We are a team of researchers from Canada and the United States: Dr. Christine Gibb (University of Ottawa), Dr. Nnenia Campbell (University of Colorado), Dr. Gabriella Meltzer (Columbia University), and Professor Alice Fothergill (University of Vermont). Above we are having a team meeting on Zoom with our student research assistants, Osas Iyalekhue (University of Ottawa) and Liz Siegfried (University of Vermont) in Spring 2022.
Please see bios below of our core research team.
Who We Are
Dr. Christine Gibb
Christine Gibb is an Assistant Professor at the School of International Development and Global Studies at the University of Ottawa. Her research focuses on environmental migration, in particular the experiences and im/mobilities of disaster survivors and the institutions that govern post-disaster spaces. She has an interdisciplinary background, which includes studies in geography, capacity development and extension, international development and biology. Her research interests are shaped by these and other experiences within and beyond academia. Her current work is focused on the ways in which gendered religious practices, institutions and norms determine access to disaster assistance in Southeast Asia. Her past research projects have been based in Kenya, Ghana, the Philippines, Canada and the USA. Outside academia, she has worked as a consultant for several United Nations agencies and NGOs on environment, development, and youth education issues.
Pronouns: she/her/elle
Dr. Nnenia Campbell
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
Dr. Gabriella Meltzer
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
Dr. Alice Fothergill
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
Devika Jain
Research Assistant
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.
Elyse Gregory
Research Assistant
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.
Emilie Boulette
Research Assistant
Emilie Boulette is a 2023 graduate from UVM’s 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.
Hillary Monastero
Research Assistant
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.
Jagnoor Kaur Saran
Research Assistant
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.
Jazz Tae Duff
Research Assistant
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.
Mac Gaither
Research Assistant
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.
Madison Moon
Research Assistant
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.
Onsum Woo
Research Assistant
Onsum is a third 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.
Parisa Ghatta
Research Assistant
Parisa Ghatta is a 4th 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.