PWHR Announces the Recipients of the 2026 Mid-Career Excellence in Women’s Health Research Award

Women’s Health Research Institute, British Columbia

Paul Yong, MD, PhD, FRCSC is a Professor and Division Head of Gynecologic Specialties in the UBC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; and a gynecologist with a fellowship in Endometriosis, Pelvic Pain and Advanced Laparoscopy at the BC Women’s Centre for Pelvic Pain and Endometriosis.  Dr. Yong is also a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain, and Assistant Director of the Women’s Health Research Institute (WHRI).

Women and Children’s Health Research Institute, Alberta

Dr. Margie Davenport is the Christenson Professor in Active Healthy Living and a WCHRI member at the University of Alberta, having published over 200 manuscripts advancing physical activity and sport across preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum periods. She chaired the landmark 2019 Canadian Guideline for Physical Activity throughout Pregnancy and the 2025 Postpartum Guideline, work that directly catalyzed the Get Active Questionnaires and the CSEP/ACSM Pre & Postnatal Exercise Specialization. Over the last decade, she has partnered with major national and international bodies including FIFA, the World Health Organization, the International Olympic Committee, NWSL and Women’s Tennis Association to champion and support physical activity before, during and following pregnancy.

Women’s College Hospital, Ontario

Dr. Joanne Kotsopoulos is a Scientist at the Women’s College Hospital, Professor at the University of Toronto and holds a Canada Research Chair in Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Prevention. For over two decades, she has directed a unique and interdisciplinary program of research aimed at identifying strategies that confer substantial cancer risk reduction and improve outcomes for BRCA carriers at high-risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. This critical work continues to inform international guidelines for the management of high-risk populations while furthering our understanding of hereditary cancer development. Her innovative research program focuses on women’s health across their lifespan, particularly during the (peri)menopausal transition, which is particularly complex in BRCA carriers given their predilection to develop early onset cancers and to undergo surgical menopause prior to age 45, impacting fertility, quality of life and overall health.

IWK Health, Nova Scotia

Dr. Allana Munro is a Professor in the Department of Anesthesia, Pain Management and Perioperative Medicine at Dalhousie University, an obstetric anesthesiologist at IWK Health, and cross-appointed in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She is a clinician-scientist whose research advances women’s health through work in obstetric anesthesia, postpartum pain, endometriosis, and chronic pelvic pain. Dr. Munro also serves as Medical and Research Co-Chair of the Endometriosis & Chronic Pelvic Pain Program at IWK Health, where she supports interdisciplinary, patient-oriented women’s pain research.