Researchers
Dr. Ciann L. Wilson
Positions: Access and Equity Research Interest Group Research Lead, Assistant Professor, CCRLA Research Centre Co-Director
I have over a decade experience working within racialized communities across the greater Toronto area first as a youth programmer, and now as a health researcher doing work across the country. My body of work aims to utilize research as an avenue for sharing the stories and realities of Black, Indigenous and people of colour communities for the improvement of the health and wellbeing of our communities. My areas of interest include: critical race and class theories, anti-/de-colonial theory, African diasporic and Indigenous community health, HIV/AIDS, public health, social determinants, political economy, sexual and reproductive wellbeing, equity in education, and community-based research.
Email: ciwilson@wlu.ca
Natalie Kivell
Positions: Access and Equity Research Interest Group Research Lead, Assistant Professor
My research, practice, and community engagement focus on social justice, disrupting systems of power, developing and studying participatory social interventions, and engaging in systematic ways to create and disseminate knowledge driven by the community and individuals with lived experience. My areas of interest include theorizing and doing social transformation, and critical community psychology; building and applying critical social theory and participatory and critical methodologies; challenging epistemic authority and epistemic violence through the de(re)-centering of knowledge(s); and engaging in and studying media activism, and intersectional social movements. In my research, teaching, media activism and life, I seek out opportunities to be a part of and cultivate just, and connected communities.
Amandeep K. Singh
Program: Community Psychology, PhD Candidate
Other affiliations: Research Lab Coordinator for Access and Equity Research Interest Group; Board Chair, Graduate Student Association (GSA); Co-Founder @BIPOC.grads; Graduate Student Representative - Senate Committee on Research and Publications (SCRAP)
Amandeep is a South Asian cis-woman, born and raised in Canada (Treaty 7). Her community and professional work focus on the experiences of racialized and multiply-marginalized communities in the access and accessibility of educational, cultural, and health services.
Email: sing1148@mylaurier.ca
Ellis Furman
Program: Community Psychology, PhD Candidate
Other affiliations: Co-Founder of Fake Femmes
Ellis is passionate about using qualitative, quantitative, and arts-informed research methods to amplify the voices of queer and trans communities through community-based research and program evaluation. Ellis is dedicated to working with communities to eradicate gender-based violence through fostering inclusive services, prevention programs, and providing accessible education and training to make gender-based violence services more accessible to queer and trans survivors of violence.
Email: furm0500@mylaurier.ca / 2fakefemmes@gmail.com
Program: Community Psychology, PhD Student
Other affiliations: Registered Psychotherapist
Email: shar0055@mylaurier.ca
Natasha Afua Darko
Program: Community Psychology, MA Student
Natasha’s research interests include sexual health and HIV/AIDS prevention, specifically in African, Caribbean and Black youth. She is passionate about health promotion, social justice and equity in healthcare and hopes to conduct meaningful research that can be used to implement culturally appropriate health prevention interventions.
Email: dark1140@mylaurier.ca
LinkedIn: Natasha Afua Darko
Vivila Yujuan Liu
Program: Community Psychology, MA Student
Other Affiliations: Founder of TVmosaic Sex Education, Co-Founder of Fake Femme
Vivila is an enthusiastic sexual health educator and researcher who utilizes the power of social media, internet and technology to conduct sexual health research and disseminate the knowledge produced in academia into everyday lives. She engages in community-based youth sexual health research, and provides culturally relevant, inclusive and comprehensive sex education for diverse young people around world through internet.
Email: tvmosaic@gmail.com/ 2fakefemmes@gmail.com
YouTube: TVmosaic
Ann Marie Beals
Program: Community Psychology, PhD 2023
Other affiliations: Mi'kmaq First Nation, African Nova Scotian; Member, African Caribbean Black (ACB) Network; Board Member, GSA; Treasurer, CPA Community Psychology
I am an Urban Black Native community health researcher. Working in community, I utilize decolonization, critical race theory, and intersectional Black feminist approaches to support the health and wellbeing of mixed-blood Indigenous-Black people.
Email: beal0950@mylaurier.ca
Twitter: @SunAMBee
LinkedIn: Ann Marie Beals
Tiyondah Fante-Coleman
Program: MA, 2019
Areas of Key Interests: Social justice and health equity, healthcare access for marginalized populations, behavioural and cultural influences of sexual behaviour and mental health in Black populations.
Email: Tiyondah_fc@yahoo.ca
LinkedIn: Tiyondah Fante-Coleman
Brianna Hunt
Program: MA, 2019
Areas of Key Interests: Social Determinants of Health/Mental Health, Healthcare Equity, Arts-based Research Methods, and Decolonial Approaches to Research.
Email: b.hunt@tsin.ca
LinkedIn: Brianna Hunt