Dr. Jennifer Salerno’s areas of focus include chronic disease epidemiology in aging populations, causal models, clinical trials research, comparative effectiveness, health services research, and research ethics.
As a Research Associate in the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University, Dr. Salerno specializes in coaching and mentoring clinically focused family physicians in developing scholarly research by providing methodological expertise through consultations, collaborative research teams, and communities of practice. Since joining McMaster University in 2014 and the Department of Family Medicine in 2021, she has provided one-on-one support to both full and part-time affiliated family physicians on research design and methodology spanning the areas of mental health, diagnostic tools and imaging, dementia care, palliative care, medical education during residency, virtual care, among other high-impact clinically focused research areas in primary care. Dr. Salerno collaborates on the TAPER clinical trial (TAPER: Team Approach to Polypharmacy Evaluation and Reduction) which aims to reduce multiple medication use and the harmful effects of polypharmacy among older adults and several family medicine led studies using data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). Dr. Salerno is the Hamilton Site Lead for the InQuiry Curriculum in the Department of Family Medicine Post-Graduate Medical Education Residency Program, helping to integrate both research and quality improvement into the clinical training program, reinforcing the importance of evidence-informed practice and ethical leadership in clinical training. Dr. Salerno holds an appointment of Assistant Professor (Part-Time) in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster University, where she serves on the MSc Admissions Committee and contributes to teaching by leading problem-based tutorial sessions at the graduate-level in the Health Research Methodology Program for the core courses including Fundamentals of Health Research and Evaluation (HRM 721) and Introduction to Research Methods for Randomized Controlled Trials (HRM 730), and lectures in the course on Research Ethics (HRM 742).
Dr. Salerno holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Toronto, MSc in Community Health and Epidemiology from Queen’s University, and Honours BSc from McMaster University’s Biology and Pharmacology Co-operative Program. She completed fellowship training at both the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute in the area of traumatic brain injury epidemiology and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (National Cancer Institute's Hormonal and Reproductive Epidemiology Branch) in the area of breast cancer epidemiology. Her previous research examined the epidemiology of brain injuries and related vascular dementias, and specifically, examined the etiology of cognitive function in aging populations using molecular/biochemical methods and advanced statistical models. She worked for several years as a clinical epidemiologist in the Government of Ontario (MOHLTC and Health Quality Ontario) where she performed several health technology assessments, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. She also developed cancer clinical practice guidelines supporting Cancer Care Ontario's Cancer Imaging Program through McMaster's Program in Evidence-Based Care, Department of Oncology.
For more than 15 years, Dr. Salerno has advanced the mission of the American College of Epidemiology (ACE) with dedication to ethics in epidemiology and public health. Dr. Salerno is currently the Chair of the ACE Ethics and Policy Committee (2023-2026) and has held numerous leadership positions in ACE since 2004 (previous Chair [2013-2016], Vice Chair [2011-2013 and 2021-2023], Member of the Board of Directors [2015-2018], and Associate Director [2005-2006]). Her leadership in ACE has coincided with significant and sustained leadership roles in the International Epidemiological Association (IEA). These include serving as the North American Regional Councilor (2021-2024) during which she expanded webinar offerings in the region and brought global leaders together to address critical topics such as the social determinants of health. She also served as the Editorial Board Liaison to the International Journal of Epidemiology (2023-2025), representing IEA priorities that included advocating for broader editorial board representation across geographic regions and genders. Currenlty, she serves as an Executive Council Member and Secretary of the IEA (2024-2027), contributing to the Association's social media efforts, strategic planning initiatives, capacity-building activities, and journal-related priorities.
