Collaboration

We value different types of knowledge, expertise and experience. Diverse perspectives make our research process and our research results more enriching and relevant. Collaborating with others is critical for the success of our research. Here are some of our current collaborators:

Community Partners

Cheryl Dobinson

Cheryl Dobinson, MA, is involved in research on bisexual mental health issues as well as on sexual orientation and health disparities, and has co-authored numerous academic articles on these topics. With Dr. Leah Steele, she developed the "Ten Things Bisexual People Should Discuss with Their Health Care Providers" document for the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association in 2008. In 2003 Cheryl completed a study on bisexual health and wellness for the Ontario Public Health Association and was co-convener of the Bi Health Summit held in San Diego. In addition to working on projects such as her bi women's zine, The Fence, Cheryl facilitates support groups (such as The B Side: Exploring Bisexuality), leads workshops and teaches courses on bisexuality.

• The Fence
• The B Side: Exploring Bisexuality
• The fencesitters? Suspicions still haunt the bi/homo divide
• Cheryl Dobinson: Happily on the Fence
• Top Ten Bisexual Health Issues

Sherbourne Health Centre

Sherbourne Health Centre (SHC) provides innovative primary health care, counselling, support, outreach, health promotion and education programs to many individuals who reflect the diverse and vibrant communities of southeast Toronto, the city at large and the province.

Since their inception in 2003, SHC has focused on building connections and building health in the local community – by developing programs and services to fill existing gaps and address healthcare needs and requirements. In 2009/2010, Sherbourne’s programs provided more than 80,000 client contacts to newcomers, children, seniors, the LGBT community and many others who come from the diverse communities they serve.

Sherbourne’s goal is to serve people to the best of their ability and deliver programs and services that are welcoming, inclusive and accessible.

333 Sherbourne Street
Toronto, ON M5A 2S5

Rainbow Health Ontario

Rainbow Health Ontario (RHO) is a province-wide program that works to improve the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people in Ontario through education, research, outreach and public policy advocacy. Based at the Sherbourne Health Centre in downtown Toronto, RHO has been providing comprehensive primary health programs and services to the LGBT communities since 2003 and frequently provides consultation and expertise on LGBT health issues.

Anna Travers, Director

The RHO website provides health information, news and events that promote the health and well-being of LGBT people in Ontario. On the RHO website you will find a database of LGBT-friendly health care providers, information about events and research projects as well as resources via their resource database and online store. Check it out!

Loralee Gillis

Loralee is the Research & Policy Coordinator for RHO. She is responsible for supporting the development of LGBT health research in Ontario and for encouraging public policy that supports LGBT health. Before coming to RHO, She worked as the manager of Research and Evaluation at the Association of Ontario Health Centres, the umbrella organization of Community Health Centres in Ontario. In that role she acted as Principal Investigator on a number of large research grants and supported research capacity building in the sector.

Loralee has also worked as a front-line service provider in street outreach and needle exchange services. She is currently completing her Master’s degree in Social Anthropology at York University. Her Master’s research explores the lives and experiences of Women in Southern Ontario who are living with HIV/AIDS.

In addition to having a long history of political activism, Loralee is one of the founders and co-organizers of the Toronto Women’s Bathhouse. Over the last decade she has spent lots of her spare time fighting legal battles which ensued after the Toronto Police raided the Women’s Bathhouse in September 2000. Loralee grew up in Peterborough, Ontario.

LGBTQ Parenting Network

The LGBTQ Parenting Connection is a network of organizations supporting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer parents, their children and their communities.

Rachel Epstein, Coordinator

Rachel Epstein

Rachel Epstein, MA, has been an LGBTQ parenting activist, educator and researcher for close to 20 years and coordinates the LGBTQ Parenting Network at the Sherbourne Health Centre, providing resources, information and support to LGBTQ parents, prospective parents and their families and training for health care, legal, social work and education professionals. She has published on a wide range of queer parenting issues, including assisted human reproduction, queer spawn in schools, butch pregnancy, and the tensions between queer sexuality, radicalism and parenting. In 2007 Rachel led the Toronto Pride Dyke March and celebrated the 10th anniversary of Dykes Planning Tykes, a program she co-founded in 1997. Rachel is the 2008 winner of the Steinert & Ferreiro Award (Community One Foundation), recognizing her leadership and pivotal contributions towards the support, recognition and inclusion of queer parents and their children in Canada. She is the editor of the groundbreaking anthology, "Who's Your Daddy? And Other Writings on Queer Parenting".

• Who's Your Daddy? And Other Writings on Queer Parenting, also available via the RHO Online Store
• Baby by stealth: Reproduction law forcing 'dangerous alternatives'
• In Other Words: An Interview with Rachel Epstein

Queer Parenting Programs
The 519 Community Centre

519 Church Street
Toronto, ON M4Y 2C9

Chris Veldhoven, Coordinator

Empowerment Council

The Empowerment Council is a voice for clients/survivors and ex-clients of mental health and addiction services, primarily of CAMH. They are an independent incorporated organization with a board, membership and staff consisting entirely of people who have received mental health and/or addiction services. They conduct systemic advocacy, ensure the representation of the client perspective at CAMH, do outreach and community development, and provide education and information sharing on areas such as client rights, self-advocacy, and critical thinking.

