Erin Chan (she/her) is a second-year graduate student in the Master of Publishing program at Simon Fraser University. Her research is centred on zines and the zine community of the west coast of Canada as a publishing counterculture. She is interested in exploring zines as a crucial alternative to mainstream publishing in giving space to and embodying marginalized communities.
Danette Jubinville is a 4th year PhD Candidate at the SFU Faculty of Health Sciences and the Director of Research and Education for the Ekw'í7tl Indigenous Doula Collective. Danette also currently works with the UBC Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcomes Sciences (CHÉOS) as a Research Coordinator and as Co-Principal Investigator for Improving Access to Family Planning Services for Indigenous Peoples through Storytelling: the STORY Project. Danette's work aims to advance reproductive justice for Indigenous people in the city, a project near to her heart as an urban mixed-blood woman, mother, and birth worker with Cree, Saulteaux, French, Jewish, German, Scottish, and English ancestry.
Farinaz is in the first year of her Master’s degree in the Department of Gerontology at SFU. She completed her previous Master’s degree in Urban Design at University of Tehran, Iran. Her research interests fall within the field of age-friendly cities and urban environments with a focus on mobility, walkability, and wheelability of neighbourhoods for older people and people with disabilities. Having a few years of professional experience with urban planning consulting companies in her own country, she brings her urban planning and design outlook to the study of older adults’ life. Currently, she works as the Graduate Research Assistant on two projects named MAP and PARCOURS, both focused on mobility and accessibility of public spaces for people with different types of disabilities, which are jointly led by SFU, UBC, and Université Laval. She also works with the Renewable Cities at Morris J Wosk Centre for dialogue as an analyst on a project focused on integrating housing solutions with climate actions. Farinaz likes Pilates, nature, and music.
Jack Farrell is a first year PhD student in the department of Criminology. Jack’s research focuses on changing drug policy through centering the expertise and perspectives of people who use drugs. Through working with communities that have borne the brunt of the War on Drugs, Jack seeks to both highlight the deadly consequences of current drug policy and to co-develop drug policies that prevent rather than cause harm.
Jack teaches Criminology at Columbia College and also leads the academic team of the Student Refugee Program at Columbia as part of World University Service Canada. Currently Jack is a research assistant on the Imagine Safe Supply research project at Canadian Drug Policy Coalition.
I grew up on the unceded lands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations and have had the immense privilege of benefitting from the lands that Indigenous people have stewarded here since time immemorial. I feel deep gratitude and a desire to create space for Indigenous resurgence and increased sovereignty over their unceded lands and resources.
After completing a BA in Geography with a focus on social-ecological coastal systems at the University of Victoria, I began my graduate degree at Simon Fraser University in the Resource and Environmental Management (Planning) program. I am thrilled to be a part of a community-engaged research team at Simon Fraser University, as well as a new cohort member of CERi. My Master's thesis at SFU is one part of a project taking place on Xwe’etay/ Lasqueti Island in the Salish Sea, where we are looking at how to better honour and protect First Nations Heritage through community-engaged research and planning.
I am passionate about collaborative management and systems planning for the long-term sustainability of ecosystems, cultures, and community wellbeing. I have experience with collaborative community-led projects with marginalized groups of people, stream and watershed stewardship, forest restoration, coastal system analysis, and climate change adaptation and mitigation techniques. I approach my research through a lens that acknowledges the complexity and interconnectedness of all aspects of a landscape.
Mari del Casal is a second year Master of Public Health Student in the Faculty of Health Sciences. He is broadly interested in public mental health, which involves prevention of mental health concerns, health promotion, and reducing mental health inequities. His current work with the CHART Lab aims to look at youth mental health trends and youth perspectives on prevention strategies using a mixed-methods approach. Mari’s goal to continue in public mental health and in community-engagement was fueled by his previous work at Pathways Clubhouse, a non-profit organization that supports people who live with mental illness.
