Elizabeth Holliday

Job Title
Regional Lead, HIV Prevention and Harm Reduction

Department/Location
Regional Prevention

How long have you worked at VCH?
Almost 8 years

Tell us what you do at VCH in one or two sentences:
I develop, implement and support projects, programs and policy related to HIV Prevention and Harm Reduction. I’ve also been helping with the overdose crisis and helped turn the Powell Street Getaway into a supervised consumption service, with a special Health Canada exemption to allow clients to be monitored while using intranasally and orally in addition to injection.

What’s your favourite thing about your work?
An epic adventure: a colleague and I went on to provide HIV education and testing at a wellness fair in Skatin – a relatively remote community that is accessed via a forest service road. It began with a flat tire and ended with our testing tent blowing away in high winds.

Which True North goal does your work contribute to the most?
Promote better health for our communities

One thing we might be surprised to learn about you:
I’ve never owned a TV. And, related to this, I’ve never seen Game of Thrones so I have no idea what it means that “winter is coming.”

Three things you always have in your fridge:
Sparkling water
Almond Milk
A variety of mustards and hot sauces

Who or what inspires you?
There are lot of different people and things that inspire me. In the face of an unprecedented overdose emergency, I am constantly inspired by the front-line staff and, most especially, the peers who show-up everyday to make a difference for the members of the communities and people they support.

Most healthy habit:
Not owning a car and walking everywhere that I can.

Favourite vacation spot:
How do you pick just one? A place that I always recommend is the Guna Yala islands which are part of an indigenous province in northeastern Panama. The islands are incredibly beautiful and there is no cell or internet service in most places so you can completely unplug from the world. I would go back there in a heartbeat!