People

Faculty

Dr. Black is an Associate Professor in Food, Nutrition and Health at the University of British Columbia in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems. Her research fuses methods and theory from nutrition education, public health, sociology and geography to investigate the role of socio-cultural and neighborhood-level factors in shaping attitudes and behaviours related to eating, cooking, food selection, body image and body weight status.

 

 

Dr. Georgia Middleton (she/her), APD, PhD

Dr. Middleton is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Caring Futures Institute at Flinders University, South Australia. Currently on an International Fellowship, Georgia is working with Dr. Black and Dr. Cohen in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia. Georgia completed her PhD in Health Sciences, exploring the changes to the family meal over the last quarter of a century, and what this means for contemporary families. Following from her PhD research, Georgia’s research primarily focuses on community nutrition, food insecurity, and social and cultural aspects of food, with a special interest in shared eating occasions. Her work has largely used qualitative methodologies and methods to explore relationships with food and food systems.

Graduate Students

 

 

 

 

 

Lindsay Goodridge, MPH, RD
Human Nutrition

Lindsay Goodridge is a PhD in Human Nutrition student with the Faculty of Land and Food Systems. She is a Registered Dietitian with a Master of Public Health from the University of Toronto who spent the past year as a full-time lecturer at the University of Prince Edward Island. Her areas of focus include food insecurity, health equity, healthy public policy, and dismantling anti-fat bias in healthcare. She is excited to expand upon her previous work studying the eating experiences and nutrition concerns of gender diverse individuals and explore in more depth the intersections between gender identity and food security in Canada.

 

 

 

Raihan Hassen, BSc, RD
Food, Nutrition and Health

Raihan Hassen is a Master’s of Science in Human Nutrition student and a dietitian who is pursuing research around Vancouver school meal programs under the supervision of Dr. Black. Raihan is a Registered Dietitian having completed her Bachelor’s degree from UBC in the Food, Nutrition and Health Program with a major in Dietetics. She is curious about exploring the complex intersections between food security, school meal programs, and nutrition. Raihan was recently highlighted in UBC Equity & Inclusion’s Community Spotlight: check out what she shared about her experiences as a dietetics student and how they have shaped her approach to her graduate work here.

 

 

 

Ryan Stillwagon, M.A
Department of Sociology

Ryan Stillwagon (He/They) is a white nonbinary settler, UBC Public Scholar, and PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. Their dissertation work explores queer food security in Canada. They are a member of two community organizations working to alleviate food insecurity in Vancouver,  Saige Community Food Share and the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House. They are a proud member of the 2S Dry Lab, an interdisciplinary team of Indigenous and settler researchers working to improve the lives of 2S peoples across Turtle Island. They have published works on sexual health and queer placemaking in the Journal of Indigenous HIV Research, City & Community, The Conversation, Contexts, and JMIR Public Health and Surveillance.

 

Undergraduate students

 

Shaktiraj Kaur Kandola, Undergraduate Student
Food, Nutrition and Health, Education (Secondary Cohort)

Shaktiraj Kandola is an undergraduate student at UBC, completing a dual degree program to obtain her Bachelor of Science in Food Nutrition and Health, as well as her Bachelor of Education with a focus on Secondary home economics programs. Shaktiraj is currently working with Dr. Black on a literature review article which aims to define and outline the term food care, in relation to its ability to influence the development outcomes of school aged children. Shaktiraj is curious to use her unique educational background to explore more than the physiological and biological level of nutritional care, and focus on the sociological aspect of care, especially during the highly vulnerable and influential age of school aged children.

 

 

Yenah Byun, Undergraduate Student
Psychology Honours Program

Yenah Byun is an undergraduate student at UBC, who is studying in the Psychology Honours Program. Her research interests lie in the association between nutrition and psychopathology. Yenah is currently working with Dr. Black in defining, investigating and linking “food care” to the development of school-aged children while simultaneously completing her undergraduate thesis. In the future, Yenah wants to uncover the little-known links between nutrition and psychology as a measure of preventing and combatting psychopathology.

 

 

 

 

Alumni

 

 

Seri Niimi-Burch, MSc
Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems | Thesis | Policy Brief