In this week's Georgia Straight, there's a feature article on epidemiologist Dr. Danuta Skowronski. She has played a leading role in the development of a system used around the world to monitor the performance of flu vaccines.

Skowronski is one of numerous female health professionals in the province who are making important contributions to the field. Among the many others are:

Mary Ackenhusen

(president and CEO of Vancouver Coastal Health)

An engineer by training, Ackenhusen leads the province’s largest health authority, with a budget of $3.4 billion for one million people. A graduate of the Harvard Business School’s master of business administration program, she is a former director of quality and operations at INSEAD, an international business school based in Fontainebleau, France.

Lori Brotto

(director of the UBC Sexual Health Laboratory)

An associate professor in UBC’s department of obstetrics and gynecology, Brotto, a registered psychologist, treats sexual difficulties and conducts research in areas like hormones and sexual desire, cancer and sexuality, and asexuality.

Patricia Daly

(chief medical health officer and vice president of public health for Vancouver Coastal Health)

A public-health physician, Daly is a clinical professor in the school of population and public health in UBC’s medical faculty. Among other roles, she is responsible for communicable-disease control, including management of outbreaks.

Dianne Doyle

(president and CEO of Providence Health Care)

A former staff nurse, Doyle has more than 25 years of senior-executive experience in health care. Under her leadership, Providence earned nods for its corporate culture and patient-centred care.

Kate Shannon

(director of the Gender and Sexual Health Initiative at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS)

An associate professor of medicine in UBC’s school of population and public health, Shannon leads research on social determinants of sexual health, HIV/AIDS, and access to care among marginalized populations, particularly youth, sex workers, and women at risk of, and living with, HIV.