Life in COVID Study

Dr. Nnenia Campbell is Deputy Director of the Bill Anderson Fund (BAF), a research associate at the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, and Co-founder of the Collaborative for the Social Dimensions of Disasters. A sociologist by training, her work straddles the worlds of research, program development, and evaluation. Her work with the BAF supports inclusion and leadership among historically underrepresented minorities pursuing doctoral degrees in fields related to hazards and disaster research and practice. Her research centers on the intersections between social vulnerability and resilience, particularly among marginalized communities facing environmental hazards, as well as the roles that community-based organizations play in supporting disaster response and recovery. Campbell is passionate about using research and program evaluation to facilitate evidence-based practice, particularly through disaster preparedness planning and capacity-building activities. Her recent projects develop guidance for decision-makers related to COVID-19 and concurrent disasters as part of the Societal Experts Action Network coordinated by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and examine disaster planning and response among community-based service providers that are simultaneously grappling with the impacts of the pandemic.

Pronouns: she/her

Gabriella Meltzer is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She received her PhD in public health from NYU’s School of Global Public Health under advisement from faculty in the Center for Public Health Disaster Science. Her research interests explore how community-level environmental stressors—ranging from natural hazards, technological disasters, biohazards, and industrial pollution—create and exacerbate health disparities at critical and sensitive periods of the life course, including infancy, childhood and adolescence, pregnancy, and old age. Prior to NYU, Gabriella received her BA in Health and Societies from the University of Pennsylvania and was a Global Health Research Associate at the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Pronouns: she/her

Alice Fothergill is Professor of Sociology at the University of Vermont. She studies disasters, children, inequality, and vulnerability. She is an editor of Social Vulnerability to Disasters, first and second editions, and the author of Heads Above Water: Gender, Class, and Family in the Grand Forks Flood, which examines women’s experiences in the 1997 flood in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Professor Fothergill and her co-researcher, Professor Lori Peek, conducted a longitudinal study on the experiences of children and youth in Hurricane Katrina, which resulted in the 2015 award-winning book, Children of Katrina. She has conducted research on volunteerism in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, mothers’ challenges in academia, and the culture of childcare centers in Ohio. In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene in Vermont in 2011, she took her UVM students into devastated Vermont communities to help with recovery efforts. In 2017, Professor Fothergill was a Fulbright Fellow in New Zealand, examining disaster preparedness for childcare centers, and in 2022 she was a visiting scholar at the Center for Public Health Disaster Science at New York University (NYU). Originally from Washington, D.C., she was a research associate at the Hazards Center at the University of Colorado, and then a faculty member at the University of Akron. Professor Fothergill joined the UVM sociology faculty in 2003, and lives in Williston, Vermont with her family.

Pronouns: She/her

Océane Bruneau is a third-year student completing an honours bachelor in psychology and a minor in management. With hopes of entering a field of work that helps vulnerable populations, this seemed to be the perfect opportunity to extend her knowledge about them. As part of the research team, she has corrected the french translation for the podcast surveys in Qualtrics, worked on coding as well as worked on some EDIA tasks. 

I am a third-year Psychology student at the University of Ottawa. I joined the team as a way to learn more about academic writing, publishing, and coding, while also exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted various groups and their wellbeing. In this project, my responsibilities include supporting the development of quantitative paper #2 by conducting research for the literature review and coding interview transcripts using Dedoose.

Sara Meyers is in her final year of undergraduate studies, working towards an Honours BSocSc in Conflict Studies and Human Rights. In her role as a research assistant for the Life in COVID study, she handles various tasks, including coding journal data, facilitating communication and outreach for senior podcast sessions, and conducting research focused on the well-being of adolescents during disaster.

Onsum is a fourth year student studying Public Administration and Economics at the University of Ottawa. As part of the research team, she has worked on journal coding, along with identifying running themes while transcribing interviews.

Emily Carew is a Graduate student at the School of International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa, pursuing a Master’s Thesis. She joined the Life in Covid study during her undergraduate degree through the University of Ottawa’s Directed Research Program. Emily continues to be a member of the research team, primarily tasked with qualitative coding in-depth interviews. She is particularly interested in intergenerational interactions and observations, and how this impacts people’s Covid-19 experiences and circumstances. In July 2024, Emily led a qualitative coding workshop in collaboration with Unite & Inspire. She is passionate about political and social change, and the capacity for collectives and movements to invoke change in varying contexts.

