Principal Investigators
Dr. Elizabeth King
Dr. Elizabeth King is an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and works clinically as an Infectious Diseases specialist at the Oak Tree Clinic and in the Fraser Health Authority. As a clinician and researcher, Dr. King is committed to improving the healthcare of women living with HIV. Her research focuses specifically on age-related health disparities for women with HIV and uses community-based methodology with quantitative and mixed-methods approaches. As the nominated principal investigator of the REDOSE study, Dr. King hopes to contribute research toward reducing systemic inequities in how HIV medications are developed and evaluated for people living with HIV.
Dr. Hélène Côté
Dr. Hélène Côté is a professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC), as well as an associate member at the Women's Health Research Institute (WHRI). She has many concurrent projects in her lab examining aging and mitochondrial toxicity in relation to viral infections and antiretroviral therapies. She has led the CARMA cohort for the past 12 years. As a principal investigator, she will be guiding and managing BCC3 study activities, ensuring that we are meeting our research goals, and doing research in a good way.
Dr. Melanie Murray
Dr. Melanie Murray is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She is an infectious disease specialist in HIV care at BC Women's Oak Tree Clinic. Her research interests include HIV and women, HIV and aging, and engaging persons in care for their HIV. As one of the principal investigators, she will be leading investigation into the impacts of HIV infection, psychosocial and structural factors on hormonal dysregulation and comorbidities in BCC3 cohort participants.
Mark Hull
Chanson Brumme
Alice Tseng
Dr. Stacey Tkachuk
Dr. Stacey Tkachuk is a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist at BC Women’s Oak Tree Clinic and a clinical assistant professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Her research interests include prevention of perinatal HIV transmission and optimizing antiretroviral therapy in women living with HIV with a particular focus on drug therapy as women age.
Community Consultants
Darren Lauscher
As an Advocate, Activist, and Peer he has been involved in Community-Based Research for over two decades. He feels it is important that persons with lived experience be at the table to help frame and guide research to garner the best results possible. In this journey of involvement, it is important to be inclusive of all those who make up our world. As well not only deliver knowledge back into the HIV community but into other communities that may benefit from it as well. Part of that is making sure it gets back into the educational realm so that our future health care providers are learning from what is happening on the ground in real time to support what is established formats within the academic structures.
Joshua Terc
Josh is a Community Consultant for the "REDOSE" study. He holds a bachelors in pharmacology from McMaster University.
Melanie Lee
Melanie has been a Community Research Associate (CRA) for CHIWOS since 2012 and now works on the BCC3 study. She was also involved with the creation of the Women’s-Centred HIV Toolkits for clinicians and community members with the national CHIWOS. Melanie also voluntarily runs a community based organic coop (Harvest Co-op) that serves produce to people living with HIV and their allies.
Shelly T
Shelly’s background includes experience in HIV Peer Navigation and Peer Support programming in both clinic and community outreach settings. A vocal advocate for peer support and the need for increased women’s HIV/HCV research and programming, Shelly was an inaugural writer for Life and Love with HIV, a global online platform dedicated to de-stigmatizing sexuality and relationships among women, partners, and couples living with HIV by shifting the focus from risk to pleasure.
Research Staff and Students
Rachel Dunn
Rachel is the Research Coordinator for BCC3 and REDOSE studies. She holds a Bachelors in bioinformatics from the University of Waterloo, and earned her Master's in Pathology and Lab Medicine with the Cote lab, researching pregnancy complications among women living with HIV. Her other research escapades have included coordinating pediatric clinical trials, and she is passionate about health equity and community engagement.
Amanda Yonkman
Amanda is a PhD student at Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Health Sciences. She has a quantitative research background, with years of experience using statistical analysis, machine learning, and administrative data for HIV and women’s health research. In her current project, she is studying how clinical and social factors influence comorbidity prevalence in older women living with HIV.
Soleil-Tahani Shraida
Soleil is a Master's student at Simon Fraser University supervised by Dr. Elizabeth King. Her research interests lie in studying and improving the health outcomes of women living with HIV. During her undergraduate program, she worked for the BCC3 and REDOSE studies as a co-op student, and completed a scoping review with Dr. King to explore the side effects of second-generation integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) among women living with HIV.
Saira Mohammed
Former Research Staff and Students
Franceska Dnestrianschii
Franceska is the Research Coordinator for the BCC3 and REDOSE studies. Franceska earned her Master’s in Global Health Research from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from the University of Alberta. Her research interests include HIV and women’s health, arts-based research methodologies, and participatory action research. In her multifaceted role as coordinator, Franceska’s primary focus is to ensure the smooth operation of multiple projects.
Camille Valbuena
Camille was a Co-op student at Oak Tree Clinic assisting with REDOSE study visits
Jeyah Cruz
Jeyah is a Co-op student with the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS assisting with REDOSE study visits at St. Paul's Hospital. She is a fourth year undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia majoring in Microbiology and Immunology.
Tate McGovern
Tate is a Co-op student with the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS assisting with REDOSE study visits at St. Paul's Hospital. He has completed his third-year as an undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia majoring in Biology.
Marcela Silva
Marcela was the former Research Coordinator for REDOSE. She was integral to the development of the study and the start recruitment at Oak Tree Clinic and St. Paul's Hospital. She is an internationally trained nurse and holds a Master of Public Health degree from Simon Fraser University. With expertise in health promotion, her interests lie in equitable access to health services and women’s health, particularly sexual and reproductive health.
Brody Lyons
Brody was the former Research Assistant for REDOSE at St. Paul's Hospital (SPH). He also coordinated clinical research studies at SPH, and at BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS within the area of infectious diseases such as HIV and monkeypox, working as the former Site Coordinator for the PLATINUM-CAN trial and MPOCS Cohort study. He has since moved on to pursue a career in medicine!