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Roberta Galizia
Visiting PhD Student
Roberta has a joint international MSc in Cognitive Psychology in Health Communication from the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University of Milan and the University of Italian Switzerland, and training in sexological counseling from the Institute of Clinical Sexology of Rome. Forged by international and multidisciplinary training in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, health communication, management, marketing, and clinical sexology, Roberta strongly believes in an integrated knowledge approach. She is currently a Ph.D. student at the Sapienza University of Rome and a Visiting International Research Student at the UBC Sexual Health Lab. Her research interests focus on the factors and dynamics underlying sexual desire discrepancy in couples to contribute to the development of clinical guidelines and effective treatment protocols to support couples who complain of distress caused by sexual desire discrepancy. Roberta is driven by a strong passion for the clinic, research, and teaching of human sexuality and is enthusiastic about making her contribution to the field of sexual health together with an international and multidisciplinary team of sexual health clinicians and researchers.
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Denise Zhu
she/her
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 Pulsifer
she/her
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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Geneviève Allaire-Stacey
she/her
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 Milani
she/her
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 Jabs, MA
she/her
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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Natalie Brown, MA
she/her
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.