She is a Full professor in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair at the University of Manitoba.

[3] As an assistant professor, she oversaw the first nationally representative study on child abuse and mental disorders in Canada.

[3] As a result of her overall research, Afifi was recognised by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 2016 as one of Manitoba's "new crop of leaders, movers and shakers under the age of 40.

[7] The following year, Afifi was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists as an emerging and productive academic.

[9] She also received the 2018 Canadian Institutes of Health Research Gold Leaf Prize for Outstanding Achievements by an Early Career Investigator.