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Memorial University Yousra Abdelhady Master's Student (WP1) Yousra is pursuing another master’s degree in Ocean and Naval Architecture Engineering at Memorial University. Her thesis focuses on the Safety of Fishing Vessels, specifically on the effect of length to breadth ratio on dynamic stability. She is a Naval Architect with over a decade of international experience in the shipbuilding industry. She has worked in Canada, Netherlands, and Egypt, covering various aspects of naval architecture, project management, production, and modelling. Her top competencies are multitasking, ship stability and weight distribution. She holds a bachelor and master’s degrees in Naval Architecture from Alexandria University in Egypt, as well as a PMP certification and a train of trainer credential. She is also a Techwomen fellow, and a registered Professional Engineer in British Columbia and Alberta. Besides her technical expertise, she is also an active volunteer for SNAME, serving as an Alternate Functional Vice President for Knowledge management and the social media and Events Chair for SNAME Canadian Atlantic Section. She is also part of the communication team of Maritech conference 2024. Moreover, she has mentored and facilitated various hands-on workshops for different age groups.

Memorial University Pierrette Janes-Bourque Master's Student (WP2) Pierrette Janes (she/her) is a Master’s of Science in Geography student at Memorial University’s campus in St. John’s, NL, and is co-supervised by Dr. Carissa Brown and Dr. Joel Finnis. Pierrette is from the beautiful, nature-filled province of New Brunswick where she spent most of her childhood exploring local forests. After completing her Bachelor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Leadership from the University of New Brunswick, Pierrette’s interest in forests led her to a position as Stewardship Coordinator for the Nature Trust of New Brunswick, working closely with local conservationists to protect, monitor and restore some of New Brunswick’s unique natural spaces. Pierrette’s research with FOCI will focus on climate smart trees and urban forests as a potential nature-based climate solutions in coastal communities in Newfoundland.

Doug Smith Co-investigator (IWP1) Assistant Professor Doug Smith of Memorial University’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied. Science researches complex socio-technical systems. He has developed an approach called the process monitoring and performance measurement (PMPM) method for investigating these systems. The PMPM method provides insights into the how complex systems function by modeling the interactions between people, organizations, and technologies. Smith is an investigator in IWP1.

Madeleine Gustavsson Collaborator (WP9) Dr Madeleine Gustavsson is a Researcher at Ruralis – Institute for Rural and Regional Research in Trondheim, Norway. Before joining Ruralis, she was a Research Fellow at the University of Exeter (UK), holding an Economic and Social Research Council New Investigator fellowship, researching the changing lives of women in small-scale fishing families in the UK and Newfoundland. As part of the Women in Fisheries project, Madeleine visited Memorial University in 2018 as a visiting postdoctoral fellow where she also got to learn about the Newfoundland fishery and collect data with women in Newfoundland fishing families. Previous to this, Madeleine conducted research on fishing cultures – including intergenerational and gendered dimension – in North Wales, UK which led here to secure PhD in Human Geography at the University of Liverpool. In addition to publishing on the topics of fisheries, gender and Blue Justice, Madeleine has co-edited the book ‘Researching People and the Sea’ published with Palgrave Macmillan in 2021. More broadly, her research focuses on marine, coastal and rural issues drawing on social science methods to understand the lifeworlds of people living and working with the sea. Dr Gustavsson will collaborate with the lead and postdoctoral fellow of FOCI’s Work package 9.3.

Randolph Peters Collaborator (IWP4) Randolph Peters is an internationally recognized composer who works in a wide range of art forms and music media. As well as many symphonic, choral and chamber music works, he has composed for opera, theatre and dance, and has created more than 100 film and television scores for feature, documentary and animated productions. Peters’ compositions have been presented around the world by such as artists as percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, the Kronos and the Penderecki String Quartets, and conductors Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Marin Alsop, and Bramwell Tovey. His work includes commissions from the Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Calgary, Québec, Manitoba Chamber, and Edmonton Symphony Orchestras, the Hannaford Street Silver Band, and the Elmer Iseler Singers, among others. His operas include Nosferatu, commissioned by the Canadian Opera Company; Inanna, set to an original libretto by Margaret Atwood; and The Golden Ass, with an original libretto by Robertson Davies, premiered by the COC in 1999.

2022-25 Sheridan R. Thompson Knowledge Mobilization Coordinator Currently, Sheridan is an Interdisciplinary PhD candidate conducting transdisciplinary research in Iceland focused on the impact that local knowledge has in adaptation to a rapidly changing coast in the face of a climate crisis. Sheridan has inquired into the making of knowledge with coasts through multiple ways of experience including story-telling, rock climbing, surfing, hiking, and research in both the natural and social sciences. Sheridan has been conducting experiential hiking tours in coastal landscape and culture since 2013 and has partnered with organizations such as Shorefast Foundation (Fogo Island), Newfoundland and Labrador Environmental Network (NLEN), Oceans Learning Partnership (OLP), Coastal Connections, Harris Centre Public Engagement, and Fishing for Success (F4S). Sheridan came on board as the Knowledge Mobilization Coordinator with Future Ocean and Coastal Infrastructures (FOCI) in June 2022.

