Dr. Donya Razavi (she/her) is a Sessional Assistant Professor in the School of Global Health with over 15 years of experience in global health, health policy, and health systems research. Her work focuses on advancing health equity and improving health care access and outcomes for equity-deserving populations.
She has conducted research on a broad range of topics, including health sector priority setting and resource allocation, community and stakeholder engagement in health system decision-making, primary health care and interprofessional collaboration, humanitarian health, and sexual and reproductive health.
Donya is passionate about bridging global health concepts with local health challenges. She brings her extensive practical experience into both the classroom and her research, drawing on her work within academia, NGOs, the Ontario health sector and communities to inform evidence-based teaching and policy-relevant research.
She has worked within Ontario’s health system, including with Ontario Health Teams, where her focus was on improving access to primary care for populations historically facing barriers—particularly Black and Indigenous communities, as well as individuals experiencing housing precarity, those identifying as 2SLGBTQ+, refugees, and people who use substances. She also led a newcomer engagement initiative exploring the experiences of recent immigrants with Ontario’s primary health care system, identifying barriers to access, and developing strategies to improve service delivery and support.
Internationally, Donya has worked with the Canadian Red Cross, supporting domestic and global programs, with a particular focus on menstrual hygiene management in humanitarian contexts such as South Sudan.
Donya holds a PhD in Health Policy from McMaster University, where her research examined public and vulnerable populations’ participation in health system priority setting in Uganda.
Research Keywords
global health; health equity; priority setting; health policy; marginalized populations
Themes | Global Health & Humanitarianism |
Status | Active |
Related Work |
N/A
|
Updates |
N/A
|
You may also be interested in...
Recap – Innovative Approaches to Target HPV-Vaccine Accessibility and Cervical Cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa
On November 22, 2023, Dahdaleh graduate scholar Eric Asempah addressed the urgent global health issue of preventing human papillomavirus infection (HPV) related cervical cancer through prophylactic vaccines in low and middle-income countries. Cervical cancer claims ...Read more about this Post
Key Moments from the Trust and Political Sociology of Health Workshop
The "Trust and Political Sociology of Health" research workshop took place on April 4th at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, York University. This forum brought together senior and emerging scholars, practitioners, and students ...Read more about this Post
Recap — Strengthening One Health Governance for AMR Mitigation, with Arne Ruckert
On February 12, 2025, Arne Ruckert, Director of Research at the Global Strategy Lab’s Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Policy Accelerator, delved into the role of One Health (OH) governance in combating AMR. The seminar explored how ...Read more about this Post