Collaboration

Jen Goldberg RM, MPH, PhD: Jen (they/she) is a critical 2SLGBTQAI+ health and midwifery scholar, registered midwife, and postdoctoral research fellow at the McMaster Midwifery Research Centre in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at McMaster University, funded through a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship. Jen’s research program takes a critical, interdisciplinary approach to investigating 2SLGBTQAI health, drawing from public health, critical theory, midwifery, science and technology studies, and critical qualitative methodologies. Jen completed their PhD in Social and Behavioural Health Sciences at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, funded through a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, where they also completed their MPH in Family and Community Medicine.

Jen’s work has examined Ontario midwives’ attitudes towards sexual and gender minorities, and how queer, trans, and nonbinary midwifery service-users experience cisheteronormativity. Their postdoc study uses digital storytelling to examine what gender-affirming language means to queer, trans, and nonbinary perinatal service-users.

Dr. Alex Abramovich (he/him) is a Scientist at the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. Dr. Abramovich holds a Canada Research Chair in 2SLGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness and Mental Health, and is an award winning, internationally recognized leader whose program of research aims to investigate and improve the health and social inequities experiences by 2SLGBTQ+ individuals. Dr. Abramovich has been addressing the issue of LGBTQ2S youth homelessness for nearly 15 years. His research has led to ground-breaking practice and policy reform, including the launch of Canada's first dedicated transitional housing program for 2SLGBTQ+ youth. Dr. Abramovich has worked closely with all levels of government to develop policies and strategies that address the needs of 2SLGBTQ+ youth and young adults experiencing homelessness and is committed to research that successfully and ethically engages marginalized populations.

Professor Andrea Daley has taught at Renison University College, University of Waterloo since 2018, where she also held the position of Director, School of Social Work for four years. Prior to this appointment she was an Associate Professor and Assistant Professor at York University’s (Toronto) School of Social Work from 2008-2018. She has extensive experience as a mental health clinician in the areas of community mental health and working with consumer/survivor and 2SLGBTQ+ communities. She has published widely in health services access and equity for diversely situated 2SLGBTQ+ people and the productive effect of gendered, sexualized, raced, and classed norms in psychiatric discourse. She is particularly interested in the ways in which psychiatric discourses are implicated in cultural representations of gender(s). Professor Daley has co-edited two groundbreaking books, Madness, Violence, and Power: A Critical Collection (2019) and Interrogating Psychiatric Narratives of Madness: Documented Lives (2021). She has worked as an ally with consumer/survivor and mad communities to examine and develop responses to violence acted upon consumer/survivor/ex-clients of the psychiatric and mental health system. She practices critical research methods to engage politics of knowledge building with communities towards the goal of social transformation.

Email: andrea.daley@uwaterloo.ca

Monica (she/her) is a postdoctoral fellow in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University. In this position, she is working with Dr. Greta Bauer on Trans PULSE Canada and Trans Youth CAN!, two projects on trans and non-binary health across Canada.

Monica joined the Re:Searching for LGBTQ2S+ Health Team in 2016 while completing her PhD in Psychology at the University of Toronto. Broadly, her research interests include investigating stress and resilience in marginalized populations and exploring the relationship between physical and mental health. She is especially interested in strengths-based research with queer and trans BIPOC. To this end, Monica developed the first measure of positive identity among queer BIPOC, the Queer People of Color Identity Affirmation Scale, and then conducted the first study of physiological resilience in this population.

Thanks to her involvement in the Re:Searching team, Monica has had the opportunity to investigate issues unique to bisexual BIPOC. Monica is also Chair of the Awards Committee of APA’s Division 35 Section 4 (Lesbian, Bisexual, and Trans Concerns) and recently joined the Harvard SOGIE Research group. On her free time, Monica enjoys meeting dogs on the street, sitting in the park, and picking up kettlebells at [her home] gym.

W. Ariel Gould (they/them; she/her) is a first year PhD student in the Social and Behavioral Health Sciences division of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at University of Toronto. Their research interests include 2SLGBTQ+ health, especially transgender mental health and 2SLGBTQ+ employment, frequently incorporating a queer theory perspective. They served mental health consumers in San Francisco, CA and Philadelphia, PA as a clinical social worker between 2012 and 2021, in supportive housing, county jail, and out-patient clinic settings. They also have advocated for transgender equality since 2006.

