ABOUT ME

As a mixed-methods researcher, I regularly engage in a “reflexivity practice” where you consider what you bring in terms of experience, potential bias, and privilege based on your social standing. Some social labels I’ve adopted which frame my experiences and outlook include: second generation Estonian/Scottish Canadian settler, woman with she/her pronouns, bisexual in a heterosexual relationship, able-bodied with chronic pain, university-educated, financially stable with government funding, agnostic/atheist, pro-choice, sex-positive, middle child raised primarily by a single mother, animal rights activist, harm-reductionist, social psychologist, anthrozoologist, and post-positivist academic.

I started post-secondary education at the University of Toronto in 2004, majoring in psychology, human sexuality, and Spanish. At the beginning of my third year, I recognized UofT was not where I wanted to be. I was struggling through classes and was unable to acquire research lab experience, which meant graduate school was becoming less of an option. Then one day I decided to transfer universities and attend a school with smaller classes and professors who could make the time to foster my interest in research. I ended up moving to Waterloo Ontario to attend Wilfrid Laurier University where I completed my Honours Thesis in Psychology and received my BA.

Following my honours BA, I took a year off to focus on graduate school applications, taking the GRE, and working/saving money. I applied to something like 6 graduate programs, but after talking to Dr. Karen Lawson in Applied Social Psychology at the University of Saskatchewan, I knew I was headed to the prairies. My intention was only to complete my MA then move back to Ontario to find a job, but Saskatoon, Karen, Applied Social Psychology, the allure of a PhD, and postdoctoral opportunities kept me there for nearly 10 years. Despite the prairie winters and having to sometimes endure -50c days, I’m still confident it was the greatest decision I’ve ever made for myself, professionally and personally.

Undergraduate and Graduate Education

Ph.D. Applied Social Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, 2019

• Dissertation: Examining the Stigma and Stereotypes Related to Involuntarily Childless Women Using the Stereotype Content Model and Weiner’s Attribution Affect Action Model

• Committee: Karen Lawson, Pamela Downe, Sylvia Abonyi, Jorden Cummings

• Award: Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) 2020 Certificate of Academic Excellence, Doctoral Thesis, Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan

M.A. Applied Social Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, 2013

• MA Thesis: Delayed childbearing : a planned behaviour or an unintentional outcome?

• Committee: Karen Lawson, Pamela Downe, Roger Pierson

B.A. Honours Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2010

• BA Honours Thesis: The effect of speaking order on instrumental and relational expectancies.

• Supervisor: Lara Kammrath

(Dr. Lara Kammrath’s Social Psychology Lab, 2010)

(My undergraduate thesis defense poster, 2010)

(My first month in Saskatoon, making new friends.)

(First sunset picture I took in Saskatoon, the land of living skies.)