About Us - Our Team
We are a team of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, Two-Spirit, queer (LGBTQ), and ally researchers located in the Toronto and Boston area who focus on understanding how LGBTQ people experience mental health, and how they access health services.
Toronto Team
Lori Ross is an Associate Professor in the Social and Behavioral Health Sciences Division of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, and Affiliate Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto. She is the leader of the Re:searching for LGBTQ Health Team. Lori uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches in her research work, with a strong focus on integrating the principles of community-based research. Much of her research focuses on understanding the mental health and service needs of marginalized populations including lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) people, in order to improve access to services for these communities.
Phone: 416-978-7514
E-mail: l.ross@utoronto.ca
Corey Flanders did her postdoctoral fellowship with the Re:Searching for LGBTQ Health team, and was the research coordinator for the Postpartum Wellbeing Study in Toronto from Jan 2014 to July 2016, and is now an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and Education at Mount Holyoke College. Her research interests focus on addressing health inequities experienced by LGBTQ people, with a particular emphasis on mental, sexual, and reproductive health. She employs mixed-methods and community engaged research approaches within her work.
E-mail: cflander@mtholyoke.edu
Lesley Tarasoff is a PhD candidate in the Social and Behavioural Health Sciences Division at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, and has been a member of the Re:Searching for LGBTQ Health team since summer 2010. Her PhD research explores how women with physical disabilities experience the transition to motherhood, with an emphasis on embodiment and care experiences. Drawing on intersectionality and feminist disability scholarship, she is committed to doing research that contributes to improving the health and health care experiences of marginalized groups of women. With members of the Re:Searching for LGBTQ Health team and other scholars across North America, she has worked on a number of projects in the areas of reproductive and perinatal health, mental health, and LGBTQ health (for more information, visit Lesley's website.
In August 2016 she will take over Corey's role on the Postpartum Wellbeing Study, coordinating the wrap-up of data collection and analysis, as well as contributing to knowledge translation activities of the project, specifically for the Toronto site.
E-mail: lesley.tarasoff@utoronto.ca
Keisha Williams has been a member of the Re:Searching for LGBTQ Health team since February 2015 and is currently working on the Postpartum Wellbeing Study Keisha Williams is a Master of Public Health (MPH) student at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Her research interests are health equity, marginalized population health, policy and maternal/child health. She has an honours undergraduate degree in Public Affairs and Policy Management, with a specialization in human rights. For the last five years, Keisha has been working within the community health sector with vulnerable populations (including HIV positive women and criminalized and/or incarcerated women). She is a board member of Parkdale Community Health Centre. In 2014, she received an Access, Equity and Human Rights Award from the City of Toronto.
E-mail: keisha.williams@mail.utoronto.ca
Alia Januwalla is a Masters of Public Health student in Health Promotion at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. She joined the Re:Searching for LGBTQ Health Team in May 2015, and has had the opportunity to work on the Postpartum Wellbeing Study. Alia now works at St. Michael's Hospital for the Team of Implementation, Evaluation, and Sustainability, where she works to promote the uptake of high-evidence research findings into clinical practice. Her professional interests include maternal and reproductive health, both within Canada and internationally.
E-mail: alia.januwalla@mail.utoronto.ca
Iradele Plante joined the Lori's team at Re:Searching for LGBTQ Health from May 2015-August 2016. She graduated from the MPH program at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health with a specialization in Health Promotion and Sexual Diversity Studies. Her love for sexuality and education blossomed during her undergrad, where was taught through some amazing community-based organizations in Montreal such as the ACCM and Head & Hands. During that time, she was also privileged to do a semester abroad at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, where she learned about how legislation shapes individual, social and cultural perceptions of health and how that impacts health care access. She then moved to Akron Ohio to work for the CANAPI where she helped create a rental assistance program for street-involved folks living with HIV/AIDS. Aside from bisexual women's health, her other research interests include the role that the internet can have for sexual education and health literacy, which appropriately explains her undying love for YouTube celebrities, podcasts, Twitter and OhJoySexToy. Unrelated to the internet and sexual education, Iradele also really loves eating a ton of tacos, hanging out with friends in parks on sunny days, and being loudly opinionated about movies she doesn't even really finish.
Email: iradele.plante@gmail.com
Twitter: @i_plante
Melissa Marie is a PhD student in the School of Social Work at McMaster University. They are proud to have grown up in Newfoundland, but has spent most of their adult life moving around Québec and Nova Scotia, before ending up in Toronto in September of 2012. In their doctoral program, Melissa Marie conducts research on social work with other-than-human animals, and has interests in queer and posthumanist theory, and digital scholarship. Melissa Marie completed their BSW at Dalhousie University, with a focus on critical social work and community development, and their MSW at Ryerson University, researching animal-assisted interventions and anti-oppressive practice. Their work experience has largely been with youth, particularly in the area of social circus programming, in emergency shelters, and in residential mental health programs. Melissa Marie joined the Re:Searching for LGBTQ Health team as a placement student in January of 2014, and has been involved ever since. In addition to their academic interests, Melissa Marie loves spending time with their two adopted greyhounds, and enjoys playing soccer, film photography, and books.
Email: leggemm@mcmaster.ca
Twitter: @_saskeah
Wook Yang is a doctoral student at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. He joined the project as a practicum student in January 2016. Wook holds a M.Ed. in Developmental Psychology from University of Toronto and a B.A. & Sc. in Cognitive Science from McGill University. In 2015, he completed a study that examined the efficacy of a new cognitive behavioral group intervention for sexual and gender minority youth. Wook hopes to continue his research on mental health and public health policy.
Email: wook.yang@mail.utoronto.ca
Boston/Worcester Team
Abbie Goldberg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research examines diverse families, including lesbian- and gay-parent families and adoptive-parent families. A particular focus of her research is the transition to parenthood for same-sex couples, with attention to the role that supportive and unsupportive contexts play in new parents' mental health. She is the author of over 70 peer-reviewed articles and two books: Gay Dads (NYU Press) and Lesbian- and Gay-Parent Families (APA). She is the co-editor of LGBT-Parent Families: Innovations in Research and Implications for Practice (Springer) and the editor of the Encyclopedia of LGBTQ Studies (Sage). She has received research funding from the American Psychological Association, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Williams Institute, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, the National Institutes of Health, and the Spencer Foundation.
Phone: (508) 793-7269
E-mail: agoldberg@clarku.edu
Melissa Manley is a doctoral student in Clark University's Clinical Psychology program. She received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan, where she co-authored a paper on sexual fluidity in polyamorous and monoamorous individuals. After earning her bachelor's, Melissa worked with LGBTQ teenagers and young adults in a support program for run-away, homeless, and at-risk youth and families. Melissa is interested in sexual orientation and identity development, gender nonconformity, and how individuals and communities interact with experiences of inequality.
Melissa joined the Postpartum Wellbeing Project in the fall of 2015. She is very excited to contribute to projects exploring sexual minority women's LGBTQ community connections, experiences with consensual non-monogamy, and the potential subgroups among invisible sexual minority women.
Email: memanley@clarku.edu
Back to Top Lori Ross
Health Sciences Building
155 College Street, Suite 560
Toronto, ON nbsp;M5T 3M7
Phone: 1.416.978.7514
E-mail: l.ross@utoronto.ca
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