Fall 2024 Graduate Fellows

Sammy Kai Yee Chan

Sammy (she/her) is a second-year Master of Arts student at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts. A skilled arts management professional from Hong Kong, Sammy has extensive experience organizing exhibitions and community art projects, with a particular focus on underrepresented art communities. Her research interests encompass the intersection of art and spirituality, social diversity, and ecological arts. In collaboration with the Community Arts Council of Vancouver (CACV), Sammy’s current research explores outsider artists’ entrepreneurship, focusing on developing sustainable social enterprise models that foster inclusivity and empower marginalized artists in Metro Vancouver.

Seyed Hamid Delbari

Seyed Hamid Delbari is a second-year Ph.D. student in the School of Sustainable Energy Engineering at Simon Fraser University and a research fellow in the Sustainable and Community-Resilient Alternative Mobility (SCRAM) project. SCRAM is a multidisciplinary initiative between SFU and UBC, dedicated to identifying decarbonization pathways in the transportation sector while exploring co-benefits for climate resilience, air quality, health, and equity at the community level. Hamid contributes to the project as an air quality modeler and emission inventory development expert, with a focus on quantifying the impact of survey-driven sustainable mobility scenarios on the overall air quality in Burnaby's communities.

Elodie Jacquet

Elodie is a 2nd year PhD student in the Department of Political Science at SFU, where she focuses on the experiences of marginalized groups in multilateral climate negotiations. Elodie has over 17 years of experience as an engagement, dialogue, and facilitation practitioner. She was involved in co-designing and facilitating large-scale citizen and community engagements, including Canada’s World, the Citizen’s Dialogues on Canada’s Energy Future, the National Reconciliation Gatherings, and the guided dialogues for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. She was the lead researcher on inclusion in Open Government for the Canadian Government, and a peer-reviewer for its 4th Open Government Plan. As manager of knowledge and practice at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University, she co-led the development of the award-winning guide Beyond Inclusion: Equity in Public Engagement. She has observed the UNFCCC COP processes since 2015, where she engages with governments and civil society on environmental democracy. As the principal of Banyan Consulting, she supports institutions and governments to develop deliberative citizen engagement processes. She holds a Master's in ethology and psychophysiology from Université Paris XIII, and an MSc in Global Climate and Energy Policy from SOAS, University of London.

Tara Jankovic

Tara is a second year M.A. student in the Department of Geography. Working with tenants through the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House and Vancouver Tenants Union, her research explores precarity in the private rental housing market in Vancouver. Focusing on the proliferation of no-fault evictions (caused by a landlord wanting to use, sell, or redevelop property), she is interested in how tenants experience and navigate precarious property relations in increasingly financialized housing markets.

Marina Khonina

Marina Khonina (they/them) is a PhD student in Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. Their research focuses on the experiences of trans and gender-expansive (TGE) athletes and coaches in Canada. As a track and field athlete and coach, Marina brings their lived experience to their research. They want to see a cultural change in sport toward more TGE participation, safety, and affirmation. Marina also works as language consultant, specializing in sensitivity editing and translations that are inclusive of 2S/LGBTQ+ communities and other minoritized groups.

Belinda Li

Belinda Li is a PhD Candidate with the Food Systems Lab in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. Her doctoral research is on the contribution of community composting to food system circularity and resilience, with a focus on rural communities. She is supporting Making Agriculture Sustainable in the Hazeltons (MASH) with monitoring and evaluation for their community composting pilot. Her hope is that the lessons learned can be used to establish a permanent program and act as a resource for people who wish to start community composting in their own neighbourhoods.

Regina Baeza Martinez

Regina Baeza Martinez (she/her) is a Master's student in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Her research explores the experiences of Indigenous migrant farmworkers who are recruited from Guatemala to work in Canada's agricultural sector. She argues that while these workers enter Canada on so-called 'temporary' visas, they engage in place-making practices that leave a permanent imprint through the creation of transnational Indigenous worlds (or 'mundos indígenas' in Spanish). As a CERi fellow, she is looking forward to supporting her community partners in the struggle for dignity and justice for all migrant workers.

Melanie Grace Medina

Melanie Grace Medina (she/her) is a Master of Public Health candidate in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. Her graduate thesis focuses on Indigenous Ways of Knowing-Being-Doing in overcoming stigma and discrimination on post-overdose health care utilization among Indigenous Peoples in British Columbia, before and during COVID-19. This collaborative work is grounded in a Two-Eyed Seeing approach, incorporating an intersectionality lens and strengths-based enquiry. She aims to use research findings to inform the development of clinical care guidelines for health care providers serving these equity-deserving communities. In her spare time, Melanie enjoys hiking, learning new languages, and exploring Vancouver cafés in search of the best iced matcha latté!

Abonti Mehtaz

Abonti (She/Her) is a third-year PhD student in the School of Communication. Besides, she is serving as a full-time Assistant Professor at the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism in a public university of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Abonti successfully completed three MA degrees in Mass Communication and Journalism, Film Studies and International Studies on Media, Power and Difference from Bangladesh, Canada and Spain respectively before joining the PhD programme. Abonti’s area of research interest comprises film, gender and feminism, political communication, extremism and terrorism, social media and the representation of race, gender and religion in media. As a CERi graduate fellow, Abonti wants to gather diversified knowledge on various methods and approaches to community-engaged research so that she can efficiently conduct her own PhD research titled “Online feminist movements in South Asia.”

Alice Murage

Alice Mũrage is a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. Her research interrogates precarious work and its effects on health outcomes among Black healthcare workers in British Columbia. As a Research Fellow at the Faculty, Alice has over the past four years led and collaborated on research promoting social and health equity particularly as it pertains differential risks and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. She believes in research as indispensable in bridging lived experiences and policy. 

Alice resides on the traditional and unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations.

Mariana Pinzon-Caicedo

Mariana Pinzon-Caicedo is a second year PhD student in Sociology at SFU, specializing in the sociology of development. In her research, Mariana is focusing on a critical analysis of poverty reduction programs and inclusion policies. For her PhD project, she is planning on conducting ethnographic research with poverty reduction program beneficiaries, and during her field work, Mariana is hoping to meaningfully engage in a style of research that is mutually beneficial with participants, and one that is respectful of the community knowledge. Mariana holds an MA in Sociology from Simon Fraser University (SFU), an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and a BSc in Economics from Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. 

Anwen Rees

Anwen is interested in planning, water, nature-based solutions and justice. After completing her B.Sc in Natural Resources Conservation (Global Perspectives) at the University of British Columbia in 2019, Anwen realized she wanted to work in local, community-based climate adpatation initiatives. Because of this, she completed the Masters in Resource Management (Planning) at Simon Fraser University in 2023, and continued on to the Ph.D. program. Anwen's doctoral work is investigating water governance systems with Squamish Nation, and the city of Prince Rupert. In her free time, she enjoys biking, reading, dancing, and spending time outside.

Riana Sihota

Riana Sihota is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University and a research assistant with the HEAL (Healthy Ecologies and Lifestyles) Lab. Her research examines how collectivist and individualist cultural orientations impact the mental health and health-seeking behaviors of South Asian immigrant women in Canada, with a focus on depression and anxiety. Committed to health equity and community-engaged research, Riana's work seeks to address the mental health disparities in immigrant communities while amplifying the voices of marginalized groups affected by systemic discrimination and colonial legacies.