulate the cortisol response in women.

Dr. Paul Yong, MD, PhD, FRCSC is a gynecologist with fellowship training in minimally invasive surgery, and Assistant Professor in the UBC Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.  Dr. Yong is Director of the UBC OB/GYN Residency Rotation in Chronic Pelvic Pain and Minimally Invasive Surgery,  and Co-Director of the UBC Reproductive and Developmental Sciences Graduate Program.  In addition, Dr.

Dr. Burcu Zeydan is an assistant professor of radiology and neurology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Zeydan received her M.D. degree and completed her residency training in the Department of Neurology at Istanbul University. Her research focuses on imaging and epidemiology of neurodegenerative and demyelinating diseases and, particularly impact of age and sex differences in multiple sclerosis. 

Dr. Zuloaga's research focuses on how risk factors, such as prediabetes, obesity, cerebrovascular disease and menopause may alter pathology of dementia differently in each sex during aging.