Meet the Team
Kathleen Sitter (She/Her)
Canada Research Chair, Multisensory Storytelling in Research and Knowledge Translation. Professor, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary. Director of the Multisensory Studio. Dorothy Killam Fellow.
Kathleen joined the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary in 2017. Kathleen has worked with a variety of adults and youth in the areas of disability, mental health, human rights, and health care. Kathleen’s multisensory activities include over 200 arts-based works, juried screenings, and exhibitions. Examples include creative forms of knowledge translation such as films, participatory videos, cartoon abstracts, photograph exhibits and digital stories. kcsitter@ucalgary.ca
Sadia Begum (She/Her)
Research Coordinator
Sadia Begum supports the planning and delivery of sensory-based research projects and coordinates the studio’s ongoing activities.
Amber Young
Research Assistant
Amber Young is a PhD candidate with the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary. Her research approach involves foregrounding multisensory and embodied ways of knowing and is oriented toward mobilizing knowledge in pursuit of more just futures. This work is interwoven with values of community and collective care, which make possible the imagining of these futures. Amber's doctoral work has focused on community Hip Hop beat making workshops with autistic young adults, exploring and understanding the experience through deep engagement with sound, movement, and togetherness. Amber is a proud mom and (transplanted) Nova Scotian!
Mahdi Farrokhimaleki
Graduate Research Assistant
I'm a Computer Science master's student. My research focuses on AI applications in games. I enjoy working on anything that interests me and love trying new things.
Jasmine Boucher
Research Assistant
Jasmine Boucher is in her final year of the Bachelor of Urban Studies program at the University of Calgary, specializing in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Her interest in geospatial data and sustainable urban development began during a geography field school in Southeast Asia. At the Multisensory Studio, Jasmine is focusing on human-centred mapping, exploring accessible and inclusive GIS web design and how digital mapping can share spatial stories in ways that engage and empower people of all abilities and backgrounds.
Aiman Chowdhury
Research Assistant
I’m Aiman Nawar Chowdhury, a Natural Sciences student at the University of Calgary with concentrations in Physics and Computer Science.
Danial Khan
Practicum Student
Danial Khan is a fourth-year undergraduate student in Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies with the Cumming School of Medicine. He is currently completing a practicum through the Multisensory Studio, with an interest in social media outreach and disability advocacy.
Rejane Alves
Practicum Student
My name is Rejane, and I’m an undergraduate practicum student in the Community Rehabilitation program at the University of Calgary. I believe that all forms of expression—sound, scent, touch, movement, and silence are meaningful modes of communication. As a member of the Multisensory Studio, I’m excited to deepen my understanding of inclusive design and explore how multisensory methods can foster connection, accessibility, and creativity. This practicum offers a unique opportunity to collaborate, reflect, and grow alongside others who are committed to ethically reimagining disability through participant-led approaches that center lived experience and challenge normative frameworks.
Rebecca Silverio
Practicum Student
Rebecca Silverio is a 4th year undergraduate student at the University of Calgary. Currently under the Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies program, she is a practicum student working with the Multisensory Studio on various projects.
Ana Herrera (She/Her)
Graduate Research Assistant (BTA, CIYT-2)
Ana is a Graduate Research Assistant at the Multisensory Studio, learning about multisensorial research by doing many different things, from Excel sheets to smelly experiments! She comes from Chile, where she worked in Theatre (in its many flavours) for over 15 years. She is also a Certified Iyengar Yoga teacher (current level II), so she spends at least a few minutes upside down every day!
Asil El Galad (She/Her)
Facilitator
Asil is in her final year of the Medical Sciences program at the University of Western. She is graduating with a Bachelor of Medical Sciences (Honours) in Physiology from the University of Western. Outside of research and school, Asil works to advocate for disabled youth. She is passionate about using creative methods to work with the disabled community and shed light on their individual stories.
Sarah Empey (She/Her)
Accessibility Advisor
Sarah Empey consults on projects in regards to accessible, barrier-free and inclusive design. Sarah is legally blind and currently living in Brisbane Australia.
Heath Birkholz (He/Him)
Artistic Collaborator
Heath is an artist and activist where his experiences are woven together in community, social justice and complexities of identity. Over the last 15 years, Heath has worked with inclusive, integrated and disability arts communities that include theatre, dance, film and projects where he has served as community liaison, choreographer, and research collaborator.
Bruce Howell (He/Him)
Community Collaborator
Bruce Howell, Director of Community Outreach Services, has worked with Calgary SCOPE Society for more than 23 years. In 2019, Bruce achieved Meritorious Instructor status and was one of only 480 Nonviolent Crisis Intervention® Certified Instructors to earn this distinction and reach the CPI Hall of Merit. Originally born and raised on a farm in Saskatchewan, Bruce has had the opportunity to live and work in some incredibly beautiful places like Saskatoon, Banff, and Victoria, but Calgary is the place that truly feels like home.
Ashlynn Weisberg (She/Her)
Facilitator
Ashlynn Weisberg is a second-year graduate student in the Master of Arts: Gender and Social Justice Studies program at the University of Alberta. She has a Bachelor of Arts Honours from the University of Saskatchewan in Women's and Gender Studies with a minor in English. Ashlynn is passionate about combining her affective experience as an autistic woman with her academic pursuits, and her focus centres around transformative theory, disability justice, psychoanalysis, affective philosophy, collective care and mutual aid, the self, and the inner child as political agent. For Ashlynn, world-building through a blend of critical thought mixed with softness, tenderness, and love paves the road to collectively dreaming bigger and mobilizing in solidarity. Ashlynn is grateful to join the Multisensory team.
Britney Lamb (She/Her)
Facilitator
Britney Lamb is a BSc Candidate at the University of Western Ontario where she also sits on the Student Accessibility Advisory Committee. She is a Peer Facilitator on the Youth Digital Storytelling Project. Britney has a passion for the arts, including music and guitar, and enjoys working alongside youth with developmental disabilities while helping them share their talents through artistic means.
Kevin Currie (He/Him)
Artist and Advisor
Kevin is a visually impaired stage manager who worked in Calgary's community and professional theatre scene for 20 years. He also spent 15 years as a videographer with his own company, One Eyed Productions.
Carly-Ann Haney (She/They)
Graduate Research Assistant (MSW, RSW)
Carly-Ann Haney is a doctoral student in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary. They hold both a Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social Work from the University of Calgary and have a practice background in sexual health, mental health, community disability, field education, and project coordination. Carly-Ann brings a passion of critical disruption to their work by focusing on topics such as fat studies, fat activism, sexuality, and queering social work.
Alison L. Grittner (She/Her)
Artist in Residence (BA, MArch, PhD)
Alison L. Grittner holds a PhD in Social Work from the University of Calgary. Previously educated in architecture, fine arts, and history, her transdisciplinary approach involves working alongside structurally vulnerable communities to reimagine, codesign, and reconstruct everyday environments towards equity, empowerment, and dignity. Her award-winning praxis focuses on developing community-based knowledge of socio-spatial inequity and translating that awareness into action and intervention via the built environment. Her longstanding work within the disability community focuses on using participatory methods to understand and communicate across abilities and lived experiences. Underpinning all her work is the belief that multisensory and arts-based ways of knowing are a potent and untapped means of exploring emplaced experiences and generating social justice.
Fiona Schick (She/Her)
Graduate Research Assistant (BA, M.Phil, PhD)
Fiona is a Master of Social Work Student, clinical specialization, at the University of Calgary. Before coming to social work, she completed a PhD in philosophy, specializing in the philosophy of perception.