Who and Where We Are

The Barometer Team

Katherine Starzyk

Principal Investigator

Katherine Starzyk

Principal Investigator 2015-present

Katherine is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Manitoba and Director of the Social Justice Laboratory. She is also a Founding Member of the Centre for Human Rights Research and a Research Affiliate of the Centre for Social Science Research and Policy. Born in Poland, Katherine brings her identity as a Polish Canadian woman to her research in the areas of social justice, intergroup relations, psychometrics, attitude change, and personality. Through this work, Katherine aims to help make social change through basic and applied research.

Ry Moran

Co-Investigator

Ry Moran

Co-Investigator 2015–present

Ry is a proud member of the Red River Métis. Currently Associate University Librarian (Reconciliation) at the University of Victoria, he was formerly the Director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) from 2015–2020. He contributed to the creation of the National Student Memorial Register, designation of multiple Residential Schools as national historical sites, and development of the Indigenous peoples Atlas of Canada. Prior to the NCTR, Ry served with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, where he facilitated the gathering of nearly 7,000 video/audio-recorded statements of former Residential School Survivors and millions of pages of archival records. Photo credit: Nardella Photography.

Katelin Neufeld

Collaborator

Katelin Neufeld

Collaborator 2016–present

Katelin is a settler with Mennonite roots. She earned her Ph.D. in Social and Personality Psychology at the University of Manitoba and was a Visiting Scholar at New York University. Following her postdoctoral fellowship with the Barometer and Probe Research Inc., she joined the Canadian Centre for Child Protection as a Behavioural Research Scientist. Katelin develops methods to measure and shift peoples’ support for addressing social justice issues, such as fulfilling First Nations water rights. She uses quantitative and qualitative methods influenced by teachings from Indigenous peoples, her training in experimental social psychology and measurement science, and her experiences in cross-disciplinary collaborations.

Aleah Fontaine

Ph.D. Candidate Collaborator

Aleah Fontaine

Ph.D. Candidate Collaborator 2016–present

Aleah is an Anishinaabe, British, and German Winnipegger, and is an urban band member of Sagkeeng First Nation. She is a Ph.D. Candidate in Clinical Psychology and currently completing her clinical residency in the Department of Clinical Health Psychology in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. Recognizing the impact social structures have on health, Aleah’s research interests include attitudes toward social justice issues, intergroup relations, and mental well-being. She uses both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. Currently, Aleah is exploring the relationships between emotional responses to social injustice and solidarity.

Lorena Sekwan Fontaine

Co-Investigator

Lorena Sekwan Fontaine

Co-Investigator 2017–present

Lorena is is Cree-Anishinaabe from Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba. Now an Associate Professor and Department Head of Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba, Dr. Fontaine has published and provided expert advice on Residential School issues and Indigenous language rights in Canada. Her doctoral work was featured in “Undoing Linguicide,” a CBC documentary that won the Radio Television Digital News Association’s Adrienne Clarkson Award for Diversity, Radio, and Network in 2017. Dr. Fontaine has also advised the Assembly of First Nations on Indigenous languages and is an advocate for Indigenous Residential School Survivors as well as their descendants. She was a task force member and contributor to the Assembly of First Nations’ Report on Canada’s Dispute Resolution Plan to compensate for abuses in Indian Residential Schools. Dr. Fontaine also served as a legal consultant to the Toronto law firm Thomson Rogers in a National Class Action on Indigenous Residential Schools.

Iloradanon Efimoff

Collaborator

Iloradanon Efimoff

Collaborator 2018–present

Iloradanon is a Haida and European settler from the northwest coast of British Columbia. She is now a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University. She aims to reduce anti-Indigenous prejudice and understand multiracial Indigenous peoples’ experiences. Her research indicates that anti-Indigenous racism is prevalent and that learning about how racism is systemic can reduce prejudice. These results are both practical and impactful because they demonstrate the need for and provide new strategies to challenge racism.

Mary Agnes Welch

Collaborator

Mary Agnes Welch

Collaborator 2019–present

Mary Agnes is a partner at Probe Research, where she leads qualitative and quantitative projects for a variety of clients, particularly those in the non-profit, government, and labour sectors. She joined the firm in 2016 following a career as an award-winning politics and public policy journalist at the Winnipeg Free Press. A graduate of Columbia University’s journalism program, Mary Agnes builds on her experience covering public policy to capture and communicate the underlying research story. Clients benefit from Mary Agnes’ engaging approach and skills as a focus group facilitator, as she uncovers what citizens really think about complex issues.

