HIV science to action: Knowledge translation for impact

Dr. Catherine Hankins graduated from the University of Calgary’s medical school in 1976. She’s a world leader in the fight against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). She’s known for her innovative public health and epidemiology research on HIV, but most prominently for her ability to translate her work to public policy that has produced meaningful improvements in public health around the world. She recently led the development of World Health Organization guidance on clinical trial good participatory practices for emerging and re-emerging pathogens.

Dr. Hankins has held several roles that have been instrumental in improving health outcomes related to HIV. These include serving as the Chief Scientific Adviser to UNAIDS in Geneva from 2002-2012 and leading the scientific knowledge translation team that improved the conduct of biomedical HIV prevention trials, convened mathematical modelling teams to analyze the potential impact of HIV interventions, and supported the implementation of proven biomedical HIV innovations in countries around the world. Her current research focuses on implementation science, novel biomedical HIV prevention, women and HIV, and participatory research conduct.

She’s a Public and Population Health professor in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill and an honorary professor in the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She chairs the Scientific Advisory Committee of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership and the Scientific Advisory Group of the USA National Institutes of Health HIV Prevention Trials Network. A trustee of the HIV Research Trust, she’s a member of the International AIDS Society Industry Liaison Forum. She’s also a board member of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC) and a Good Participatory Practice (GPP) Advisory Committee member for the USAID-funded Coalition to Accelerate and Support Prevention Research.

Previously, Dr. Hankins was principal investigator for a decade of “The Canadian Women’s HIV Study,” research involving prisoners and people who inject drugs, and population-based epidemiological studies.

Dr. Hankins received the UCalgary Distinguished Alumni Award in 1993 and was named to the Order of Canada in 2013.