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Faculty Leads
Dr. Ciann L. Wilson
Positions: Access and Equity Research Interest Group Research Lead, Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair, Community Psychology Program Coordinator, and CCRLA Research Centre Co-Director
Dr. Ciann L. Wilson has over fifteen years of experience working within Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities across Canada - first as a youth programmer, and now as a health researcher doing work across the country. Wilson’s body of work aims to utilize research as a tool for intervention and transformation in understanding and addressing the realities of systemically marginalized communities. Wilson’s research chair (CRC) focuses on her expertise in community-based research and evaluation, including arts and digital media-based approaches; ethical considerations for research and data usage in the current technological age; and community development, and overall health and wellbeing.
Dr. Ciann L. Wilson’s areas of interest include: Intersectional theory, anti-/de-colonial theory, Black, Indigenous and racialized community health, 2SLGBTQ+ communities, HIV/AIDS, substance use and mental health, public health, social determinants, political economy, children and youth, education, sexual and reproductive justice, and community-based participatory action research.
Email: ciwilson@wlu.ca
Dr. Ann Marie Beals
Positions: Access and Equity Research Interest Group Research Lead, Assistant Professor
Ann Marie Beals (nek’m/them) is a Two-Spirit Indigenous-Black L’nu, that is African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaq, originally from the territory Mi’kma’ki. They are grateful to be welcomed to the lands of the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabeg, and Chonnonton Peoples. They are the founding director of Wele’g Dwennimmen, a community-rooted initiative that centres Indigenous, Black, and Afro-Indigenous knowledges, and stories of survivance. Ann Marie is an Assistant Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, where their work focuses on community wellbeing, land-based practices, and decolonial approaches to research.
Ann Marie’s research and story-sharing focus on the lived experiences and resistance of Afro-Indigenous Peoples, especially in relation to health, land, blood memory, and ongoing colonial erasure. They are a core member of Proclaiming Our Roots, a collaborative oral history project and digital archive that documents and uplifts Afro-Indigenous, Black, and Indigenous voices. Through this work, they remain committed to honouring intergenerational knowledge, challenging systemic inequities, and creating space for Afro-Indigenous Peoples to define and share their truth on their own terms.
Email: ambeals@wlu.ca
Amandeep K. Singh
Program: Community Psychology, PhD Candidate
Other affiliations: Research Lab Coordinator for Access and Equity Research Interest Group; Board Chair, Graduate Student Association (GSA); Co-Founder @BIPOC.grads; Graduate Student Representative - Senate Committee on Research and Publications (SCRAP)
Amandeep is a South Asian cis-woman, born and raised in Canada (Treaty 7). Her community and professional work focus on the experiences of racialized and multiply-marginalized communities in the access and accessibility of educational, cultural, and health services.
Email: sing1148@mylaurier.ca
Ellis Furman
Program: Community Psychology, PhD Candidate
Other affiliations: Co-Founder of Fake Femmes
Ellis is passionate about using qualitative, quantitative, and arts-informed research methods to amplify the voices of queer and trans communities through community-based research and program evaluation. Ellis is dedicated to working with communities to eradicate gender-based violence through fostering inclusive services, prevention programs, and providing accessible education and training to make gender-based violence services more accessible to queer and trans survivors of violence.
Email: furm0500@mylaurier.ca / 2fakefemmes@gmail.com
Rajni Sharma
Program: Community Psychology, PhD Student
Other affiliations: Registered Psychotherapist
Rajni Sharma is a PhD student in Community Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University. Her research focuses on the support of mental health care for racialized communities. As a woman of colour and working Psychotherapist, she is familiar with the disconnected approach of mental health care for racialized communities. Her doctoral research will assist with deconstructing a Western-American model of care to one that infuses cultural understanding and sensitivity for racialized communities in Canada. She has worked as a Director for a non-for profit called Unity Charity. Unity works in underserved communities across Canada, using hip-hop culture to improve the mental health of youth. She also works as a Registered Psychotherapist and Art Therapist, and has experience facilitating individual and group therapy sessions in clinical settings and community-based organizations. Her research focus is on the structural changes need to be made in order to decolonize the mental health space for racialized communities
Email: shar0055@mylaurier.ca
Natasha Afua Darko
Program: Community Psychology, MA Student
Natasha’s research interests include sexual health and HIV/AIDS prevention, specifically in African, Caribbean and Black youth. She is passionate about health promotion, social justice and equity in healthcare and hopes to conduct meaningful research that can be used to implement culturally appropriate health prevention interventions.
Email: dark1140@mylaurier.ca
LinkedIn: Natasha Afua Darko
Vivila Yujuan Liu
Program: Community Psychology, MA Student
Other Affiliations: Founder of TVmosaic Sex Education, Co-Founder of Fake Femme
Vivila is an enthusiastic sexual health educator and researcher who utilizes the power of social media, internet and technology to conduct sexual health research and disseminate the knowledge produced in academia into everyday lives. She engages in community-based youth sexual health research, and provides culturally relevant, inclusive and comprehensive sex education for diverse young people around world through internet.
Email: tvmosaic@gmail.com / 2fakefemmes@gmail.com
YouTube: TVmosaic
Ann Marie Beals
Program: Community Psychology, PhD 2023
Other affiliations: Mi'kmaq First Nation, African Nova Scotian; Member, African Caribbean Black (ACB) Network; Board Member, GSA; Treasurer, CPA Community Psychology
I am an Urban Black Native community health researcher. Working in community, I utilize decolonization, critical race theory, and intersectional Black feminist approaches to support the health and wellbeing of mixed-blood Indigenous-Black people.
Email: beal0950@mylaurier.ca
Twitter: @SunAMBee
LinkedIn: Ann Marie Beals
Tiyondah Fante-Coleman
Program: MA, 2019
Areas of Key Interests: Social justice and health equity, healthcare access for marginalized populations, behavioural and cultural influences of sexual behaviour and mental health in Black populations.
Email: Tiyondah_fc@yahoo.ca
LinkedIn: Tiyondah Fante-Coleman
Brianna Hunt
Program: MA, 2019
Areas of Key Interests: Social Determinants of Health/Mental Health, Healthcare Equity, Arts-based Research Methods, and Decolonial Approaches to Research.
Email: b.hunt@tsin.ca
LinkedIn: Brianna Hunt
Contact Us:
Ciann L. Wilson, Research Lead
Ann Marie Beals, Research Lead