People

Alana Hoare

Alana is an assistant teaching professor in the School of Education at TRU whose academic interests focus on ethical leadership and culturally responsive governance in higher education; specifically, the role of cultures and epistemologies and their influence on educational systems. Previously, Alana taught elementary school and English language learners. She also spent nearly a decade as a quality assurance scholar-practitioner and maintains a research program in this field.

Angel Masano is an undergraduate student research assistant, website developer and a Computing Science major at Thompson Rivers University. She has a passion for website development, digital illustrations, a new found interest in research, and has developed the Cultural Mapping Research Group websites including DrugAwareBC.com.

Anjali Singh

Anjali Singh is an undergraduate student research assistant and a Computer Science major at Thompson Rivers University. She is passionate about website development and graphic design and has recently discovered a strong interest in research. Anjali is also actively involved with the Cultural Mapping Research Group, where she contributes to exploring cultural narratives and representation through digital tools.  

Cheryl Gladu

Cheryl Gladu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Enterprise and Innovation at TRU is an interdisciplinary scholar who studies, among other things, how people co-create and manage dynamic systems of governance to solve meaningful problems together.

Jason Schapansky

Thompson Rivers University, Assistant Teaching Professor

Jayse Matonovich

Jayse Matonovich is an undergraduate research assistant at TRU. She has been involved in many research projects that involve cultural mapping, including Project EDI and the Toxic Drug Overdose Project. Jayse is the Principal Investigator for Project EDI, a project she started in grade 11 asking students, teachers, staff and administrators about their lived experiences with equity, diversity and inclusion in Secondary Schools.

Jessica Mensinger

Clinical Operations Manager, Substance Use Team, Kamloops MHSU Interior Health 


Jessica Mensinger MSW, RSW has extensive experience as a clinical social worker working across a range of mental health and substance programs and has experience with program and policy development within health care settings to support people who use substances. More broadly, she volunteers on the board of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research and acts as the co-director for the Addiction Social Work Fellowship program with the BC Center on Substance Use. Jessica works closely with her community organizations, Peer groups and other advocacy groups and credits the depth of her learnings to the teachings of her colleagues and individuals and families with lived and living experience.

Kate Fagervik

Kate Fagervik (she/her) is the Manager of Student Research & Community Engagement at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree as is a specialist in arts-based community engagement and cultural mapping.

Lana Fine

My name is Lana Kylie Fine. As a settler, it is with extreme gratitude that I acknowledge and respect the traditional lands of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc. I am a Master of Arts student in the Human Rights and Social Justice program at Thompson Rivers University (TRU), as well as a research assistant on the Toxic Drug Supply Crisis and the Trades- Cultural Story Mapping project and the DrugAwareBC micro-credential project. I spend most of my youth in Kelowna, having recently moved back from Vancouver Island. I have a Bachelor of Social Work Degree (BSW) from the University of Victoria, identifying as a person with lived/living experience (PWLLE), an artist (painting is my jam), jazz lover, and a cat mom to Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Lorry-Ann Austin

Lorry-Ann Austin’s research focuses on the landscape of learning outcomes assessment and the links between media framing, education, and civil discourse that advances democratic participation and human rights.

Luke Redgrove

Luke Redgrove is a TRU alumni and videographer. He has been involved with research projects such as Project EDI and the Toxic Drug Overdose Project. Alongside Jayse Matonovich, he has directed a short film to document and promote Project EDI. Luke is passionate about videography and photography and telling meaningful and impactful stories

Marnie Badham

Marnie Badham is Associate Professor at RMIT University (Australia). With 30 years of art and social justice practice in Canada and Australia, her research attends to relational ethics at the intersection of socially-engaged art, participatory methodologies, and the politics of cultural measurement.

Nancy Duxbury

Nancy Duxbury is a senior researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal, where she is coordinator of the transdisciplinary research line “Urban Cultures, Sociabilities and Participation” and principal investigator of the Horizon Europe project “IN SITU: Place-based Innovation of Cultural and Creative Industries in Non-urban Areas” (insituculture.eu).

Natika Bock

Coordinator, Community Impact and Investment, UWBC 


Patricia Huntsman

Patricia Huntsman is a two-time nationally award-winning arts and culture policy-writer, planner and strategist. She has worked across Canada and internationally in senior roles in the cultural sector for over 25 years. Her national, team-based practice offers a full roster of arts management; cultural mapping and planning, creative place-making, economic development, and engagement services tailored to Building Communities Through Culture.

Reanna Shula

Manager of Sustainability and Affordable Housing, CMHA 


I have been serving vulnerable populations for the last 14 years of my career. It has been a privilege to support individuals in overcoming challenges and reaching their potential.

Robin Westland, Ph.D., is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Environment, Culture, and Society at TRU. Robin is a human geographer who teaches though an interdisciplinary and cultural lens and who integrates the mapping places and spaces into many of her courses at TRU. 

Sharon Karsten

VIU, Michael Smith Scholar; Thompson Rivers University Adjunct Professor

Sukh Heer Matonovich

Thompson Rivers University, Director of Student Research and Graduate Studies

Tracey Kutschker

Tracey Kutschker is the Curator at Salmon Arm Arts Centre and Art Gallery, and has 20 years experience in arts-based community development, creative place-making, and arts-infused EDI practices.

Will Garrett-Petts is Professor of English and Special Advisor on Integrated Strategic Planning at TRU. He is Principal Investigator tor the Community and Cultural Mapping Research Group.