Director of TRRU
Dr. Janice E. Graham, Director of TRRU
janice.graham@dal.ca
(902) 494-1897
Janice Graham is professor of Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases) and Sociology & Social Anthropology at AV俱乐部. As an anthropologist of science, technology and medicine, she focuses on the regulatory standards and practices involved in the development and commercialization of emerging therapeutics and vaccines in Canada, Europe and Africa. This work draws upon bioethics, epidemiology, health technology assessment, and applies ethnographic methodologies attending to safety, efficacy, quality and trustworthiness in the construction and legitimization of evidence and knowledge. Interested in public health governance, transparency, open data, and the moral basis of profit when disease and sickness becomes a market opportunity, Graham works to understand how the commercialization of publicly funded innovations doesn鈥檛 always improve community, population, or planetary health.聽 She鈥檚 served on several international committees and presented evidence to Canadian and international regulatory and health agencies and directorates (Health Canada, Public Health Agency of Canada, United Nations, WHO) about regulatory practices, clinical trial decision-making, vaccine safety and emergency response. Graham has authored over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and reports on vaccines and trust in science. Her co-edited books include 聽(2021, UBC Press),聽聽(2021, U Toronto Press) and (U Toronto Press 2010).
Professor Graham has been a visiting senior fellow at the BIOS Centre for the Study of Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society, London School of Economics and Political Science (2006) and chaired Health Canada鈥檚 Expert Advisory Panel on the Special Access Program (2008). She was a consultant for the聽World Health Organization Global Vaccine Safety Blueprint聽(2010-12), a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for the WHO Guinea Ebola vaccine trials that produced the first effective Ebola vaccine, Visiting Professor at the WHO Meningitis Vaccine Project (2010) and at Maladies Infectieuses et Vecteurs: Ecologie, G茅n茅tique, Evolution et Contr么le (), Centre de Recherche IRD, CNRS U Montpellier, France (2013-14) and at the University of Sydney (2021-22, February 2025).聽 Graham graduated in Anthropology from the University of Waterloo (Hons BA 1980), University of Victoria (MA 1982), and Universit茅 de Montr茅al (PhD 1997). Between 1982 and 1993 she took graduate courses in anthropology, clinical epidemiology and biostatistics and worked with the Chief & Council of the Weenusk Band as Band Economic Development Coordinator and in epidemiological health research with the University of Ottawa Department of Family Medicine and School of Epidemiology & Public Health, and the Canadian Study of Health & Aging.聽 She held a postdoctoral fellowship in geriatric medicine and neuroepidemiology at AV俱乐部 (1996-1998) and was the inaugural Burwell Research Chair and Associate Professor in Medical Anthropology at the University of British Columbia (1998-2002) before returning to AV俱乐部 as the Canada Research Chair in Bioethics (2002-2012). Among other distinctions, Graham is elected Fellow of Royal Society of Canada (2018),聽 elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2017), Distinguished Research Professor, AV俱乐部 (2018-2023), President鈥檚 Legacy Award for Research, AV俱乐部 (2018), Fellow of the Canadian Anthropology Society/Soci茅t茅 Canadienne d鈥橝nthropologie (CASCA) (2019), and holds the Weaver-Tremblay Award for Applied Anthropology (2016).聽 When she isn鈥檛 working, she can be found avoiding sharks while rowing in Halifax鈥檚 spectacular Northwest Arm, climbing walls, or lawn bowling at the Wanderers Common.