Assistant Director, Institute of Gender and Health (IGH), Canadian institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Canada

Abigail Forson is the Assistant Director of the Institute of Gender and Health (IGH), Canadian institutes of Health Research (CIHR). She has over fifteen years’ experience in brokering national and international partnerships, and in developing funding mechanisms to support research collaborations. Prior to joining IGH, Ms. Forson was CIHR’s Senior Advisor for International Relations where she led the development of several partnerships and bilateral relations to foster collaborations with international health research organizations. In this role she also developed funding mechanisms to facilitate Canadian researchers’ participation in international health research projects and consortia. Her career experience combines expertise from working within various research funding organizations including the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada and the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), as well as the private sector and international funding organizations. Abigail Forson holds a Master’s Degree in Economic Policy Management from McGill University, with specialization in International Science and Technology Policy.

Forson moderated the Best Practice Training Workshop on "Making Women in the System Visible" at the Gender Summit 3 North America 2013 (GS3NA).