Julia Smith, PhD
College of Health Sciences
Assistant Professor
Biography
Dr. Julia Smith, internationally known for her research on gender and COVID-19, received her PhD from the University of Bradford in 2015. She completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship and then took on the role of Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University in Canada. While there, she earned a prestigious Micheal Smith Scholar Award from Health Research BC and served as Associate Scientific Director of the Pacific Institute on Pandemics and Society.
Dr. Smith has developed and taught courses on global health, health systems and policy and international relations. She has contributed to advancing social science informed research on health crisis, and the interactions between health and social inequities. Leading the Gender and COVID-19 Project, from 2020 – 2024, she contributed to advances in understanding of the gendered dynamics of pandemics and worked directly with government and international actors to inform gender-based responses to the pandemic. This work, funded by the Gates Foundation and Canadian Institutes for Health Research, has been published in dozens of articles, the book Conscripted to Care: Women on the Frontlines of the COVID-19 Response, and the edited volume COVID and Feminism: How Women Fair in the Face of a Global Crisis (forthcoming from MIT Press in 2026).
A Lead Scholar with the BRIDGE Research Consortium, Dr. Smith is advancing research on equitable vaccine access, as well as on moral distress among healthcare workers and Long COVID. Her previous research on tobacco control lay early groundwork for the study of the commercial determinants of health. To date she has published 70+ articles, two books and one edited volume. She serves on the editorial board for Globalization and Health and has won numerous awards including the Early Career Researcher Award from the Women’s Health Research Institute, and Emerging Thought Leader Newsmaker Award from Simon Fraser University.
1. Pham, A.N.Q.*, Akram, I., Tiwana, M.H.*, Smith, J. (2025) Trends in access to primary care among Canadian older adults before, during, and following the COVID-19 public health emergency. Sci Rep 15, 40629 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-24365-1
2. Smith, J., *Pipper, J., *Gooderham, E. (2025). Learning from Failure: applying serious games for deep learning in global health courses. Plos Global Health. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0003661
3. Smith, J., Byers, K., *Jaimeson, K. (2025) Not having the energy to even live”: a feminist disability perspective on Long COVID and caregiving. Health and Social Care in the Community. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/10.1155/hsc/8893161
4. Smith, J., Murage, A.,* Jaimeson, K.,* Byres K. (2025) Suck it up, keep going: structural determinants of work and wellbeing among people living with Long COVID. Critical Public Health. 35(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2025.2574953
5. *Tiwana, H., *Hollman, L., Smith, J. (2025) “They wanted to, but they just couldn’t get there”: GBA+ implementation and gaps during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. International Journal of Equity in Health. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-025-02522-2
6. Herten-Crabb A., * Mũrage A., * Smith J., Wenham C. (2025) An opportunity for gender transformation? UN Women’s policy response to COVID-19. Global Public Health. 20(1):2462626. https//doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2025.2462626.
7. *Pham, A., Smith, J., Card, K., Byers, K. (2025) Exploring Social Determinants of Health and Their Impact on Self-Reported Quality of Life in Long COVID-19 PatienT.S. Scientific ReporT.S – Nature 14 (30410). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-81275-4
8. Byers, K., *Robinson, S., *Hollman, L., *Ezocha, A., Smith, J., Bukachi, S. (2025) Unpacking gendered dynamics in livestock vaccination: Toward more inclusive health strategies. CABI One Health. 4(10). https://doi.org/10.1079/cabionehealth.2025.0002
9. *Purewal, S., Tiwana, H., Smith, J., et al. (2024) Lessons learned: Researchers’ experiences conducting community-engaged research during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement. 28(4). https://openjournals.liB.S.uga.edu/jheoe/article/view/3147
10. *Selinger, A. and Smith, J. (2024) Intersecting Inequities: A scoping review of unpaid care work and interpersonal violence during the COVID-19 lockdown in Canada. Global Health Action. 17(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2024.2411743
11. Smith J., *Tiwana H., *Murage A., Samji H., Morgan R., *Delgado-Ron J.A. (2024). Moral distress related to paid and unpaid care among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. PLoS ONE 19(9): e0310132. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0310132
12. *Delgado-Ron, J.A., Tiwana, H., Murage, A., Purewal, S., Smith J. (2024). Moral distress, coping mechanisms, and turnover intent among healthcare providers in British Columbia: a race and gender-based analysis. BMC Health Serv Res. 24, 925. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-11377-2
13. Sriram, V., Shipton, L., Smith, J., & Plamondon, K. (2024). The health and care workforce in the Pandemic Agreement: championing equity and protecting collective capacity for future pandemics. The Lancet Global Health. 12(6), e909-e910. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(24)00123-2
14. *Tiwana, H., Smith, J. (2024) Faith and Vaccination: A scoping review of the relationships between Religious Beliefs and Vaccine. BMC Public Health https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18873-4
15. Smith, J. Tiwana, M.H., Samji, H., Morgan, R., Purewal, S., & *Delgado-Ron, J.A. (2024). An intersectional analysis of moral distress and intention to leave employment among long-term care providers in British Columbia. Journal of Aging and Health. 36(10), 689-699. https://doi.org/10.1177/08982643231212981
16. Smith, J. & *Purewal, S. (2023). Toward more caring and consultative crisis management: Perspectives and Experiences from women healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. BMJ Leader. https://bmjleader.bmj.com/content/7/Suppl_2/1.5.info
17. *Murage, A., Smith, J. & Njeri, A. (2023). Social determinants of mental health among adolescent girls in Kenya and Nigeria during the COVID-19 pandemic. Global Public Health. 18:1, https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2023.2264946
18. Kabir, S., Chowdhury, A., Smith, J., Morgan, R., Wenham, C., & Rashid, S. (2023). A Social Cure for COVID-19: Importance of Networks in Combating Socio-Economic and Emotional Health Challenges in Informal Settlements in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Social Sciences. 12(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12030127
19. Smith, J., *Murage, A. Lui, I., & Morgan, R. (2022). Integrating Gender-Based Analysis Plus into Policy Responses to COVID-19: Lived Experiences of Lockdown in British Columbia, Canada, Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 29: 4.
