Faculty
Director / Associate Teaching Professor
Gayle Ployer became a faculty member in the School of Social Work in 2014.
Associate Professor
Assistant Teaching Professor
Cheryl is from the Gitxsan Nation. Gutginuxw (Owl) House and the Gisgaast (Fireweed) Clan. She holds a BSW and MSW, and a PhD from the Social Dimensions of Health program at the University of Victoria. Her PhD research focussed on Indigenous Elder healthcare and dementia care. Cheryl is honored and grateful to teach as a visitor on the traditional territories of the Songhees, Esquimalt and WS’ANEC’ peoples.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Gwendolyn Gosek is a member of Lac La Ronge First Nations in Saskatchewan and has Cree/Dene and Norwegian ancestry. Dr. Gosek is honored to be a visitor to the unceded Territories of the Songhees, Esquimalt and WS'ANEC' peoples. Her community work centered around crisis intervention, working with Indigenous youth as well as women and children seeking shelter. She holds a BA in political studies, along with a BSW and MSW from the University of Manitoba and a PhD from the University of Victoria.
Executive Director of IACE / Associate Professor
Kundoqk, Dr. Jacquie Green is from the Haisla Nation. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work and holds a BSW, MPA, and a PhD through the Faculty of Human and Social Development. Her PhD focus includes an analysis of traditional teachings (Nuyuum) implemented within leadership, practices standards and policy.
Committed to decolonization and cultural renewal, her research interests involve strategizing programs and policies that incorporate a strong Indigenous focus and analysis.
Associate Professor
Assistant Professor
Zaheera's interdisciplinary scholarship is informed by decolonial, global south and intersectional theories and practice. Over the last decade she has taught at the African Centre for Migration and Society, Wits University (South Africa) where she remains a research associate, the University of Alberta, and in the European Masters in Migration and Intercultural Relations program at the University of Oldenburg (Germany).
Her scholarship is centred on migration studies, especially in, from and around Africa, an emerging area of work is in Islamophobia.
She is currently accepting students for supervision.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Amanda LaVallee is a Red River Métis born and raised in Alberta and Saskatchewan in places such as Edmonton, Speers, North Battleford, and Saskatoon. She spent much of her childhood keenly attuned to the prairie landscape through the activities of hunting, trapping, fishing, gathering, and gardening. She holds a Bachelor degree of Indigenous Social Work from the First Nations University of Canada (2001), a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Regina (2006), and a PHD (2014) and Post Doctoral Fellowship (2018) in the department of Community Health and Epidemiology from the University of Saskatchewan. Her past research projects examined the health, well-being, and identity of Métis people, specifically their engagement within social systems and their impact on relationships. Currently, Dr. LaVallee holds a SSHRC Race, Gender, and Diversity Initiative Grant for her project titled, Indigenous Specific Racism in the Academy: Research towards Action Oriented Change.
Associate Teaching Professor
Professor
Dr. Mehmoona Moosa-Mitha has worked for many years with children and their families, particularly in inner city, poor areas populated with people from visible minority communities. Her research interests include anti-oppressive practice and teaching; children's rights; child welfare practice and policy.
Assistant Teaching Professor
Dr. Jenny Morgan is from the Gitxsan First Nation. Lax Gibuu (Wolf clan) from the House of Wii Muk'willixw. She joined the UVic School of Social Work in 2021. She is a member of the BC Minister’s Advisory Council on Indigenous Women and the National Indigenous Leadership Circle in Research. Her work experience included working directly with community in employment and health services, as well as leadership work with housing organizations and within health authorities. Dr. Morgan's latest role was with the BC Women's and Children's Hospitals as the Director for Indigenous Health. She holds a BSW (2003, UBC), an MSW with an Indigenous Specialization (UVic, 2014), and a Doctorate in Education (2019, UWO). Her research and teaching interests include addressing anti-Indigenous racism, Indigenous Health, and Evaluation.
Assistant Teaching Professor
Jennifer's scholarship, social work practice and teaching pedagogy are rooted in relationality. By relationality, she means that she is a human being in an interdependent relationship with other people, all living things including the land and past and future generations, and with knowledge. Her areas of interest and knowledge specialization include: child welfare practice and policy; decolonizing and anti-oppressive practices and pedagogies; community-based participatory research; Indigenous epistemologies and research methodologies; program evaluation; and social work field education. Jennifer has worked with child welfare systems in Canada and the United States since 2005. Prior to her work in child welfare, Jennifer engaged in community-based social justice work in the UK and the United States.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Susan Ramsundarsingh joined the School of Social Work in January 2024. She is a first generation Canadian, six generations removed from her ancestors in India who lived for five generations in Trinidad before coming to Canada to enjoy the winter. Her journey is one of reclaiming what was lost during through her family’s experience of colonization while also learning what it means to be an uninvited guest on these traditional territories.
Susan's practice experience includes social policy, community development, fundraising, nonprofit management, school-based wellness programming, and gang prevention with immigrant and refugee youth. Her practice is unique in that it she always strives to uplift the voices of individuals and communities to create meaningful change.
Assistant Teaching Professor
Gaben Sanchez joined the School of Social Work in July 2022.
Gaben’s work experience includes over twenty years working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer people and immigrants in various community settings in the United States. He has many years of teaching experience at the University of Utah in the U.S. and his philosophical framework includes poststructuralism, critical theory, and post-colonialism. He pursues to implement anti-racist and inclusive classroom that examines and challenges academia’s over reliance on Western, European, and North American ways of knowing.
Vice President, Indigenous / Professor
Qwul'sih'yah'maht, Dr. Robina Thomas is Lyackson of the Coast Salish Nation. She holds a BSW, MSW, and a PhD in Indigenous Governance.
Robina is committed to Indigenous education and her research interests include storytelling, residential schools and Uy'skwuluwun: on being Indigenous. She is dedicated to understanding anti-racism and anti-oppression and how these can be 'lived'.
MSW Faculty Advisor / Professor
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0360-7302
Twitter: @BarclayWallace
