Research Assistants

Pasha Partridge

Research Assistant 

Pasha Partridge is an urban Inuk from Kuujjuaq, Quebec and Kanien’kehá:ka from Kahnawake, Mohawk Territory. She graduated from John Abbott College in 2017 in the social science program and completed 1 year at McGill University in the Kindergarten and Elementary Education program. She’s a multidisciplinary artist, focusing on making jewelry out of sealskin scraps, working with soapstone carvings, graphic work and filmmaking. She has been a part of multiple research projects, including the First Peoples’ Postsecondary Storytelling Exchange and Dawson & John Abbott’s Journey’s/Crossroads program evaluation, as well as a Two Spirit Talking Circle. She enjoys learning more about research methodologies, specifically Indigenous methodologies. She has experience working in a non-profit community organization, doing many different things within the organization, such as communications, administration, as well as volunteer coordination, while also working with 2LGBTQIA+ youth. She has a strong connection to the urban Indigenous community through her work as an artist. She attends many pow wows throughout Montreal and shares her story with every interaction. Her films have made it as far as Aotearoa (New Zealand) and even ImagineNative in Toronto.

Hannah Fraser-Purdy

Research Assistant 

 Hannah has a BA in Psychology from McGill University (2023) and plans on attending graduate studies in Psychology. Her research interests mainly revolve around substance use, harm reduction, psychopathology, well-being, and cultural and Indigenous psychology. For her undergraduate research project, she studied ethnic-racial identity dimensions of Multiracial college students and their associations with anxiety & depression symptoms. In the future, she hopes to help develop culturally safe and effective practices with & for Indigenous communities within the field of Psychology.

Natalia Gala

Research Assistant 

 Natalia joined the lab in May 2022 after moving to Montreal from Winnipeg, MB. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience from the University of Winnipeg (2021) and is currently obtaining a BA in Sociology at Concordia University. Natalia's interests compose of Indigenous Health, Substance Use, Opioid Use Disorders (OUD) and improving Access to Care for Vulnerable populations. Natalia hopes to pursue further studies within the field of Medicine and Addictions.

Sophie Blackmore

Research Assistant

Sophie is originally from Ottawa, ON, and obtained her Honours BA in Psychology from Queen’s University in 2020. She then completed her MSc in Clinical Psychopathology at the Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam, Netherlands) in 2023, where her thesis focused on the mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for people with anxiety and depressive disorders. Overall, her research interests focus on Indigenous health and wellbeing, improving access to healthcare services, and the development of culturally competent psychological interventions and assessment methods.

Her interest in Indigenous and cross-cultural mental health began at Queen’s, where she volunteered with a non-profit organization and taught culturally relevant physical and mental health education to students in Salluit, Nunavik for several months. Following this, she pursued several research and work opportunities to engage more with these topics, including work assessing suicide crisis lines for Indigenous communities in Canada, working with the Nicotine Dependence Clinic at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), and research projects on psychosis risk for migrant populations and assessing trauma symptoms in various ethnic and diagnostic subgroups in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Darah Olaogun

Research Assistant

Darah is a senior undergraduate student at McGill University, majoring in Psychology with minors in Behavioral Sciences and Sociology. She plans to pursue graduate education in counseling psychology, driven by a keen interest in analyzing cultural competence within psychotherapeutic practice. Darah is deeply passionate about enhancing psychological well-being, particularly for at-risk and marginalized populations. She works as a personal support worker (PSW) and volunteers as a crisis helpline responder.

Michelle Kowalska

Undergraduate Student

Michelle is an undergraduate psychology student at McGill University. They are currently assisting Payton with their research project, and want to pursue graduate studies in psychology later. Being of mixed Polish and Kashmiri Muslim roots, Michelle is interested in community and culturally-sensitive psychology practices, and hopes to someday develop research and practices which better cater to the South Asian diaspora.

Tamara Stecyk

Undergraduate Student

I am an undergraduate student currently pursuing a B.A. in Psychology, with minors in Behavioral Sciences and Sociology. My research interests include reductionism in psychiatry, how it affects the conceptualization and treatment of chronic suffering, and how it plays a role in pathologizing the experiences of women and minorities. As I come to the end of my degree, I look toward pursuing graduate studies in Clinical Psychology.

Fatima Kiki

Undergraduate Student

I am a U3 student in psychology and I intend to pursue my studies to become a psychologist in the future. I have been a research assistant in the CIRC lab for a year now. In my spare time I like to travel, do hot yoga and spend time with my cats.