WHRI Executive
Dr. Lori A. Brotto | Executive Director
PhD, R Psych
Dr. Lori A. Brotto is the Executive Director of the Women’s Health Research Institute at BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre. Dr. Brotto is a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, with a Joint Appointment in the Department of Psychiatry. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Women’s Sexual Health. Her program of research focuses on women’s sexual health, and includes randomized controlled trials of psychological interventions (such as mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy) to address low desire in women and chronic genital pain (vulvodynia). She has a strong interest in quality of life among survivors, and has been involved in a number of studies to address sexual health among cancer survivors. To that end, she is a member of the Gynecologic Cancer Collaborative Cluster, lead by Dr. Gavin Stuart. Her CFI-funded research lab is located at Vancouver Hospital and is equipped with sexual psychophysiological measures, an eye tracker, and infrastructure to support salivary hormone collections. She also collaborates on studies exploring asexuality, culture and sexuality, and most recently, digital technologies to deliver women’s sexual health programs.
As a member of the Women’s Health Research Cluster, she is part of the “Applied” theme, which collectively examine women’s health research and its applications to clinical practice and policy. In her role as WHRI Executive Director, Dr. Brotto works closely with the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) as well as other health authorities to raise the profile of research. This relationship also provides opportunities to champion women’s research needs across PHSA settings.
Dr. Gina Ogilvie | Associate Director
MD, MSc, FCFP, DrPH
Dr. Gina Ogilvie is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Global Control of HPV related diseases and prevention, and Professor at the University of British Columbia in the School of Population and Public Health. 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. She was previously Medical Director of Clinical Prevention Services at BC Centre for Disease Control where she provided both operational and scientific leadership to an integrated public health unit with over 100 staff. This unit focuses on providing public health leadership and service in STIs, HIV, Hepatitis and Tuberculosis provincially, nationally and globally. Dr. Ogilvie is currently principal investigator on over 10 million dollars in research grants and she has received funding from NIH, PHAC, CIHR, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, Canadian Foundation for Innovation and private foundations including BC Women’s Hospital Foundation among others. Her research is focused on both the public health and clinical aspects of reproductive health, sexually transmitted infections, HPV screening and the HPV vaccine, and her findings have been highly influential in setting and directing health policy both in Canada and globally. Among other research projects, she is principal investigator for the ASPIRE program, a global health initiative conducting research and providing women-centred, innovative solutions for cervical cancer prevention and reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa. She also leads HPV FOCAL, which is a randomized trial of over 25,000 women comparing primary screening for cervical cancer, and QUEST, a pragmatic randomized trial defining the effectiveness of reduced dosing of the HPV vaccine.
Dr. Paul Yong | Assistant Director WHRI
MD, PhD, FRSCSC
Dr. Paul Yong is a gynecologist with fellowship training in Endometriosis, Pelvic Pain and Advanced Laparoscopy, and Associate Professor in the UBC Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Dr. Yong holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain, and is Research Director at the BC Women’s Centre for Pelvic Pain and Endometriosis. As PI of the UBC Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain Laboratory, Dr. Yong leads a research program that focuses on local neurogenesis, somatic mutations, and central sensitization in endometriosis pain (with a focus on dyspareunia) which has been supported by CIHR, CFI, and Michael Smith Health Research BC. Other roles for Dr. Yong have included serving as co-chair of the gynecology clinical practice committee for the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC); on the early career board of the World Endometriosis Society (WES); and as a member of the EndoAct.ca.
Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Kristin Campbell
PhD, PT, BSc
Dr. Kristin Campbell is a licensed physical therapist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of British Columbia. She also holds appointments at the Centre of Excellence in Cancer Prevention and BC Cancer Cancer Control Program. She is a member of the Oncology Division of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association and a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. She completed her PhD in exercise physiology at the University of Alberta and a Fellowship in Public Health at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre. Her research focus is on the role of exercise in cancer prevention, rehabilitation and survivorship has been funded by the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and Physiotherapy Foundation of Canada and others. She is currently the co-lead for the update of the exercise guidelines for cancer survivors from the American College of Sports Medicine and an associate editor for Physical Therapy, the journal of the American Physical Therapy Association.
Dr. Gillian Hanley
PhD
Dr. Gillian Hanley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the University of British Columbia. She is a CIHR New Investigator and Michael Smith Foundation Scholar. She obtained her BSc at Dalhousie University where she did a combined Honours in Biology and Economics, followed by a MA at McMaster University in Economics with a concentration in health economics, and finally her doctorate studies at UBC in the School of Population and Public Health. Her research focus combines her substantive interest in women’s health with her training in economics, health services research, and epidemiology to answer questions related to gynecologic cancer, primarily ovarian cancer prevention, as well as healthy reproduction and pregnancy.
