Catherine Anita Hankins (born 1949) is a Canadian epidemiologist. Hankins was the Deputy Medical Officer of Health at Calgary Health Services before accepting a faculty position at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

Early life and education

Hankins was born in 1949. She earned her

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree in French and medical degree from the

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being inst ...

. In recognition of her contributions to AIDS research, the institution recognized Hankins as a Distinguished Graduate in 1993. Hankins subsequently earned her Master's of Science degree from the

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a public research university in Bloomsbury, central London, and a member institution of the University of London that specialises in public health and tropical medicine. The inst ...

and her PhD from the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other bein ...

Career

In 1983, Hankins was appointed Deputy Medical Officer of Health at Calgary Health Services as the country dealt with the AIDS epidemic. While serving in this role, she found meat linked to E. coli which caused kidney failure in three children and she sent 49 raw hamburger samples to a laboratory in Edmonton. Hankins was also appointed chairwoman of the National Task Force on HIV-AIDS and Injection Drug Use where she encouraged the use of safe injection sites and legalization of drugs. She urged the country to move quickly in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and said that if Ottawa doesn't respond to her group's call then "there will be the continuation of the HIV epidemic, and expansion of that epidemic into the heterosexual population who do not inject drugs." Hankins was soon called by the Quebec government to oversee a public health campaign on the importance of safe sex practices and condom use. However, days, before that campaign was set to launch,

Thérèse Lavoie-Roux Thérèse Lavoie-Roux (March 12, 1928 – January 31, 2009) was a Canadian politician and social worker who served in the National Assembly of Quebec and the Senate of Canada. She was the Minister of Health and Social Services from 1985 to 1 ...

, caved to pressure from a Catholic lobby group and pulled the campaign. By 2002, Hankins was recruited by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

to serve as their Chief Scientific Adviser to UNAIDS in Geneva where she led the scientific knowledge translation team focusing on "ensuring ethical and participatory HIV prevention trial conduct, convening mathematical modelling teams, and supporting country implementation of proven biomedical HIV prevention modalities." A decade later, in 2012, the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development appointed Hankins as Deputy Director of Science where she would "oversee a range of HIV prevention research, including intervention and demonstration projects, as well as scientific knowledge translation." The following year, she was elected a Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the c ...

for "her contributions to combatting the spread of HIV/AIDS in Canada and abroad" and was hired to teach at

. During the

COVID-19 pandemic in North America The first cases of the COVID-19 pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 in North America were reported in the United States on 23 January 2020. Cases were reported in all North American countries after Saint Kitts and Nevis confirmed a case on 2 ...

, Hankins was named to the leadership team of the national

COVID-19 Immunity Task Force The COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) is one of the Government of Canada's early efforts to track the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. An external, dedicated secretariat will help maximize the efficiency of the CITF's work. Task Force membership The C ...

. In this role, she aimed to get an antibody test approved and standardized across the country and define how the virus was spread. In order to complete this objective, the Task Force funded a survey carried out by Statistics Canada to find out how many Canadians were infected by COVID by November.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hankins, Catherine Living people 1949 births Academic staff of McGill University University of Calgary alumni Canadian women epidemiologists University of Amsterdam alumni Alumni of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Members of the Order of Canada