Science of Birth theme lead Dr. Wendy Norman was recognized by the Government of Canada as Women of Impact in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). The Women of Impact in Canada is a recognition of women's achievements, and featuring profiles of courageous women who have made an impact in politics, the arts and sciences, and countless other fields. Details about the Women of Impact in Canada can be found here, and Wendy's profile can be found here.
Wendy's profile on the Women of Impact in Canada page reads:
Dr. Wendy V. Norman is a family physician/researcher with over 30 years’ experience in sexual health and family planning care. As the holder of the Canadian chair in applied public health research for the Family Planning Research Program, she has been instrumental in providing federal, provincial, and territorial governments with the evidence they need to implement a range of policies supporting reproductive health. Her vision is that all people in Canada will have equitable access to the knowledge, methods, and services they need to realize their own goals for whether and when they wish to have children.
Wendy has provided evidence to support the initiation of a Canadian sexual health survey, to introduce subdermal implants into Canada, to remove unnecessary restrictions on contraception options for Indigenous peoples, to remove unnecessary restrictions on the medical abortion pill, and to support programs for subsidized contraception in British Columbia (BC). Wendy has also fielded the BC sexual health survey as a pilot for a national survey. She is a professor in the Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, and an honourary associate professor in the Faculty of Public Health and Policy at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom.
Her awards include the international Darroch Award (2015) from the Guttmacher Institute for advancing reproductive health policy research, and the inaugural national Mentorship Award from the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (2020). She founded and leads Canada’s national collaborative Contraception and Abortion Research Team, and is a technical advisor to the World Health Organization on sexual health survey data.