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.

Colin 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.

Alexandra Doran (she/her)

PhD Student

Alexandra is a PhD student in the Faculty of Environment (School of Resource and Environmental Management) at Simon Fraser University. Alex also holds a Master of Urban Planning from McGill University, a Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Sustainable Community Development from Simon Fraser University, and a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from Saint Mary’s University. Prior to her PhD, Alex worked as a transportation planning consultant in Vancouver (CAN) and London (UK) where she worked to deliver strategic planning projects that, whenever possible, were designed through an environmental and social equity lens. In addition to her work as a consultant, Alex has worked in the public sector (City of Kelowna) and several environmental non-profits, has published two academic articles focused on the intersection of social equity and active transportation, and presented at several international conferences, including but not limited to the Transportation Research Board conference in Washington D.C., and the London Walking and Cycling conference in London, UK. In her spare time, Alex can be found hanging out with her 2-year-old son (Liam), riding her bike, and cooking / eating food.
Dedicated to the pursuit of environmental and social justice, Alex’s areas of interest include engaged research centered around securing equitable access to food, transportation, and housing.

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) | BSc Student

Tessa Williams (she/her) | MSc Student

Aayush Sharma (he/him) | MSc Student

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