Fellows 2022-23

Avelin Peguy Angos is a PhD student in the Department of Demography at the Université de Montreal. His research focuses on access to basic social services (specifically, education and health) in sub-Saharan Africa among vulnerable populations, including children who do not live with their biological parents, people with a handicap, and older adults.

Avelin also has experience working in public administration in the Ministry of Economy of his country, Cameroon. This experience allowed Avelin to be regularly involved in the monitoring and assessment of population programs, the elaboration and planning of public policies, and the writing of development strategy documents.

Avelin believes that the CAnD3 training program is a good opportunity to go deeper into his knowledge in population aging and to improve his skills in data analysis and computer methods applied to Demography.

Tim Arthur is a Doctoral candidate in the Sociology Department at Florida State University. His research focuses on inequalities, primarily as they relate to healthcare and racism. Most recently, Tim have examined the ways in which the rhetoric of political campaigns can adversely impact the birth outcomes of babies born to racial minority mothers. Tim hopes to use his research agenda to put forward evidenced-based solutions that move us closer to a more equitable society.

While originally from Chattanooga, TN, Tim currently resides in Gainesville, FL with his partner, two dogs, and cat.

Akwugo Balogun is a PhD student in the Department of Economics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Her interests include Population Economics, Health Economics, Population Aging and Public Economics.

Prior to the program, she was a Chartered Accountant with extensive banking experience. She has received commendations on leading teams to achieve outstanding work performance and has attended various leadership and management courses including The London School of Bonds and Fixed Income Products by Euromoney.

She holds a distinction in MSc International Economics and Public Policy from Cardiff University, United Kingdom and also has a Masters in Business Administration. She received Anderson Honours List Awards for academic excellence.

She is excited about the 2022-23 CAnD3 Fellowship as it would equip her with extensive skills and exposure to carry out population-related and policy-relevant research.

Shayla Batty is a Master’s candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Saskatchewan. Shayla graduated from the Sociology Honors program at the University of Saskatchewan where she researched police body-worn camera policies and outcomes. In graduate school, she turned her interest to family demography under the supervision of Dr. Laura Wright.

Growing up in a rural farm family and community, Shayla is focusing her thesis on the gendered division of unpaid household labor in rural and urban Canada. Beyond urban/rural studies, Shayla’s research interests include family formation, partnership trajectories, identity formation, and social inequality in Canada.

Shayla is looking forward to connecting with and learning from academics, professionals, and other young scholars in the CAnD3 Fellowship program. She hopes that by learning about data-driven decision-making and expanding her skillset in policy and knowledge mobilization, she can promote positive, real-world change whether that be in academia or industry.

Amber Duynisveld is a Master’s student at Mount St. Vincent University (MSVU), currently entering her first year under the Department of Family Studies and Gerontology. She previously graduated from MSVU with a BSc Combined Major in Mathematics and Gerontology, with distinction. Amber holds a Research Assistant position at the Nova Scotia Centre on Aging where she is involved in projects focusing on staff wellbeing in long-term care. Her other areas of interest include aging, mental disability, and quality of life.

Her passion for data analysis and goals to enact real change make this CAnD3 Fellowship an ideal and exciting opportunity to learn about the processes required to use population research to influence policy. Amber hopes to build knowledge in data analysis and the data-to-decision-making channels that can turn her future work into positive change.

Shawna Hopper is a first year PhD student in Gerontology at Simon Fraser University, under the supervision of Dr. Teddy Cosco. Her primary research interests focus on aging, mental health, and cognition. Shawna’s doctoral work, funded by a SSHRC CGS-D, aims to examine social isolation among older adults, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Shawna understands the importance of community engaged research and is working with an older adult Research Advisory Panel to inform the development, feasibility, and relevance of her project with respect to older adults.

Shawna holds an MSc in Health Sciences from Brock University. Her Master’s thesis, funded by a SSHRC CGS-M, examined biopsychosocial correlates of subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and SCD-related worry within the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

As a CAnD3 Fellow, she is excited to further her understanding of quantitative methods, learn novel approaches to knowledge mobilization, and network with fellow trainees, academics, and industry leaders.

Emna Ben Jelili is a first-year PhD candidate in Public Health at the University of Montreal, focusing on health systems, organizations, and policies. She is also a student member of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship.

Throughout her studies in political science, Emna acquired the necessary tools for the analysis of public policies and more specifically the decisions of governments to finance long-term investments such as public health. In fact, her master’s thesis “Investment in public health in the Canadian provinces from 1975 to 2018: A disengagement with variable geometry?” analyzes the variations in public health funding across Canada.

Emna currently works under the direct supervision of Professor Olivier Jacques. Her research field assesses the relationships between social policies and the health of populations.

Emna has demonstrated her knowledge of quantitative methods throughout her academic and professional experience as a research assistant. Emna wants to deepen and hone her skills in managing and using statistical data through the CAnD3 program, to further learn about statistical methods in population data science, build pan-Canadian, interdisciplinary collaborations and translate academic knowledge to various audiences.

