Amilia Noftall
Amilia is currently in her fourth year of Honours Developmental Psychology. She is interested in mental health advocacy, along with the many avenues that bring mental stability, including womens health and wellbeing. She plans to pursue a degree in Counselling Psychology and hopes to be an activist for mental health on a broad scale as well as an individualistic scale.
Contact: noftall@uwindsor.ca
Ananya Sood
Ananya is a third-year student in the Behaviour, Cognition, and Neuroscience program, with a strong passion for improving women’s health experiences within the healthcare system. Focused on health equity, patient-centered care, and fostering trust in the medical system for marginalized groups, Ananya is eager to contribute to research that explores the challenges women encounter in medical settings. She is excited to better understand the social, psychological, and institutional factors that influence the development and management of chronic health conditions.
Contact: sood62@uwindsor.ca
Cait Alexander
Cait Alexander is a multifaceted artist – actress, singer, model, songwriter, pianist, composer, and poet. Her ambition in every medium is to tell the most honest story.
From her small town Canadian roots, to a career on the International stage starting in fashion, Cait has walked the world’s runways and graced magazine covers all over. Notable clients include GQ, La Vie En Rose, Cadbury, Natrelle, FCUK, Senna Cosmetics, and so many others.
Having started in theatre as a child, Cait has risen to roles in countless commercials, major TV shows and films: The Handmaids Tale, Clarice, My Next Door Nightmare and Spinning Gold. She has even starred in Bollywood movies, while embracing working in diverse cultures.
She has a BA in Theatre from York University in Toronto and Certificate in Film/TV Composing from Berklee College of Music and has completed Royal Conservatory Level 8 Piano and Theory 2. She has a vested interest in studying law and is working towards taking the Bar.
Aside from accolades, there is the most important quality: intent. Whatever the medium she aims to connect sincerely with you, through photos, on the screen, by song, and on the page. She hopes you learns something about yourself, heal or become inspired to your own greatness.
Dr. Catherine Vanner
Dr. Catherine Vanner is the Vice President of Research and Innovation Research Chair and an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor. Her research on the multi-dimensional relationship between gender, violence, and education demonstrates the transformative potential of education to advance gender equity, but also that education can reproduce norms that contribute to gender-based violence and discrimination when these harms are not intentionally addressed. She has edited two books, including Girls Take Action: Activism Networks By, For, and With Girls and Young Women (forthcoming in January 2025). She has published on gender, violence, and education in journals such as Gender and Education, the Canadian Journal of Education, Girlhood Studies, and Comparative Education Review. She works collaboratively with local, provincial, national, and international stakeholders to create resources that directly support educators and other practitioners to apply research findings in practice so that they inform the generation of safer and more equitable communities from a gender perspective.
Fartumo Kusow
After losing her daughter, Sahra Bulle, to gender-based violence (GBV) in May 2023, Fartumo Kusow dedicated her life to raising awareness, advocating for survivors, and fostering meaningful dialogue around GBV and its profound impacts on individuals, families, and communities. Her work as an author, educator, and podcaster has become a powerful platform for advocacy and change.
Fartumo’s novels explore the social and human issues faced by women, weaving narratives that amplify marginalized voices and highlight systemic inequities. Her first English-language novel, Tale of a Boon’s Wife, published in 2017 by Second Story Press, received acclaim from the Harvard Review, Booklist, and This Magazine. Her earlier novel, Amran, written in Somali, was serialized in 1984 in October Star, Somalia’s national newspaper. Her upcoming novel, Winter of My Spring, set for release in Spring 2026, continues this tradition of storytelling that addresses vital social issues.
Fartumo is also the creator, host, and producer of two impactful podcasts—My Mother: The Person and the Patient and Break the Silence, Build a Future—which have collectively garnered over 25,000 downloads. Through these platforms, she amplifies critical conversations about GBV and the unpaid labor of caregiving for loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease.
Born in Somalia, Fartumo immigrated to Canada in 1991 at the onset of the civil war. In addition to her advocacy and writing, she is a dedicated educator, teaching English literature for the Greater Essex County District School Board. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English Language and Literature and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Windsor.
As an author, advocate, educator, storyteller, and speaker, Fartumo channels her personal loss into a mission to inspire awareness, promote healing, and champion the voices of survivors and caregivers. A mother of five, she continues to balance her advocacy with her ongoing podcasts and writing projects.
Dr. Kendall Soucie
Dr. Kendall Soucie (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Applied Social Psychology track at the University of Windsor.
