911吃瓜

Ilhan Abdullahi

Ilhan Abdullahi is a community organizer, public health professional, filmmaker, and PhD candidate at 911吃瓜 whose work sits at the intersection of health equity, community-engaged research, and storytelling. She lives and works on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

With a commitment to addressing health and social inequities through systems-change and equity-centred approaches, Ilhan鈥檚 work and research focus on the experiences of Black, refugee and migrant communities. Her PhD research explores how community knowledge and lived experience can reshape the ways public health understands and responds to health inequities.

Ilhan is also a filmmaker and documentary storyteller, using film as a tool to centre community voices, challenge dominant narratives, and translate research and lived experience into accessible forms of storytelling.

Rachel Beauchamp

Rachel Beauchamp is a second-year Master of Arts student in the Counselling Psychology program. She is a hearing woman of French and Scottish descent who has spent much of her life coaching gymnastics to individuals of all ages and abilities, most recently teaching classes to Deaf children using American Sign Language (ASL). Motivated by her involvement in the Deaf community and growing awareness of the lasting implications of language deprivation, Rachel鈥檚 research explores accessibility of mental health supports for Deaf community members. She strives to help generate knowledge that can inform more accessible, culturally responsive, and community-accountable services, as her goal is to engage with research that does more than describe barriers from a hearing perspective. Rachel approaches this work as an ally in true collaboration with Deaf community partners, ensuring the research process reflects community priorities and has the potential to support meaningful policy and practice change.

Andreas Gunster

Andreas (he/him) is a second-year Master's student in the School of Resource and Environmental Management (Planning) at 911吃瓜. His thesis research examines the role of community-based environmental organizations in activating and transforming the social function of urban greenspace as social infrastructure. Using a qualitative case study approach, Andreas is working with the Port Moody Ecological Society (PMES) to understand how community environmental organizations foster social connection, place attachment, and ecological citizenship.

Marie Haddad

Marie Haddad (she/her) is a Master of Arts student in the Communication Research for Social Change program at 911吃瓜. Her research explores student activism, counterpublics, Black feminist thought, and collective memory. Drawing from her own experience as a student organizer, Marie documents student movements and institutional change at 911吃瓜 by bringing archival materials into conversation with the experiences of past and present organizers. Through the development of a digital archive, she seeks to preserve the knowledge and legacies of student movements that risk being lost, erased, or co-opted as movements transition between generations. Grounded in community engaged research, her work centers student organizers as knowledge producers and seeks to carry the stories, strategies, and lessons of their movements forward for future generations of organizers.

Zoe Hong

Zoe Hong is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Health Sciences and a trainee with the Bridge Research Consortium. Her research focuses on the roles of community pharmacists and technicians in supporting informed vaccine decision making in rural British Columbia, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. Working with pharmacy professionals in these three provinces, she is conducting a mixed methods study to advance our understanding of how pharmacists engage in vaccine discussions, and how technicians are involved in this process. Her project emphasizes the importance of community pharmacy professionals and proactive dialogue in strengthening public trust in vaccines.

Elham Keivandarian

Elham Keivandarian is an MA student in Urban Studies at 911吃瓜. Her current research interests focus on immigrant belonging, public space, intercultural encounter, and neighbourhood planning in Vancouver鈥檚 West End, with particular attention to Iranian immigrants鈥� everyday experiences. Before coming to 911吃瓜, she worked in community-based planning, informal settlement projects, stakeholder engagement, and field research in Iran. At 911吃瓜, Elham works as a Research Assistant with CERi on an applied evaluation project related to cycling education and community-based learning. She is interested in ethical interviewing, positionality, reciprocity, and knowledge mobilization in community-engaged research.

Khurram

Khurram is a poet. With a deep and abiding love for archives, community work, and spreadsheets, Khurram is involved with , a global network of practitioners, seeking to engage men and boys for climate, gender, and social justice. Khurram鈥檚 research interests lie at the intersection of masculinity, disability, and environmentalism. And, he has a deep-seated fondness with manga & anime.  Khurram can be reached at mka343@sfu.ca till 2030. 

Taelor Lay

Taelor Lay is an MSc student in the Faculty of Health Sciences at 911吃瓜 and a member of the Healthy Ecologies and Lifestyles (HEAL) Lab. She holds an Honours degree in Psychology from 911吃瓜. Her research focuses on social prescribing: a collaborative approach that connects health care and supports within the community to help people access resources aligned with their needs, interests, and goals. Her research broadly examines clinicians鈥� understanding of social prescribing and how trust is built and sustained between clinicians and patients. In doing this work, she aims to identify barriers that affect structurally marginalized patients, for whom building and sustaining trust with clinicians may be more difficult. In doing so, she hopes to inform clinicians' training in rapport- and trust-building with structurally marginalized patients.

Taelor is passionate about involving patients and community partners in shaping research questions and to ensure findings can improve access to care and support for those it is intended to serve. She hopes to advance research and clinical practice in service of structurally marginalized communities and individuals.

Letitia Zhu

Letitia Zhu (she/her) is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Gerontology at 911吃瓜. With a degree in engineering and an interdisciplinary background in materials, design, and technology, her research explores how virtual reality can support older adults with mobility challenges in evaluating and reimagining accessible and inclusive living environments. Through community-engaged research, she seeks to centre older adults鈥� lived experiences and involve them as co-researchers in shaping housing design, policy, and decision-making.