Jennifer Gardy

Jennifer Gardy joined the foundation in 2019 as deputy director for surveillance, data, and epidemiology on the Malaria team. Since 2021, she has also served as a deputy director for the Institute for Disease Modeling since 2021.

Before joining the foundation, Jennifer spent 10 years at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health, where she held the Canada Research Chair in Public Health Genomics. Her research focused on the use of genomics as a tool to understand pathogen transmission, incorporating techniques drawn from genomics, bioinformatics, modeling, information visualization, and the social sciences.

In 2018, Jennifer was named one of British Columbia’s Most Influential Women in STEM by BCBusiness magazine and was named one of the Government of Canada’s 20 Women of Impact in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In 2021, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

In addition to her science work, Jennifer is a science communicator, hosting many science documentaries for Canadian television as well as authoring two science books for children.