The WACH program is excited to add new supervisors to the program every week!
Interested students are required to confirm a research supervisor prior to applying. Check back frequently for updates!
The WACH program recently welcomed these dynamic supervisors in Women+ Health:
Dr. Lori Brotto
Dr. Lori Brotto is a professor in the UBC Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and a registered psychologist. She is also the executive director of the Women’s Health Research Institute of BC located at BC Women’s Hospital.
Dr. Brotto holds a Canada Research Chair in Women’s Sexual Health. She is the director of the UBC Sexual Health Laboratory where research primarily focuses on developing and testing psychological and mindfulness-based interventions for women with sexual desire and arousal difficulties and women with chronic genital pain.
Dr. Brotto is an associate editor for the Archives of Sexual Behavior, has >170 peer-reviewed publications, and is frequently featured in the media on topics related to sexuality. Her book, Better Sex Through Mindfulness: How Women Can Cultivate Desire (2018) is a trade book of her research demonstrating the benefits of mindfulness for women’s sexual concerns. She is a strong advocate for empowering women to take on leadership roles. Her current knowledge translation project, #DebunkingDesire, uses social media to debunk myths about sexual desire and share findings from the scientific literature on the nature of women’s sexual desire.
Dr. Gillian Hanley
Dr. Gillian Hanley, PhD, recently became the successful recipient of a Tier 2, Canada Research Chair in Population-based Gynecologic and Perinatal outcomes. Dr. Hanley is an Assistant Professor in the department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at UBC, a CIHR New Investigator, a Michael Smith Foundation Scholar, and a Janet D. Cottrelle foundation scholar. 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 and survivorship, and perinatal mental health, including how best to treat depression and anxiety during pregnancy.
Gillian works with longitudinal, population-based data to improve population health, patient care, and reduce health systems costs in ovarian cancer and perinatal mental health. She has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers (as first or senior author on nearly 55%), many in leading medical journals. Her research on ovarian cancer prevention has been cited in national and international clinical practice guidelines, and she has been involved in drafting perinatal mental health guidelines.
Dr. Paul Yong
Dr. Paul Yong (MD, PhD, FRCSC) is a Gynaecologist at the BC Women’s Centre for Pelvic Pain & Endometriosis and directs the Research Program at the BC Women’s Centre for Pelvic Pain & Endometriosis. Dr. Yong’s clinical practice is focused on pelvic pain, with a particular interest in endometriosis, painful periods, sexual pain, co-existing bladder and bowel problems, and pain related to the musculoskeletal system. His clinical research interests are in endometriosis and pelvic pain, and his translational research interests include bio-banking of endometriosis, gene sequencing in endometriosis, and investigating nerve formation in the pelvis as a cause of pain.