Our Team

We are an interdiscplinary team of health professionals and are proud to offer patient and family-centred care to our patients living with CF.

Dr Pearce Wilcox, CF Clinic Medical Director

Dr Wilcox graduated from Medical School at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario in 1980. He completed training in Internal Medicine at the University of Western Ontario followed by a fellowship in Respirology at the University of British Columbia.  Thereafter he pursued research training in the areas of Ventilatory Muscle abnormalities supervised by Dr Richard Pardy at UBC and Dr Ludwig Engel in Sydney, Australia and in Respiratory Sleep Disorders supervised by Dr John Fleetham at UBC.

Dr Wilcox became a UBC Faculty member in 1988 and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at UBC.  His clinical activities include general Respirology with a focus on Cystic Fibrosis and on Pulmonary manifestations of Connective Tissue Disorders. He is the Medical Director of the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at UBC and also the co-Director of the UBC Scleroderma Respiratory Clinic.  In addition Dr Wilcox is the Medical Director of the Pulmonary Function Laboratory for Providence Health Care in Vancouver.

Dr Wilcox’s academic activities include an active participation in the Undergraduate Teaching Program in the Department of Medicine and he has received several teaching awards in recognition of this. He is involved in clinical research, largely in the areas of Cystic Fibrosis and Interstitial Lung disease and has over 50 publications in peer reviewed journals. Dr Wilcox is the coordinator of the UBC Annual Respirology Meeting and has been appointed as the Scientific Program Chair for the Canadian Thoracic Society.  He is very involved in Continuing Medical Education presentations locally and nationally.

Dr. Bradley Quon, MD, MSc, MBA, FRCPC

Dr. Quon is a CF physician and researcher. He received his medical degree at McGill University and completed both Internal Medicine and Respirology training at the University of British Columbia. Following completion of his clinical training, he undertook two years of clinical research training in CF at the University of Washington.

In collaboration with the CF team, Dr. Quon is committed to optimizing the health and quality of life of individuals with CF. To help achieve this goal, he has a mandate to ensure investigator-led research studies and clinical trials are seamlessly integrated into the clinic with the hope that discoveries will directly translate into improved patient care. His research focuses on three main themes: 1) Translational Research: to discover a simple blood test that reflects lung disease activity to aid in diagnosing pulmonary exacerbations; 2) Clinical Epidemiology Research: to better characterize chronic medical issues (such as diabetes and kidney disease) specific to the adult CF population so that efforts can be made to reduce their burden; and 3) Quality Improvement Research: to integrate quality improvement practices in the CF clinic to improve disease monitoring, treatment adherence, and health outcomes.

Dr. Jodi Goodwin, MD FRCPC

Dr. Goodwin is a CF physician. She received her medical degree from the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Goodwin completed training in Internal Medicine and Respirology at the University of Toronto and McMaster University respectively, followed by further subspecialty training in Cystic Fibrosis at the University of Toronto. She then finished additional training in CF through UBC before officially joining the team at St. Paul's in December 2015. In collaboration with the CF team, Dr. Goodwin is dedicated to providing outstanding patient care. As well, she functions as an active clinical investigator. Additionally she oversees the continual expansion of our telehealth program, which allows us to utilize modern technology to engage CF patients across a broad geographical region.

Dr. Carlos Nunez, CF Psychiatrist

Dr. Nunez is the CF psychiatrist. He graduated from the University of Arizona College of Medicine and attended the Psychiatry residency program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He completed his training with an emphasis in community psychiatry, and has consistently worked in interdisciplinary clinic settings, functioning as a psychiatric consultant to physicians of other specialties. After completing one year of further training at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, he relocated to Vancouver in 2012, joining the psychiatry department at St Paul’s hospital. His other commitments at St. Paul’s include inpatient psychiatric care, affiliated clinical research, and UBC appointment as a clinical instructor.  His other career interests include addiction medicine and role of mental health in work related disability and occupational medicine.

