2024 INDUCTEE Catherine Hankins, MD PhD

Born:

October 8, 1949

(Edmonton, Alberta)

Education:

MD, University of Calgary (1976)

PhD, University of Amsterdam (2014)

Awards & Honours:

2018: Canadian Woman in Global Health

2013: Member, Order of Canada

See All Awards

Advanced community medicine with fair research practices and a focus on those in need

A dedicated advocate for global health and health equity

Preventing high-risk infectious diseases and protecting at-risk populations are just two of the critical public health aims advanced by Catherine Hankins. Dr. Hankins’ illustrious 40-year career spans many diverse roles and achievements united by her commitment to these goals: providing clinical care as a family doctor, leading novel research in response to global emergencies and mobilizing this research to inform public health policy. An early advocate of focusing on women with HIV in Canada, Dr. Hankins established the first national cohort of women living with HIV in 1993. She also pioneered research on HIV in correctional settings that led to health-benefiting policies in Canada’s penitentiaries. As the global toll of HIV/AIDS grew, Dr. Hankins used modelling to inform HIV prevention while serving with the United Nations as the first Chief Scientific Advisor to the Joint United Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). With the advent of another pandemic, she co-chaired Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, where she catalyzed household-based testing of immunity and research among at-risk populations. Dr. Hankins’ inspiring contributions to community medicine demonstrate how research can be harnessed to improve health and health equity around the world.

Key Facts

Led frontier research to inform public health policy in response to the global emergencies of HIV/AIDS and COVID-19

Worked on the front lines of public health for the first 20 years of her career, demonstrating outstanding leadership in various positions across Canada.

Served as co-chair of Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF)

Conducted groundbreaking research on HIV in correctional settings in Canada

Published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles and held numerous active leadership roles aimed at improving public health

Professional timeline

Impact on lives today

Keenly interested in scientific capacity development and advancing women in global health and science, Catherine Hankins has been integral to the development of guidelines and best practices for community engagement in the co-design and co-management of research conduct, and has contributed to shaping new norms in global health research to advance women in science. For over thirty years she has facilitated research capacity strengthening in low- and middle-income countries. A tireless advocate for health equity, she has made a major difference in Canada through lifelong contributions in research, particularly among women, correctional inmates, people who inject drugs, and others, to inform effective public health policy and programmes. A relentless communicator, she has taught knowledge translation at gradual level to the next generation of public health practitioners and has conducted hundreds of media interviews to convey emerging scientific knowledge clearly to the general public.

2024

2020
Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) is Co-Chaired by Dr. Hankins
Health Policy, Women in Medicine, Improving health and patient outcomes, Infectious Disease, Allergy & Immunity
Cate was instrumental in the overall setup and governance of the CITF, guiding the emergency mobilization of research across Canada to understand COVID-19 infection.
2017
Named Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership Programme (EDCTP)
Building our health organizations and systems, Women in Medicine, Public Health, Health Promotion & Advocacy
Dr. Hankins served for 6 years during which she was the Scientific Programme Chair for the Tenth EDCTP Forum (2021) in Maputo Mozambique.
2016
Appointed Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health, McGill University

Dr. Hankins participated in setting up the new School of Population and Global Health at McGill, lead teaching on knowledge translation for effective public health leadership.
2014
Completed her PhD at Faculty of Medicine, University of Amsterdam

studying how mathematical modelling can be used to improve HIV prevention policy and programming.
2014
Appointed Deputy Director Science of Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (AIGHD)
Women in Medicine, Leadership in Organizational Development
Cate assumed the role of Scientific Chair for six annual INTEREST conferences on HIV Treatment, Pathogenesis, and Prevention Research in Resource-Limited Settings. Also appointed as the Scientific Co-Chair for the Eastern Europe & Central Asia INTERACT.
2013
Appointed Chair, Scientific Advisory Group (SAG), USA National Institutes of Health, HIV Prevention Trials Network
2012
Appointed Deputy Director of Science at the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development
2009
Named Chair, Scientific Advisory Board, Centre for AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), Durban, 2009- 2017
2007
Co-led the development of the UNAIDS/AVAC Good Participatory Practice (GPP) Guidelines

Following confrontations in 2004 between activists and political leaders in Cambodia and Cameroon over research conduct, she convened stakeholders to discuss meaningful community engagement in research leading to these biomedical HIV prevention trials
2006-2011
Served as Editor of HIV This Week, UNAIDS’ popular science blog
Women in Medicine
2002-2011
Became the first Chief Scientific Adviser to UNAIDS (The United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS)
Public Health, Health Promotion & Advocacy, Women in Medicine
1997
Chaired the National Task Force on HIV-AIDS and Injection Drug Use
Health Policy
The task force put forward the first recommendations for decriminalization of personal use amounts of drugs and the need to expand syringe programs and methadone substitution.
1993
Canada’ first and only national HIV clinical cohort study is established
Women in Medicine, Infectious Disease, Allergy & Immunity, Evidence-based Medicine & Clinical Trials
'The Canadian HIV Women’s Study' organized by Dr. Hankins ran for more than a decade
1989
Cate Hankins led pioneering research on HIV in correctional settings in Canada
Health Policy, Evidence-based Medicine & Clinical Trials
This research culminated in the first federally and provincially funded needle-syringe program and the policy to place condoms in Canada’s penitentiaries.
1986
Dr. Hankins appointed Director, Montreal Regional STD Control Program
Women in Medicine, Health Policy, Leadership in Organizational Development, Infectious Disease, Allergy & Immunity
Also appointed as Assistant Professor at McGill. Served as Medical epidemiologist, Montreal Regional Public Health Department (1989 – 2002) and Médecin conseil, Institut national de la santé publique du Québec (2002)
1985
Dr. Hankins is appointed to Canada’s National Advisory Committee on AIDS
Infectious Disease, Allergy & Immunity, Public Health, Health Promotion & Advocacy
She served for eight years chairing several initiatives including the Epidemiology Sub-Committee and HIV & Women Working Group.
1979
Earned an MSc Community Health in Developing Countries (cum laude) from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
1977
Worked as a physician with Northern Medical Services in Inuvik, N.W.T.
1976
Graduated with ‘The Beavers’ class of 1976 from the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine

Class motto: ‘We give a damn’

1976

Dr. Hankins has made stellar contributions to the prevention of high-risk infectious diseases and the protection of those at greatest risk of dire outcomes.