Dr. Elgar is a Professor and cross-appointed to the Institute for Health and Social Policy and Department of Psychiatry. He is also an associate member of the Department of Psychology and Margaret A. Gilliam Institute for Global Food Security. Frank trained in developmental psychology at Memorial University and Dalhousie University and previously worked at the Cardiff Institute for Society, Health and Ethics (UK), University of Manitoba's Department of Family Social Sciences, and Carleton University's Department of Psychology before joining McGill in 2011.
His research examines social patterns in child and adolescent health, in Canada and globally. Current projects explore ways to improve children’s chances to be healthy amid the social forces of poverty, food insecurity, violence, and economic inequality. Frank is also a co-investigator of the World Health Organization's Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study where he leads international collaborations on the impacts of school violence, social media use, and corporal punishment legislation on adolescent mental health and well-being.