Dr. Angela Kaida
PhD
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. Kaida has been awarded funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, Grand Challenges Canada, Canada Foundation for Innovation, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH/NICHD) to lead a community-based research program focused on factors and environments that increase vulnerability or protect sexual and reproductive health. Dr. Kaida conducts mixed-method research among women living with HIV in Canada, safer conception intervention research among men living with HIV who desire children in Uganda, and inter-disciplinary HIV prevention research among adolescent girls and young women at high risk for HIV in South Africa. Her research provides evidence for developing effective social and health policies and programming to improve sexual and reproductive health and rights for HIV-affected individuals and communities. Throughout her career, Dr. Kaida has worked closely with community leaders and decision-makers to integrate research evidence into sexual and reproductive health policy and programming, using a social and gender equity lens. She has served in numerous institutional, national, and global leadership roles including with the WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research, sub-Saharan African Network of TB and HIV research Excellence (SANTHE), the Canadian Association for HIV Research (CAHR), and the Women’s Health Research Institute (WHRI). To read more about Dr. Kaida’s research contributions, please click here.
Dr. Joelle LeMoult
PhD
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, and a registered clinical psychologist. Through her research, she works to further our understanding of the onset, maintenance, and treatment of depressive and anxiety disorders in adolescents and adults. Using an integrated approach, she examines the cognitive, emotional, and biological responses to stress that contribute to symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Dr. LeMoult has published numerous empirical articles, book chapters, and theoretical papers examining the link between stress and depression, and for her contributions to the field, she received the Rising Stars award from both the Association for Psychological Science and the Society for Research in Psychopathology. Her work is funded by CIHR, SSHRC, and NSERC.
Dr. Jerilynn Prior
BA, MD, FRCPC
Dr. Jerilynn C. Prior is a Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of British Columbia working in the area of women’s health. She has devoted her career to investigating women’s menstrual cycles, the population variability of ovulation, the physiology, hormonal change, experiences of and perimenopause treatment, menopausal hot flushes progesterone treatment and the important role progesterone plays in preventing and treating osteoporosis. She is the 2019 recipient of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Aubrey J. Tingle Prize awarded to a BC clinician scientist whose work in health research is internationally recognized. She was honoured in 2017 by WHRI for Knowledge Translation in women’s health research. She founded (2002) and is the Scientific Director of the Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research (CeMCOR) with its website providing practical plain-language evidence based information to 3,500-5,000/day.
She was a founder and 20-year scientist with the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study (CaMos) and is continuing to lead the BC CaMos Centre. In addition to authoring over 180 peer-reviewed papers (H Index 61), Dr. Prior is the author of the award-winning novel, Estrogen’s Storm Season: Stories of Perimenopause, written to inform and empower perimenopausal women.
Dr. Laura Schummers
ScD
Dr. Laura Schummers 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 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. Schummers’s research uses large population-based administrative health databases to examine health services, policy, and clinical research questions related to women’s reproductive and perinatal health.
Dr. Sandesh Shivananda
MD, MBBS, MSc
Dr. Sandesh Shivananda is an Associate Professor at UBC and a Staff Neonatologist at BC Women’s Hospital, with the Division of Neonatology. Dr. Shivananda received his Medical Degree from the University of Mysore, 1998 and then was trained in Neonatology at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, India (1997-2003) and at the University of Toronto, 2007. From there, Dr. Shivananda completed his Masters in Health Informatics at the University of Victoria, BC.
Dr. Shivananda’s interests lie in knowledge translation, integration of technology, and quality improvement. His focus has been in designing, implementing, and evaluating QI programs. He is also the site investigator for the Canadian Neonatal Network’s – Evidence based Practice for Improving Quality. He co-chairs the Neonatal Leadership and Quality and Safety Improvement committees. He also serves as the EPIQ workshop lead facilitator.
Genesa Greening
CFRE
Genesa Greening’s career is marked by her unwavering commitment to social justice and feminist advocacy with over 25 years of experience in the non-profit sector. She has dedicated her work to driving community transformation, fostering innovation, and building lasting partnerships that uplift and transform communities.
For nearly a decade, Genesa led initiatives in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, tackling pressing issues such as homelessness, poverty, mental health, and substance use as Executive Director of the First United Community Services Society and previously as Director of Community Strategies at Union Gospel Mission. During this time, she was an appointed member of the City of Vancouver’s Women’s Advisory Committee, and the Mayor’s Task Force on Mental Health & Addiction.
Prior to her current role at Vancity Community Foundation, Genesa was the President + CEO of the BC Women’s Health Foundation where she drove nationwide advocacy efforts that successfully increased long term investment in women’s health research.
As the current CEO of the Vancity Community Foundation, Genesa champions systemic change with a focus on Truth and Reconciliation, decolonization, anti-racism, climate action, and trust-based philanthropy. Her leadership continues to inspire meaningful action, addressing the complex challenges of affordability and climate impact on communities pushed into the margins.
Beyond her professional achievements, Genesa is actively involved in community service. She recently completed her term as Chair of the Elizabeth Fry Health Society and her time as a member of the CIHR IGH Institute Advisory Board. She is the current chair of EFry Greater Vancouver and serves on the boards of the Elizabeth Bagshaw Clinic and the First Nations Health Foundation.