Lucy Kervin is a second-year PhD Candidate in the Department of Gerontology at Simon Fraser University, where she studies health inequity and disparities in health and social care access and systems navigation experienced by older Canadians who are isolated and lack informal or familial care support. Her research interests include stakeholder-informed approaches to health services research and knowledge translation and community-based interventions for later-life social and physical isolation.

Lucy has worked in a research coordination capacity within the BC Fraser Health Authority and as part of the SFU Gerontology Research Centre’s Precision Mental Health project. Lucy has worked in a direct care and support capacity with older adults in disadvantaged social circumstances since 2017.

Lucy is excited to work alongside and learn from interdisciplinary researchers as part of the CAnD3 program and enhance her ability to apply the skills and knowledgebase developed over the course of this training to real-world research questions and challenge areas. The skills Lucy will develop over the course of the CAnD3 training program will assist her towards her goal of working within a health governance agency by supplying an understanding of how to mobilize population health research findings to data-driven practice and policy change.

Kamila Kolpashnikova is a family sociologist and a VISTA postdoctoral fellow at York University, Canada. Kamila holds a PhD in sociology from the University of British Columbia and an MA in Socio-informatics (Social Data Science) from Tokyo University. Her main research interests are the time use of older adults, gendered division of housework, and North American and East Asian societies. Kamila’s current project explores the fear of falling and its effects on how older adults organize their daily activities with a particular focus on domestic work and leisure.

Kamila is a former recipient of the EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship at the University of Oxford (2019-2022), Japanese Government Monbukagakusho Scholarship (2006-2011), Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship to Japan (2004-2005), Taiwan Fellowship (2018), and a visiting scholar at the Centre for Time Use Research (2015). Kamila’s pronouns are she/her/they/their.

Alla Konnikov is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Sociology, University of Alberta. Alla’s postdoctoral research is part of a large interdisciplinary project, entitled ‘BIAS Responsible AI for Labour Market Equality’ that brings together social scientists and computing statisticians in Canada and the UK to explore the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in shaping gender and ethnic bias in labour market areas.

Alla holds a PhD from the University of Calgary, and her dissertation explores the intersectional mechanism of gender, immigration, and visible minority statuses in shaping career trajectories of engineers in Canada. Alla’s research agenda is informed by the intersectionality approach and focuses on the ways different forms of disadvantage converge in shaping the structure of opportunities for career attainment. Her specific research interests are located within the bridged perspectives of immigrants’ skills transferability in professional markets and women's careers in male-dominated fields. Alla pursues a methodologically diverse research program that combines quantitative and qualitative methods.

Alla is excited about the upcoming CAnD3 Fellowship as the program’s agenda strongly overlaps with her research interests. She is eager to learn more about the life-course oriented perspective and hone her methodological skills.

Trinity Lakin is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at Florida State University, with a specialization in Inequalities and Social Justice. Her research centers on racial and socioeconomic inequities in higher education. Trinity's master's paper employed the Effectively Maintained Inequality (EMI) theoretical framework to assess race- and class-based disparities in the utilization and payoff of college admissions-enhancing strategies (SAT/ACT prep, AP/IB courses, and college prep programs). She is currently developing her doctoral dissertation, which uses the Interest Convergence tenet of Critical Race Theory (CRT) to investigate institutional responses to anti-racist activism at one predominantly-white institution (PWI) in the Southeast United States.

Trinity is excited and thankful to be joining a network of like-minded scholars devoted to creating sustainable social change through research-based public policy and initiatives. While in the CAnD3 program, she hopes to further develop her data analysis and visualization skills, build relationships with past and present fellows, and participate in interdisciplinary collaboration.

Maria Lima is a postdoctoral trainee at the Lab BioNR in the Department of Health of the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC). She has been researching about the implementation of a gerontological functional assessment and falls prevention intervention. She is driven by cross-collaboration between projects that establish multidisciplinary connections, generating a positive impact on public health and society.

Since university, she has dedicated herself to studying gerontology, having developed projects and researches related to aging, functionality, mobility, life space, falls, sarcopenia, frailty, integrated care for older people and walkability.

Maria has the ability to work with multidisciplinary and diverse teams and her mindset is driven towards planning, determination and consistency. As a CAnD3 Fellow, Maria expects continuous learning, exchanging experiences and being a vector of impact in society. She would like to improve her knowledge and skills in data analysis and visualization to better support decision makers. She also believes that a city which is good for children and older people is a good city for everyone.

Merita is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Western Ontario. Her research interests are in the areas of gender disparities and policy development in health and well-being in Canada and globally.

Merita has over 10 years of professional experience in management, policy, and international development. She has managed complex projects with USAID, the Council of Europe, and the Swiss Development Agency in the areas of Human Rights, Gender Equality, Gender-based Violence, Rule of Law, and Democratization.

