Dr. Renée-Louise Franche

Dr. Renée-Louise Franche is a consultant in work ability promotion and organizational health, and a registered psychologist. She is an adjunct professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver. 

Previously, she was senior manager of mental health services at WorkSafeBC (British Columbia’s workers’ compensation system), and a founding member of the CIHR Strategic Training Program in Work Ability Prevention. 

Franche's work focuses on optimizing return-to-work and stay-at-work outcomes for workers with health conditions, with employers, insurers, healthcare providers, unions and workers. With over 65 peer-reviewed publications, she has been an active member of the international research community in work disability prevention to promote safe, sustainable, and culturally sensitive return to work processes. During her time as scientist at the Institute for Work & Health, Franche led systematic reviews and a cohort study of injured workers, which impacted the development of innovative policies in the insurance world, and of Best Practices in work disability prevention. Throughout her career, she has been committed to bridging the gap between research and front-line practice to a wide range of audiences, including case managers in insurance companies and in healthcare systems. 

Franche earned her BA (Honours) in psychology at McGill University and her PhD in clinical and health psychology at UBC.