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Dr. Monica Malta is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and a Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She has been engaged in public health intervention research with a focus on the study of social and structural factors influencing the adoption of health-promoting behaviors related to metal health and HIV prevention/care since 2000. A significant portion of her research has focused on evaluating the role and impact of environmental-structural factors related to mental health and HIV outcomes among marginalized groups such as transgender women, people who use/abuse drugs, people living with HIV, and female sex workers. She recently directed a large-scale research portfolio funded by UNESCO, addressing mental health, gender-based violence and HIV vulnerability among transgender women from Brazil. Dr. Malta worked during several years at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and is a researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ), the largest biomedical research institution in Latin America. Studies leaded by Dr. Malta have been funded by NIH, CDC, UN, Johns Hopkins University, University of California, Duke University, and Ford Foundation. She has close to 50 peer-reviewed publications and her studies guided several updates in the Brazilian guidelines on HIV prevention and treatment.