Valerie Preston
Principal Investigator (PI) of SSHRC partnership titled “Migration and Resilience in Urban Canada”
Valerie Preston is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the SSHRC partnership titled ‘Migration and Resilience in urban Canada’. She is a professor in the Department of Geography at York University where she teaches urban social geography. She has published extensively on issues related to migration and settlement in Canada.
Her experience as Director of two different research centres: Institute for Social Research (ISR) and Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement (CERIS), Co-Chair of the CERIS Management Board, co-applicant for several research partnerships, and consultant, collaborator, and advisor with not-for-profit organizations and government have collectively provided her with the expertise to lead the partnership’s objectives of developing a robust body of evidence for policy development and program innovations that improve migrant resilience.
Collaborating with academics, researchers and community partners, Valerie leads partnership’s research programs and provides advice about knowledge mobilization. Through exchanging knowledge between academic institutions, and government and non-governmental organizations, her goals are to look at how to improve settlement outcomes and to enhance well-being in the face of economic, political, social and cultural challenges. But also, to pilot strategies that facilitate the efforts of social institutions to promote resilience.
Email: vpreston@yorku.ca
Michaela Hynie
President of the Canadian Association of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS)
Dr. Hynie is a faculty member in the Department of Psychology and the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University, where she leads the Program Evaluation Unit. Dr. Hynie’s research focuses the development and evaluation of interventions that can strengthen social and institutional relationships to improve health and well-being in different cultural, political and physical environments.
She is particularly interested in social integration and inclusion in situations of social conflict or forced migration. Her work in Canada, Rwanda, Kenya, India and Nepal has been funded by Grand Challenges Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Dr. Hynie is currently leading a 5 year longitudinal study comparing support needs and integration pathways and their impact on long-term health and well-being for Privately Sponsored and Government Assisted Refugees in B.C., Ontario and Quebec. She is also President of the Canadian Association of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS).
Email: mhynie@yorku.ca
Lucia Lo
Chair of the Department of Geography at York University (2009-2013)
Professor Lo’s research interests spans many areas. Using a political economy approach, her work on the Chinese diaspora focuses primarily on changing settlement patterns, business structures, consumer behaviour, and labour market performance. Her work on immigrant settlement and integration includes the provision, access and use of settlement service, labour market performance, immigrant entrepreneurship and ethnic economy, and the role of ethnic banks on immigrant integration. Currently, she examines highly skilled migration between China, Canada and the United States.
She received her PhD, Department of Geography from University of Toronto,
Her Master’s, Department of Geography from McMaster University, and
Bachelor’s (Summa Cum Laude), Departments of Economics and Geography from McMaster University.
She has been the Chair of the Department of Geography at York University from 2009 – 2013.
Leader at the Transportation and Commerce Thrust, Geomatics for Informed Decision Making NCE (GEOIDE) from 2003-2005.
Leader at the Economics and Labour Market Domain, CERIS – The Ontario Metropolis Centre from 2002-2006.
Undergraduate Program Director, Department of geography at york University from 1998-2001.
Member, Editorial Board, Geographical and Environmental Modelling from 1996-2002.
Councillor at the Canadian Regional Science Association from 1995-2001.
Email: lucialo@yorku.ca
Nancy Mandell
Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at York University
Nancy Mandell is a Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at York University. She is also a faculty associate at York University’s Centre for Feminist Research (CFR) and Centre for Asian Research (YCAR). Her research and teaching interests include gender, family, aging, intergenerational relations, migrant settlement, qualitative research methods and community-academic research partnerships. Recently she has published articles and book chapters on rising income inequality in Canada, economic insecurity among senior immigrant families, the contradictory role of families in settlement and integration, intergenerational transnational exchanges in later life families, challenges facing international students, the senior digital divide, and critiques of aging.
Email: mandell@yorku.ca
Jelena Zikic
Associate Professor at the School of Human Resource Management at York University
Dr. Jelena Zikic received her PhD from Joseph L. Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto and previous to that she studied at the London School of Economics where she earned her MSc in Social and Organizational Psychology. Her study focuses on career management issues, combining the individual as well as organizational perspective.
In particular, Dr.Zikic developed her research program and expertise in career transitions, stress and coping and career development theory. She has also developed part of her career internationally and is currently involved in several cross-cultural projects. At present, Dr. Zikic is working on three major projects and all three are founded by SSHRC. Her main focus is on studying career transitions of immigrant professionals, and examining both personal as well as structural barriers to their career success as well as their coping strategies in the new labour market. In her teaching she promotes critical thinking and reflection and focuses on teaching Career Management, Strategic Human Resource Management, and Organizational Communication. Her international background and experience allow her to relate to diverse and increasingly globally-minded students at York University.