• CAMH Bill of Rights

Women’s Health In Women’s Hands Community Health Centre

Women’s Health In Women’s Hands (WHIWH) Community Health Centre provides Primary Healthcare to Black Women and Women of Colour from the Caribbean, African, Latin American and South Asian communities in Metropolitan Toronto and surrounding municipalities.

• Every Woman Matters

Academic Partners

Andrea Daley

Dr. Andrea Daley is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work at York University. Her research interests include access and equity issues in health care policy and program delivery for members of sexual minority communities (LGBTQ), women and mental illness, and sexuality and identity. Her research has explored the assumption of heterosexuality in health care policy and service delivery with a focus on the psychiatric and mental health service experiences of lesbian/queer women. Works in progress include a retrospective chart review of women's psychiatric in-patient charts for sexuality content; an exploration of service access and equity issues related to in-home health and social care services for members of Toronto's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities; and an exploration of meanings of 'caring' among inter-professional cancer care providers. She is involved with advocacy work (Toronto) within the area of LGBTQ health.

• Profile
• Two York profs help launch Rainbow Health Ontario
• Self-Disclosure of Sexual Orientation in Social Work Field Education: Field Instructor & Lesbian/Gay Student Perspectives

Leah Steele

Dr. Steele received her MD from McMaster University in 1996, completed her family medicine training at the University of Toronto in 1998 and then completed a PhD in clinical epidemiology in the Health Policy, Management and Evaluation program at the University of Toronto in 2003. She holds a Career Scientist award from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

In addition to collaborating with our team on a number of projects, Leah is affiliated with many institutions in the Toronto area, including the Institute of Clinical Evaluative Science (Adjunct Scientist), the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto (Assistant Professor), the Keenan Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute and the Department of Family and Community Medicine at St. Michael's Hospital (Scientist).

Her research interests include equity, social determinants of health, mental health services, primary care and access to care. Specifically, her research interests relate to the equitable delivery of mental health services in primary care with particular attention to socially disadvantaged populations. She also does research on the relationship between sexual orientation and barriers to health service delivery. Clinically, she provides addiction services to marginalized clients in Toronto's core (Methadone Works program of Toronto Public Health).

• Research Snapshot: Vulnerable Populations Need Greater Access to Mental Health Care
• Education Level, Income Level and Mental Health Services Use in Canada: Associations and Policy Implications
• Regular health care use by lesbians: a path analysis of predictive factors

Greta Bauer

Dr. Greta Bauer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at The University of Western Ontario. Her primary research interests are in sexually transmitted infections and the broader health of sexual and gender minority communities. Coming from an interdisciplinary background, her work has spanned the biological, behavioural and social, with a strong emphasis on quantitative research methods. For instance, she is interested in community-based epidemiology and methodologic and ethical issues in studying hidden populations. Currently, among other things, such as collaborating with our team, Greta is a Principal Investigator on the Trans PULSE Project—an exciting community-based research project concerning the problems identified within Ontario trans communities regarding health (physical, mental, social, and sexual) and access to health and social services. A long-term ally, she is committed to improving the health of trans communities.

The Trans PULSE Project

The Trans PULSE Project is a mixed-methods project that explores the ways in which social exclusion, cisnormativity (the belief that trans identities or bodies are less authentic or "normal"), and transphobia shape health and health care for trans people. From April 2009 to May 2010, 433 trans people from across Ontario completed a 87-page survey. Data are now being analyzed and disseminated through a variety of mediums.

Stu Marvel

Stu Marvel graduated from the University of East Anglia with an MA in Gender Analysis for International Development before receiving her LLM at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Canada. She is now undertaking a PhD at Osgoode, focused on reproductive rights, queer families and postcolonial geographies of commerce and intimacy. She is also the 2009-2010 President of the Osgoode Hall Graduate Law Students’ Association. Previously, Stu worked as Communications Liaison at the Korean National Commission for UNESCO in South Korea and served as Gender Advisor to the Ministry of Women in The Gambia.

Brenda Toner

Dr. Brenda Toner is a Research Scientist at the Centre for Addiction Mental Health and Professor and Head Women’s Mental Health Program, Director, Fellowship Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto. Dr. Toner has published and presented on a variety of health related problems that are disproportionately diagnosed in women including eating disorders, anxiety, depression, chronic pelvic pain, chronic fatigue and irritable bowel syndrome. She is particularly interested in investigating factors in the lives of women that influence health and well-being including gender role socialization, violence, discrimination and body dissatisfaction.

Charmaine C. Williams

Dr. Charmaine C. Williams is the Associate Dean Academic of Social Work and the Factor-Inwentash Chair in Social Work in Health and Mental Health. Her research bridges practice and access and equity issues that affect access to primary health care for racial minority women, HIV prevention in the Black communities, and individual and family experience of living with serious and persistent mental illnesses. The majority of her practice experience has been in the mental health care system where she worked in inpatient and outpatient services, and with individuals, families and groups. She has also been involved in organizational change initiatives in the health care sector, developing and delivering professional education in the areas of anti-racism, cultural competence, mental health and addictions, and addressing policy, procedural issues and complaints as the Anti-Racism Officer for the University of Toronto.

Collaborators who do work on gay and bisexual men’s health

Visit our Gay Community page to learn more about our collaborators who do work on masculinity, gay and bisexual men’s health (physical and mental, youth and racialized men) and HIV (stigma, risk, prevention, rehabilitation).