Kimberly Thomson

Dr. Kimberly Thomson serves as an Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University's Faculty of Health Sciences and an affiliate investigator with Population and Public Health at the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC). She joined SFU in September 2023 as a core faculty member of the Children's Health Policy Centre, where she conducts research at the intersection of child development, mental health, and public policy.

Dr. Thomson completed her PhD at the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) within the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia. Her postdoctoral training spanned multiple institutions including HELP, the BC Centre for Advancing Health Outcomes, and the Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development (SEED) at Deakin University in Australia.

Her research program focuses on three interconnected areas: investigating early social environment factors associated with lifelong mental health outcomes; examining intergenerational transmission of mental health including social, psychological, and biological mechanisms; and evaluating policies designed to optimize children's early environments. Dr. Thomson employs an integrated knowledge translation approach, collaborating directly with community leaders, health service providers, and policymakers from organizations including the BC Centre for Disease Control, Canadian Mental Health Association, and various BC health authorities, school boards, and government ministries.

Dr. Thomson specializes in research investigating social and structural determinants of health, life course epidemiology, and children's early social-emotional development. Her work aims to generate evidence that informs policy decisions to promote optimal environments for children's development and mental wellbeing across the life course and into subsequent generations. She has worked with Child Development Monitoring teams in both British Columbia and Australia to integrate population-level child health monitoring data into policy and practice frameworks.

Her teaching portfolio includes courses on Social Determinants of Health, Research Proposal development, Independent Research, and Health Promotion in Practice. Dr. Thomson's methodological expertise encompasses longitudinal studies and intergenerational cohort research, with a strong emphasis on translating research findings into actionable policy recommendations that address children's mental health needs at the population level.