The end of all knowledge should be service to others. – Cesar Chavez
I am an active member of the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy and the Faculty of Education and have served on a number of ad-hoc and standing committees as illustrated on my curriculum vitae. I have served the Department on DSPC, GAC, and for 3 years I have been a member of the UAC. I am the MTSE Undergraduate Area Coordinator and work closely with the TEO to ensure our cohort of teacher candidates receive the best possible experience at UBC. I have recently been invited to sit on the Technology Teacher Education Provincial Advisory Committee at BCIT where our teacher candidates complete the first two years of their program. At the University level, most recently I served on the NSERC CREATE Internal Selection Committee for the VPRI, the only social scientist asked to participate.
Other Roles
In addition to my academic scholarship, I became a public health advocate following my diagnosis of heart failure, subsequent surgeries, and heart transplants. As such, I am a member of the Medical Services Commission of British Columbia, sit on the Heart & Stroke women’s heart and brain health research steering committee and heart failure council, and I am the only lived-experience representative on Health Canada’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Medical Devices Used in the Cardiovascular System (SAC-MDUCS). In 2016, I co-founded the HeartLife Foundation, the first and only heart failure organization in Canada run by patients for patients whose mission is to engage, educate, and empower people living with heart failure. The HeartLife Foundation has patient members all across Canada and is actively partnered with the Canadian Cardiovascular Society, Canadian Heart Failure Society, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Global Heart Hub Alliance of Heart Patient Organizations, and the World Heart Federation. I, along with HeartLife Foundation co-founders Marc Bains and Dr. Sean Virani, received the Dr. Harold N. Segall Award of Merit from the Canadian Cardiovascular Society in 2019 in recognition of our significant contribution to the prevention of cardiovascular disease, the promotion and education of the cardiovascular health of Canadians.
