Prof Harriet MacMillan

MD, MSC, FRCPC

Harriet MacMillan is a psychiatrist and pediatrician conducting family violence research. She is a member of the Offord Centre for Child Studies and Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, and of Pediatrics at McMaster University and holds the Chedoke Health Chair in Child Psychiatry.

Harriet was the founding Director of the Child Advocacy and Assessment Program (CAAP) at McMaster Children’s Hospital, a multidisciplinary program committed to reducing the burden of suffering associated with family violence; she continues to see patients as an active staff member of CAAP.

Her research focuses on the epidemiology of violence against children and women; she has led randomized controlled trials evaluating the effectiveness of approaches to preventing child maltreatment and intimate partner violence. Funding for this work has been provided by organizations such as the WT Grant Foundation, CIHR, the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation and CDC.

Harriet is a co-principal investigator of PreVAiL (Preventing Violence Across the Lifespan), an international Network of researchers in the areas of mental health, gender and violence, and of partner organizations with service, research and policy mandates in these areas. Through PreVAiL, Harriet works closely with organizations such as the Public Health Agency of Canada and the World Health Organization.