Joy Johnson, FCAHS

Joy Johnson is Simon Fraser University’s fifth Vice-President, Research. She joined the university in September 2014 after serving as the Scientific Director for the Institute of Gender and Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) since January of 2008.

Dr. Johnson has a long-standing interest and leadership in the field of gender and health. She served on the inaugural steering committee for the B.C. Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health and was a co-leader on the B.C. Network for Women’s Health Research. Dr. Johnson founded and co-directed the highly successful multidisciplinary research unit NEXUS, dedicated to research, knowledge translation and training in the social contexts of health behaviour. She served as the Chair of the Research Advisory Committee of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. She has served on and chaired research review panels for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the National Cancer Institute of Canada.

Dr. Johnson has a highly productive program of research focusing on health promotion and health behaviour change. Drawing on a broad array of theoretical perspectives her work explores the social, structural and individual factors that influence the health behaviour of individuals. A major thrust of her work focuses on sex and gender issues in substance use and mental health. She has obtained millions of dollars in research funding from national funding organizations and has published more than 170 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Johnson’s work has been recognized with numerous awards including the UBC Killam Research Prize. In 2010, she was recognized as one of British Columbia’s 100 Women of Influence. She received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

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