Dr. Ellen Gutowski
Dr. Gutowski (She/her) is an Assistant Professor at University of Toronto. Her broad interests include promoting the well-being of underserved populations, understanding the role of psychosocial factors (stress, trauma, relationships) in mental health and functioning, and engaging in social justice/anti-oppression work within teaching and clinical practice. Her specific interests are intimate partner violence and developing trauma-informed systems of care. She is particularly committed to understanding how systems-level responses to those who are affected by intimate partner violence may either promote well-being or unintentionally cause harm.
She is a scientist-practitioner and received her PhD from Boston College, served as a clinical fellow for two years at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and completed her clinical residency at Emory School of Medicine.
Mina Pichtikova
Mina is currently in her first year of her PhD in Counselling and Clinical Psychology at the University of Toronto. She is also a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Counselling and Clinical Psychology Master’s program and McMaster University’s Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour Honours Bachelor of Science program. She has 8 years of research experience conducting quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research on the topics of PTSD, concurrent disorders, moral injury, minority stress, borderline personality disorder, and military sexual trauma. She currently works as a Clinical Research Coordinator and Psychotherapist (supervised). Mina is passionate about community engagement and knowledge translation.
Aida Retta
Aïda (eye-ee-da, She/Her) is a first-year student in the Master of Education in Counselling Psychology program. She has been working with survivors of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) since 2017. Her work has included volunteering on rape crisis lines and working in shelters for families fleeing domestic violence. She is currently employed as a support worker and advocate at a transitional housing society for survivors of domestic abuse.
Aïda's experiences doing anti-violence work have increased her awareness of the multiple systemic barriers to safety that IPV survivors face in the process of leaving an abusive partner, or immediately following separation. She is particularly interested in producing research that elucidates such barriers and aims to reduce them.
Currently, Aïda is involved in a project examining the relation between IPV, legal abuse, and legal outcomes for court-involved mothers.
Jiayu Lin
Jiayu Lin is a first-year student in the Developmental Psychology and Education M.Ed. program at OISE. During her undergraduate studies, she focused on psychology, mindfulness, and interpersonal relationships, among other related fields. Currently, Jiayu is enrolled in the Trauma-Informed Response Research Group through the research practicum course and is working as a research assistant.
Jiayu has previously worked as a research assistant at Xiamen Mental Health Center. The primary focus of her research is on the social and familial factors contributing to self-injury and suicide among adolescents. While at this institution, she witnessed many children suffering from mental illnesses due to parental intimate relationship violence. Jiayu hopes to make a positive impact on children's development by preventing intimate relationship violence in families and assisting children and survivors affected by it.
Prameshta Prasath
Prameshta (she/her) is a recent HBSc graduate from The University of Toronto. She aspires to pursue clinical psychology and contribute to mental health research. Her specific interests include investigating psychopathology amongst trauma victims, stigmatized individuals, racialized individuals and historically underrepresented individuals in psychology research. She is also interested in increasing the accessibility of mental health services and promoting wellness behaviours. She is committed to utilizing an interdisciplinary approach with a holistic lens to achieve culturally inclusive and humanistic research in psychology.
Sharan Sagoo
Sharan Sagoo is a driven and compassionate individual currently embarking on an educational journey in the field of psychology. A first-year psychology undergraduate student at York University, Sharan brings a unique blend of academic expertise and a profound commitment to helping others. Having previously completed an undergraduate degree in Law and Society, Sharan possesses a deep understanding of the intricate web of institutional and social challenges.
Sharan's dedication to supporting those in need extends to their role as a Crisis Line Volunteer at the Distress Centers of Greater Toronto. Beyond volunteering, Sharan actively engages in research focused on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) survivors and the services available to them. Their research aims to illuminate critical services and benefits that can positively impact the lives of IPV survivors, ultimately contributing to enhanced support systems for those in vulnerable situations.
Huda Salha
Huda Salha is a multidisciplinary artist, author, educator and researcher. She works with a variety of media including oil and acrylic painting, bronze casting, sculptural installations and film production/video art. Salha has participated in many art exhibitions, regionally and internationally. Her work explores the historical, cultural and psychological sense of place and addresses issues of identity, displacement, and memory. She is intrigued by the way identity and memory are interwoven with place through political and cultural boundaries. Salha has produced artworks and artifacts that act as sites of memory and knowledge producing pedagogical tools through art-based storytelling. Her current practice-based research investigates decolonization and resistance through cultural production, oral histories and anticolonial critical pedagogy.
Salha is a PhD student at the University of Toronto (UofT). She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art Media and Design from OCAD University, a BFA Honors from York University, Toronto, a BA in English Literature from IUG, Gaza, in addition to a specialization in studio art from Athens School of Fine Arts. Salha has worked as a visual art instructor and designer and is currently a graduate Research Assistant at at UofT. She recently published a book chapter in "The Power of Oral Culture in Education: Theorizing Proverbs, Idioms and Folklore Tales". Her artworks were published in online galleries as well as several, magazines, newspapers and art books such as in The Big Art Book published by Scarborough Arts Council (SAC), 2017, 2019, 2020 & 2021. Salha received numerous awards, the most recent are a global award from Britain for political and social change, The “Joy Macfadyen Free Spirit Award of Excellence, and the “Forget me Not” award of Excellence from the Art Guild of Scarborough (AGS), and Honorable Mention - SAC’s 34th Annual Juried Exhibition. Her short film, It’s a Matter of a Phone Call was screened at the TPFF, 2019 and Internationally 2020. She serves on OISE Council of UofT and is a member of SAC, AGS, JHSC, OISE Library Student Advisory Committee and the Research Ethic Board of OCADU.