Dr. Naznin Virji-Babul (pictured) has been appointed Senior Advisor to the Provost on Women and Gender-Diverse Faculty. The announcement was made January 16, 2020, by Dr. Andrew Szeri, Provost and Vice-President, Academic. The role was previously held by Dr. Jennifer Love.
The role of Senior Advisor to the Provost on Women and Gender-Diverse Faculty supports institutional efforts to enhance the scholarly and leadership environment and opportunities for women and gender-diverse faculty members at the University of British Columbia.
In this role, Dr. Virji-Babul will champion intersectionality, equity issues and the goals of inclusivity as they relate to women and gender-diverse faculty (including racialized faculty, Indigenous faculty and faculty with disabilities), and will be responsible for working proactively with members of the university community to support institutional efforts to enhance the scholarly and leadership environment and opportunities for women and gender-diverse faculty at UBC Vancouver.
“This is an incredible opportunity, and I’m really looking forward to working on affecting policy changes for women and gender diverse faculty,” said Dr. Virji-Babul, who will work closely with the Deans, Human Resources, and the Senior Advisor to the Provost on Racialized Faculty, the Equity and Inclusion Office and other units.
“I am thrilled to hear that Dr. Naznin Virji-Babul will be our new Senior Advisor to the Provost on Women and Non-Binary faculty,” said Dr. Lara Boyd, CIHR Delegate and Academic Health Research Advisor to the Vice-President, Research. “Naz brings a unique and valuable perspective to the role, and an incredible lived experience which she can draw on. It’s wonderful to have one of our neuroscience colleagues in the role, as she will be able to clearly articulate the challenges faced by women scientists at UBC. I wish her the best and really look forward to seeing what she accomplishes.”
Dr. Virji-Babul maintains an active research presence at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy in the Faculty of Medicine, a member of the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute and investigator in the BCCHR Healthy Starts cluster, an associate member of the Institute of Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems, and an affiliate team member of the Designing for People research cluster.
Dr. Virji-Babul’s research employs behavioural and brain imaging tools to study the neural correlates underlying perceptual-motor and social-emotional processing in infants, children and youth; she is also a leader in concussion research, having worked with community athletic associations and UBC varsity athletes to understand how concussion affects the structure and function of the brain. She is a collaborative researcher who has partnered with colleagues at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, as well as with the School of Biomedical Engineering.
