Meet Our Team
Robin McCrary, PhD, MPH, MFA (Project Lead) is a Creole public health humanist. Author (as Micah McCrary) most recently of Teaching Cultural Dexterity in Creative Writing (Bloomsbury) his work also appears or is forthcoming through Public Health Humanities; Health Professions and Comics; the Consortium for Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI); the Canadian Association for Health Humanities; the Health Humanities Consortium; and the Graphic Medicine International Collective. 2026 Fulbright Canada–Maple Leaf Foundation Community Action Program grantee and 2024–2025 Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Anti-Racism and BIPOC Communities and Visiting Scholar in Health Humanities at the University of Waterloo (UW), Dr. McCrary lives on Haudenosaunee homelands—where he is associate teaching professor in the Writing Studies and Health Humanities programs at Syracuse University. He serves as volunteer within the SUNY Upstate Center for International Health Community Clinic Partnership; community partner in the School of Public Health Sciences at UW; mentor-teacher and low-residency faculty in Wilkes University’s Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing; and on the CHCI Health and Medical Humanities Network Steering Committee.
Subanu Senthilkumar, BSc (Founding Researcher) is a Health Sciences graduate with a minor in Addictions, Mental Health, and Policy from the University of Waterloo. She has a strong passion for public health, communications, and creating inclusive spaces for diverse communities. With experience spanning graphic design, marketing, communications, and healthcare, she brings a creative and people-focused perspective to her work.
Throughout her professional experiences, Subanu has worked on digital content and social media for healthcare software companies, as well as user experience design and communications strategy. She enjoys combining creativity and storytelling to make information more impactful and accessible to all.
Outside of work, Subanu enjoys discovering new foods with friends, listening to music, swimming, and playing pickleball. She also values spending time with family and staying actively involved in her community.
Fardeen Channa (Founding Researcher) is a Health Sciences graduate from the University of Waterloo with experience across health research, clinical care, rehabilitation, and community health. His work has included research with PEACH Health, clinical support in rheumatology and physiotherapy settings, and contributions to projects examining health, climate, and community well-being. His interests span medicine, public health, health equity, and the ways social and environmental factors shape health outcomes. Outside of his professional work, Fardeen is an avid tennis fan and enjoys learning across science, health, and the humanities.
Hannah Odia (Founding Researcher) is an undergraduate Public Health student at the University of Waterloo, with a minor in Addictions, Mental Health, and Policy. In addition, she works as an undergraduate student researcher for the University of Waterloo’s Fire Research Group. As a Research Assistant with Dr. Elizabeth Weckman, she provides necessary health- and community-based perspectives to the development and implementation of lab projects. Her main work centers on WUI Fire Safety in Canadian Indigenous Communities, a collaboration with the National Indigenous Fire Safety Council, where she leads qualitative research analysis and applied statistical modelling to create interdisciplinary risk indices. She focuses her research on fire emergency egress, occupational fire safety, and community-led wildfire risk assessment and management.
When she’s not studying or working, Hannah loves to spend her free time outdoors. She is a long-distance runner, a hiker, and an avid camper. She also enjoys relaxing with friends by going to the movies, baking together, or attending concerts.
Mankiran Dhillon (Founding Researcher) is a Health Sciences graduate with a minor in Psychology whose work spans healthcare innovation, research, public policy, business, and social impact. She is the Co-Founder and Research Lead of OncoBuddy, a Velocity health-tech startup focused on improving the cancer care experience through patient-centred technology.
Mankiran currently works with the Government of Ontario, supporting cross-functional teams across the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Transportation. She has extensive experience in the non-profit sector through organizations including UW Supporting SickKids, Fashion for Change, and MEDLIFE Waterloo, where she has contributed to sponsorship, outreach, communications, and social impact initiatives. Most of her internship experience has been within the business and technology sector, where she has developed skills in marketing, strategy, research, project management, and business development. She has also competed in numerous hackathons, innovation challenges, and consulting competitions. Her experience supporting physical rehabilitation for older adults at CCCARE living with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as stroke survivors, has further shaped her interest in patient-centred care and quality of life. Her research interests are interdisciplinary, with a particular focus on sociopolitical determinants of health, neuroscience, and public health.
Outside of work, Mankiran enjoys exploring fashion as an intersection of art, culture, and storytelling, along with baking, and live music.
Dr. Maureen Drysdale is a professor in Health Humanities and the School of Psychology at St. Jerome’s University, and adjunct professor in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo. Her research focuses predominantly on the mental health and well-being of emerging adults, although some of her work more recently expands the entire life span. The research she conducts with her large team in the Well-Link Research and Lab examines the mental health, attitudes, and behaviours that are believed to be important for success during major life transitions. This includes mental health literacy, moral injury, peer support, social support, anxiety, depression, trauma, psychosis, self-esteem, self-efficacy, hope, motivation, sense of belonging, and other mental health and wellbeing constructs. Some of the interdisciplinary research studies being conducted in the lab are examining moral injury in post-secondary education, the mental health literacy of emerging adults, the impact of art and other leisure activities on mental health and well-being, AI psychosis, social prescriptions, the history of women’s mental health, and the social determinants of health and access to care for hard-to-reach populations.
Sarah Callaghan is a PhD Candidate at the University of Waterloo in the School of Public Health Sciences, where she researches mental health literacy among emerging adults. Her dissertation uses mixed-methods and participatory research approaches to engage with diverse groups of emerging adults across the Waterloo Region. Sarah is also the Lab Manager of the Well-Link Research Lab and helps to conduct research about mental health and well-being impacts associated with identifying as gifted, and perceptions of online counseling.
She is Registered Psychotherapist with the CRPO and currently operates a private practice. Sarah has received training and worked with individuals in community and detention-centre settings who have experienced trauma and PTSD, criminalization, homelessness and precarious housing, and substance use.
Tania Del Matto (Founding Researcher) is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Social Innovation and the founding Director of GreenHouse, where she has supported the launch of hundreds of social ventures and helped thousands of undergraduate and graduate students build the mindset to turn their values into action. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Higher Education at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). Her research explores how students carry what they learn in social entrepreneurship education, including its knowledge, skills, and values, into their personal and professional identities, and how graduates see that education shaping their career choices.