Kelly Bairos

Kelly has a Master’s in Education with a focus on Education Policy, and has been a project manager on several education research projects since 2010. Her professional work not only includes oversight of administrative, organizational, and financial project matters, but also planning and executing knowledge mobilization strategies. 

Kelly lives in Woodstock with her partner and is an avid distance runner and involved community member, serving on the city’s Recreation Advisory Committee and as an Assistant Coach with the Woodstock Legion Athletic Club.

 Dr. Lauren Jervis

Dr. Lauren Jervis (she/her) is a critical educational policy researcher who studies policy controversies and parent advocacy. She currently works as a public sector education policy advisor. From 2021-2023, she was a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Critical Policy, Equity, and Leadership Studies in Western University’s Faculty of Education, working under the supervision of Dr. Melody Viczko. Her postdoctoral research project was a critical policy history of Alberta’s Education Act. She also served as the Vice-President, External and the Faculty of Education Representative for the Postdoctoral Association at Western.

Lauren earned her PhD in Education from York University under the supervision of Dr. Lisa Farley. Her doctoral dissertation, The Impossibility of Sex Education: A Psychosocial Study of Parent Involvement in Policy Controversies, examined the experiences and motivations of parents who participated in two educational policy controversies, one in Ontario and one in Alberta. Her work has been published in the International Journal of Education Policy & Leadership, English Studies in Canada, The Conversation, and Our Schools/Our Selves.

Lauren has worked as a government media analyst, a legislative researcher, and a coordinator of programming for children and youth. She is also an enthusiastic parent council member at her neighbourhood school and a volunteer with Toronto’s Bike Brigade, which provides bicycle deliveries for local mutual aid and food security organizations.

Mara De Giusti Bordignon

Mara De Giusti Bordignon is a 2nd year PhD student in the Faculty of Education, Field of Critical Policy, Equity and Leadership Studies (CPELS), at Western University, under the supervision of Dr. Melody Viczko. Her research focus is on open education and policy within the Canadian postsecondary context. Mara was born in Northern Italy and is of Friulano descent. She immigrated to Canada as a child and grew up in York region. She attended York University for an undergraduate science degree in Environmental Studies and then gained a graduate masters degree in Information Studies from the University of Toronto. She has worked in various support, administrative, and faculty librarian positions in public, corporate, college, and university libraries in Ontario and the Middle East. In her lengthy career as an academic librarian, Mara specialized in teaching information and digital literacy. She developed an interest in academic scholarship and open access, especially around issues of ownership, rights, and equity. For Mara, life is nothing if not an adventure, so she decided to push herself out of her comfort zone to currently pursue her research interests. Mara has two grown children who are also in university and lives on a country property in Tottenham with her husband and a small flock of heritage chickens.

Mary Anne Krahn

Mary Anne Krahn (she/her) is a student in the EdD program at Western University. With the supervision of Dr. Melody Viczko, she is completing her dissertation regarding the experience of nursing students in a collaborative BScN students who enter the program at a college site as they transition to the university site to complete the program.

Mary Anne is a Registered Nurse and nurse educator with wide breadth of experience teaching in a hospital setting as well as at the post-secondary level, including administration, policy, program, and curriculum development. She has co-chaired the Undergraduate Education Committee of the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN) and was a member of the working groups to develop CASN’s statements on scholarship, baccalaureate degree programs in nursing, and in 2022, the committee updating the baccalaureate section of the National Nursing Education Framework.

Paige-Tiffany Beck

Paige-Tiffany Beck is a former Instructional Designer and current Elementary School Teacher and Graduate student pursuing an MA in the field of Education, in Critical Policy Equity and Leadership Studies (CPELS), at the Faculty of Education at Western University. Paige works under the supervision of Dr. Melody Viczko. Employing critical policy analysis, Paige’s research hopes to explore the role of policy in recovering educational loss and reinventing education in the Canadian post-pandemic elementary school context.

Paige is a proud mother to two boys and an educator with more than 10 years experience teaching at the Elementary, Middle-School, and University level. She also lived and taught internationally in South Korea from 2012-2015. In 2019, Paige received her Bachelor of Education (with distinction) from Western University with a specialization in International Education. Previously, Paige completed a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature (with distinction). During her studies, Paige was the proud recipient of The D. Carlton Williams Gold Medal in Education (2018), The Helen M. B. Allison Gold Medal (2009), and The University of Western Ontario Gold Medal (2009). As a teacher and mother to a child with autism, Paige is passionate about equity, diversity and inclusion in the classroom and has completed Additional teaching Qualifications in Special Education.

