Meet the Team
Sam (she/her)
Director
Director
BA
Sam's dedication to anti-sexual violence advocacy began when she saw an education presentation facilitated by the University of Alberta Sexual Assault Centre (SAC) during the second year of her undergraduate degree. Little did she know that this presentation would play a large part in determining her personal and professional direction into the future. After working as both the Volunteer Programme Coordinator and the Education Program Coordinator, Sam moved into the role of Director of the SAC in January 2017. As Director, Sam provides vision, guidance, and mentorship to a tremendously talented group of volunteers and staff, who all passionately believe in the transformative power of peer-education, community-driven awareness initiatives, and person-centred support. Sam's years of experience facilitating anti-sexual violence education workshops and providing crisis intervention support to those who have been impacted by sexual violence has taught her a lot about the importance of creating space for folks to connect to the issues in ways that make sense for them. When Sam isn't working she can be found engaging in intersectional feminist community organizing, or outdoors with her pup.
Tatiana (she/her)
Psychologist
Psychologist
PhD
Tatiana is a registered psychologist at the U of A Sexual Assault Centre, who first began her career in supporting others as a volunteer at the Centre many moons ago. Her volunteer and other work at the Centre instilled a passion for supporting survivors and trauma recovery, which she then pursued further through graduate training in counselling psychology and continues to pursue through ongoing professional trainings. She works within a feminist and integrative-framework, using trauma-recovery methods and therapies (such as EMDR, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing, etc.) that best fit with the individual clients she works with. Her practice is informed by experiential, somatic, motion-focused, cognitive behavioural, mindfulness, and sensorimotor techniques and therapies. She feels very privileged to get to work collaboratively with her clients on their recovery.
Kit (she/her or they/them)
Education Programme Coordinator
Education Programme Coordinator
Kit became passionate about anti-sexual violence education when they started volunteering at the University of Alberta Sexual Assault Centre in 2015. They filled many roles as a volunteer, first doing crisis intervention and support work and then as a member of the Education Team. Kit was also able to stretch their public speaking and teaching skills as they facilitated training sessions for on-campus groups and provided mentorship to new volunteers in the program. Their passion for challenging the prevalence of sexual violence extended to their academic life as well, where they completed an undergraduate thesis on the Canadian criminal justice system and how it deals with sexual assault. In their previous position, Kit assisted folks in navigating income assistance services. Now as an Education Programme Coordinator, they are continuing to work with the volunteers to provide workshops to U of A students. Through their experiences, they have learned the importance of community support when working towards social change and they enjoy the connections they are able to make with other university groups and programs. Kit believes in the importance of safe spaces for dialogue and opportunities for learning and is thrilled to be able to provide this to the campus community. When not working Kit can be found reading fiction, learning new recipes, or hosting movie nights for their friends and family.
Saba (she/her)
Education Programme Coordinator
Education Programme Coordinator
Saba has been involved in anti-sexual violence education and advocacy since volunteering as a consent educator for the No Means No program with the local Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) organization during her undergraduate degree (attained in 2012). During and after completing her undergraduate studies she also worked in frontline support and program coordination in different capacities serving different communities & organizations until becoming a full-time anti-sexual violence educator in 2018, working mostly with youth in the Edmonton area.
Saba was fortunate enough to begin a position at her alma mater with the University of Alberta Sexual Assault Centre in the summer of 2020 as an Education Programme Coordinator, providing & coordinating anti-sexual violence education opportunities for the wider campus community. Saba is an avid facilitator with a passion for learning from the many different perspectives participants bring to workshops and presentations. When outside of the office Saba enjoys watching films, playing video games, learning languages and hanging out with her cats.
Jessica (she/her)
Psychological Support Clinician
We value:
- Spaces that recognize, respect, and honour the various intersection of being in an attempt to be safe(r) and more accessible to the people who occupy those intersections;
- Centering the lived experiences of those who have endured sexual violence;
- Unconditional, non-judgemental, non-directive support for survivors and their choices for recovery;
- Self-advocacy;
- Emotional expression in all its forms;
- The contributions of all those engaged in anti-sexual violence activism before us, and all of those who will continue this work long after we are gone;
- Community-driven prevention and education efforts;
- The self-knowledge, resiliency, and tremendous capacity for change that students possess;
- Creating environments that encourage and facilitate a commitment to continual learning, growth, and understanding;
- Fostering sustainable, collaborative relationships throughout the community; and
- Institutional, individual, and community accountability.