Graduate Students

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Denise is a MSc student in the UBC Women+ and Children’s Health Sciences (WACH) program under the supervision of Dr. Brotto. She earned her BSc in Behavioural Neuroscience in 2024, during which she began exploring how women’s sexual health intersects with ethnicity and various other sociodemographic factors. Her master’s research builds on these interests by incorporating technology through eSense-AI, a study which examines the accessibility and effectiveness of AI chatbots in online interventions for female sexual dysfunction.

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Jodie is a PhD Student in the UBC’s Women+ and Children’s Health Sciences (WACH) Program under the co-supervision of Dr. Brotto (UBC SHR) and Dr McLean (UOttawa MFM).  She has been a practicing physiotherapist in Vancouver since 2012, working in multidisciplinary care in maternal and pelvic health and persistent pain. Jodie is in the Clinical Faculty in the UBC Physiotherapy Department and a regular Guest Lecturer in the UBC Midwifery Department. She serves as the Chair of the Physiotherapy Association’s Scope of Practice Committee, is the Western Allied Health Director At Large for the Canadian Society for Pelvic Medicine and is on the Quality Assurance and Standards of Practice Committees for the College of Health and Care Professionals of British Columbia. Jodie has supported the VIVID and SHAPE projects as a clinical expert and knowledge user. 

Jodie is excited to re-enter academia as a CIHR Doctoral Award recipient seeking to BRIDGE the gap between research and clinical practice as she explores physiotherapy practices for persistent pelvic pain – including multimodal physiotherapy treatments, sexual health education and clinician enablers and barriers to implementation.

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Samantha Martin-Ferris is an award-winning youth activist and Indigenous researcher from the Gitksan Nation in Northern BC. In 2023, she took home first place at the International UN Worlds Challenge alongside fellow lab mate Piper Scott-Fiddler for her culturally based Indigenous health intervention, ‘the Lifegivers Box’. Her research primarily focuses on Indigenous youths’ rights to good health through measuring quantitative data and advocating for them through community-based health reports. She is currently co-supervised by Dr. Sarah Munro and Dr. Aline Talhouk as a part of UBC’s WACH program. Samantha is currently assisting as lead data analyst with the national Indigenous women two-spirit research priority setting survey on sexual difficulties and genito-pelvic pain as a part of the SHAPE Hub. 

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Graduate Student

Geneviève is currently doing her MSc in Women+ and Children’s Health Sciences (WACH) under the supervision of Dr. Brotto. In 2022, she graduated from McGill University after completing her BA as a double major in Psychology and Gender, Sexuality, Feminist and Social Justice Studies as well as a minor in Behavioural Science. Through her studies at McGill, Geneviève developed a marked interest for women, sexuality, and health, and it is with the goal of having a direct impact on women’s health that she applied for the WACH program. Genevieve’s focus at UBC and in the Sexual Health Research Laboratory is centered on treatments for sexual dysfunction in cancer survivors. Specifically, she works on eSense-Cancer, a branch of the eSense study, which seeks to adapt the original digital therapy modules to ovarian cancer survivors’ lived experiences with female sexual dysfunction. Geneviève hopes to continue onwards doing work related to sexual health and advocacy once she is done her master’s degree. 

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Sonia is a PhD student in the Clinical Psychology program. She joined our lab in 2015 and has been the coordinator for the EYES, TRACE, and JUNIPER studies. She is currently working on the BRACE study which is a large-scale, online study examining sexual identity. She is a co-investigator on the IMMERSIVE study investigating women’s subjective sexual response and user experience with virtual reality erotica. She is also a co-investigator on the COVERS study which examines the short- and long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sexual and relationship well-being.

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Graduate Student

Faith is a MA student in the Clinical Psychology program at UBC. She completed her BA in Anthropology in 2014 and a BA in Psychology in 2017. Her master’s research, the APPROACH study examines how sexual motivation influences sexual wellbeing and attentional processes to sexual stimuli. She is a co-investigator on the IMMERSIVE study, which examines women’s subjective sexual response and user experience with virtual reality erotica, which may help inform future treatment for women’s sexual concerns. Faith is also a co-investigator on the COVERS study, which examines the short- and long-term impact of the COVID-19 social distancing measures on sexual health, motivations for sex, and sexual coercion. She also works as a study coordinator on the DESIRE study that examines the efficacy of two kinds of group therapy for women with Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder.

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Graduate Student

Natalie is a first-year PhD student in the UBC Clinical Psychology program, working under the supervision of Drs. Lori Brotto and Alan Kingstone. She completed her BA in Psychology at Queen’s University in 2017. Natalie’s MA thesis explores the cognitive mechanisms underlying sexual attraction and desire, with a specific focus on asexuality and Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder. She is also involved with IMMERSIVE, a study investigating women’s subjective sexual responses to virtual reality erotica, and she plans to evaluate virtual reality as a clinical tool for women with genito-pelvic pain/penetration disorder (GPPPD) in her PhD. Natalie is involved with the COVERS study, which investigates the short- and long-term impacts of COVID-19 related social changes on sexual and reproductive health. Overall, her research program aims to improve our understanding of sexual difficulties and develop evidence-based interventions for individuals with distressing sexual concerns.