People

Tim Stainton, PhD

Professor, School of Social Work, Faculty of Arts, UBC Vancouver

Institute Co-Director

Primary Lead: Policy, Practice and Ethics Research Stream

Co-Lead: Employment and Transitions Research Stream

Tim is currently Professor at the UBC Vancouver School of Social Work and Co-Director of the Centre for Inclusion and Citizenship. He has held faculty appointments at the University of Wales Swansea where he was Director of Social Work, McGill University, and was tutor in Social Policy at the London School of Economics. In 2008/9, he was the Sir Allan Sewell Visiting Fellow at Griffith University, Australia.

Prior to his academic career he worked in the field of intellectual disability in a number of roles including as Director of Policy and Programmes for the Ontario Association for Community Living and at the Community Living Society in Vancouver as a service broker working on the deinstitutionalization of provincial institutions.

He is author of numerous works on service and supports for people with intellectual disabilities, disability rights, individualized funding, history, ethics, and theory. He is active in the disability rights and community living movements and is a board member of several advocacy organizations. He was a founding member of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability (IASSID) Special Interest Research group on Ethics.

Tim has lectured and consulted internationally on issues of service delivery, structure, self-determination and individualized funding, and other disability related topics for many years.

Rachelle Hole, PhD

Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Faculty of Health and Social Development, UBC Okanagan

Institute Co-Director

Primary Lead: Employment and Transitions Research Stream

Co-Lead: Policy, Practice and Ethics Research Stream

Rachelle is the co-director of the Centre for Inclusion and Citizenship (CIC). In this role, Rachelle has lead or co-lead research projects focused on residential supports (e.g., SSHRC funded Home Sharing Research Project) and non-residential supports, employment (e.g., Mapping Inclusive Employment funded by the Ministry of Social Development), sexual health and intellectual disability (e.g., the Sex, Lies and Citizenship Participatory Theatre Project funded by the Vancouver Foundation), and, most recently, transitioning youth and employment (the Transitioning Youth with Disabilities and Employment Partnership Grant co-funded by CIHR and SSHRC).

Rachelle’s research programme is informed by two complementary streams: 1) a substantial focus on the socio-cultural practices that promote social inclusion and equity, and 2) a methodological focus on community-based participatory research methods. Critical disability studies is central to the first stream informing Rachelle’s research in the area of community living and I/DD.

Rachelle is also a member of the UBC Institute for Community Engaged Research (ICER). She is also an associated health researcher of the Collaborative RESearch Team to study psychosocial issues in Bipolar Disorder.

Jennifer Lyn Baumbusch, PhD, RN

Associate Professor, School of Nursing, Faculty of Applied Science, UBC Vancouver

Primary Lead: Health and Well-being of Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and their Families across the Life-Course

Jennifer directs a research programme on health care delivery and nursing practice with older adults. Her focus is particularly in long-term residential care, family contributions to care delivery, well-being among individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families, and knowledge translation. She has methodological expertise in critical ethnography and practice-close research. Jennifer is committed to community-based research principles through active engagement of individuals, clinicians, service providers, and organizations throughout the research process.

Jennifer’s teaching encompasses gerontological nursing practice, geriatric health issues, and intellectual disability. She weaves narratives together with theoretical and clinical concepts to help students understand the role of nurses in their clients’ health care experiences and the broader delivery of health care for these vulnerable populations.

She creates a learner-centered environment that supports students by providing them with multiple and varied opportunities to develop their skills and also further their substantive knowledge in her areas of expertise, which include nursing care of older adults, qualitative research methods, and knowledge translation.

Leyton Schnellert, PhD

Associate Professor, Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Faculty of Education, UBC Vancouver

Primary Lead: Inclusive Education Research Stream

Leyton is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia and the Pedagogy and Participation research cluster lead in UBCO’s Institute for Community Engaged Research. His community-based collaborative work contributes a counter-argument to top-down approaches that operate from deficit models, instead drawing from communities’ funds of knowledge to build participatory, collaborative, and culturally responsive practices. His scholarship takes up pedagogy and related research working from epistemological orientations to living and learning that are relational and community-honoring.

Leyton is deeply committed to the study and development of teacher education. He was centrally involved in the renewal of UBCO’s teacher education program, INSPIRE. As the program’s Block Two Leader, he led the development and implementation of Diversities in Education. Leyton currently holds UBC’s Eleanor Rix Professorship in Rural Teacher Education. His research has been published and presented in national and international venues. In addition to peer reviewed articles and books, Leyton has produced several short film illustrating inclusive pedagogies and co-authored six books for educators including Student Diversity, the It’s All About Thinking series, Developing Self-Regulating Learners, and Pulling Together.

Lise Olsen, PhD

Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, Faculty of Health and Social Development, UBC Okanagan

Co-Lead: Health and Well-being of Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and their Families across the Life-Course Research Stream

Lise’s programme of research addresses healthy, safe child development within a family and community context. Her research focuses on active, safe and inclusive play for children, parent perspectives about risk and safety for children, and the role of equity in health promotion for families living with developmental disabilities and autism. Lise holds methodological expertise with qualitative methods (interpretive description, grounded theory), survey research methods, and community-based approaches. Lise uses collaborative approaches with project participants in the design and implementation studies and in the mobilization of new knowledge.

Karen Ragoonaden, PhD

Professor of Teaching, Director, Centre for Mindful Engagement, UBC Okanagan School of Education

Co-Lead: Inclusive Education Research Stream

Karen is a Professor of Teaching in the Okanagan School of Education of the University of British Columbia, Canada. Her pedagogy, research and service reflect a strong commitment to culturally responsive approaches to teaching and learning. Fluently bilingual in English and French, her academic intersections span the breadth of Diversity Education, Indigenous Education and Mindfulness in Education. She is recognized for the innovative stress management and resiliency techniques (smartEducation) curriculum integrating holistic well-being initiatives into professional contexts. Karen brings an intersectional, social justice lens to the Inclusive Education Research Stream of the Institute.