Principal Investigators

Dr. Mona Loutfy MD, FRCPC, MPH is an Associate Professor and Clinician Scientist at Women’s College Hospital and the University of Toronto where she focuses on clinical HIV research. Her clinical practice is at the Maple Leaf Medical Clinic which cares for over 2,500 HIV-positive patients; she is also the Research Director at the clinic. Her area of research is in women and HIV with a particular focus on pre-conception, pregnancy, parenthood, access to care, stigma, and women’s and sexual and reproductive health . She launched the Women and HIV Research Program at the Women’s College Research Institute in 2006 to carry out these activities. Mona works from a community-based research model involving the people that her research will affect at all stages.

Dr. Alexandra de Pokomandy MDCM MSc, is an assistant professor at the McGill University Health Center and a family physician specialized in HIV patient care since 2003, currently practicing at the Immunodeficiency Service of the Montreal Chest Institute. She completed a Post-Doctoral fellowship in HIV research with the CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network in 2007 and a Master of Science degree in Epidemiology at McGill University in 2009.   She is the recipient of a FRSQ Clinical Research Scholarship Junior 1 (Chercheur Boursier Clinicien Junior 1), for 2011–2015 and is a member of the scientific committee of the FRSQ network “AIDS and Infectious Disease” (Sida-Maladies Infectieuses). Her main interests of research are in cancer related to human papillomavirus (HPV) affecting people living with HIV (particularly regarding the potential prevention of anal cancer), HIV-positive women’s health, and HIV integrated health care. Her work as a physician and researcher aims to recognize patient health concerns and make improvements to clinical practices that will benefit HIV-positive individuals.

Dr. Angela Kaida is a global health epidemiologist interested in the linkages between HIV and sexual and reproductive health. She received her Ph.D. in 2010 from the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She then completed a brief post-doctoral fellowship jointly at the Women’s Health Research Institute at BC Women’s Hospital and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at UBC. In September 2010, Dr. Kaida joined the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University as an Assistant Professor.Dr. Kaida’s research interests pertain to understanding the impact of expanding access to HIV prevention, treatment, and care services on sexual and reproductive intentions, behaviours, and outcomes of HIV-positive women and men in Canada and high HIV prevalence settings around the world.  Her research aims to contribute evidence towards the design of bio-behavioural interventions to reduce HIV transmission, minimize unintended pregnancy, support safer conception, and improve sexual and reproductive health among individuals and couples affected by HIV.

Dr. Becker MD, FRCPC, MSc Public Health is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Global Public Health at the University of Manitoba, Departments of Community Health Sciences, Medical Microbiology and Internal Medicine. She is also the Associate Director of the Manitoba HIV Program. Dr. Becker is currently working as an Infectious Diseases and HIV physician with the University of Manitoba and continues her HIV research program in Manitoba, India, Kenya and Ukraine.  Her research interest is in understanding HIV risk, vulnerability and outcomes among vulnerable populations globally and in Canada and she uses a Program Science framework to address her research. She has a particular focus on women living with HIV and the prevention of HIV among young women. She has been awarded the Manitoba Health Research Council/Manitoba Medical Services Foundation Clinical Research Professorship in Population Medicine as well as a Canadian Institutes for Health Research New Investigator Award.

Sharon Bruce is an associate professor in Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba.  Her primary research focus is the epidemiology, impact and prevention of diabetes among Canadian First Nations populations.  She has established long-term partnerships with First Nations communities in their efforts to address the effects of the ongoing diabetes epidemic.  Her research is guided by community-based participatory and two-eyed seeing frameworks, and decolonizing theory and methodology. She recently began working with the CHIWOS team on informing the development of women-centered services for Indigenous women living with HIV in Manitoba. Partners in the Manitoba CHIWOS team include Ka Ni Kanichihk, Sisters of Fire, Nine Circles Community Health Centre, 595 Prevention Team and the University of Manitoba.

Saara Greene is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at McMaster University. Saara’s community based practice, research and activist efforts are organized around the political, social, legal and health care needs of women living with HIV with a focus on pregnancy and motherhood, child welfare, and the impact of the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure. She engages in arts based approaches to community-based research and knowledge mobilization activities with and for women living with HIV in Canada.