Community-Based Research Centre is pleased to announce Dr. Jad Sinno (they/them) as our new Research Director, following an open call for applicants. Jad joins us as a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, bringing expertise in mixed-methods research, critical social theory, and digital health.
CBRC is thrilled to be adding Jad’s extensive research expertise and skills to the team, noting them as a rising leader in 2S/LGBTQIA+ health research in Canada. Jad will oversee CBRC’s growing and diverse portfolio of community-based research projects, including national flagship initiatives such as Sex Now and Our Bodies, Our Health. “Our research agenda has always been the foundation of our work, and the studies we conduct have had a profound impact on our communities,” says CBRC Executive Director, Michael Kwag.
As a queer, Shami Arab, and trans-nonbinary scholar, Jad’s work is deeply rooted in advancing health equity for queer and made-marginalized populations. Their research projects have involved collaborations with teams in Canada, the United States of America, and Western Asia, and their PhD dissertation, 'A Reparative Analysis of Dating App Use and Wellbeing Among Queer Adults in Canada: A Mixed-Methods Study' drew from testimonies from over 250 queer adults, in a work that remains a first of its kind in Canada.
"During my undergrad, I was doing a combined degree in neuroscience and statistics, and I found that the research I was doing, although it had medicinal applications, was about 15 or 20 years out from actually impacting people's lives and well-being," Jad recalls. "And so, I felt quite disconnected from that, and at that time I was really stepping into community activism and queer organizing, anti-racist organizing, and I found myself in my fourth year really working in the social determinants of health and I wanted to pivot into that. I wanted work that was directly related to social justice."
Following a master's thesis exploring queer help-seeking, completed under the supervision of Indigenous scholar Dr. Amy Bombay at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Jad’s work narrowed its focus on the social and cultural dimensions of health, highly inspired by their own community activism. “I think it’s really important for research to be conducted by the people who are both experiencing and would benefit from that particular form of research,” Jad says. “I think that CBRC’s approaches and methodologies offer really important outputs to empower communities. The questions are driven by community, so they respond to community and they meet the unique needs of marginalized communities.”
Jad’s experience and skillset brings a distinctive viewpoint, coupled with a firm belief in the potential for tangible change through research initiatives like those at the CBRC. "I believe in a reimagined world, and I think there's an obligation, once you're aware of the way that the system works, to continue to pursue that," they say. "Academia can really be this kind of extractive space that doesn't actually propel or encourage change, but what is interesting about CBRC is that as a community-based organization, it gets closer to being able to lead to more tangible changes that I would love to see my work further contributing to."
And along with this warm welcome, CBRC would also like to express deep gratitude to our outgoing volunteer Research Director Dr. Nathan Lachowsky for his leadership of our research program since 2017. Nathan has recently moved from his role as Professor at the University of Victoria to a new position as Dean of the Faculty of Human and Health Sciences at the University of Northern British Columbia. Taking part in both the establishment of a full-time, in-house Research Director position and the transition from his to Jad’s tenure, Nathan will continue to play an important role in CBRC’s research program.
