September 28, 2021
At the first faculty meeting of the academic year, the Faculty of Education offered a warm welcome to its newest faculty members. We are pleased to introduce them here:
Dr. Erica Bennett (KIN), Assistant Professor. Grounded in critical and community approaches to physical activity psychology, Dr. Bennett’s work attends to the psychological, behavioural and sociocultural factors shaping physical activity and health-related adaptational processes.
Dr. Jessica Chan (OSE), Assistant Professor. Dr. Chan is a reading researcher and teacher educator committed to advancing the science of reading for language diverse learners. The goal of her research program is to understand how language and literacy develops in diverse learners including children from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and children with and without learning disabilities.
Dr. Carly Christensen (ECPS), Assistant Professor of Teaching. Dr. Christensen has extensive secondary school teaching experience within unique educational settings in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. Currently, she is a sessional instructor teaching courses about special education and Indigenous education.
Dr. Keri Ewart (MET), Lecturer. Dr. Ewart’s research focuses on differentiation and inclusivity. With the changing needs of modern society, she continues to turn to active learning theories, multiliteracy and multimodality pedagogies, and critical literacy theory to successfully meet the needs of diverse audiences.
Dr. Kayla Fewster (KIN), Assistant Professor. Dr. Fewster’s research interests relate temporal mechanical changes in the lumbar spine to changes in motor control and intervertebral joint mechanics resulting from sudden impacts, perturbations and acute loading scenarios.
Dr. Shawn Forde (EDCP), Assistant Professor. Dr. Forde’s research examines the variety of ways that sport and physical activity have historically been, and continue to be, used for the purposes of community development and political engagement.
Dr. Kari Grain (EDST), Lecturer. Dr. Grain’s research focuses on global community engaged learning, higher education and social justice. In alignment with Dr. Grain’s community-based research paradigm, whenever possible, they aim to centre community voices and perspectives in this work, as they are so often left out of the academic research narrative.
Dr. Jasmin Ma (KIN), Assistant Professor of Teaching. Her research leverages behaviour change science and integrated knowledge translation to design interventions for increasing physical activity levels among people with disabilities and chronic disease.
Dr. Johanna Sam (ECPS), Assistant Professor. Dr. Sam is a proud member of Tŝilhqot’in Nation. Realizing the importance of a strength-based approach, she is involved in creating youth-friendly educational and mental health resources.
Dr. Thomas Schanding (ECPS), Associate Professor. Dr. Schanding’s research focuses on student wellbeing, the social experiences of LGBTQIA+ youth and assessment, and interventions for students with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Dr. Melanie Wong (LLED), Assistant Professor of Teaching. Dr. Wong has extensive experience teaching in a K-12 context. Her research interests include K-12 students, English language learners, and technology-enhanced classrooms. She is passionate about connecting research with practice.
Please join us in welcoming our new faculty members!
