As a current PhD student and recent graduate with a Master's of Public Health, Maryellen builds from her undergraduate degree in international studies in the areas of global health and gender-based health inequities. She is passionate about gender rights, sexual education, addictions, politics, and harm reduction.Completing her Bachelor's of Arts degree as a Loran Scholar, Maryellen spent a great deal of her time volunteering and giving back to the community. Maryellen takes great pleasure in volunteering and interacting with people, as well as working on the family farm. While experiencing the traditional culture of rural Uganda, Maryellen worked with locals to create and implement an HIV and Sexual Violence prevention program in local schools while engaging HIV positive locals on personal health issues. As an employee of the University of Saskatchewan, Maryellen researched sexual violence prevention strategies on Canadian and American university campuses and then presented these findings to the Vice-Provost Teaching and Learning of the University of Saskatchewan. She dedicated three years to the Peer Health Mentor's program for student health services at the University of Saskatchewan culminating in the position of Student Coordinator of the program. In Septemeber, 2016, Maryellen was chosen as a youth delegate to the United Nations to represent the Canadian government on youth empowerment and gender rights. Recently, Maryellen has been a research coordinator at the University of Saskatchewan managing the SUAP-funded "A PAWSitive Support Program for Veterans with PTSD and who Experience Harms from Substance Use" which provided educational resources to various organizations on the impacts of Service Dogs on Veteran wellbeing. She is also a co-applicant on the P5YXE project examining substance use pathways, perspectives, and priorities of people with lived experience of substance use in Saskatchewan with the aim of influencing policy.