Centre Staff and Research Assistants

CSSCF Staff 

CSSCF Staff Member	Name	Position	About
	Michelle O'Kane	Research Coordinator (UBC-V)	Michelle O'Kane is a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver) and a Registered Social Worker. Her research focuses on child protection systems, judgement and decision making, supervisory neglect as a maltreatment classification, and children in public space.

CSSCF Okanagan Project Team Members

CSSCF Vancouver Project Team Members

CSSCF Vancouver Team Member	Name	Position	About
	Kolbe Neva	Research Assistant	Kolbe Neva (he/him) is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the UBC Okanagan Campus. He is currently majoring in Psychology and minoring in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies. Kolbe has a broad range of research interests and a few of which are child and adolescent development as well as assistance and resources for low-income homes. He has work experience as a summer student working for BGC Canada (formerly Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada) daycares and youth summer camps. Kolbe plans to advance his studies in graduate school in the upcoming years to become a registered Clinical Psychologist. He is a current volunteer for the 2024W Academic year.
	Cathy Jiu	UBC-V Volunteer	Cathy (she/her) holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Psychology. Her interests span the areas of community engagement, and advocacy, equity and policy. As Knowledge Translation Assistant, she is most interested in exploring the facets of knowledge exchange and innovative dissemination methods, and how they can further facilitate the application of research to inform policymaking and social welfare programming. She hopes to pursue further studies in public health.
	Kayla Kenney	UBC-V Team Member	Kayla Kenney is a PhD Student at the UBC School of Social Work. Their doctoral research focuses on social work practice with younger trans and gender diverse people in healthcare. Kayla's research experience includes interviewing, focus groups, and participatory methods alongside trans and gender diverse (TGD) people. This builds on their clinical experience as a behavioural health clinician on a multi-disciplinary pediatric primary care team, providing counselling with TGD youth and families. Kayla maintains registration as a Registered Clinical Social Worker (RCSW) with the BC College of Social Workers.
	Emily Li	Research Assistant	Emily Li is a 4th-year undergraduate student in the Honours Psychology program at the University of British Columbia. She is interested in studying the impact of cultural differences and family dynamics on child outcomes and wellbeing. In her free time, she enjoys crocheting, hanging out with her cat, and reading romance novels!
	Ruth Pedersen	Project Assistant	Ruth is a current UBC Bachelor of Arts student majoring in Spanish. She previously completed her Bachelor of Social Work at UBC and will begin the Master of Social Work program in Fall 2025. As a summer Work Learn Project Assistant, Ruth brings many years of experience providing social work services to children and families in schools and shelters, as well as supporting and advocating for people with disabilities in community living settings. For her MSW, she is particularly interested in deepening her clinical practice skills and understanding in work with children and families.
	Maddie Cathcart	Research Assistant	Maddie is a 4th year BSW Student at the UBC School of Social Work and has a previous Bachelor’s in Sociology from UBC. Maddie’s research interests focus on the lived reality of macro social patterns, such as induced socio-economic status, experiences of economic systems and how these impact childhood access to resources that promote thriving development. Maddie plans to pursue some of these interests through a Masters of Public Policy and hopes to incorporate the valuable knowledge of social work practice into policy development and advocacy.

(Last Update: June 16, 2025)