Dr. Zikic has presented at numerous national and international conferences and her work appeared in journals such as Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Managerial Psychology, and Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology among others. Most recently, her work has been featured in the Globe and Mail newspaper, in CBC radio interviews and the HR Reporter. She is the recipient of the Verity International prize for the best paper and the Literati Award from the Emerald publishing for the Highly Commented Paper. In April 2008, she received Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research in 2008.
Email: Jelenaz@yorku.ca
Amber Gazso
Associate Professor of Sociology at York University
Amber Gazso, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Sociology at York University. Her main areas of research interest include: citizenship; family and gender relations; research methods; poverty; and the welfare state. Overall, she specializes in research that explores family members’ relationships with social policies of the neo-liberal welfare state. In the Journal of Poverty, Social Problems, and Critical Social Policy, she has recently published articles on how families manage low income through networks of social support (including family, community, and the state), the intergenerational transmission of social assistance receipt, and how women and men, including those with children, experience social assistance receipt while also living with and managing addiction. A side passion of her is the study and practice of qualitative research methods; with co-author Katherine Bischoping, she authored Analyzing Talk in the Social Sciences: Narrative, Conversation and Discourse Strategies (Sage).
Email: agazso@yorku.ca
Guida Man
Associate Professor in the Sociology Department and a member of the Graduate Program at York University
Guida C. Man is an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department and a member of the Graduate Program at York University. She is also a faculty associate at York University’s Centre for Feminist Research (CFR) and Centre for Asian Research (YCAR). Her teaching and research intersects im/migration and transnationalism, families, and gender and work in the context of global economic restructuring. She has published extensively in the form of journal articles and book chapters. Her co-edited book, with Rina Cohen is entitled Engendering Transnational Voices: Studies in Family, Work and Identity (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2015).
Email: gman@yorku.ca
Larry Lam
Emeritus Faculty, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies
Lawrence Lam is Emeritus Faculty, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies. Arts, York University. Ares of research are race and ethnic relations, migration and refugee resettlement. Publication: 2018 With Nancy et al, “Living on the Margins: Economic Security among Senior Immigrants in Canada”, Alternate Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research, Vol. 29, 2018.
Email: larrylam@yorku.ca
Adnan Türegün
Director of CERIS and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Sociology, York University
Stan Shapson
Senoir Scholar, Professor (Emeritus)
Research & Innovation. Dr. Shapson has published widely; his research and publications have received awards from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the Canadian Journal of Education (CJE). He has been awarded numerous grants and contracts for his research totalling over $6 million and has directed large-scale, externally funded, national and provincial studies. He has been a principal researcher for a variety of national studies such as the NCE – TeleLearning, the SSHRC Strategic Theme (Knowledge-based Economy), the CANARIE funded broadband learning program ABEL (Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning), and the federal Tri-Council IPM/Knowledge Mobilization initiative.
Institutional Capacity Building. In his recent administrative role as York’s first VP (Research & Innovation), Dr. Shapson’s strategy has shifted from his own individual research to focus on building institutional R&I capacity. He worked collaboratively with leaders from municipalities, community hospitals, and private sector companies on economic and social innovation cluster initiatives. In this regard, he is the founding Co-chair, with the Mayor of Markham of the Innovation Synergy Centre in Markham, founding Chair of YORKbiotech and of the consortium that developed scientific and business plans for establishing a Convergence Centre in Markham, Chair of the Provincial Consortium CONCERT (Consortium on New Media, Creative, and Entertainment R&D in the Toronto Region), and he is currently working on KM/social policy impacts with human services/social agencies.
Professional Leadership. Through voluntary Board and committee work, Dr. Shapson’s roles Federally and Provincially have included: Co-chair of both the Ontario Advisory Committee on Advanced Technology in Learning and the Federal SchoolNet Advisory Committee on Professional Development; Chair of the Provincial Working Group on Learning Environments and Resources for the Ontario Knowledge Network for Learning (OKNL); a member of the Federal SSHRC Granting Council, he also has served as Interim President and Chair of SSHRC; Chair of the Optical Regional Advanced Network of Ontario (ORANO) Board; a member of the Board of Research Canada; and past Chair of both the Ontario Council of University Research (OCUR); and the Ontario Association of Deans of Education.
Email: sshapson@yorku.ca
