Meet the Team
Dr. Linda Young
Elder | Traditional Knowledge Keeper
Dr. Linda Young is a Plains Cree and English bilingual speaker, as well as a mother, kohkom (grandmother), and câpân (great-grandmother). She is a fourth-generation residential school survivor whose lived experience informs her work and relationships.
As a multi-media artist, Dr. Young has participated in community initiatives that reflect her deep commitment to healing, reconciliation, and the sharing of cultural knowledge. She holds a PhD in Education, where her work focused on Indigenous education through storytelling.
As a Traditional Knowledge Keeper, she works with young learners to support understanding of identity, heritage, and community. Her work centres on creating safe spaces for sharing stories of resilience, connection, and belonging, fostering dialogue between Indigenous peoples, newcomers, and non-Indigenous communities.
Researchers
Dr. Lori McKee
Dr. Lori McKee is an Associate Professor and Graduate Chair in the Department of Curriculum Studies, College of Education, University of Saskatchewan.
Lori’s research and teaching is informed by her 20 years of elementary classroom teaching and focuses on literacies, pedagogies, and teacher professional learning. Lori seeks to support teachers in opening spaces for expansive, joyful literacies learning that celebrates and responds to diverse children in Saskatchewan, across the prairies, and beyond.
Dr. Katie Brubacher
Dr. Katie Brubacher is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta in the Faculty of Education, specializing in language and literacy. Prior to this role, she taught in Ontario elementary schools for nearly 20 years, working predominantly with multilingual children.
Her research focuses on multilingual learners in elementary schools, particularly newcomers in Grades 4 to 6, and the ways language, identity, and belonging are shaped in educational contexts. She collaborates with scholars and educators across Canada as President of the Language and Literacy Researchers of Canada and is co-author of Centering Multilingual Learners and Countering Raciolinguistic Ideologies in Teacher Education.
Dr. Xiaoxiao Du
Dr. Xiaoxiao Du is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba.
Her research explores early years language and literacies, multimodal meaning making, culture and diversity, reflective practices, and identity construction. She is committed to asset‑based and culturally responsive pedagogies and works closely with diverse learners and educators, including those from culturally, linguistically, and racially diverse communities.
Dr. Jacqueline Filipek
Dr. Jacqueline Filipek is an Associate Professor of Education at The King’s University in Alberta.
Dr. Michelle Honeyford
Dr. Michelle Honeyford is a Professor in Language & Literacy at the University of Manitoba.
In her research and teaching Michelle draws upon critical, feminist, sociomaterial, relational, transcultural, anti-colonial, and anti-oppressive theories and perspectives to consider the ethical, epistemological, and ontological dimensions of language and literacies in everyday practices and in pedagogy. Michelle’s work engages deeply with issues of equity, agency, and difference, and how literacy pedagogies can be re-imagined to contribute to human and more-than-human flourishing.
Dr. Jennifer Watt
Jennifer Watt is an Associate Professor in Language and Literacies at the University of Manitoba.
Her research explores re-imagining literacies assessment, embodied and relational place walking and writing practices, and the potential of critical media literacies to interrupt and address gender-based sexual violence in K–12 schools. She is co-director of the Manitoba Writing Project and currently serves as vice-president of the Language and Literacies Researchers of Canada (LLRC).
Project Coordination & Design
Parisa Rezaei
Project Manager
Parisa is a PhD student in Education at the University of Saskatchewan. She holds a B.A. in English Language Translation and an M.A. in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).
Her research focuses on language, identity, and discourse in academic contexts, with particular attention to international graduate students and digital self-representation in higher education. Her work is grounded in critical sociolinguistics, second language (L2) studies, and Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as an English language instructor, supporting learners from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
Samantha Roberts
Website Design & Development
Samantha Roberts holds a B.Sc. in Biology and a B.Ed. in Science and Art, and is completing a Master of Education in Educational Technology and Design at the University of Saskatchewan.
Her work focuses on designing engaging, accessible learning experiences, with particular attention to online and adult learning environments. She brings a background in science education, visual design, and digital course development, and is committed to creating learning spaces that are inclusive, responsive, and grounded in diverse ways of knowing.