Dr. Valerie H Taylor, MD, PhD

Dr. Taylor is an Associate professor at the University of Toronto and Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Women’s College Hospital. She is also a senior scientist at the Woman’s College Research Institute and director of the division of Equity, Gender and Population for the University of Toronto. Nationally, she is director of the bariatric surgery psychiatry program and is the Mental Health Chair for the Canadian Obesity Network. 

Her academic focus is on obesity, metabolic syndrome and mental health in both adults and children. She is interested in the developmental origins and common pathophsiology of obesity, diabetes and depression, the concept of food addiction and the impact of pharmacotherapy on weight and behaviour. She also has an interest in women’s mental health and has written and researched on the over lap between mental illness in women and medical outcomes.  She has funding from NARSAD, CIHR and the federal and provincial governments. She has over 60 peer reviewed publications and has written a CBT manual on weight management. In the past 2 years she has led or been part of 6 funded CIHR grants, an NIH grant and 2 grants from the ministry of Health.

She recently received a KT fellowship from the Canadian Mental Health Association, an educational fellowship from the International Society on Obesity and a research award from the Canadian Obesity Network. She currently writes a mental health column for the Toronto Star and is director of the Women’s Mental Health Educational Institute she created at the University of Toronto.