Academic and Community Partners

Academic partners are individuals who share the values and goals of MCCHR and are inspired to work in a university-community framework. Several of our academic partners are people with whom we have worked in the past or presently in certain community development and/or research projects. Communities of practice guide and inspire the work that we do and are informed by the academic/students who wish to collaborate with us.

If you are interested in becoming a faculty associate, please email our Associate Director of Research & Community Projects, Rachel Yavnai (ryavnai@wlu.ca).

Global Health and Development
Indigenous Wholistic Healing
Community Partners
Environment and Water Issues
Women and Gender
Francophone Issues
University-Community Collaboration

Global Health and Development

Bree Akesson
Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University

Jose (Frank) Arocha
School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo

Carmen Logie
Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto

Magnus Mfoafo-M'Carthy
Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University

Srimanta Mohanty
Executive Director, Social Planning Council Peel Region

Michelle Skop
Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University

Wenjang Song
Community Organizer and Registered Social Worker

Eliana Suarez
Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University

Michael Woodford
Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University

Indigenous Wholistic Healing

Kathy Absolon-King
Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University

Gus Hill
Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University

Lori Hill
Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University

Tim Leduc
Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University

Banakonda Kennedy-Kish Bell, Elder-in-Residence
Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University

Community Partners

Community partners work in collaboration with MCCHR on subjects which are important to them. For example, a community partner can reach out to us for assistance in drafting a funding proposal or engage our services to offer board training or workshops on EDI. Inversely, because MCCHR acts as a crossroad between academics, students and other community partners, we often connect individuals who are seeking to work collaboratively with partners in various sectors. As such, we fulfill our mandate as a centre who is committed to creating opportunities for mutually satisfying partnerships between various stakeholders within the community. Additionally, we are often contacted by people working in the arts who wish to connect with our members in order to promote or offer services which may be beneficial to our membership. The backdrop to all of the work that we do is etched within a social justice framework. This allows for a broad understanding and execution of multiple types of projects within the local community and beyond.

An excellent example of a mutually beneficial university-community collaboration can be found between the Sexual Assault Support Centre (SASC) and MCCHR. In 2012, members of our research team worked with SASC in order to draft with members of the Sexual Assault Review Team (SART) a sexual assault protocol for the region of Waterloo. It took three years to finalize the protocol and we are happy to report that in 2017, we were retained by SASC who had received money in order to update the protocol in order to make it more meaningful for other stakeholders in the Region. Once again, members of our research team worked collaboratively with members of SASC and SART, and the protocol was finalized in October 2017. We are proud to say that many of our community partners are ones which we have nurtured for many years.

Environment and Water Issues

Robert Case
Renison University College, University of Waterloo

Brenda Murphy
Social Justice and Community Engagement Program, Wilfrid Laurier University

Souleymane Ndiongue
Walkerton Clean Water Centre/ Centre de Walkerton pour l’assainissement de l’eau

Women and Gender

David Caron
College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, University of Michigan

Eden Hennessey
Research & Programs Director, Laurier Centre for Women in Science (WinS)

Maryam Khan
Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University

Sonia Meerai
Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University

Leslie Nichols
Contract Teaching Faculty, Wilfrid Laurier University

Carol Stalker (retired)
Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University

Karen Stote
Department of Women and Gender Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University

Francophone Issues

François Boudreau (retired)
School of Social Work, Laurentian University

Khady Ndiaye
Présidente, Regroupement de l'association sénégalaise de l'Ontario

Mariama Soda Ndao
Ecole Doctorale Arts, Culture et Civilisation (ED-ARCIV)/Laboratoire de Linguistique et Grammaire Anglaise et Africaine (LiGaa)/Département d'Anglais, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar

University-Community Collaboration

Alan Blum
Department of Communication and Culture, York University and The Culture of Cities Centre

Kieran Bonner
School of Planning, University of Waterloo

Cheryl-Anne Cait
Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University

Jen Gordon
Director of Advocacy, YW Kitchener-Waterloo

Sandra Hoy
School of Social Work, Laurentian University

Karun Karki
School of Social Work, University of the Fraser Valley

Shoshana Pollack
Assistant Coordinator, Walls to Bridges Canada

Sue Weare
former Associate Director, Centre for Community Research, Learning and Action (CCRLA) Wilfrid Laurier University

Hari Stirbet
Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University