About REACH Nexus

Rick Galli began his extensive career in research and diagnostic laboratory sciences with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care Public Health Laboratory in Toronto in 1973 and has continued to work in senior positions in health-related settings including the Ontario HIV Treatment Network, BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and bioLytical Laboratories. Rick joined REACH 3.0 at St. Michael’sHospital, Toronto in 2019 and currently serves as the Director of Testing and Clinical Trials Implementation.

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Kristin has over 10 years of experience managing clinical research projects and trials in both academia and industry. She is a certified clinical research, and project management professional holding both CCRP and PMP designations. Her experience as a project manager has involved a variety of therapeutic areas, from pediatrics, neurology and immunology to her current role in HIV and STBBIs.

J. Evin Jones, BaH, Juris Doctor, is a recognized leader within the community-based response to HIV and hepatitis C. She has worked as PAN’s Executive Director since 2008. She first started working in the sector in 1996 as an advocate and prior to joining PAN, she held the positions of Executive Director of the Vancouver Friends For Life Society as well as at YouthCO. She is passionate about social justice, and has worked to facilitate key policy changes and collective action around HIV, harm reduction, health equity and other key issues in BC and across the country. She has been an active voice in building regional, provincial and national multi-sectoral partnerships. She has extensive involvement in community-based research, and is honoured to be the co-lead (along with Dr. Cathy Worthington) of the BC Team for the CIHR CBR Collaborative Centre & REACH Nexus.

Catherine (Cathy) Worthington is a BC Co-Lead, REACH Nexus, a Co-Director for the CBR Collaborative, and a Professor, Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria. Her current work focuses on HIV/STBBI services development with First Nation and Métis communities; social inclusion (housing, stigma, comorbidities); and training/mentoring in community-engaged research. She is on the leadership teams for the DRUM & SASH HIV/STBBI Implementation Science team grant, the GetCheckedOnline Implementation Science team grant, and the CIHR Canadian Clinical HIV Trials Network (CTN).

Sean B. Rourke is a Clinical Neuropsychologist and Scientist with MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital, and Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto. He is an international expert in the neurobehavioural complications of HIV. He is also the Director of two national centres funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR): the CIHR Centre for REACH in HIV/AIDS, and the CIHR Community-Based Research (CBR) Collaboration Centre for HIV, which support pragmatic solutions to address the HIV epidemics across Canada. Sean is also the Director of Universities Without Walls 2.0 which is training the next generation of HIV researchers in Canada.

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Colleen has been leading public-sector communications for over 10 years in the healthcare, social services and justice sectors. She was also briefly a flight attendant. She is passionate about all areas of communications, especially web, information design and plain-language writing. As someone who's from Vancouver and lived in Montreal before settling in Toronto, Colleen calls a few parts of Canada home. She recently joined REACH Nexus in fall 2020 and is elated to be part of the team.

Mike is the Executive Director of Nine Circles Community Health Centre and the Administrative Lead for the Manitoba HIV Program Leadership Team. Nine Circles is a community-based health centre, specializing in care, treatment and support for Manitobans Living with HIV and HCV. Nine Circles is committed to evidence-based programming and operates as the community site of the Manitoba HIV Program. Mike's responsibilities include oversight of regional and national collaborations including the Manitoba HIV Program Collective Impact Network and Manitoba's Community Based Research Program (in collaboration with REACH 3.0 and the St. Michaels Hospital). Mike has been with Nine Circles since its inception in 1998 and Executive Director since 2005. Mike’s educational background includes a degree in Sociology through the University of Winnipeg and certification through the University of Manitoba’s Canadian Institute of Management (CIM).

Ken Monteith is the Executive Director of COCQ-SIDA (la Coalition des organismes communautaires québécois de lutte contre le sida). Trained as a lawyer, he worked in the community youth sector and in the HIV/AIDS sector. He participates actively in research, especially projects concerning the quality of life of people living with HIV and prevention for men who have sex with men.He holds degrees in Industrial Relations, Common and Civil Law from McGill University and was a member of the Québec Bar from 1991 to 2001, when he resigned to devote himself more fully to his community work on HIV/AIDS. Ken Monteith was diagnosed with advanced HIV infection in 1997.

Janice Duddy, MES, is the Director of Evaluation and Community-Based Research at the Pacific AIDS Network and the Evaluation Manager at REACH and has worked with the CIHR Centre for REACH in HIV/AIDS since 2013. Previous to this role she was the Grants & Partnerships Coordinator with the CBR program at PAN and held a dual role with the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) as the Manager of the PHSA’s HIV/AIDS Program and the Operations Manager of the BC Centre for Disease Control’s Hepatitis Program. Janice is very committed to engaging community as active members of research and evaluation teams. She has a passion for building a stronger culture of evaluation in the region through engagement of stakeholders from across the sector and showing the value of moving research evidence into practice.

My primary research objectives are: 1. to undertake applied, policy-relevant health promotion research that works toward addressing the determinants of health that can negatively impact on health; and 2. to improve health outcomes among populations often marginalized by mainstream approaches to, and understandings of, health and illness through community-engaged health promotion research.