About Us — Canada Team
Dr. Fikile Nxumalo
(PI, Associate Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto) has expertise in climate change education, climate justice education, early childhood education and research, community-based participatory research, and Indigenous ecological knowledges. She is a speaker of one of the South African regional languages (Zulu) and has conducted internationally recognized community-based and action research in decolonial and Indigenous environmental contexts including in her home country of Eswatini, the United States, and Canada.
Dr. Damian Maddalena
(Co-PI, Assistant Professor, Geography, Geomatics, and Environment, University of Toronto) has content expertise in GIS, agriculture, climate change, and open-source tools. His research examines agricultural sustainability in a changing climate at various scales, with a focus on the interface between agricultural and natural systems.
Dr. YanPing Li
(Co-Applicant, Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair in Climate Change Risk and Resilience, Western University) researches climate change, employing a coupled cryosphere-land surface-climate modeling system. Her research employs a modeling tool that is instrumental in comprehending how the coupled Earth system responds to climate variations, providing crucial insights to inform decision-making processes and address sustainability and resilience concerns.
Research Assistants
Kayla Webber (she/her)
Project Coordinator
Kayla Webber is a PhD candidate in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Her research and community commitments address housing precarity, Afro-Indigenous/Black/Indigenous communities, models of wellness, anti-Black racism, anti-Indigenous racism, land-based education, climate change, gender-based violence, and transformative justice.
Correnda Downey (she/her)
Graduate Assistant
Correnda is a doctoral student at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute of Studies in Education studying curriculum and pedagogy. She is a Graduate Assistant at the Childhood Place Pedagogy Lab and an Ontario Certified Teacher interested in instructional design, curriculum development, and educational systems. Broadly, her research interests are focused on racial literacy and mental health and wellness practices in education, with a specific emphasis on racialized populations.
JP Craig (they/them)
Graduate Assistant
JP Craig (Louisiana Creole) is a PhD Candidate in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto. Their collaborative, participatory research thinks alongside youth and Black and Indigenous communities to make meaning of climate change, more-than-human relationalities, and climate justice. Their work contributes to community-led frameworks for climate change education and policy.
Kaitlin Rizarri (she/they)
Graduate Assistant
Kaitlin Rizarri is a doctoral student in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto (OISE). She is a community farmer and focuses her practice on growing plants that are nourishing in teas. Her research thinks about the future of urban farming in relation to lands and waters.