Dr. Daniel Grace (he/him) is an Associate Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto and the Canada Research Chair in Sexual and Gender Minority Health. He is an internationally recognized medical sociologist who leads a mixed methods program of community-engaged research to advance the social, mental, physical, and sexual health of 2SLGBTQ+ communities. His research into the everyday understandings of biomedical HIV prevention and public health interventions has informed community programs, health policy, and legislation at provincial, national, and international levels. Dr. Grace is the 2SLGBTQ+ Health Lead and Director of the Centre for Sexual and Gender Minority Health Research which he established at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. He also leads a national 2SLGBTQ+ training and mentorship planform, working collaboratively with community and academic stakeholders across Canada.

Hannah Kia is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Social Work. She is also affiliated with the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity. Her current program of research addresses a variety of issues pertaining to sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations. Hannah’s work centres, in particular, questions related to SGM health, aging in SGM communities, as well as social work and other professional practice with SGM groups. Recently, she has led SSHRC-funded studies on peer support experiences among transgender (trans) and gender diverse (TGD) people, as well as the social service experiences and needs of TGD older adults.

David J. Kinitz, PhD, MSW is a social and behavioural health scientist and social worker with a passion for understanding the complex social, political, and economic systems that shape LGBTQ+ mental health and wellbeing. He joined the Re:Searching team in 2018 when staring his PhD and continues as a collaborator while working as a Postdoctoral Scholar at The PRIDE Study at Stanford University School of Medicine.  

David’s work primarily draws on critical qualitative and mixed-methods methodologies to deconstruct systems of oppression, such as racism, cissexism, heterosexism, and classism. He looks at how these systems reinforce social hierarchies that produce ill-health, particularly as they relate to labour market phenomena. David’s doctoral research employed narrative inquiry and Marxist political economy theories to study economic insecurity, precarious employment, and mental health among gay, bisexual, and queer men in Toronto, Canada. David continues this area of scholarship through leading and collaborating on various projects exploring access to social assistance, employment quality, employment skills and training, and economic insecurity among LGBTQ+ people in Canada and the US.

Dr. June Lam is a psychiatrist and a PhD candidate in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Toronto. His thesis uses mixed methods to understand transgender and gender diverse Ontarians' experiences of acute mental healthcare (hospitalizations and emergency department visits) and access to post-discharge mental healthcare. He has collaborated with the Re:searching for LGBTQ2S+ Health team on several projects, including our systematic review of perinatal mental health experiences among LGBTQ2S+ childbearing individuals. His scholarship also includes a focus on teaching and practicing gender-affirming care.

Kinnon R. MacKinnon first joined the Re:Searching for 2SLGBTQ Health team in 2011 as a Master of Social Work practicum student. He later reunited with the team in 2014 to complete his PhD in Public Health Sciences under the supervision of Dr. Lori Ross. Today Kinnon is an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work, York University. Drawing from critical, interdisciplinary training in gender studies, social work, and public health, Kinnon's program of research investigates the social and structural dimensions of health and social care access (specialization: 2SLGBTQ care). Kinnon's social work practice background includes support group facilitation in the areas of gender-affirming care, and men's body image. Reflecting a transformative vision, he also designs and studies gender-affirming care education aimed to impact change at the practice and policy levels.

Dr. Stu Marvel is Assistant Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Emory University. Previously, she was a Lecturer at the University of Leeds School of Law and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Emory University School of Law. Marvel received her PhD and LLM from Osgoode Hall Law School, as well as an MA in Gender Analysis for International Development from the University of East Anglia. She has held visiting scholar positions at the Program for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Northeastern University; the Centre for Law, Gender and Sexuality at Kent Law School; and the Feminism and Legal Theory Project at Emory Law School. Previously, Marvel worked as communications liaison at the Korean National Commission for UNESCO in South Korea and served as gender advisor to the Ministry of Women in The Gambia.

