Dr. Julia Smith is a transdisciplinary social scientist whose research centers around equity-based pandemic preparedness and response, strengthening the health-care workforce and equitable access to care. She leads mixed methods teams to conduct community-engaged research and work with decision-makers for integrated knowledge translation. In the past, she has led research on gender and COVID-19, tobacco control, the global response to HIV/AIDS and global health governance.

A Health Research BC Michael Smith Scholar (2021), Dr. Smith has won a number of awards including Women’s Health Research Institute Early Career Award (2022) and FHS Research and Service Award (2025). Here research has been funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, New Frontiers in Research Fund, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Gates Foundation, and others.

Dr. Smith has authored dozens of peer reviewed publications, as well as written two books Conscripted to Care: Women on the Frontlines of the COVID-19 Response and Civil Society and the Global Response to HIV/AIDS. She teaches classes on global health, pandemic response and health systems.