Reporting to Dr. Kate Sellen, and taking a leadership role in managing small to medium size projects within the Health Design Studio. Primarily focused on overdose-related work, including design research techniques in community-based work, and knowledge mobilization of insights across projects.Responsibilities include: preparing and managing project plans, developing project proposals and REB documents, conducting research in the area of co-design and overdose; performing qualitative analysis of interview data and grey literature; summarizing findings and playing a lead role in manuscript and report preparation; engaging diverse stakeholders; coordinating knowledge translation activities across projects, including webinars, panels, and events; and supervising research assistants and/or work-study students.

This role involved auditing set facilities for compliance to established covid safety standards and supervising filming to ensure crew and talent followed covid safety protocols, intervening when necessary and reporting misconduct to the production manager. I was also responsible for providing PPE, managing self-assessment forms, and conducting temperature checks.

I met regularly with a multidisciplinary team to plan the S.M.A.S.H COVID community-based participatory research project, a study addressing the barriers and unmet needs of gender/sexually diverse youth who are accessing mental health and substance use care during the COVID-19 pandemic. My main role was leading a design team to develop a charrette program for 36 participants and a training workshop for 6 facilitators. During the virtual co-design sessions, I was one of the facilitators supporting participant groups through knowledge sharing and prototyping activities. Participants presented their ideas for service improvements and adaptations during a webinar. Some had the opportunity to implementation their ideas with the support of the project team.

I designed a children’s interactive installation for a Canadian Opera Company youth program event, hosted at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. This involved me fabricating the modular installation pieces using a laser-cutter, before further prototyping and piloting to ensure safety and test participant engagement levels. During the event, I teamed with volunteers to set up at the site and support children, as they crafted their individual pieces that contributed to a collective modular sculpture.

This was a position in the Design for Health Lab. I worked with fellow students to design a participatory public installation for the 2020 DesignTO Festival. Our installation, DyingThreads, prompted critical reflections on end-of-life experiences. I was heavily involved in the conceptualization, planning, prototyping, production, and installation of the project on site, while solving logistical challenges in the process. In another project, I was amongst a team of facilitators leading a co-design workshop during a meeting of key stakeholders responding to the opioid crisis, hosted by Public Health Ontario.

This was a position in the Visual Analytics Lab. I represented OCAD University in the StudentDwellTO affordable student housing initiative, a collaboration between University of Toronto, Ryerson University, and York University. As a member of the recruitment team, I increased student focus group enrollment through signage postings, digital campaigning, and social network promotion. For the King Street Pilot Project, I worked with a team of fellow graduate students to recruit citizens along King Street to complete a tablet survey for the City of Toronto and Sidewalk Labs. This role involved explaining the significance of gaining citizen data for this public urban planning project, as well as how the data was going to be used, and by whom.