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Michelle Olding

Michelle Olding

Assistant Professor
EducationBA, MPH, PhD
OfficeDCC-310, Daphne Cockwell Health Sciences Complex
Phone416-979-5000 ext. 556158
Areas of ExpertiseSubstance use & harm reduction; Sexually-transmitted and blood-borne infections; Health services research; Community-based and participatory research (CBPR); Qualitative methods.

Dr. Olding is available to supervise Occupational and Public Health (MSc) students in 2026-2027.

I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Occupational and Public Health at Toronto Metropolitan University. As a social scientist and public health researcher, my work focuses on harm reduction, STTBI prevention, and improving health services for marginalized populations, particularly people who use drugs and those experiencing homelessness.

I use qualitative, ethnographic, and participatory methodologies to study interventions in real-world settings, ranging from small community-run overdose prevention sites to high-volume emergency departments. My research program emphasizes collaboration with community and clinical partners to advance health equity and ensure meaningful involvement of people with lived experience throughout all stages of the research process.

My scholarship is grounded in an interdisciplinary background and more than a decade of involvement in community-based health research. Before joining the School in July 2025, I was a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Social and Behavioral Health Sciences at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (DLSPH), University of Toronto. I obtained my PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Columbia, and was a visiting graduate scholar at the University of California, San Francisco, in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. I also hold a Masters of Public Health (Health Promotion) from DLSPH and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Gender Studies from McGill University.

Publications (Google Scholar)  (external link, opens in new window) 

Teaching Responsibilities  

  • FCS 101: Social Justice and Mental Health 

Teaching Interests

  • Harm Reduction
  • Qualitative and Ethnographic Methodologies
  • Community-Based Participatory Research
  • Social Determinants of Health 

Research Interests

  • Substance use & harm reduction 
  • HIV/STTBI prevention & care
  • Urban health inequities
  • Precarious employment and health

Research Projects

  • Sustaining and improving HIV and HCV prevention, testing, and treatment outcomes: Using implementation science to study safer supply programs 
  • Transformative training for trauma-informed care: How to better serve the emergency health care needs of People who use Drugs 
  • How the COVID-19 pandemic and overdose epidemics are changing addictions medicine: stakeholder perspectives.
  • Housing and overdose risk environments: a community-based participatory research study
  • Investigating access to and outcomes from supervised drug consumption services in British Columbia before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Qualitative evaluation of a tenant overdose prevention in supportive, single room occupancy housing 
  • Optimizing delivery of supervised drug consumption services: Implications of socio-structural environments, service design, and operating practices

  • Emerging & Pandemic Infections Consortium (EPIC) Career Transition Award, University of Toronto, 2024.
  • Friedman Award for Health Scholars, University of British Columbia, 2021.
  • Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, University of British Columbia, 2019. 
  • Killam Doctoral Scholarship, University of British Columbia, 2019. 
  • UBC Li Tze Fong Memorial Fellowship, University of British Columbia, 2018.
  • Four Year Fellowship, University of British Columbia, 2017.