Martha (they/she) is in their first year of the MSc in Health Science program. They are in the Faculty of Health Science with a focus on the experience of Canadian non-binary individuals in organized sport.
Martha currently has a workspace as a trainee at the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity in downtown Vancouver. They have interned at Cressey Sports Performance and Peak State Performance which are gyms for professional baseball and basketball players, respectively. They have also worked at York University with men’s soccer and Ryerson University with women’s volleyball as a student athletic therapist. These placements showed them many barriers that queer and gender minority people face in sport, many that Martha has faced themselves.
Maya Guttmann is a second year Master's student in the School of Resource and Environmental Management. Maya's research aims to create space for community members, knowledge holders, youth, and harvesters to be full partners in the research pro cess. She hopes to center community-based approaches in her study of intertidal ecosystems. Maya's work is done in partnership with the Tsleil Waututh Nation.
Michaela McGuire is a first year PhD student in the School of Criminology. Her PhD research will examine justice and injustice through considering the importance of belonging and identity within the Haida community– and the role of the state in disrupting cultural and community belonging. Michaela has worked as an instructor and research assistant for the Haida Gwaii Institute (HGI) and SFU. She lives between Haida Gwaii and the lower mainland. Michaela’s research interests include decolonization and resurgence; Haida justice; Racism against Indigenous peoples; Indigenous rights, governance, and sovereignty; Indigenous women, and corrections.
Nicole Stewart is a doctoral candidate in the School of Communication at SFU. Nicole’s research explores how families in British Columbia domesticate media applications and technology in the home. Nicole also has research projects that examine digital skills, presentation software, and platforms.
I am a second year Graduate student pursuing a M.A. in Gerontology in the Department of Gerontology. My research focus is on intergenerational relationships and connections. Recently, I have been interested in how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted intergenerational connections from forming. I am currently working on the InterGenNS Project researching various intergenerational opportunities on the North Shore. This community engaged research project allows me to work with many different organizations two being North Shore Community Resources and the Canadian Federation of University Women. In my free time, I love spending time exploring the beautiful landscape of British Columbia!
Ryan Wai Shing Lai 黎韋成 (He/Him) is a second-year MA student in the Urban Studies program at Simon Fraser University. His research interests include housing studies, transnational labour migration, and decolonizing urban governance. His research project intends to explore the relationship between Filipinx caregivers and the Hong Kong immigrant children that they cared for in Metro Vancouver through a collaborative autoethnographic approach. In the last 6 years, Ryan has been doing front line work in the Vancouver East community for non-profit organizations such as Megaphone Magazine and the John Howard Society.
Tatiana Pakhomova is a first-year PhD student at SFU’s Faculty of Health Sciences. Tatiana’s interests include community-based research, social epidemiology, mental health, sexual and reproductive health, intersectional and feminist methodologies, and social justice-based public health approaches. Her PhD works aims to examine the biological and psychological consequences of socio-structural inequities, with a focus on exploring pathways between socio-structural determinants of health, stress and inflammation, and mental health outcomes among youth in HIV-endemic communities. She also currently works at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS on a study exploring patient and provider perspectives on overcoming barriers to HIV care engagement. Tatiana is originally from Ukraine, and has lived in Canada for the past 18 years.
Tsatia Adzich is a Cree-Metis PhD student starting her second year of study in the Geography department at SFU. Her research focusses on transnational urban Indigenous futures being created through kinship-based governance structures and networks led by Indigenous women in Surrey, Canada and Yakutsk, Russia. Tsatia currently works closely with Skookum Surrey (formerly Skookum Lab), the YWCA Circle of Sisters Indigenous Mentorship Program, and also serves as the co-chair for the Canadian Association of Geographers (CAG) Indigenous Peoples Working Group. Her research celebrates her kin and community members storytelling practices and engages with the brilliance of Indigenous womens’ place-making initiatives.
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