The fourth cohort of the Sustainability Education Fellows represent seven faculties and 8 departments and schools across 91黑料网's campuses.
Alanna Thain
Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Department of English听
Student Fellow: Erica Biolchini (PhD Student, Department of English)
Alanna Thain is associate professor of cultural studies, world cinemas and gender, sexuality and feminist studies in the department of English. She directs the Moving Image Research Lab (MIRL) dedicated to the study of the body across moving image media, and CORERISC, a research collective exploring embodied risk in media and performance. Since 2020, she co-directs the research project 鈥淭he Sociability of Sleep鈥� with Aleks Kaminska (UdeM), focused on rethinking sleep as a sociable form in dialogue with the contemporary "sleep crisis" and the emerging emphasis on sleep equity in research and practice. She currently teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on cultural studies of sleep (ENGL 670 and ENGL 391). The intersections of climate change, ecological concerns and sleep are increasingly relevant to interdisciplinary sleep studies and her own research.
Debra Titone
Professor, Faculty of Science, Department of Psychology听
Student Fellow: Karla Tarin Murillo (PhD Student, Department of Psychology)
Professor Titone's research is grounded in cognitive and experimental psychology, with a particular focus on language鈥攁 complex and highly interdependent set of skills that integrates nearly all aspects of cognition and social function. At 91黑料网, Titone's laboratory investigates a variety of questions related to language use. These include how people comprehend and produce the languages they know, how they read, learn novel linguistic forms, and use formulaic or metaphoric language.
In collaboration with many creative and talented students, postdoctoral researchers, and colleagues, she examines these questions across multiple domains using a variety of methods, most notably eye-tracking studies of reading, as well as neuroscientific and computational approaches. Titone is an active member of the Centre for Research in Brain, Language and Music and currently leads the Montr茅al Bilingualism Initiative.
More recently, Titone has launched a new research project with doctoral student Karla Tarin examining how bilingual adults process and interpret sustainability messaging and misinformation, with a focus on how these processes are shaped by both language experience and political orientation.
Idaresit Ekaette
Assistant Professor, Faculty Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Department of Bioresource Engineering and Department of Agricultural Chemistry
Student Fellow: Benedicta Biyimba (Master鈥檚 Student, Department of Bioresource Engineering)
Idaresit Ekaette is an Assistant Professor jointly appointed in the Department of Bioresource Engineering and the Department of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry at 91黑料网, Canada. Her research focuses on developing novel foods and biomaterials through food fortification, agri-food waste valorization, and biopolymer innovation.
Guided by a strong commitment to advancing food security, environmental sustainability, and socioeconomic development, Dr. Ekaette integrates practical, solution-driven approaches into both her research and teaching. She is redesigning her course Biobased Polymers to equip students with the ability to synergize material science and engineering principles with sustainability values and socio-economic awareness.
Through this interdisciplinary framework, students are encouraged to critically evaluate the impact of their everyday choices on public health and the environment, and to prioritize actions that contribute to a more sustainable and equitable global future.
James Clemens-Seely
Assistant Professor, Schulich School of Music, Department of Music Research
Student Fellow: Ana Gonzalez Sarmiento (Master's Student, Department of Music Research)
James Clemens-Seely (he/him) is a part-time Assistant Professor of Music in Sound Recording and part-time freelancer with an emphasis on recording, mixing and mastering music projects for any and all media. James teaches graduate courses in Recording Theory & Practice, Technical Ear Training, Editing & Post-Production, and Digital Studio Technology. Splitting his time between Montreal and the Canadian Rockies, and is an avid rock climber, mountaineer, and currently Team Canada ice climber. James is committed to fostering sustainability in the outdoors, the recording studio, and the classroom, and is excited about the overlap between these domains.
Jack Kelly
Assistant Professor, Schulich School of Music, Department of Music Research
Student Fellow: Ana Gonzalez Sarmiento (Master's Student, Department of Music Research)
Kyle Elliott
Associate Professor, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Department of Natural Resource Sciences
Student Fellows: Carter Rouleau (PhD Student, Department of Natural Resource Sciences)
Kyle Elliott is an associate professor in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences who studies Arctic wildlife and works actively towards their conservation. He teaches a course on Wildlife Conservation (WILD 421) which includes two case-based studies on protected areas and species-at-risk, and he will be working towards improving those modules. The course also includes student projects on campus with the Office of Sustainability, such as creating a pollinator meadow, a field guide to wild bees and optimizing a biodiversity audit, and as a Fellow he will be improving the integration of these sustainability projects into the course.