Link to website: http://wgss.emory.edu/people/biography/marvel-stu.html

Merrick Pilling is an Assistant Professor at the School of Disability Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University. His work employs an intersectional, anti-racist lens that emphasizes the importance of lived experience, relevance to the communities being researcher and making changes to systems that create marginalization. He has been involved in a number of projects with the Re:Searching for 2SLGBTQ+ Health team including the  of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Windsor, and previously a postdoctoral fellow with the Re:searching for 2SLGBTQ+ Health team. Building Competence, Building Capacity: 2SLGBTQ2+ Focused Trauma-Informed Care project, the The Peers Examining Experiences in Research (PEERS) Study, the Cultural Narratives of Gender in Psychiatric Narratives project and the Defining Community for LGBTQ people with a Diagnosis of Schizophrenia or Bipolar Disorder project. He holds a PhD in Gender, Feminist and Women's Studies from York University, an MA in Social Justice and Equity Studies from Brock University, and a BA (Hons) in Conflict Resolution Studies and Women's Studies from the University of Winnipeg. He is the author of of Queer and Trans Madness: Struggles for Social Justice and the co-editor of: Interrogating Psychiatric Narratives of Madness: Documented Lives. He is currently working on a book called Mad Studies: The Basics, which is under contract with Routledge.

Pitt is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work at York University. She is a co-investigator on the Peers Examining Experiences in Research Study (PEERS)—a project exploring peer researcher involvement in participatory and community based research. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Justice Education and Women & Gender Studies, as well as graduate and undergraduate degrees in Social Work. Her SSHRC funded doctoral research addressed issues of gender, race and sexuality in relation domestic violence interventions in the Anglophone Caribbean. Kendra has worked as a counsellor and domestic violence advocate and has been involved in anti-violence efforts in the Caribbean, Canada and the UK. Her work as a researcher and educator has been guided by her enduring commitment to producing social equity.

Jenna Reid (she/her) has a PhD in Critical Disability Studies from York University and currently holds a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Jenna is working within the Re:Searching LGBTQ2S+ team to explore the impacts of poverty and seeking social assistance in 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. With a studio based PhD in Critical Disability Studies at York University, Jenna's teaching and research specializes in the emergent field of Mad Studies and methodologies that centralize the process of making art as a critical component of social justice oriented research. Jenna has published in The Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, Canadian Art, Intersectionalities: A Global Journal of Social Work Analysis, Research, Policy, and Practice, Journal of Progressive Human Services, and Studies in Social Justice. Combining her specialties in community based research and socially engaged arts practices, Jenna is the current Artistic Director at Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture and has an extensive background teaching in Disability Studies, Mad Studies, and Health and Society programs.

Margaret Robinson, PhD, is a two-spirit, bisexual, and queer scholar from the Eskikewa’kik district in the unceded territory of Mi’kma’ki, and a member of Lennox Island First Nation. She completed her graduate work at the University of Toronto and conducted two postdocs at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health under the supervision of Dr. Lori Ross. Margaret is now an Assistant Professor at Dalhousie University where she holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Reconciliation, Gender, and Identity. Her community-driven program of research examines the benefits of cultural identity, language, and the arts to promote wellbeing for oppressed people. Her participatory approach to research is informed by her experience as a bisexual activist and a queer journalist. She regularly collaborates with the Re:searching for LGBTQ Health Team.

Dr. Travis Salway is a social epidemiologist whose research investigates population health inequities in the context of stigma. He joined SFU Faculty of Health Sciences in 2019, coming with 18 years of experience working with sexual minority (lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer) communities to inform and improve public health interventions. He has collaborated with the Re:searching for LGBTQ2S+ Health team on several projects, including our systematic review of mental health among bisexual people and our work addressing poverty among 2SLGBTQ+ communities. Currently, Travis is leading important work to ban conversion therapies in Canada.

Stella Schneckenburger (she/her) is a medical student at Deakin University School of Medicine. She worked with the Re:Searching for LGBTQ+ Health team from 2021 to 2023, and co-authored 3 publications during this journey. Her particular interests lie in improving healthcare experiences for asexual and aromantic people around the globe.

Dr. Jijian Voronka is an Associate Professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and Critical Studies at the University of Windsor, where she teaches primarily for their Disability Studies Program. Her research uses Mad, Critical Disability and other interdisciplinary critical studies to explore structural violence in sites of activism, service provision, research, and education. She is co-investigator on the Mental Health & Graduate Student Support project and the Peers Examining Experiences in Research Study, both led by Dr. Lori Ross.

Dr. Charmaine C. Williams is a professor and Dean at the the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto. Her research bridges practice and equity issues that affect access to primary health care for racial minority women, HIV prevention in the Black communities, and individual and family experience of living with serious and persistent mental illnesses. Dr. Williams’s research profile is available here.