David Lane Collaborator (IWP4) As part of FOCI IWP4, I will create a puppet play that reflects the rich craft and storytelling traditions of the Gros Morne region while capturing and promoting public engagement with core coastal communities around themes of our changing oceans and other FOCI themes. My aim is to enhance capacity in puppet construction and performance in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Gros Morne Puppet Project will engage in a process that recognizes the diversity of the west coast of Newfoundland, and uses indigenous and traditional knowledge as the bases for design and construction. We will draw on the knowledge that exists in communities already, be it boatbuilding, rug hooking, or trap construction, and in FOCI and relevant Bonne Bay Marine Institute research and redirect it towards making a piece of theatre that feels connected to the community in which it’s being created and works for a diverse audience. The creation of the play will help to answer some of the outreach programming needs of the Bonne May Marine Research Station, creating a piece of FOCI/Bonne Bay Marine Station theatre which will sit in their performance venue, and can be remounted with relative ease each summer. Visitors to the research station will view the play in the context of the region, and learn specifics about the history and local practices of the neighboring coastal communities and their connection to larger issues/challenges related to ocean change and coastal community sustainability.

Howard Ramos Co-Lead (WP6), Co-Investigator (IWP3) Professor Ramos is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Sociology at Dalhousie University and Professor in, and Chair of, the Department of Sociology at Western University. He draws upon his experience as a political sociologist who investigates issues of social justice and equity and eclectic and wide range of research interests and expertise. He has published on environmental advocacy, perceptions of change in Atlantic Canada, social movements, human rights, Indigenous mobilization, ethnicity, race. He has published in his discipline’s top international and national venues and has worked across the disciplines of geography, political science, and sociology. Ramos is also a public intellectual who regularly works with community groups, such as the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs Secretariat, as well as all levels of government. He is currently the Chair of the Canadian Statistics Advisory Council which advises the Chief Statistician and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industy on matters concerning the overall quality of the national statistical system. He has also worked with NRCan and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and has worked with the Office of Immigration in Nova Scotia and city planners in Halifax. Ramos likewise engages in public debate and has done so through numerous television interviews, radio, and newspaper interviews in English and French on most national networks. He also has written many op-eds for national and international newspapers and magazines and been author of numerous reports. Additionally, Ramos is well known for his work on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and has worked with Universities Canada and the Tri-Council on these issues. His co-authored book, The Equity Myth, is widely adopted and has informed NSERC policy.

Grenfell Campus, Memorial University Moses Adjei Postdoctoral Fellow (WP5) Moses Adjei is a Marine Social Scientist and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Science and the Environment at Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Grenfell Campus. He has been working on FOCI’s WP5 – ‘Building collaborative interdisciplinary research infrastructure in Atlantic Canada’s lobster fisheries’. Within the past year, Moses has collaborated with FOCI’s WP5 team and leaders of Lobster Fisheries Associations (Lobster Node) to co-develop a survey and interview tools for tracking the socio-economic benefits of lobster to communities, municipalities, and Provinces in Atlantic Canada. Moses has also participated in several conferences and seminars under the FOCI project in Canada. He has strong research interest and experience in working with coastal communities. Specifically, Moses’ research focuses on women and gender, coastal livelihoods and wellbeing and marine resource governance. His studies have been published in reputable journals including Journal of Urban Affairs, Journal of Comparative Family studies, Rural Sociology, Ocean and Coastal Management, The Extractive Industries and Society, and Gender, Place and Culture, Coastal Management and Maritime Affairs.

Brian Veitch Co-investigator (IWP1) Professor Brian Veitch is the NSERC / Husky Energy IRC in Safety at Sea at Memorial University’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science. His research focuses on the safety of people who work in complex socio-technical systems, especially those who work at sea. During the last 20 years, he has supervised more than 260 graduate students, research associates, and undergraduate co-op students; published more than 270 journal and conference papers; and secured over $15M in research funding. Veitch will serve on the FOCI Advisory Committee and is an investigator in IWP1.

Memorial University Emily Reid-Musson Postdoctoral Fellow (WP2) Emily Reid-Musson is an interdisciplinary work and labour researcher with training in human geography (PhD, 2017, Geography, University of Toronto) and public/occupational health (Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, 2017-2019). Her research focuses on workers’ experiences in non-standard workplaces, including migrant, mobile, and self-employed forms of work, with a particular emphasis on Canadian agriculture, and more recently, Atlantic Canada fisheries. Another area of focus is labour policy and regulation, including workplace health and safety. She is a qualitative researcher and contributes to social and geographical theory, particularly feminist geography and political economy. Her research has been published in human geography and labour and employment journals, including Environment and Planning A and New Technology, Work, and Employment. With Dr. Joel Finnis and Dr. Barb Neis, she is currently conducting OFI research on the ways small-scale fish harvesters use and interpret weather information to manage weather hazards in their work at sea. Their research article was recently published in Applied Geography, “Bridging fragmented knowledge between forecasting and fishing communities: Co-managed decisions on weather delays in Nova Scotia's lobster season openings” ( https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2021.102478 )

Robert Chafe Collaborator (IWP4) Robert Chafe is a St. John’s based playwright and has worked in theatre, dance, opera, radio, fiction and film. His stage plays have been seen in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and in the United States, and include Oil and Water, Tempting Providence, Afterimage, Under Wraps, Between Breaths, and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (adapted from the novel by Wayne Johnston.) He has been shortlisted twice for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama and he won the award for Afterimage in 2010. He has been guest instructor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, and The National Theatre School of Canada. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is the playwright and Artistic Director of Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland. Mr. Chafe’s roles in the FOCI’s IWP4 will be to gather original stories related to the collapse of the fishery, the impact of offshore oil development, and the effects of climate change from people living in coastal communities in the province and work with Neis to place them in conversation with FOCI and OFI themes and research findings. Chafe will develop the stories and conversation into a play for which original music - informed both by his text and the rich traditional music from these specific regions of the province will be commissioned by composer Randolph Peter.