Mary Dellar
Faculty Lecturer, Desautels Faculty of Management
Student Fellow: Ryan Stasolla (Master's Student, Desautels Faculty of Management)
Mary Dellar is a Faculty Lecturer and Senior Case Associate at the Desautels Faculty of Management, 91黑料网. She teaches courses in consumer behaviour, services marketing and brand management, with a focus on helping students connect marketing theory to real-world challenges.
As a Sustainability Education Faculty Fellow, Mary is exploring how sustainability can be integrated into marketing education through the study of consumer behaviour. Her work focuses on understanding how consumers make decisions, why sustainable intentions do not always translate into action, and how behavioural insights can support more responsible patterns of consumption. She is particularly interested in helping students critically examine the social, environmental, and ethical implications of marketplace choices.
Mary鈥檚 broader interests include experiential learning, case-based teaching, and the development of engaging learning experiences that encourage critical thinking, curiosity, and meaningful discussion.
Samira A. Rahimi
Associate Professor, Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences
Student Fellow: Mridul Sharma (PhD Student, Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences)
Dr. Samira A. Rahimi, B.Eng., PhD, is a Canada Research Chair in AI and Advanced Digital Primary Healthcare, professor at 91黑料网, Co-Director of 91黑料网鈥檚 Collaborative for AI and Society (McCAIS), Academic Member of Mila 鈥� Quebec AI Institute, and Principal Investigator at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on developing and implementing responsible, equitable, and human-centered AI solutions to improve primary healthcare, particularly for vulnerable and underserved populations.
As a Sustainability Education Fellow, Dr. Rahimi is interested in integrating sustainability perspectives into AI and health education. She is currently developing and refining courses that explore the opportunities and challenges of AI in healthcare, with particular attention to health equity, social responsibility, and sustainable innovation. Through the SEF program, she hopes to strengthen her pedagogical approaches, foster interdisciplinary learning, and equip students with the knowledge and skills needed to address complex health and sustainability challenges in an increasingly digital world.
Sarah Harris
Faculty Lecturer, Faculty of Science, Department of Geography
Student Fellow: Hedi Jaza (Master鈥檚 Student, Department of Integrated Studies in Education)
Dr. Sarah Harris is a Faculty Lecturer in the Department of Geography whose research focuses on historical and contemporary climate change as well as impacts on human systems. Through the SEF program, she is redesigning GEOG302 Environmental Management I, an undergraduate course that examines the principles, tools, and approaches used in environmental management and decision-making. Her goal is to update the course to better reflect the rapidly evolving nature of environmental management, while also strengthening connections to sustainability principles, real-world environmental challenges, and applied learning opportunities. By participating in the SEF program, Dr. Harris aims to modernize course content and assessments, enhance student engagement, and ensure that the course equips students with the knowledge and practical skills needed to address complex environmental issues.
Tanya Matthews
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Student Fellow: Ana Lungu (PhD Student, Department of Family Medicine)
Dr. Tanya Matthews is an assistant professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Her research focuses on the intersection of literacy, language, and community. Her research is grounded in socio-cultural and community-engaged approaches and seeks to address inequities in assessment and treatment to improve early identification and treatment outcomes of culturally and linguistically diverse children. She is engaged in redesigning and enhancing the 鈥淧honological Disorders: Children鈥� course, with a focus on social sustainability in speech-language pathology and an emphasis on culturally and linguistically diverse populations. Her aim as an SEF is to expand course content to examine how assessment and diagnostic decisions influence treatment selection and shape outcomes for children, families, and communities. She is committed to equipping students with skills in alternative assessment intervention methods grounded in evidence-based practices and community perspectives.
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Faculty Lecturer, Faculty of Science, Department of Geography
Student Fellow: MK Hickox (PhD Student, Department of Biology)
Dr. Tim Elrick is a Senior Faculty Lecturer in the Department of Geography at 91黑料网. Together with Sustainable Education Fellow MK Hickox he is redesigning GEOG 201 Introduction to Geographic Information Science to infuse the course with more applied sustainable content and enhance it through more student-focused learning and assessment. While the former aims to provide more socially, culturally and economically sustainable examples that students can related to, the latter aims to improve the engagement of and interaction between students during lectures as well as aiming for more meaningful ways for students to assess their knowledge acquisition in this course.
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