Erin White

Ph.D. Student Collaborator

Erin White

Ph.D. Student Collaborator 2021–present

Erin is a Métis and Irish Canadian woman from Winnipeg who is now a Ph.D. student in Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Manitoba. For her research, Erin is focusing on the relationships among cultural connection, belongingness, collective self-esteem, and mental health. Taking a strength-based approach, Erin’s research focuses on reclaiming and relearning Indigenous knowledge, languages, and traditions while also challenging negative stereotypes about Indigenous peoples.

Jaden Dela Rosa

M.A. Student Collaborator

Jaden Dela Rosa

M.A. Student Collaborator 2021–present

Jaden is a Filipino, French, and German settler from Winnipeg who is now an M.A. student in Social and Personality Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Manitoba. Jaden’s research interests include social justice, reconciliation, intergroup relations, and personality.

Brenda Gunn

Co-Investigator

Brenda Gunn

Co-Investigator 2021–present

Brenda is a Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba. She was the Academic and Research Director at the NCTR from September 2021 to December 2023. A proud Métis woman, Prof. Gunn combines academic research with activism to push for greater recognition of Indigenous peoples’ inherent rights as determined by their own legal traditions. Actively involved in the international Indigenous peoples’ movement, she has worked at a community legal clinic in Guatemala on a case of genocide. In Canada, her expertise was sought by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, for whom she provided expert testimony. Among her 13 peer-reviewed publications is Canada’s leading resource on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a topic that has made her a sought-after speaker nationally and internationally. To support the Barometer, Prof. Gunn has recently submitted a SSHRC Connections Grant with Dr. Starzyk and Mr. Ry Moran to gather internationally renowned Indigenous Knowledge Keepers and Elders to dialogue about what reconciliation means now and forge new pathways to reconciliation. This project, like many others she has been involved in, will significantly contribute to reconciliation in Canada.

Shelby Thomas

Collaborator

Shelby Thomas

Collaborator 2022–present

Shelby Thomas is a lawyer and researcher with Métis, Dutch, and Polish ancestry. She is currently the Indigenous Rights Specialist at the University of Manitoba. She obtained a B.A. with a major in Psychology at the Université de Saint-Boniface and a JD at the Université de Moncton in French, her second language. Shelby will forever be grateful for her opportunity to work with the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls as an associate commission counsel. She has extensive experience supporting Indigenous-led, community-based projects and working with Indigenous peoples, particularly in the areas of gender-based violence and youth resiliency and empowerment.

Caitlyn Ferry

M.A. Student Collaborator

Caitlyn Ferry

M.A. Student Collaborator 2024–present

Caitlin is an English-Métis, Ukrainian and Polish woman raised in Winnipeg and the Red River area, presently completing her M.A. in Clinical Psychology under the supervision of Katherine Starzyk. Caitlin’s research interests include social justice, intergroup relations, reconciliation or improving relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada. Currently, Caitlin is exploring the effect of norms on (de)colonized symbols in Canada.

Erin Sinclair

M.A. Student Collaborator

Erin Sinclair

M.A. Student Collaborator 2024–present

Erin is an Anishinaabe-Irish woman from St. Andrews, Manitoba and a member of Peguis First Nation. She is completing her M.A. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Manitoba under the supervision of Katherine Starzyk. Her research focuses on how education and storytelling affects how non-Indigenous Canadians think about issues that are important to Indigenous communities, such as MMIWG2S+. Erin aims to contribute to research using a Two-Eyed Seeing approach that integrates Indigenous and Western knowledge and ways of knowing. Her research interests include social justice, collective action, prejudice, discrimination, and Indigenous research methodologies.

Previous Team Members

Dean Peachey

Collaborator

Dean Peachey

Collaborator 2015–2021

Dean is a retired Professor of Human Rights at the University of Winnipeg, where he also served as Executive Director of Global College and Coordinator of the Bachelor of Arts program in Human Rights. Most recently, Dean has focused on transitional justice and reconciliation in Canada and parts of Africa. Previously, Dean also worked to develop the theory and practice of conflict resolution in Canada. While living in Kitchener, Ont., Dean founded Conflict Resolution Network Canada, taught Peace and Conflict Studies at Conrad Grebel University College and the University of Waterloo, served as President of the Fund for Dispute Resolution, and was a member of the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services.

We also thank previous research assistants Kristin Smith, Jessica Trickey, Leora Strand, Sandra Hunter, Tegan Ledoux, and Ashley Hayward for their contributions.