The Peter Lougheed/CIHR New Investigator Salary Award – 2011

Dr. Kate Shannon, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
University of British Columbia
BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
Vancouver, British Columbia

Early in her research career, Dr. Kate Shannon spent time in Bangladesh researching maternal malnutrition and reproductive health. This experience helped shape her research career, showing her the importance of viewing health risks through the lens of gender and in a global context.

Now the Director of the Gender and Health Initiative at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Dr. Shannon has pursued groundbreaking research on the impact of prostitution laws on health outcomes. Her team was among the first to demonstrate empirically that the criminalization of prostitution is directly associated with increased vulnerability to HIV infection and violence among sex workers. She has presented her findings in reports to policy makers and acted as an expert witness in court cases in British Columbia and Ontario challenging Canada's prostitution laws. As part of a CIHR team grant, she is also studying how policies and violence shape sexual health, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections among street and off-street sex workers in Canada, Uganda and India, and the need for structural interventions that protect this vulnerable group.

Dr. Shannon feels that it's vital for emerging researchers to follow their interests.

"For me, it's been about making sure that I'm doing research directly relevant to the community and policy discussions. It is about ensuring research has an impact on reducing health and social inequities."

The Peter Lougheed/CIHR New Investigator Salary Award is a career development prize given to Canada's brightest young researchers at the beginning of their careers. This five-year award represents an incentive for young researchers to pursue their work in Canada. Through this award, CIHR helps ensure that talented, emerging researchers have the support they need to achieve their goals.