Jane Kerr, CF Clinic Nurse Coordinator

Jane Kerr joined the CF team in 2015 upon the retirement of Cathy MacDonell. As the CF Nurse Clinic Coordinator, Jane oversees the day to day  operations of the CF Clinic, assists patients in accessing hospital services such as  the Home IV Program, is involved  with patient and allied health education, and liaises with other health care partners, such as Children’s Hospital and CF Canada. Prior to 2015, Jane worked in all areas of transplant, pre and post, with a particular love for her lung transplant patients.  This love is actually what brought Jane to the CF Clinic where she continues to see patients “from the old days”.  In addition to caring for the CF population, Jane’s other great loves are her daughter and travelling.

April Tanzler, CF Nurse

April Tanzler has been a Registered Nurse for 15 years and worked for 8 years in Acute Medicine at St. Paul's Hospital before joining the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Team. She enjoys working with the CF Community and being part of this specialized interdisciplinary team.

Kathleen Lee, CF Dietician

Kathleen Lee has been a registered dietitian for 24 years and is a member of the College of Dietitians of British Columbia.  She graduated from the University of British Columbia and completed an internship at Vancouver General Hospital.  Through her career she has worked in many different areas including diabetes, gastroenterology, surgery, renal, medicine, HIV/AIDS and private practice.  Her most recent area of work has been in CF, respirology, and general medicine where she has practiced for the last 18 years.  She provides nutritional care to both inpatients and outpatients in the hospital setting.

Gia Zheng, CF Dietician

Gia Zheng graduated from the University of British Columbia and is registered with the College of Dietitians of British Columbia. She officially joined the St Paul’s Hospital Adult Cystic Fibrosis Clinic in 2016; prior to this she has worked in multiple areas with expertise in Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, and Cardiology. At the CF Clinic she works to optimize nutritional care for both CF inpatients and outpatients. As a dietitian Gia is passionate about food, cooking, nutrition, and the relationship food brings to each individual. She looks forward to having conversations about all aspects of food and nutrition with the CF community.

Renée Dagenais, CF Pharmacist

Renée graduated from the University of British Columbia with her undergraduate and doctorate degrees in pharmacy in 2015 and 2018, respectively. For the year in between these programs, she completed a pediatric-focused Hospital Pharmacy Residency in Vancouver. Before joining the Adult CF Clinic team in 2019, Renée was a pharmacist on the outpatient hemodialysis unit at St. Paul’s Hospital.

Renée loves collaborating with the CF Clinic team to provide high quality care to patients with CF in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. One of her primary goals is to optimize patients’ medications to suit their unique needs and values. She also enjoys being a readily accessible resource to answer any medication-related questions, and to provide comprehensive medication teaching and counseling

Brigette Wilkins, CF Physiotherapist

After a varied career path including a degree in Art History from the University of Victoria, long spells in professional kitchens as a chef and in many a nightclub as a rock musician, Brigette finally decided what she wanted to be when she grew up and applied to the UBC School of Physical Therapy, from which she graduated in 2005. She started working with CF patients as a student in 2004 and has wanted to do nothing else since, though she has made the occasional appearance as a clinical instructor/examiner in Physical Therapy at UBC. Current professional interests include methods of enhancing patient adherence to treatment, exercise testing and prescription, and the role of exercise in preventing and treating bone disease in CF. In her off hours, she can be found under a barbell or behind a drum kit.

Pat MacDiarmid, CF Social Worker

Pat has been a social worker for 25 years, during which time she has worked to provide counselling, advocacy, and program development in community based organizations. She joined the Adult CF Clinic team in early 2006. She has a Masters degree in social work from McGill University and is a member of the BC College of Social Workers. As the Adult CF Clinic social worker Pat provides psychosocial support for adults living with CF, with the aim of contributing to their overall quality of life.  This includes providing supportive counselling, linking people to appropriate community resources, assisting people in managing the healthcare system, as well as assisting with practical issues such as medical EI, disability benefits, and vocational programs.

Joanne Laviolette, Unit Coordinator

Joanne has worked in St Paul’s Hospital for over 20 years in a variety of areas.  These include patient information, ultrasound and radiology in the Cat Scan dept.  She joined the CF team as a temporary unit coordinator in September 2008, and in Novvember 2009 became permanent full-time.  Joanne looks after all the appointment bookings, referrals to other doctors and pharmacy requests for CF patients.  The part of her job she enjoys the most is working directly with the patients and getting to know them better.