Our Team

Meghan Winters (she/her)

Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
mwinters@sfu.ca

Dr. Meghan Winters is an epidemiologist interested in the link between health, transportation, and city design. She received her Ph.D. in 2011 from the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She completed a brief post-doctoral fellowship at the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility at Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, studying on older adults' mobility and the built environment. Dr. Winters joined the Faculty of Health Sciences as an Assistant Professor in July 2011.
Areas of interest: Epidemiology, GIS applications, built environment & health, transportation & city design.

Aman Chandi (she/her)

Research Manager
achandi@sfu.ca

Aman is an urbanist, community-based researcher, visual designer and designer with Punjabi roots practicing in Surrey, BC. Her work is positioned somewhere in between the spatial, the relational and the diasporic. Using different mediums (research, zines and community organizing), Aman often engages with topics of migration including the deskilling of immigrants, experiences of first-generation youth, belonging, and community power. She is engaged in her communities (Surrey and South Vancouver), where she leads and supports initiatives related to food security, climate justice and inclusive placemaking.
Areas of interest: Food security, climate justice, equity (gender, social and spatial), public spaces, community engagement and zines.

Coline Ferster (he/him)

Research Associate

Colin uses traditional and emerging sources of geographic data to study people and their environments. He completed a PhD and MSc at the University of British Columbia and a BSc at the University of Victoria — all focused on integrating diverse types of spatial data.Colin’s favourite ways to explore are on two wheels or two feet. This perspective informs the research questions he seeks to answer using maps.
Areas of interest: Big data for bicycling, citizen science, and data quality.

Zarah Monfaredi (She/her)

PhD Student

Zarah is a PhD student in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. She also has an MSc in Global Health and Public Policy from The University of Edinburgh and an Honours BSc in Life Sciences from McMaster University. Before starting her PhD, Zarah worked as the Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) Program Facilitator at the Ottawa Methods Centre. In her role, she worked to promote patient engagement in research and was involved in building supports for patient-oriented research at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. When Zarah isn’t thinking about research, she’s likely doing something active outside or sipping on a good cuppa tea.
Areas of interest: Health in all policies, sustainable and equitable cities, stakeholder engagement.

Aayush Sharma (he/him)

MSc Student

Aayush is a MSc Student with the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, interested in health city design and bicycle access with special focus on vulnerable populations in the City of Surrey context. Aayush has experience using R and SAS statistical coding software, Arc-GIS, and Python and has utilized the Canadian Community Health Survey to implement exploratory research, perform bivariate analysis, undergo multivariable linear and logistic regression, model selection, DAG creation, and display results in professional tables. He has conducted a gender and sex-based analysis of research regarding childhood obesity in a Canadian context.
Areas of interest: City design and bicycle usage to improve people’s health, particularly vulnerable populations such as children and with special interest and focus on City of Surrey.

Abbas Hassan (he/him)

MPP Student

Abbas is a MPP student with the School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University, interested in equitable city design, stakeholder engagement, and civic education. Abbas has years of experience working with youth across Metro Vancouver in these areas and has experience using R, NVivo, and GIS to investigate and analyze information using a variety of methods. He has used these software to work on targeted public engagements and public space projects with municipalities across Metro Vancouver and worked with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat’s Open Government Team on improving Canada’s public engagement process.
Areas of interest: Community engagement, civic education, public space design

Past students & trainees

Hitika Gosal (she/her)

Tessa Williams (she/her)

Join our Team

Are you looking for opportunities to join our team as a student or collaborator?

Dr. Winters is actively seeking trainees eager to undertake graduate or undergraduate research within her projects focusing on the built environment and health. Interested candidates are encouraged to contact her at mwinters@sfu.ca, providing both a CV and academic transcript.

Contact us

REACH-Cities

Our team