 Rajender Singh

Rajender Singh is a PhD candidate studying critical studies of education technology at Western University. Specifically, his research investigates the novel strategies used by tech companies to enter and dominate the global education market while simultaneously positioning themselves as neutral and altruistic players. His other research involvements include platformization of education during COVID-19 pandemic, internet-based research methods, household experiences of education exclusion in Global south, and understanding pedagogy through teacher perspectives. Rajender earned an undergraduate degree in engineering and a practice-based MA in education from TISS Mumbai. He has 10+ years of professional background working in elementary education, EdTech management, software industry, and non-governmental sectors.

 Renata Matsumoto

Renata Matsumoto is of Japanese descent, was born and raised in Brazil, and now makes her home in London, ON, Canada. She is currently a PhD Candidate in the field of Critical Policy, Equity and Leadership Studies at the Faculty of Education at Western University, located on the traditional territories of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton Nations. She works under the supervision of Dr. Melody Viczko. Renata’s current research focuses on policies affecting higher education international students from global south nations during the COVID-19 pandemic. With her research, Renata hopes to support equitable practices in higher education. As a research assistant, Renata has been collaborating with Dr. Viczko in different research projects. She has also assisted Dr. Viczko by providing support to her work at the Comparative and International Education Society of Canada (CIESC).

Renata received her master’s degree in Linguistic and Literary Studies in English from the University of São Paulo, where she also completed her MBA program in Education Management, her BA, and her teaching degree in Languages and Literature. In the 2011-2012 academic year, she was awarded a Fulbright grant to teach Brazilian Portuguese language and Brazilian culture as a Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) at the School of International Letters and Cultures at Arizona State University. She has over 15 years of experience in the field of education and has taught Portuguese and English to children and adults. In addition, Renata is a Cambridge CELTA qualified teacher and holds a TESL Ontario CTESOL Certificate of Accreditation and Professional Designation.

Shannon McKechnie

Shannon McKechnie (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in Critical Policy, Equity, and Leadership Studies in the Faculty of Education at Western University. Prior to pursuing doctoral studies, she completed a BA in Anthropology at the University of Toronto and an MA in Education at Western. Shannon also has professional experience in the field of student affairs facilitating leadership development and mentorship programs for undergraduate students. Shannon’s doctoral research investigates the work of policy networks in higher education in Canada related to student skills development and student employability, asking how the student experience and ‘employability’ are made by and through the networks that assemble around them. Shannon’s work in higher education – as a practitioner and a scholar – is informed by her belief in the potential for higher education to be a transformative experience.

Under the supervision of Dr. Melody Viczko, Shannon received training in operationalizing ‘Digital Methods’, a methodological approach developed at the Digital Methods Initiative at the University of Amsterdam. This methodological approach has contributed to Shannon’s work assisting Dr. Melody Viczko with critical policy research across a number of projects. Shannon has published work in Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences, Canadian Journal of Higher Education, CACUSS Communiqué, and the Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy.

Shannon served the student community at the Faculty of Education as President of the Education Graduate Students’ Association in 2021/2022 and served as a board member at the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education for two years from 2021-2022.

 Tara Hedicans

Tara Hedicans is a current doctoral candidate in Western University’s Critical, Policy, Equity and Leadership Studies program in the faculty of Education under the supervision of Dr. Melody Viczko.  Her current research focuses on using Carol Bacchi’s (2009) What’s the Problem Represented to be? (WPR) approach to analyze policies affecting Indigenous language learning including: Indigenous Languages Act (2021), United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action (2015) and The Ontario  Native Languages Curriculum Grades 1-8 (2001).

As an Anishnaabe (Ojibwe) woman and a member of the Loon clan she maintains connections to her band the  Eabametoong First Nation, a remote reserve in northern Ontario. Tara’s traditional name is Azahdaehwatquay, which means “Strong-hearted woman,” gifted to her for her dedication, resilience in all areas of life. She continues to advocate for Indigenous inclusion and understanding in education while also working to disrupt the cycles of poverty affecting Indigenous peoples. Tara is an intergenerational survivor of residential school and is reclaiming her traditional language as well as re-connecting with her communities traditional practices. She serves the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario as a member of the First Nation, Metis and Inuit Provincial Standing Committee. Her leadership skills are diverse, including international athletic accomplishments and scholastic abilities as a published author, accredited teacher, and high-achieving academic.