Clinical Trials British Columbia is pleased to announce Dr. Paul Anthony Keown and Stephania Manusha as recipients of the 2025 Clinical Trials British Columbia Awards.
Through these annual awards, Clinical Trials British Columbia recognizes individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to strengthening BC’s clinical trials ecosystem. Award recipients exemplify excellence in leadership, advocacy for clinical trials, and outstanding service and support to advance clinical trials research and improve the health of people across British Columbia.
“We’re delighted to celebrate this year’s awardees,” says Alison Orth, Portfolio Director, Clinical Trials British Columbia. “Their dedication to strengthening clinical trials contributes to better health for British Columbians.”
Leadership and Advocacy Award
Dr. Paul Anthony Keown
Director, Immune Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia (UBC)
Research Excellence Cluster Lead, Precision Medicine in Transplantation, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Professor, Faculty of Medicine, UBC Lead, Genome Canada Transplant Consortium
Practicing physician, Vancouver General Hospital President and CEO, Syreon
Principal Investigator, CanProspECT Program – Canadian Prospective Epitope Compatibility for Transplant
The Leadership & Advocacy Award honours outstanding leaders and advocates for clinical trials at the local, provincial, or national level. It recognizes leaders who educate, mentor, advocate, or spearhead projects, programs and strategies that benefit BC’s clinical trials community.
Dr. Paul Anthony Keown receives the 2025 Leadership & Advocacy award for his significant contributions to clinical trials advancement, commitment to innovation, advocacy, and inspirational mentorship over the last four decades in BC, Canada, and worldwide.
Paul has made transformative contributions to the development of clinical trials in British Columbia, particularly in the fields of immunology, transplantation, and precision medicine. He supports innovation by leading numerous trials on therapies that prevent a person’s immune system from attacking their new organ. He also champions new clinical trial designs, including models that enable people to participate in trials even if they live far away from a major research centre (known as decentralized trials).
Paul’s research uses new technology to better match organ donors with recipients. Techniques he helped develop have improved transplant success rates by preventing organ rejection.
His vision to position BC as a hub for clinical trials excellence encourages collaboration. He has helped bring together researchers, clinicians, funding agencies, patients, and private industry in BC, across Canada, and internationally.
Paul is also a mentor who has spent over 100 hours each year guiding the next generation of trialists, clinicians, and researchers, many of whom now lead programs of their own.
Through his expertise, leadership, and mentorship, Paul continues to encourage collaboration across government, academia, and industry, raising the standard for clinical research and improving health outcomes for patients.
“The award is a great honour. And to have it conferred by colleagues and friends of many years is wonderful,” Paul says. “I’m delighted.”
Learn more about Paul’s contributions to clinical trials in BC.
Service and Support Award
Stephania Manusha
Senior Director, Clinical Trials Strategy and Industry Relations, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute
The Service & Support Award recognizes the community-based, volunteer commitment of an individual, organization, company or agency to improve BC’s research and clinical trials community.
Stephania Manusha receives the 2025 Service & Support Award for her significant support, expertise, and volunteer contributions, for over two decades, to help shape the systems and processes that advanced clinical trials in BC and across Canada.
Stephania has volunteered her time and knowledge to countless initiatives, from chairing numerous committees to co-leading the development of participant resources like the “It Starts with Me” campaign, which is now used widely across Canada as an education resource for patients and potential clinical trial participants.
She has also been a key part of BC-based initiatives, like the REACH BC platform that helps connect people to research opportunities, and the award-winning Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute Research Awareness campaign, that makes trials more accessible and visible to the public.
As a subject matter expert, Stephania has helped inform policy and change in processes that support clinical trials. She serves as a provincial consultant on the Research Approvals Processes Project, a joint Ministry of Health/Health Authority initiative to standardize and coordinate research approvals for multi-site research studies. She advised on ways to make administrative review and approval pathways more efficient.
“It’s very meaningful to be acknowledged in this way,” Stephania says. “Not just for me personally, but for my team as well. For all the work we’ve done together to strengthen the clinical trials ecosystem.”
Learn more about Stephania’s contributions to clinical trials in BC.
