Denise Avard

Denise Avard is the Research Director at the Centre of Genomics and Policy at the Université de Montreal, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Genetics within the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. Prior to joining the Centre of Genomics and Policy, she was a researcher in the Centre de la recherche en droit public at the Université de Montreal, and Executive Director of the Canadian Institute of Child Health and Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary.

Dr. Avard obtained a PhD (Social Epidemiology) from the University of Cambridge in England, as well as a MA (Sociology) and a B.Sc. Nursing from the University of Ottawa.

Dr. Avard presently serves as on several advisory committees including: the forum on cystic fibrosis for the province of Quebec, the Quebec consultative committee on neonatal screening for sickle cell anemia, and the Canadian Institute of Child Health Advisory Council. She is Co-Chair on the Research Ethics and Regulatory Affairs committee (RERA), in the Maternal Infant Child & Youth Research Network. She is also a member of ethics committee at Montreal Children’s Hospital. She is also on the steering committee of P3G (Public Population Project in Genomes and Society ) and was Chair of the Emerging Issues Analysis Committee of the National Council on Ethics in Human Research. In 2011 Dr. Avard led an important consultation for the Ethics Office of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Centre of Genomics and Policy at McGill University, with key stakeholders across the country, to develop Best Practices for Health Research Involving Children and Adolescents,

Dr. Avard was the 1999 recipient of the UNICEF Canada prize for “Leadership in the best interests of the child”.

Her research interests are in the areas of genetic testing and screening relevant to newborn, children, adolescents and persons with disabilities, as well as in knowledge transfer and genetic epidemiology.

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