Jacqueline Gahagan

Jacqueline (Jacquie) Gahagan PhD

Credentialed Evaluator (CES)
Full Professor and Associate Vice-President of Research at Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU)

Jacqueline (Jacquie) Gahagan, PhD (Medical Sociology) is a Credentialed Evaluator (CES), a Full Professor and Associate Vice-President of Research at Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) in Halifax Nova Scotia. Prior to joining MSVU Jacquie was a Full Professor of Health Promotion in the Faculty of Health at Dalhousie University where they taught community health promotion, program planning, and measurement and evaluation courses. Jacquie is a founding member and serves as the Co-Director of the Atlantic Interdisciplinary Research Network for Social and Behavioural Aspects of HIV and HCV (airn.ca), is a Founding Fellow of the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance and is an Affiliate Scientist with the Nova Scotia Health Authority. Prior to this, Jacquie held a variety of Research Scholar and Research Associate positions with the Jean Monnet European Union Centre of Excellence, the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health, the Health Law Institute, the Healthy Populations Institute, the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute, among others. Jacquie serves as a Scientific Officer for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and an Institute Advisory Board member of the CIHR Institute of Gender and Health (CIHR-IGH).

Jacquie’s longstanding program of mixed methods health promotion research focuses on evaluating policy and programming interventions using sex and gender-based analyses (SGBA+) to identify and address health inequities among equity-deserving populations. Jacquie has been involved in HIV research and advocacy for over 30 years working with women living with or affected by HIV, HCV, or other STBBIs, and received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for their efforts. Jacquie’s funded studies focus on access to innovative HIV testing technologies, the health equity and health outcomes of LGBTQ2I populations, including access to safe and affirming housing and healthcare among LGBTQ2I communities, access to post-secondary education among former youth in care, and end-of-life decision-making. Jacquie worked as an evaluation specialist in public health at the municipal, provincial and national levels in relation to harm reduction, HIV/HCV prevention, and tobacco use cessation prior to their academic career.