Researchers

Shari Brotman, Principal Investigator (Greater Montreal)

Dr. Shari Brotman is Associate Professor at the McGill School of Social Work and a member of CREGÉS. Shari has worked extensively, as an educator, researcher and practitioner in the fields of social gerontology and anti-oppressive social work practice. Her scholarly activities center on questions of access and equity in the design and delivery of health and social care services to older adults from marginalized communities, including work addressing the experiences of immigrant older people and their carers. Her research incorporates an intersectional lens exploring the ways in which interlocking oppressions shape the everyday lives of people and communities. She undertakes qualitative, community and arts- based research.

shari.brotman@mcgill.ca

Sharon Koehn, Co-Investigator (Greater Vancouver)

Dr. Sharon Koehn is Principal of Sharon Koehn Research Consulting. Trained as a medical anthropologist, she conducts interdisciplinary community-based research with immigrant older adults on dementia, health care access, chronic disease self-management support, quality of life, and mental health promotion. She is also Senior Lecturer in the Department of Gerontology at Simon Fraser University where she teaches courses on culture migration and aging, health care issues for minority older adults, death and dying, health and illness in later life, and intersectional ageism

skoehn@sfu.ca

Illyan Ferrer, Co-Investigator (Calgary)

Dr. Ilyan Ferrer is assistant professor at Carleton University’s School of Social Work and previously was assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary. His research focuses on the intersections of aging, im/migration, labour, and care experiences of racialized communities in Canada. Ilyan’s work incorporates intersectionality, oral history, and anti-oppressive social work theory and practice. He was also involved in community organizing, skills and capacity building within the Filipino-Canadian diaspora

IlyanFerrer@cunet.carleton.ca

Émilie Raymond, Co-Investigator (Quebec City)

Dr. Émilie Raymond is professor at Université Laval’s School of Social Work and Criminology, where she teaches community organization and qualitative research methods. She is responsible for the FRQSC’s Participation sociale et villes inclusives research team and a CREGES researcher. Dr. Raymond is interested in the social and civic participation of older adults, particularly people with disabilities. She mainly uses collaborative research approaches, working with community, association and governmental partners to improve older adult's inclusive access to social participation spaces.

emilie.raymond@tsc.ulaval.ca

Coordinators

Julien Simard, Coordinator (Greater Montreal)

Julien Simard holds a Master's degree in Anthropology from the Université de Montréal and a PhD in Urban Studies from INRS-UCS. At the master's level, he worked under the supervision of Robert Crépeau and Annette Leibing and conducted an ethnography in a Quebec palliative care home. His doctoral thesis, directed by Anne-Marie Séguin and Ignace Olazabal, is more focused on social gerontology. A postdoctoral researcher at McGill University's School of Social Work, under the direction of Shari Brotman, Julien Simard is also a lecturer for the Certificate in Gerontology of the Faculté d'éducation permanente of the Université de Montréal and in the Department of Geography at the same institution.

Laura Kadowaki, Coordinator (Greater Vancouver)

Dr. Laura Kadowaki completed a PhD in Gerontology at Simon Fraser University. Her research interests include home and community care services, community-based seniors’ services, integrated care systems, and social policy. Laura has worked on a number of research and advocacy projects including the Raising the Profile Project, the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, and the Lived Experiences of Aging Immigrants Project. Laura is the Past-President of the Canadian Association on Gerontology Student Connection. She is currently a sessional instructor at Simon Fraser University

Maribel Javier, Coordinator (Calgary)

Maribel Javier has more than 20 years of professional and volunteer experience in various capacities and settings. She coordinated different programs with ActionDignity and worked as a Volunteer Development Coordinator with the Centre for Newcomers. Overseas, particularly in the Philippines, she worked as Program Officer of the Netherlands Development Organization, and spent 3 years at the Luzon Secretariat for Social Action as Projects Evaluator. In 2003, Maribel was a co-founder of Council of Filipina-Canadian Women (BABAE) in Calgary. She actively participated in organizing the Philippine Emergency Response Taskforce (PERT) in 2006. In 2011, she was part of the core group that organized the North of McKnight Residents Committee (NMRC), a multi-cultural group of some 30 organizations. In 2019, she co-founded Filipinos Rising for Inclusion and Equity to nurture Democracy (FRIENDS). Currently, she is enjoying retirement but still active in sharing her time and talents in various community activities in Calgary

Alfredo Ramirez-Villagra, Coordinator (Quebec City)

Alfredo Ramirez-Villagra is a doctoral student in anthropology at Université Laval and a programming, planning and research officer at the Public Health Department of the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux de la Capitale-Nationale. He is interested in issues related to cultural pluralism and, as part of his thesis, he explores the neighbourhoods of Parc-Extension (Montreal) and Saint-Denis (Paris), based on the daily lives of Muslim residents. Mr. Ramirez is also interested in issues arising from the migration process, with a critical perspective on models of integration. Since his arrival in Quebec City, he has worked with several organizations and institutions to develop tools and approaches related to the integration of immigrants.

Partners

Pascual Delgado, Partner (Greater Montreal)

Pascual Delgado has been active as a community organizer in Montreal since 1971. Originally from Cuba, Mr. Delgado is a graduate of the University of Puerto Rico, as well as an intercultural trainer and expert consultant in diversity management, accredited by Emploi-Québec. Since 2004, Delgado has been working at ACCESS, a group he founded in 1984. Since 2008, he has been developing tools and offering training workshops on programs and services for older adults from cultural communities, as well as on the issue of aging in a multi-ethnic context. For several decades, Pascual has participated in various provincial and municipal committees in Quebec concerning the realities of people from ethnocultural communities.