Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research
2300 McKenzie Ave
Victoria, BC V8P 5C2
Dr. Gillian Kolla is a postdoctoral fellow at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria, with funding from the Canadian Network on Hepatitis C Research. She recently completed her PhD at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto where her doctoral research explored how the criminalization of drug use impedes the ability of public health programs to respond effectively to drug use.
Dr. Kolla uses community-based qualitative and ethnographic research to examine and address the barriers to healthcare and social service access confronted by people impacted by marginalization, particularly people who use drugs and people experiencing homelessness. She is also interested in the role that health and social policy plays in structuring environments, and in exploring how policy impacts the delivery and uptake of health and social services. Her post-doctoral research is examining how the integration of workers with lived experience of drug use can improved the delivery of health services for people use drugs, particularly HCV prevention and treatment services.
Mentor
Dan Allman