20. Smith, J., Davies, SE, Grépin, K., Harman, S., Herten-Crabb, A., *Murage, A., Morgan, R., & Wenham, C. (2022). Reconceptualizing successful pandemic preparedness and response: A feminist perspective, Social Science & Medicine, 315.
21. Smith, J., *Memmont, C., *Oveisi, N., & Morgan, R. (2022). Double Distress: the gendered dimensions of moral distress among healthcare workers during COVID-19. Nursing Ethics. 30(1)
22. *Memmont, C., Morgan, R., & Smith, J. (2022). Forgotten Frontline Responders: midwifery in British Columbia Canada during COVID-19. Midwifery. 113: 103437.
23. Tompsik, E., Smith, J., & Wenham, C. (2022). A gender analysis of the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 policies. PLOS Global Public Health. 2(6): e0000640.
24. Smith, J. (2022). COVID and the Gender Paradox. Social Policy. 22(1):202-206
25. Gan CCR, Feng, S, Smith, J. et al. (2022). #WuhanDiary and #WuhanLockdown: Gendered posting patterns and behaviours on Weibo during the Covid-19 pandemic. BMJ Global Health. 7:e008149
26. Smith J., Abouzaid L., Masuhara J., Noormohamed S., Remo N., & Straatman L. (2021). “I may be essential but someone has to look after my kids”: women physicians and COVID-19. Canadian Journal of Public Health. 17:1–10.
27. Morgan R., Davies SE., Feng H., Gan CCR., Grépin K., Harman S., Herten-Crabb A, Smith J., & Wenham C. (2021). Using Gender Analysis Matrixes to Integrate a Gender Lens into Infectious Diseases Outbreaks Research, Health Policy and Planning, czab149.
28. Smith, J. (2021). From ‘nobody’s clapping for us’ to ‘bad moms’: COVID-19 and the circle of childcare. Gender Work and Organization.
29. Lee, K., Freunbert, N., *Zenone, M., Smith, J., Mialon, M., Marten, R., Lima, RJ., Friel, S., Klain, DE., Crosbie, E., & Buse, K. (2021). Measuring the commercial determinants of health and disease: A proposed framework. International Journal of Health Services. 52(1):115-128.
30. Smith, J., Wenham, C., & Heren-Crabb A. (2021). COVID-19 & Feminist Foreign Policy: Canada’s Comparative Advantage. Canadian Foreign Policy Journal. DOI: 10.1080/11926422.2021.1969971
31. Smith, J., Davies, S., Feng, H., Gan, C., Grépin, K., Harman, S., Herten-Crabb, A., Morgan, R., *Vandan, N., & Wenham C. (2021). More than a public health crisis: A feminist political economic analysis of COVID-19. Global Public Health. 16:8-9, 1364-1380.
32. Smith, J. (2020). Adolescent Access to Contraception in South and Eastern Africa: A review of the evidence. African Journal of Reproductive Health. 24(1):152-164.
33. Harman, S., *Herten-Crabb, A., Morgan, R., Smith, J., & Wenham, C. (2020). COVID-19 Vaccines and Women’s Security. The Lancet. 397: 357-8.
34. Wenham, C., Smith, J., & Morgan, R. (2020). COVID: The Gendered Impacts of the Outbreak. The Lancet. 395(10227): P846-848.
35. Wenham, C., Smith, J., Grepin, K., Harman, S., Davies, S., & Morgan, R. (2020). Women are most affected by pandemics — lessons from past outbreaks. Nature. 8 July.
36. Smith, J., *Sears, N., Taylor, B., & Johnson, M. (2020). Serious Games for Serious Crises: the use of matrix games to promote learning and innovation around disease outbreak preparedness and response. Globalization and Health. 16(18).
37. Smith, J & Lee, K. (2019). Corporate Interests within Transnational Advocacy Networks: The International Coalition Against Plain Packaging. Global Networks. 20(4): 603-624
38. Smith, J. (2019). Overcoming the Tyranny of the Urgent: Gender-based responses to disease outbreaks. Gender and Development. 27: 355-369.
39. Smith, J. and Lee, K. (2017). Protecting the plain packaging consultation from tobacco industry interference. Canadian Medical Association Journal. 188(4): E340-E341.
40. Smith. J. (2016). From Risk Management to Human Rights: the EU’s Shifting Response to HIV/AIDS. Health and Human Rights. 2(18).
41. Fooks, G., Smith, J., Lee, K., Holden, C. (2016). Controlling Corporate Influence in Health Policy Making? An Assessment of the Implementation of Article 5.3 of the World Health Organizations Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Globalization and Health. 13(1): 120.
42. Smith, J., Aflven, T., Malloris, C., Lee, K. (2016). The Role of Civil Society Organizations in Monitoring the Global AIDS Response. AIDS and Behavior. 21: S1.
43. Smith, J., *Thompson, S., Lee, K. (2016). The Atlas Network: A Strategic Ally of the Tobacco Industry. International Journal of Health Planning and Management. 32(4): 433–448.
