Research Team

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Photo by Christina on Unsplash‍ ‍

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Dr. Lisa McLean

Lisa's work emphasizes interdisciplinarity, drawing upon critical feminist theories and frameworks from Thanatology, Peace and Conflict Studies, and Critical Migration Studies to examine the social justice implications of death, grief, and loss. Her most recent research projects include examining the concept of 'grief activism' (Stierl, 2016), with members of the Youth Coalition Combating Islamophobia (YCCI), participatory arts-based research with Yazidi refugees, and ethnographic research on the transnational activism of Central American mothers of disappeared migrants. Lisa's core research themes include gender, disappearance, ambiguous loss, and grief activism. Lisa is inspired and energized by the work of feminist science fiction authors, imagining alternative futures where we may all thrive. 

Director

Associate Professor, Thanatology

King’s University College

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Dr. Adrienne Sauder

Research Associate

Lecturer, Thanatology, King’s University College

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University

Adrienne is an experienced qualitative researcher who utilizes traditional, phenomenological, and arts-based inquiry approaches for her interdisciplinary work in education and Thanatology. She is currently conducting a scoping review on student experiences of academic failure in university. Her research interests include academic failure, adult orphans, kin keeping, and post-loss sibling relationships. Adrienne is a prolific knitter of socks and believes in the therapeutic benefits of mindful productivity.

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Research Associate

Dr. Carrie Traher

Carrie is a Research Associate in the Loss Lab and past Director, following the creation of the Lab in 2019. Her career spans 25 years and includes her roles as a psychotherapist, researcher, and university educator. She continues to integrate theory, research, and praxis in her full-time role as a psychotherapist, where she specializes in offering support to individuals and couples experiencing grief, loss, anxiety, depression, traumatic experiences, and life transitions.

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Milan is an undergraduate student at King’s University College pursuing a double major in Thanatology and Disability Studies. His academic interests include grief and loss with a focus on how marginalized communities make meaning of non-death losses. He is particularly interested in how grief intersects with sexuality and 2SLGBTQIA+ identities. Additionally, he is also drawn to cultural and religious perspectives on death and dying.
Although Milan’s experience is primarily within the classroom, he brings a strong interdisciplinary curiosity. His academic journey has been complemented by leadership on the King’s University College Student Council.
Milan is passionate about fostering inclusive communities and continues to explore how grief and disability studies can inform one another. 

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Milan Botten

Undergraduate Research Associate

Thanatology & Disability Studies

King’s University College

Katherine Wright

Undergraduate Research Associate

School of Social Work

King’s University College

Katherine is a recent graduate of King’s, where she completed a double major in Thanatology and Disability Studies. She is currently pursuing a BSW at King’s School of Social Work, where her background in death, dying, grief, and disability studies provides her with a unique perspective that she hopes to bring into her social work practice. Katherine’s academic and research interests include equity in end-of-life care and the disenfranchised grief experiences connected to dementia. She is passionate about creating supportive spaces where individuals and families feel seen, validated, and cared for throughout times of loss and transition. Beyond academics, Katherine enjoys spending time outdoors, whether on an early morning run or walking her dog, Leo.

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Graduate Research Associate

Social Work

Wilfred Laurier University

Christal Malone, MSW (ABD)

Christal is a second-year Master of Social Work (MSW) student at Wilfrid Laurier University, currently completing her practicum with the Loss Lab at King’s University College. She is also an instructor in the Doula Studies Certificate program at Fanshawe College, where her teaching is grounded in reproductive justice, embodied care, and critical reflexivity.
A death studies researcher and full-spectrum doula, Christal has over 15 years of experience as both a practitioner and educator. Her work focuses on end-of-life, loss, and reproductive experiences, with particular attention to the ways care, power, and social justice intersect. She completed an Honours Specialization in Social Justice and Peace Studies at King’s University College and is an alum of King’s.
Based in London, Ontario, Christal is committed to anti-oppressive, community-engaged, and student-led research and is especially interested in how personal, professional, and institutional forms of knowledge shape death-related and care-focused spaces.

Alijandra Celestino

Undergraduate Research Associate

Thanatology

King’s University College

Alijandra is a recent graduate of the thanatology program at King’s University College. She has a passion for qualitative research as she believes that sharing lived experiences through storytelling is a powerful tool for preserving knowledge and humanity. Alijandra is most fascinated by grief literacy — how it can be measured, bolstered, etc. She particularly enjoys studying topics about the relationship between pop culture/media and grief literacy within the general public, and the grief that can accompany positive changes such as sobriety. While working towards her thanatology degree, Alijandra has garnered professional experience in the field working at Woodland Cemetery, and facilitating grief education workshops with SafeSpace for femme folx who have lived experience with sex work. Outside of academia, Alijandra has recently resurrected her adolescent hobby of making her own clothes out of up-cycled thrift finds, and she is currently trying to decide on a name for her all-girl, alt-punk, garage band.

Past Team Members

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Charlie Brake, M.Sc.

Charlie completed his MSc in Clinical Anatomy at Western University. The common thread which stitches Charlie’s research interests together is the empowerment and inclusion of gender and sex diverse people within anatomical education spaces. Thus far, his research has explored anatomy learners’ use of, and reception towards, gender and sex-inclusive language. Charlie is presently concluding a qualitative inquiry into gender and sex diverse peoples’ perceptions of body bequeathal, or “donating one’s body to science,” to inform the development of inclusive educational materials for cadaveric anatomy courses. Charlie aims to foster an interdisciplinary, holistic lens towards anatomical education research, starting with conversations about meaning making in death and the enduring legacies of diverse identities.

Graduate Research Associate

Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology

Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry

Western University

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Athir Jisrawi, MA, RP (Qualifying)

Athir is a clinical counsellor practicing in community mental health, with a primary focus on violence and abuse prevention. Her approach to counselling is person-centred, trauma-informed, and anti-oppressive. Athir is passionate about nonprofit work and education, and believes strongly in reducing barriers to accessing mental healthcare and social services. Athir’s academic interest in non-death loss due to forced displacement has been shaped by various roles she has held in academia and the nonprofit sector (frontline service provider, manager, and research/teaching assistant), as well as her educational background in international relations and counselling psychology.

Research Assistant

Kay Zhan, MA

Kay is a graduate of Thanatology with a M.A. in Research for Policy and Evaluation from Western University. Kay’s research interests centre around issues of health equity, ecological justice, and the politics of remembrance. Passionate about participatory, voice-centred, and community-based research, Kay is actively learning from people with lived experiences, practitioners, and scholars about trauma-informed and culturally safe practice, decolonization frameworks, and arts-based methodologies. Her current work involves exploring the operationalization of lived and living experiences of aging persons, caregivers, and frontline professionals in research, policymaking, program designs, and public education. Outside of work and school, Kay makes collages and appreciates the process of creating meaning out of what was once shattered.

Research Assistant