Mukazi Ntagungira is a 4th year student in the International Development and Globalization program at the University of Ottawa. As an aspiring researcher, with an academic knack for everything intergenerational and intercultural, Mukazi decided to volunteer with the Life in COVID study after Dr. Gibb introduced this project in one of her classes. Mukazi has since gained valuable research insights from the expertise of her team members, as well as from her main tasks of interview transcription, coding and writing literature reviews. She is also most excited to be contributing to a study that is pioneering the use of podcasting as a research method. 

Jazz is a fourth year Psychology student at the University of Ottawa (2020-2024). She joined the team as a means to learn more about human experiences, especially those of vulnerable groups. Her time on the team has mostly been spent coding interview transcripts.

Devika is in her fourth year at the University of Ottawa, pursuing an Honours BSocSc in Criminology (Research Focus). As a part of this study, some of her primary responsibilities included transcribing interviews, coding interviews using Dedoose, maintaining the Living Codebook, and producing an annotated bibliography. Devika finds the interpersonal nature of this project very intriguing and is grateful to have gained many valuable insights about the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic while working on this research team.

Hillary is a fourth year student at the University of Ottawa in the Joint Honours in Sociology & Anthropology program. The opportunity to participate in the Life in Covid study immediately grasped her interest as she had previous experience working with older adults during Covid-19, and was eager to learn more. Throughout the study, she worked on editing Qualtrics consent forms, the Life in Covid website, and summarized the team’s academic articles into blog posts and infographics.

Parisa Ghatta is a 4^th year political science student that has always been intrigued by the field of research and ethnography as it explores the way people think, the way they are connected to one another, and the way the world shapes them and vice versa. Participating in the life in COVID study seemed like the perfect manner to explore that. This project provided the opportunity for Parisa to transcribe interviews of those who participated in the study.

Emilie Boulette is a 2023 graduate from University of Vermont Sociology program who contributed to the Life In Covid Study during the Spring 23′ semester. Her primary contributions included data visualization that appeared in the Colorado Hazards Quick Response Report, as well as conducting key informant interviews with other members of the research team. 

As a recent International Development and Globalization graduate, Elyse Gregory is passionate about interdisciplinary research in the social sciences and enjoyed working collaboratively with the Life in Covid study as a research assistant, by supporting data collection and analysis. Highlights of Elyse’s undergraduate degree included taking part in the Life In Covid study, along with serving as the President of Right to Play uOttawa, President of the Figure Skating Club, and an Executive Member of uOttawa’s International Development Week Conference. 

Madison Moon is a fourth-year student pursuing an Honours Bachelor in Political Science with a Minor in Philosophy. The Life in Covid study was Madison’s first research assistant experience. In her role, she participated in the National Campus and Community Radio Association’s Seniors’ Podcast Committee, assisted with the quantitative coding of participant journals, and performed research for the quantitative publication’s literature review. Since the conclusion of her term with the Life in Covid study team, Madison has worked on teams researching the framing of Bill 60 in Ontario and the pro-immigration sentiments of football (soccer) fans in Europe. 

After graduating from the University of Ottawa in 2023, Jagnoor is now a law student at McGill University. Many of her research skills were developed during her time with the Life in COVID study, where some of her tasks included coding quantitative data journals, and being a liaison between the research team and the National Campus and Community Radio Association’s (NCRA) seniors podcast working group. She also conducted a literature review regarding equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) in radio/podcasting. With other student participants of the study, she presented her work on EDIA at an online event hosted by uOttawa’s Office of the Vice-President of Research and Innovation, on Sex- and Gender-Based Analysis + in academia.

Eliza Erman is a 4th year Sociology student at the University of Vermont. Being a research assistant on the Life in Covid study caught her attention because she wanted to learn more about conducting sociological research and quantitative coding. Eliza’s primary duties on the team were coding transcripts and journals in Dedoose, and scrubbing data in Qualtrics. 

Mac is a Sociology major, in addition to having a Community and International Development minor at the University of Vermont. As a research assistant in the Life in Covid study, primary tasks related to editing an edition of the research report, working on the study’s website, and transcribing, editing, and coding interviews.