Through participation in the CAnD3 training program, she hopes to advance her quantitative research skills and mobilize the knowledge necessary to thrive in her PhD and make an impact with research within and outside academia. She also looks forward to connecting to networks within academia and government agencies.

Sophie X. Liu is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. Her research examines barriers to the integration of visible minorities in the Northern American context. She draws on survey data analysis as well as experimental and archival methods to explore legal, policy, and societal responses to immigration. As a CAnD3 Fellow, she looks forward to exploring how computational and data science methods can be leveraged in policy-driven and action-oriented immigration research.

Exaucé Ngadande is a PhD student in demography at Université de Montréal (UdeM). He holds a master’s degree in demography and a bachelor’s degree in economics. His research focuses on the analysis of the marital trajectories of immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa in Canada, using the machine learning. He is a teaching assistant in the Department of Demography at UdeM as well as a research assistant at the Sociology Department of Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). He is member of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP).

As the CAnD3 2022-2023 Fellow, Exaucé hopes to improve his skills on emerging topics related to the phenomenon of population aging and its political and social issues. It will be an opportunity for him to learn more about new statistical analysis methods in demographic data science and computational demographic social sciences that are better adapted to the exploration of mega data that are increasingly available thanks to digital technology.

Saman Rais-Ghasem is a second-year Master’s student in the Department of Geography at McGill University. She completed her Bachelor of Science at McMaster University (2020). Her current research is centered around the issue of rising inequality within Canada. Her work builds off previous studies that have identified innovation as a potential driver of income inequality and examines the innovation-inequality nexus in the Canadian context. The objective of her research is to inform policy making for inclusive economic growth using model building and geospatial analyses. This work will be conducted using microdata from the Canadian Census. As a CAnD3 Fellow, Saman hopes to expand her quantitative research skills and gain valuable experience in translating academic research for a wider audience.

Sagi Ramaj is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto. Her research projects are in the fields of immigrant integration, economic wellbeing, and residential contexts. Her dissertation work focuses on how characteristics of where people live influence economic inequality at the intersection of immigrant status and sexual orientation. Previously, her MA thesis (at Western University) focused on how social networks and neighborhood attachment influenced inequalities in economic wellbeing between sexual minority immigrants and others. Her collaborative research projects have included work on immigrant family structures and internal migration (Canada), divergent effects of educational expansion on labor market outcomes by gender and field of study (US, UK, Canada), the effects of neighborhood poverty and lead contamination on child cognitive development (US), inequalities in COVID-19 vaccinations and cases (Toronto), and racial inequalities in housing vulnerability (Canada). She is excited to participate in the CAnD3 training program’s experiential learning in data science, programming, policy, and knowledge mobilization, and its opportunities for multidisciplinary learning and collaboration.

Yue Teng is a Sociology PhD student at the University of Western Ontario. Her broader research interest is family, life course, aging population, and the health outcomes of older adults. Yue obtained her MA degree from York University. Her Master Research Paper adopted a life course perspective to discuss work-family conflict in Canadian families, with a focus on the single parents, especially single mothers with young children and their coping strategies and use of family policies. As a researcher, Yue is interested in quantitative methods and has worked with survey data such as China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey, World Value Survey and Canadian General Social Survey. Through participating in CAnD3 program, she hopes to advance her quantitative methods and statistics skills in analysing social problems related to aging population and family change around the world.

Christopher Yurris is an MA student in political science at McGill University, under the supervision of Dr. Christa Scholtz and Dr. Éric Bélanger. He is also a student member of the CAnD3 partner organization, the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship (CSDC). His interests include Canadian politics, specifically Northern Canadian politics, along with quantitative research methods. For his thesis, he is working on how incumbency advantage operates in the non-partisan system of government in the Northwest Territories.

Christopher holds a BA in political science from St. Francis Xavier University. Born and raised in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, in-between his studies he has worked for the Government of the Northwest Territories, including the Housing NWT and the NWT Legislative Assembly. Through these jobs he has gained an interest in public policy, specifically social policy.

Through the CAnD3 Fellowship he would like to expand his knowledge and skills of statistics and data science. Chris also hopes to gain skills using census data in his research projects.

Nick Zambrotta is a MA student at Columbia University entering his first year in the Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (QMSS) program. Nick graduated from Rutgers University in 2022 with an honors degree in Psychology, where he researched the impact of cognitive complexity on cognitive representations of and prejudice towards outgroup members. His other research interests include inconsistent moral appraisals of ingroup and outgroup members’ actions, sexism in STEM, and instances of hegemony in social, economic, and political institutions.

Nick is eager to work with CAnD3’s fellows and partners and hopes to sharpen his skills in quantitative and qualitative analysis on the population level. Additionally, He looks forward to contributing to a breadth of meaningful and impactful public policy development and implementation.