British Columbia Provincial Team
British Columbia Team
Daljit Kaur
Daljit is the Better at Home program coordinator at Diversecity Community Resources Society. Daljit has been serving the senior community with Diversecity for 10+ years. Daljit loves to see the direct impact her team makes on the lives of seniors every day. Helping seniors is a passion and easing the livelihoods of those in need is a priority for Daljit and her team. Daljit has received many accolades for the positive effect she has made on the community.
British Columbia Team
Jie Zhang
Jie Zhang is an associate professor at the Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria (UVic). Jie is a Research Affiliate with the UVic Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health, and a Research Fellow at the UVic Center for Social and Sustainable Innovation. As a service management scholar, Jie draws on theories from value co-creation, service operations, and professional work to investigate ways to improve the performance of complex service systems in hospitality and healthcare contexts. Jie’s current research projects address how to design and deliver effective and efficient services to older adults living in the community. Jie brings the business perspective to researching the economic and social inclusion of older immigrants.
British Columbia Team
Nigel Mantou Lou
Nigel Mantou Lou (Ph.D.) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and the director of the Motivation and Intercultural Relations (MIR) lab at the University of Victoria. Nigel’s research focuses on migrants’ acculturation, coping with race-related stress, and mental health. Nigel teaches a community-engaged learning course, the Psychology of Immigration, at UVic.
British Columbia Team
Daisy Au
Daisy has been working in the immigrant settlement sector for over 2 decades. She is the coordinator of the Seniors Club at MOSAIC. Daisy is committed to empowering immigrant seniors to be leaders and mentors in the community. She advocates for immigrant seniors, helps them break social isolation, and supports them in integrating into the Canadian society and becoming contributing citizens. Daisy is a board member of the Metro Vancouver Cross Cultural Seniors Network and a member of the Community-Based Seniors Services Leadership Council.
British Columbia Team
Fred Chou
Dr. Fred Chou (周敏浩) is an assistant professor in counselling psychology in the department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies at the University of Victoria and a registered psychologist in British Columbia. His research focuses on the socioecological and cultural dimensions of psychological trauma, anti-racism and mental health promotion in Asian Canadian communities, and centring youth voice in mental health research. As a researcher, Dr. Chou specializes in qualitative research and in participatory and narrative research methodologies. His academic and clinical interests also include exploring the integration of community and cultural psychology within counselling as a discipline.
British Columbia Team
Rebecca Ferguson-Salamin
Rebecca Ferguson-Salamin is the Provincial Integration Program Manager at AMSSA. Based in British Columbia, AMSSA is a province-wide association that strengthens member agencies and community stakeholder agencies that serve immigrants and newcomers and build culturally inclusive communities, with the knowledge, resources and support they need to fulfill their mandates. In her role, Rebecca leads the Provincial Integration team, which is responsible for providing support to B.C. Settlement and Integration Services (BCSIS) service provider organizations. Funded by the Provincial Ministry of Municipal Affairs, BCSIS supports newcomer clients who are ineligible for federally funded settlement supports, such as Naturalized Canadian Citizens, Temporary Workers, International Students, and Refugee Claimants.
Community Partners
Queenie Choo, S.U.C.C.E.S.S., Vancouver
Queenie Choo has been the CEO of S.U.C.C.E.S.S since 2012, where she blends a rigorous and results-oriented approach with a genuine sensitivity to people and leads innovative social service programs in the areas of newcomer settlement, English-language training, employment and entrepreneurship, family, youth and seniors programming, community development, affordable housing, and seniors’ care. Queenie is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Excellence in Nursing Administration Award, and was appointed by the Minister of National Defence as an Honorary Naval Captain of the Royal Canadian Navy – the first Canadian Chinese woman to hold this honour.
Co-Applicants
Shirley Chau, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Shirley Chau is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health & Social Development, School of Social Work at UBC Okanagan Campus. She holds a B.A. Psychology (Hons.) (Supervisor: Dr. J. Ogloff, Simon Fraser University), a B.S.W. degree from UBC Vancouver, and an M.S.W. and Ph.D. from the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto. Previous to her academic appointment at UBC Okanagan, Dr. Chau was a clinical social worker specializing in crisis intervention work for a national service provider for large corporations.
Denise Cloutier, University of Victoria, Victoria
Denise Cloutier is a Professor in the Department of Geography, and a Research Fellow with the Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health at the University of Victoria. As a community-engaged health geographer and health services researcher, her work focusses on both vulnerability and resilience in the areas of healthy aging, supportive environments for vulnerable populations who may be living with dementia, stroke-affected, socially isolated, at end of life, as well as populations living in rural communities. Denise is a mixed methods researcher whose interdisciplinary work is funded by CIHR, SSHRC and the MSFHR, and published in leading gerontology and geography journals.
Balbir Gurm, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Vancouver
Balbir Gurm is a leader and professor of nursing at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. With over 30 years of experience in education, health promotion, leadership, social justice, and cultural safety, Balbir influences policy through leadership on boards, organizations, advisory panels, and committees to improve communities. As founding member and facilitator for the Network to Eliminate Violence (NEVR) and lead author of Making Sense of a Global Pandemic: Relationship Violence & Working Together Towards a Violence Free Society, Balbir works with a cross-sectoral/ multi-disciplinary team of 200+ members to merge academic and practice-based knowledge to advocate for change.