Information on Community of Practice Projects

Ryan Avola, Dating Safe Facilitator

Ryan has spent the last decade facilitating programs about gender-based violence, coordinating youth programs and speaking in his community as an educator, an advocate, and a co-conspirator. He is passionate about community activism, confronting the patriarchy and discussing the realities of power and inequality in our societies.  Ryan identifies as a gender questioning man, uses he/him/his pronouns, is a white-settler here on unceded Coast Salish territories and is the child of Scottish, English and Sicilian families. He currently co-facilitates conversation circles for self-identified men in the Healthier Masculinities Club at UBC and at Kiwassa Neighbourhood House in East Vancouver. He is the program manager of “iGuy”, with Saleema Noon Sexual Health Educators, and facilitates these workshops for students that identify as boys in grades 4-7 across the lower mainland. He is privileged to carry with him an undergraduate degree in social justice and peace studies, and a masters of arts in globalization and the human condition.

Dr. Sara Crann, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Windsor

Sara Crann is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Windsor. She is a feminist social psychologist who studies girls’ and women’s health and wellbeing, including intimate partner and sexual violence against girls and women. Her research focuses on how girls and women understand and push back against the conditions that undermine their health and wellbeing. Her current research is developing an effective and empowering sexual violence intervention for adolescent girls. In partnership with community-based organizations, youth, and researchers at the University of Windsor and Tufts University, Sara is leading a project to adapt and evaluate the feminist EAAA (aka Flip the Script^TM) program for girls between 14 and 17 years old. Sara previously worked with the EAAA program as a Research Site Coordinator at the University of Guelph on research to evaluate the effectiveness of the EAAA program with university women.

Dr. Charlene Senn, Professor, University of Windsor

Charlene Senn is a feminist social psychologist. She holds a Canadian Institutes of Health Research funded Canada Research Chair in Sexual Violence and is a Professor of Psychology and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Windsor. She has been an activist and advocate on issues related to men’s violence against women and women’s health for many years. Her research focuses on effective sexual violence interventions, particularly those developing women’s capacity to resist sexual assault. She developed the feminist EAAA (aka Flip the Script) program which was recently proven to substantially reduce the sexual violence women university students experienced (30 – 64%) for at least two years. The program simultaneously increased women’s confidence and reduced their self-blame if they were sexually assaulted. EAAA is now being used in universities and colleges in Canada, the U.S., New Zealand, and Australia. It is also being adapted for younger girls and for use in other countries (e.g., eSwatini). With her colleague, Dr. Anne Forrest, she has worked since 2010 on another critical piece of the sexual violence intervention puzzle to institutionalize effective bystander education and to study its short and longer term impact on campus culture.

Greg Penney, Director of Programs

Greg Penney is the Director of Programs at the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA). Greg is responsible for the strategic development, implementation and overall direction of a wide range of national public health programs addressing such issues as emergency preparedness, chronic and infectious disease, tobacco control, health literacy, drugs and alcohol, the environment, and the prevention of youth dating violence. Greg oversees and supports the process of CPHA’s project focused on the prevention of youth dating violence through the implementation and evaluation of a comprehensive sexuality education curriculum.

Rachel MacLean, Senior Project Officer

Rachel MacLean works with the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) leading various projects and initiatives related to sexual health and harm reduction. Specifically, Rachel coordinates a project related to the prevention of stigma within health and social service settings, as well as a project focused on the prevention of youth dating violence through the implementation and evaluation of a comprehensive sexuality education curriculum. Rachel holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Biomedical Science from the University of Ottawa. She has been working for over a decade at both policy and community levels to advance healthy sexuality in Canada.

Erin Laverty, Project Officer

Erin Laverty works with the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) on a project focused on the prevention of youth dating violence through the implementation and evaluation of a comprehensive sexuality education curriculum. Erin has volunteered, worked, and studied in the field of sex and relationship science in mental health, forensic, and academic settings. Erin holds a Master of Science in Experimental Psychology from Trent University and Bachelor Arts with a Specialization in Psychology from the University of Ottawa. Her interests include but are not limited to psychological research; she is passionate about all knowledge that pertains to adolescent social development, sexual relationships, and interpersonal communication.

Meccana Ali, Manager, National Programs

Meccana Ali is a registered social worker with years of experience engaging youth and families around violence prevention and healing strategies from a trauma-informed and health equity lens. I have worked with diverse populations from newcomers, immigrants, survivors of domestic violence, marginalized and vulnerable youth and their families across Canada.

Respect₂Connect (R₂C) and its multiple collaborators allow for a person-centered model of engagement with youth around teen dating violence prevention.  As the Manager, National Programs for Respect₂Connect at Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada we highlight the expertise of Boys and Girls Clubs across Canada in this area. Additionally, we are collaborating with Taylor Newberry Consulting around evaluative measures where R₂C addresses an important gap in knowledge and evidence about effective community-based teen dating violence prevention programs.

Martine Hébert, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Sexology,  Université du Québec à Montréal

Chairholder of the Canada Research Chair in Interpersonal Traumas and Resilience

Co-holder of the Chaire interuniversitaire Marie-Vincent sur les agressions sexuelles envers les enfants

Dr. Martine Hébert is the principal investigator of the SPARX project (projet Étincelles). For several years, she has been interested in teen romantic relationships and led a representative survey on dating violence (Youths’ Romantic Relationships Survey) in Quebec. Dr. Hébert also has an expertise in intervention and prevention program evaluation. For more information on her projects, visit: https://martinehebert.uqam.ca.

Catherine Moreau, M.A., Research Coordinator, Department of Sexology, Université du Québec à Montréal

Catherine Moreau holds a Master’s degree in sexology and is coordinator of the SPARX project. She was also coordinator of the Youths’ Romantic Relationships Survey, which established a portrait of teen dating violence victimization in a representative sample of youth in Quebec.

Marily Julien, M.A., Research Professional, Department of Sexology, Université du Québec à Montréal

Marily Julien holds a Master’s degree in Sexology. Within the SPARX project, she offers support on the project coordination. Her experiences are more specifically oriented towards sexual violence prevention among youth.

Claudya Leclerc, Project Manager, Réseau-Femmes BC

Claudya Leclerc is a young French Métis (Innu and Mi’kmaq) from British Columbia.  Claudya recently graduated from the Health Science Faculty of the Simon Fraser University.  As an intersectional feminist, she is motivated by problems involving women, health and equal opportunity.  She oversees the Healthy Relationships of Young Leaders project at ‘’Réseau-Femmes’’, a program established to promote healthy relationships and prevent violence in interpersonal relationships.  Claudya is also an active contributor to the French community.   She believes that young Francophones must be offered an opportunity to celebrate their linguistic pride even though they live within a French minority.

Laura Corbeil, Youth Worker, Réseau-Femmes BC

Laura recently arrived in Vancouver at the end of April 2021.  She is from Franco-Ontarian descent with a Bachelor’s Degree in psychology and sociology from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.  During the last few years, her passion for equal access to resources, mental health education as well as working with disabled people led her to multiple opportunities within her community.  In 2017, she started her role as a volunteer in group facilitation for adults with disabilities for a three-year term.  Meanwhile, she also participated as student counsellor where she had the opportunity to improve support resources offered to young people in the university.  Finally, in 2020, she became involved in a youth community organization where she developed an alternative to suspension program as well as offering social and academic support to young students in high school.