Dr. Deborah Money
CM, BSc, MD, FRCSC, FCAHS
Dr. Deborah Money is Professor and Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, at the University of British Columbia. She is a clinician/scientist in Reproductive Infectious Diseases, based at the Women’s Health Research Institute, leading several large multicentered research projects in the vaginal microbiome, HIV in pregnancy, studies of the HPV vaccine in women living with HIV. Since March 2020, she pivoted her research group to lead three large pan-Canadian projects to study the impact of COVID-19 on pregnant women and their infants and is now studying syphilis in pregnancy.
She is the Chair of the Infections in Pregnancy committee for the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO). She has been a successful teacher, mentor and research team builder and has published more than 250 peer reviewed publications.
She has received several awards including the Queen Elisabeth II, Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012), the Lifetime Achievement Award from the US based, Infectious Diseases Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology (2019), inducted as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2023) and was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in December 2023.
She is on the Canadian Master’s 060 Field Hockey team for 2024.
Dr. Brittany Bingham
MPH, PhD
Dr. Brittany Bingham is a proud member of the shíshálh (Sechelt) nation and holds an MPH and PhD in Health Sciences from Simon Fraser University. Brittany is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Social Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and a Health Research BC Scholar. Brittany leads Indigenous community-driven health research with the primary aim of improving Indigenous experiences in healthcare and informing system transformation. She has worked in various capacities in research with Indigenous communities, healthcare and policy for 20 years. She is passionate about community-driven research, Indigenous health equity & women’s health, implementation science, planetary health, sexual and reproductive health, learning health systems and cultural safety & humility. Brittany is PI of a CIHR grant called the Amplify Study: Elevating the stories of Indigenous women, gender diverse and Two-Spirit peoples and the Founder & Lead of a new Indigenous Health Equity Lab at Women’s Health Research Institute.
Dr. Elizabeth Rideout
BSc, M.Res, PhD
Dr. Elizabeth Rideout is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences at The University of British Columbia. Dr. Rideout held a Canadian Institutes for Health Research Sex and Gender Science Chair in Genetics (2020-2024) and is a former Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar (2018-2022). Dr. Rideout’s research program focuses on identifying genes and pathways that contribute to sex differences in metabolic disease using flies and mice. Alongside these research activities, Dr. Rideout is dedicated to building capacity for better integration of sex- and gender-based analysis in Canada. To this end she organizes events to raise awareness of sex differences in metabolic disease, trains researchers interested in implementing sex- and gender-based analysis, and builds partnerships to expand sex-based analysis in biomedical research.
Dr. Caroline Sanders
MBE, PhD, RN
Dr. Caroline Sanders is a Professor of Nursing at the University of Northern British Columbia, where, as an interdisciplinary scholar, she focuses on child health, rare conditions, and action-and-participant-orientated engagement. Research focuses on child and family health and well-being using qualitative and mixed-method approaches, specifically phenomenology, narrative inquiry, and participatory action research, often framed within patient-oriented research. Caroline’s research program concerns early childhood development and how knowledge is created and used to improve health in the early years for rural and northern children and their families and communities. Working with interdisciplinary providers, community partners, decision-makers, children, youth, families, and young adults, scholarship focuses on discovery and applied science. Emerging research focuses on internationally educated nurses and bridging education within BC, Canada and global contexts. Within a framework of compassionate systems leadership, Caroline is focused on understanding how the implementation and impact of relevant knowledge can be developed and used to evaluate healthcare approaches and interventions in academic and applied clinical contexts, such as decision-making, program engagement and evaluation.
Dr. Sarah Munro
MBE, PhD, RN
Dr. Sarah Munro (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Systems and Population Health, School of Public Health, University of Washington where she is the Director of the Reproductive Choices Lab. Dr. Munro conducts health services research to improve equitable access to contraception and abortion care. She is passionate about community engagement and co-production, and focuses on research that is collaborative, action-oriented, reciprocal, and community-driven. Dr. Munro completed her BA (Hon) and MA in the UBC Department of English, PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies at UBC (2012-16), and joint Postdoctoral Fellowship (2016-19) in implementation science with the UBC Department of Family Practice and Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. Prior to joining the University of Washington, she was a Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar and Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Munro presently leads a program of cross-national research investigating how to embed evidence-based interventions in routine sexual and reproductive healthcare. Her research is supported by the CIHR, Health Canada, Michael Smith Health Research BC, and the Society of Family Planning. Learn more about her work here.
Dr. Luis Nacul
MD, PhD
Dr. Luis Nacul is the Principal Investigator of the Complex Chronic Diseases Research Program and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia. He has been researching ME/CFS internationally and practicing as a general physician and in the field of ME/CFS and other complex chronic diseases. He also has been the co-founder and Director of CureME Research Programme at the Clinical Research Department, at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK. DrNacul has worked substantially in Brazil, UK and Canada, and in other countries for short periods.
In addition to clinical and research work, with emphasis on chronic and disabling diseases, he has contributed to teaching and supervision of doctors and researchers. He is a Board Member of the International Association of ME/CFS, and has contributed to various committees in the field of ME/CFS, such as EUROMENE, NICE Guidelines development committee on ME/CFS, ICanCME network and UK ME/CFS Biobank Steering Committee.