Past Team Members
Christy Guthrie is a mentoring editor at in:cite journal, where her role includes working with youth editors to develop submission and review processes. A PhD candidate at OISE-University of Toronto, Christy’s research interests include community-based arts programming, social justice education, and participatory and collaborative methods. Twitter: @_christy_g
Alissa Cherry is a Research Assistant for the Youth Research Lab. Hailing from Brooklyn NY, Alissa is a doctoral student at the University of Toronto, studying Social Justice Education and Workplace Learning and Social Change. She is a media educator, having helped produce over 300 youth media projects with over 1,000 students in the last 5 years. Formerly the Director of Education for Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Alissa has been primarily focused on curriculum development, alternative assessment development, teacher education, and corporate social responsibility programming. Alissa is a prominent diversity and representation advocate for young people in the media and entertainment industry and has organized internship programs, job shadowing, and workforce development programming for young artists.
Diana M. Barrero Jaramillo (Research Assistant) is a PhD student at the University of Toronto. Her doctoral research explores state and community-based memory initiatives related to the armed conflict in Colombia. She has been part of the YSAB team for three years, and has co-facilitated the TDSB high school credit program with Indigenous and Latinx students.
Fernanda Yanchapaxi is an Indigenous (Kichwa Panzaleo) doctoral student in the Social Justice Education program at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. From working alongside Indigenous youth to examine colonialism in education, to designing and implementing public policy to increase the access of Indigenous students to higher education institutions, Fernanda is committed to working for and along with Indigenous peoples to stand against colonial structures and enhance Indigenous leadership. Fernanda was born and raised in Ecuador and is currently looking at the ways Indigenous peoples create, use, and preserve Indigenous knowledges . Her research examines the suitability of the intellectual property system to protect Indigenous knowledges and its impact on the assertion of Indigenous knowledge sovereignty.
Paula Elias is a Research Assistant for the Youth Research Lab. Paula provides coordinating support with the YRL’s project groups, including In:cite and YPAR at the TDSB. She is a PhD student in the Adult Education and Community Development program at OISE. Her MA thesis looked at consciousness and praxis in critical YPAR experiences.
Dr. Leila Angod is a sociologist of education specializing in race, gender, and youth-led research. She completed her doctorate at University of Toronto in 2015, was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Youth Research Lab from 2015–2017, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Education at Bielefeld University in Germany. While at the Youth Research Lab Leila co-led a youth participatory action research study of social in/equality with University of Toronto Schools. From this project Leila co-founded and is currently a mentoring editor of in:cite, a youth-led journal for youth research and inquiry. She is also a member of YRL's knowledge dissemination research team. Leila publishes on topics including the affective economies that produce "global girls" in volunteer abroad, race, gender, and national belonging at elite boarding schools, and the ethics and politics of youth participatory action research. She is currently developing a youth participatory action research study of how so-called "migration background" youth theorize and transform the gendered and racialized citizenship regimes they encounter in Berlin secondary schools.