Our Team

Dr. Meaghan Thumath, DPhil, MPH, RN

Principal Investigator & Founder, HERO Observatory
Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, Faculty of Applied Science

Meaghan Thumath, DPhil (Oxford), RN, is an Assistant Professor at UBC and a public health leader working at the intersection ofpolicy, health systems, and emergency response. Her career spans frontline nursing to senior government leadership and humanitarian response, with a consistent focus on advancing health security, reducing health inequities and strengthening community resilience.

She most recently served as Executive Director of Public Health at the BC Ministry of Health, where she led the development of the province’s 10-year public health strategy and launched Canada’s first Health Equity Unit. She has also held senior roles with Vancouver Coastal Health and the BC Center for Disease Control, and previously served as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Mental Health and Addiction. Internationally, Dr. Thumath has deployed with the World Bank, the World Health Organization, the Global Fund and the IFRC across multiple emergencies, including hurricanes, Ebola, HIV and COVID-19 responses in DRC, South Sudan, Haiti, Jamaica, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Ukraine.

At UBC, she leads the Health Equity & Resilience Observatory, advancing real-time solutions to strengthen trust and counter narrative warfare during emergencies. Her work bridges academia, government, and emerging technology, including as founder of a UBC venture (Counterforce AI) developing tools to prevent disinformation from disrupting crisis response. She holds Clinician Scientist and scholar appointments with the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI), the Women’s Health Research Institute (WHRI) and the Bridge Research Consortium (BRC). She is also a member of Wolfson College and was a Pierre EliottTrudeau Scholar at the Center for Evidence Based Intervention (CEBI) at the University of Oxford and is currently a Green College Leading Scholar (2026). Her work has informed global policies on epidemic preparedness, health equity, substance use, and mental health, and she is a regular commentator on outbreak response, health communication, crisis leadership, and disinformation defense.

Her leadership has been recognized with the King Charles III Coronation Medal (2025), selection to the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference (2026), and the BC Ministry of Health STARS Award for Innovation (2026), alongside national and international honours for public health nursing and advancing global health security. Her proudest accomplishments are her two sons whom she’s raising in Vancouver with her husband and mischievous rescue dog Leo.

Bridge Research Consortium

Part of Canada’s Immune-Engineering and Biomanufacturing Hub (CIEBH), led by the University of British Columbia

Bridge Research Consortium brings together wide-ranging expertise and perspectives to better understand and support public trust and equitable access to new vaccines and immune-based innovations that strengthen Canada’s readiness for future health emergencies.

Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI)

Healthier lives through discovery

VCHRI is the research arm of Vancouver Coastal Health and a health partner of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia.

Women’s Health Research Institute (WHRI)

Innovation in women’s health

Women’s Health Research Institute is a real and virtual organization dedicated to facilitating and building a community for women’s health research.

Wolfson College

Research, inclusivity and sustainability underpin our College and community.