My graduate school experience pushed me to examine my own mental health, repeatedly, eventually driving me to seek refuge outside of the ivory tower. Though I finished my PhD in Evolution and Behaviour in 2016, my (and other’s) experience left me disillusioned with the institution and struggling with depression and intense emotional deregulation.
As a passionate educator, I value experiential learning and believe that my experience is an opportunity for reflection and growth. I want to provide support to those who remain in a system that often fails its brilliant own, so I’m excited to join the AMHC and work with an amazing team towards healthier academic culture.
My desire is to de-stigmatize mental illness in academic and other settings where those of us that are high-functioning often find ourselves feeling trapped and struggling silently. A large part of my own healing experience has been sharing with and supporting my community; joining others here in sharing stories, connecting in a supportive network to create a safer space, and speaking up and out in a system that has traditionally silenced conversations on mental illness feels incredibly important to me.
Having left academia (for now), I’m learning how to establish work-life balance at a new job in the public service. In my self-care hours, you can find me in the woods, in my kitchen, on my bicycle, caught in the spell of a fine bass beat, in a hammock with my nose in a book, or knitting furiously. As a dedicated volunteer, I can also be found planning local community events or working on consent education initiatives as co-founder of the Vancouver-based Consent Crew.
Academic Mental Health Collective 