51ÉçÇøºÚÁÏ

Stevie Thompson

SSHRC Canada Graduate Master’s Scholarship recipient Stevie Thompson is an 51ÉçÇøºÚÁÏalumnus who manages the Mycelium Program for queer and trans youth at YouthCO, a local non-profit organization. Their academic journey began when Thompson completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, with minors in Health Sciences and also Curriculum Development and Instruction. They cite that their motivation to pursue graduate studies comes from a desire to support the youth that they work with, and to more deeply investigate topics that reflect their life experience.

Their Master’s project will explore how consensual non-monogamous relationships (CNM) impact disabled queer and trans youth’s health, including access to support services, and how youth’s health in turn impacts their relationships. Thompson’s research will take a community-based, youth-engaged approach that encourages members of the community, including youth, to provide feedback and support throughout the study. They will be utilizing in-depth interviews as well as data from existing studies (REIMAGYN) and previous focus groups to identify how CNM can support youth and how the adults who work with these youth can better help them navigate CNM relationships and health promotion. The findings from this work will – in collaboration with community partners – inform the development of resources and programs for the underserved population of disabled queer and trans youth engaged in CNM dynamics in BC and the adults who support them.

Thompson, who is a trained sexual health educator, can be found in their down time enjoying several other activities, such as swimming, paddleboarding, crafting, dancing and travelling. They also love spending time with their two cats, Jade and Jasper. 

Iveoma Udevi-Aruevoru

SSHRC Canada Graduate Doctoral Scholarship recipient Iveoma Udevi-Aruevoru became interested in pursuing graduate studies while working for the Women’s Health Research Institute (WHRI) as a maternal health research assistant. After dedicating three years to a maternal-infant microbiome study, she reached out to FHS Professor Susan Erikson – who taught Udevi-Aruevoru and introduced her to examining how political and economic forces, as well as relations of power, shape health in both rich and poor countries alike. She joined Erikson’s lab as a Master’s student investigating how data is used and leveraged in humanitarian finance, and demonstrating how data is an inextricable element of contemporary reproductive health financing.

Udevi-Aruevoru’s success during her Master’s studies enabled her to transfer to the FHS PhD program to explore how to protect mothers and infants from the health impacts of heat stress and high ambient temperatures. There is a growing body of evidence that links exposure to extreme heat and high ambient temperatures to adverse health outcomes in these populations, such as preterm birth, low birth weight, gestational diabetes, and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.

Udevi-Aruevoru’s research will use medical anthropology, science and technology studies theories, and ethnographic methods to generate data that helps illuminate how heat stress metrics – indicators that estimate heat stress – are created. As extreme heat becomes the norm globally due to climate change, these risks to mothers and infants are expected to increase, and data will be essential for both estimating risk as well as implementing extreme heat adaptation and mitigation interventions.

When she isn’t focused on improving health outcomes for global populations, Udevi-Aruevoru can be found enjoying a crossword puzzle, a good book, or a crochet project.

Milo Ira

Milo Ira – who received a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship earlier this year – began his academic journey at Emily Carr University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration. After working for 10 years as an illustrator, he undertook both an Associate Degree in Biology from Douglas College and a Certificate in Biomedical Visualization and Communication from the UBC Faculty of Medicine, which integrated both his scientific and illustration skill sets. Ira joined FHS initially as a graduate student in the Master of Science program and transitioned directly into the PhD program to undertake his doctoral research.

Ira’s Doctoral Fellowship will see him investigating how autism, Indigeneity, and gender diversity intersect in ways that are frequently overlooked by health and education systems. Specifically, he will build on a previous yet foundational research proposal that emphasizes the importance of Indigenous ways of knowing and neurodivergent perspectives as essential guides for reimaging systems of care.

Ira’s project will use Indigenous methodologies, yarning interviews, and critical discourse analysis to examine how school-based pronoun policies and Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) shape mental health and self-actualization, and how affirmation—or erasure—becomes embedded in education. This work is urgent and timely as across Canada, new provincial pronoun restrictions threaten the well-being of trans and Two-Spirit youth, with especially severe consequences for autistic students already facing systemic barriers. Through this work, Ira will extend Indigenous frameworks of relationality and belonging into policy research that seeks to inform equity-driven reforms, recognizing neurodivergent and gender-diverse youth as individuals, rather than administrative categories. 

When Ira is not working to address systemic inequities experienced by gender-diverse and/or neurodivergent youth, he can be found in nature. As a hobbyist naturalist, he enjoys weaving his learnings into both research and creative work.