Graduate Students

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Michaela is an MSc student in the UBC Women’s+ and Children’s Health Sciences (WACH) Program, under the supervision of Dr. Brotto. She earned her BA in Psychology at Cape Breton University in 2026. During this degree, she explored how older women understand their body image as well as navigate body functionality issues in their sexual lives as part of her undergraduate thesis. A recipient of one of this year’s CIHR CGRS-M awards, she is excited to expand on these interests during her master’s, where she will be working on eSense-PVD, a study which aims to adapt eSense to sexual health concerns in individuals with Provoked Vestibulodynia (PVD).

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Dr. Galizia is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia (UBC). At the UBC Sexual Health Research Lab, she holds a research award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for her work on developing one of the first comprehensive and accessible dyadic treatments for couples experiencing distress related to sexual desire discrepancy, for which she has already successfully secured an additional Research Grant from the European Society for Sexual Medicine. Roberta is an Italian registered psychologist with an international MSc, a certified sex counselor, and a PhD researcher with honors specializing in couples’ sexual desire and clinical psychology, with extensive international experience across Europe and North America. In addition to her role as a collaborator in the Research and Training Area of the Institute of Clinical Sexology of Rome. Roberta Galizia is deeply committed to developing accessible and evidence-based treatments aimed at improving the relational and sexual well-being of couples and diverse relational configurations.

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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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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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Faith is a PhD 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 examined 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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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.