I returned to graduate school in 2007 after ten years working in community, social services, teaching, planning, research, relief and development capacities in various world regions. Fieldwork and international experiences oriented my interests to human health and sociology. I credit my mother and the experiences of living on Prince Edward Island and in Africa for teaching me about community and for providing guidance; in different, but surprisingly complementary, ways.
The common thread connecting my academic and volunteer work is concerns for equity. I am involved as researcher-activist in health advocacy and public education. I am currently board director for AIDS Community Care Montreal, the Canadian AIDS Information Treatment Exchange, and the Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development. Through these organizations I engage in numerous community-level activities. I am profoundly concerned about the fact that certain people in our societies are disproportionately faced with illness.
I am an interdisciplinary social scientist with training in political studies, international relations and urban planning. I am pursuing a PhD in Population Health at the University of Ottawa. My bilingual doctoral research is critical policy work examining the social organization of immigrant and refugee people’s experience stemming from Canada’s policy of mandatory HIV testing of applicants to this country. For this research I collaborated with numerous organizations, including the HIV/AIDS Legal Clinic of Ontario, Asian Community AIDS Services, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, and AIDS Community Care Montreal. I would like the results of my qualitative project to enlighten government immigration and health policy work, be useful for HIV-positive newcomers to Canada, and inform people working in association with the latter.
My career aspirations include a full-time academic position. I am keen to teach and engage in community-based action research linking Canadian and international communities; the scientific results of which can point to ways of making progressive change where such change is warranted.
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