Nazilla Khanlou

Professor Nazilla Khanlou is the Ontario Women's Health Council Chair in Women's  Mental Health Research in the Faculty of Health at York University and an Associate Professor in its School of Nursing. She is cross-appointed to the Department of Psychiatry and Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. 

Dr. Khanlou's clinical background is in psychiatric nursing. Her overall program of research is situated in the interdisciplinary field of community-based mental health promotion in general, and mental health promotion among youth and women in multicultural and immigrant-receiving settings in particular.  

Professor Khanlou has received grants from peer-reviewed federal and provincial research funding agencies. For example, as Principal Investigator (PI), she secured funding from the Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health at CHEO (2007-2009) to examine mental health services needs and access for newcomer youth. As PI she was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to explore the cultural identity of immigrant youth in light of globalizing trends (2003-2006). As Co-Principal Investigator on a multi-site national study, she and her colleagues received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to examine the intersecting barriers to health faced by immigrant women with precarious status (2004-2008).  

Professor Khanlou was the Health Domain Leader of the Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement (2001-2008) in Toronto and a Visiting Scholar (2005-2006) at the Wellesley Urban Health Institute. Dr. Khanlou has published articles, books, and reports on immigrant youth and women, and mental health. She is involved in knowledge translation to the public through media.