Lesley Tarasoff

Lesley A. Tarasoff, PhD, is a CIHR-funded Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Health and Society at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She holds a PhD in Public Health Sciences, with a Specialization in Women’s Health, from the University of Toronto. She is a leading scholar on the perinatal health of women with disabilities. She leads the qualitative component of an NIH-funded study on the perinatal health of women with disabilities in Ontario and her own CIHR-funded research on the preconception health and reproductive life plans of women with disabilities, as well as is a Co-Investigator on a mixed methods study on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the reproductive health of women with disabilities in Canada. Dr. Tarasoff is a co-author of the first known clinical practice guidelines on labour, delivery, and postpartum care for people with physical disabilities (see Berndl et al., 2021, JOGC) and of several systematic reviews and studies on the perinatal health outcomes and care experiences of women with disabilities in Canada. Primarily drawing on qualitative and community-based approaches, her broader program of research aims to understand and address disparities and inequities in reproductive, perinatal, and mental health and health care experienced by often-stigmatized and marginalized groups, namely women with disabilities and sexual minority women. She is a Co-Investigator on The RESPCCT Study, an online survey study focused on the perinatal care experiences of people across Canada.