We are pleased to announce Dr. Kate Shannon was awarded one of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Sex and Gender Science Chairs*. Dr. Shannon is among 15 Canadian leaders across diverse disciplines who received CIHR Sex and Gender Science Chairs. 

This Chair directly aligns with IGH Strategic Goals of advancing sex and gender science and fostering gender-transformative health systems and policies and CGSHE’s strategic goals of advancing sexual health equity for all. The Chair aims to support a participatory research and KTE program at CGSHE/UBC to understand the gender mechanisms and intersecting socio-structural inequities shaping sexual health and inform gender-transformative sexual health policy and practice. Despite increasing attention to sexual health and calls to move away from a solely individual-level and risk/ deficit-based models both in Canada and globally, there is a surprising dearth of research on gender and intersecting socio-structural factors shaping access and uptake of sexual health care in Canada; or efforts to document and evaluate gender transformative interventions both within and outside health sector that promote or mitigate sexual health inequities. This chair, together with community and policy partners, will help leverage the need for advancing evidence-based sexual health policies and practices across Canada.

Credit: CIHR

Dr. Kate Shannon, PhD, MPH (Global Health) is the Executive Director of the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity, a Professor of Medicine and a Canada Research Chair in Gender Equity, Sexual Health and Global Policy at the University of British Columbia where she helps lead the university’s efforts on gender equity and sexual health care among underserviced and marginalized communities, an associate Faculty in the School of Population and Public Health. Dr. Shannon brings over a decade of international experience in community-based research, population health intervention research, and policy evaluation focused on gender equity and sexual health care and rights for communities marginalized based on social and economic disadvantages. She is strongly committed to research that affects change in policy and practice and meaningful engagement of affected communities. She regularly consults with international policy bodies on sexual health and gender equity guidelines, including UNFPA, UNHCR, UNDP, UNAIDS, WHO.

* “The purpose of the Sex and Gender Science Chairs funding opportunity is to support in-depth investigations in the field of sex and gender science by promoting a cadre of discipline-specific Chairs to increase visibility and drive innovation in their respective fields. The Chairs will investigate sex and/or gender as a primary research question within the investigator’s field of research, while also building capacity and sharing findings within and outside of their research communities”.