Faculty

Donna Jeffery’s research and teaching interests include: race and gender issues in the production of professional subjectivity; poststructural analyses of power and knowledge; intersectionality in the social organization of dominance and marginality; social work history. She completed her doctoral studies in sociology in education at OISE/University of Toronto. Her dissertation is entitled, A Terrain of Struggle: Reading Race in Social Work Education.

Donna's current research examines environmentalism, how ideologies of nature operate in social and political spaces, and particularly, how the physical environment is represented in social work discourse. The next phase of this research will extend this methodological approach to the intersections of food politics and forms of social difference.

Cheryl is a Gitxsan Woman from the Gutginuxw House and the Fireweed Clan. She holds a BSW and MSW, and is currently completing a PhD in the Social Dimensions of Health program at the University of Victoria. Cheryl is honored and grateful to teach as a visitor on the traditional territories of the Songhees, Esquimalt and WS’ANEC’ peoples.

Cheryl's research and teaching interests are in the area of Indigenous, anti-racist education and Indigenous health; particularly Elder healthcare and dementia.

Jeannine Carriere is Metis originally from the Red River area of southern Manitoba and is honored to have worked in the territories of the Lekwungen, Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples since 2005. Her research interests are in the areas of Indigenous child welfare particularly adoption, identity and wellbeing for Indigenous children. She also holds an interest in areas of Indigenous mental health and community services.

Dr. Carriere has extensive publications including books and films addressing her research outcomes with a particular emphasis on Metis children and families. Dr. Carriere is humbled to have received a number of awards and recognition of her academic and Indigenous community service.

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.

Kundoqk, Jacquie Green is from the Haisla Nation. She is the Director and 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. She currently is a project manager for the Indigenous Child Well-Being Research Network through the faculty of Human and Social Development.

Cindy’s interdisciplinary and collaborative research explores connections between wellbeing, belonging, storytelling and resistance in various communities. Her research and teaching interests include: Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer (2SLGBTQ+) belonging and wellbeing; critical race feminist theories of intersectionality; decolonization; violence; place and identity; food justice; spirituality and social justice; intergenerational storytelling; participatory action research and arts-based research. For over 25 years, Cindy worked in community organizations in the areas of violence intervention, community development, counseling and advocacy, social justice education and research.

Zaheera joined the School of Social Work in 2019. She has an interdisciplinary background in anthropology, development studies and social work. Her teaching and research interests include the global south, migration studies and decolonial theory.

Her current research explores migration and family in Africa, Germany, and Canada.

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. 

Patricia MacKenzie joined the School of Social Work as an Associate Professor in July 1999. She served as the Associate Dean in the Faculty of Human and Social Development (2003 to 2005) and as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies (2005 to 2012). Prior to arriving at UVic, she was an Associate Professor and Director of the Saskatoon Community Education Center at the University of Regina. She also practiced as a social worker in Victoria for several years.

Pat's primary research interests are in the area of mentoring, the scholarship of learning and teaching, health care, ageing and interdisciplinary practice. She teaches in both the BSW and MSW programs and is a research affiliate at UVic's Institute on Aging & Lifelong Health (Centre on Aging).

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.

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.

Gayle Ployer became a faculty member in the School of Social Work in 2014.

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.

Qwul'sih'yah'maht, 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'.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0360-7302
Twitter: @BarclayWallace