Her research interests lie at the intersection of Clinical Psychology and Health Psychology. She is interested in understanding the psychosocial and institutional determinants of chronic health conditions (e.g., diagnosis experiences, misdiagnoses/errors, illness disclosures, social support, and illness stigma) within women's health. Her focus is on PCOS, the most common, yet misdiagnosed endocrine syndrome in individuals assigned female at birth, but she is also interested in IBD, HS, POTS, and endometriosis, and their impact on quality of life. Dr. Soucie also explores how chronic health conditions impact a person's identity/life story, body image, and relationships with others, across the lifespan. She focuses on aspects of strength, resilience, and healing, and building community in her work, with her most recent set of studies exploring "thriving with PCOS across the lifespan". Her second area of interest lies in understanding how youth contribute to their communities during the transition to adulthood--with foci on youth generativity, prosocial engagement, and environmental justice. Dr. Soucie integrates quantitative (SEM, HLM) and qualitative (life narrative/autobiography, interviews, arts-based methods) approaches to better understand these domains of study.
Contact: ksoucie@uwindsor.ca; or (519) 253-3000 ext 2222
Kenna Robb
Kenna is a mixed First Nations woman with Anishinaabe and Ojibwe roots. As a daughter, partner, friend, granddaughter, auntie, helper, and healer, she brings a deep sense of cultural identity and lived experience to her practice. Passionate about decolonizing mental health care, Kenna integrates both Western and Wholistic/Indigenized modalities to offer inclusive, decolonial support to her clients.
Kenna holds an Advanced Diploma in Child and Youth Care from St. Clair College (2021), a Bachelor of Social Work with Honours from the University of Windsor (2023), and a Master of Social Work at the University of Windsor (2024). She is a Registered Social Worker (RSW) with the OCSWSSW (2024).
Kenna specializes in working with youth (ages 6-17) and adults, addressing mental health challenges, relational issues, family dynamics, grief, and intergenerational trauma. In her private practice as a Registered Social Worker, she helps individuals identify and address the root causes of their struggles, walking alongside them as they navigate their healing journeys, and fostering empowerment, resilience, and well-being.
Personal Highlights:
Outside of her professional work, Kenna enjoys hiking with her German Shepherd, Bear, and is a proud cat mom to Annie. She’s an avid lover of cooking, reading, and outdoor activities, with a special passion for pizza—having worked as a pizza maker in high school and during post-secondary.
Kylee Madison
Kylee is currently a second-year student in the University of Windsor’s Honours Developmental Psychology program. As a research assistant in the H.E.A.L. Lab, she is interested in exploring how experiences across various domains impact health and wellbeing. She is particularly passionate about neurodevelopmental disorders and how early experiences shape individuals. With a long-term goal of becoming a child psychologist, Kylee aims to support future generations in navigating psychological challenges while improving overall health outcomes and interventions.
Contact: madisonk@uwindsor.ca
Kylie Pazner
Kylie Pazner is currently in her third year of the Behavior, Cognition, and Neuroscience program at the University of Windsor. Kylie is a research assistant in the H.E.A.L. lab, and she is interested in many domains of the health psychology field, especially mental health disorders and mental health advocacy, as well as adverse life experiences. She is excited to learn about and create change around Women’s mental and physical health.
Contact: paznerk@uwindsor.ca
Tori Lewis
Tori Lewis is a doctoral student at the School of Social Work through the University of Windsor. She is a Master of Social Work (MSW) graduate from the University of Windsor, with a BA in Psychology and a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) as well. Tori is currently facilitating a Scoping Review study on the intersection between trauma and health outcomes for women who have experienced Gender-Based Violence (GBV). Tori is passionate about women's health, especially women's health effects in relation to experiences of both trauma and violence. Tori is a Registered Social Worker who provides therapeutic support to women and their families who have experienced GBV and are faced with trauma. Upon the completion of her doctoral studies, Tori hopes to continue engaging in research and learning more about her areas of interest.
Contact: Lewis93@uwindsor.ca
Dr. Salsabel Almanssori
Dr. Salsabel Almanssori is an Adjunct Assistant Professor and SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Education and Department of Interdisciplinary and Critical Studies at the University of Windsor. Her research employs creative methodologies to explore how technological innovation contributes to violence and inequity, while also serving as a tool for resistance against systemic harm. Dr. Almanssori leads research programs that use qualitative, participatory, arts-based, and digital methodologies. At their heart, her scholarly activities are driven by a pursuit of equity, innovation, and inclusion–values she embeds in her research, teaching, and leadership. Adopting an intersectional feminist approach that situates social experience within systemic inequity, Dr. Almanssori’s research, teaching, engagement, and impact activities tackle urgent theoretical and empirical problems around gender and racial violence, such as how digital technologies shape, disrupt and transform educational experience. Salsabel recently co-edited a special issue of the journal Girlhood Studies called The Girl in the Hijab, published in December 2023. She is a registered Ontario Certified Teacher and taught middle-school in the Greater Essex County District School Board for eight years prior to transitioning permanently to higher education.