Meet the Team

Ratana Chuenpagdee is a University Research Professor in Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland, in St. John’s. She is leading a global research partnership, Too Big To Ignore (TBTI), which aims at elevating the profile of small-scale fisheries and rectifying their marginalization in national and international policies. As part of this project, she’s coordinating research and activities to support the implementation of the SSF Guidelines and transdisciplinary capacity building for fisheries and ocean governance around the world. Ratana has been involved in the Ocean Frontier Institute, through research on “Informing Governance Responses in a Changing Ocean”, and is currently contributing to the “Rethinking Transformation Project”.

My name is Tanisha Bennett, and I am a proud Mi’kmaw woman from St. George’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. I am a Community Based Researcher with the Rethinking Transformation project, where I collaborate with researchers, community partners, and fellow youth to strengthen relationships and support community-led change. Through this project, I have contributed to community events, youth engagement initiatives, community-based research, and land restoration initiatives while learning through the Web of Relations framework grounded in Mi’kmaw ways of knowing. I value learning from Elders, community members, and my amazing coworkers while sharing my own perspectives and experiences. Being part of the Rethinking Project has strengthened my understanding of reciprocity, collaboration, and relationship-building and continues to inspire me to support initiatives where Indigenous knowledge is honoured, youth voices are valued, and communities thrive together.

Kaitlin Rizarri is a Visayan Filipina and Ktaqmkukewa’j Mi’kmaw doctoral candidate from Elmastukwek in Social Justice Education at OISE, University of Toronto. Raised in Tkarón:to, Treaty 13 Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee territory, she grew up as a community farmer. Her research draws on Indigenous land education, Black geographic theories, and participatory, community-based approaches. Kaitlin’s research deals with urban farming, berry picking and relationships to lands and waters in relation to future building. She brings this research home through land education and place-based inquiry across rural and urban contexts, with an emphasis on place names, story, and more-than-human relations as teachers. She has developed educational resources for working with seeds and plants within learning and community spaces, including contributions to the Land Education Dreambook. Alongside her academic work, Kaitlin maintains Ate Kay’s Farm, pronounced “ahh-tey,” where she grows, forages, and works with plants that support grief, sleep, and anxiety.

Narges Jalili Kolavani is a Research Assistant II with the Rethinking Transformation Project, where she contributes to the development and delivery of community-led research and programming. Her work includes applied research, project reporting, governance and communications planning, funding proposal and budget development, and engagement with community partners. Her research focuses on marine conservation, aquaculture, marine governance, and sustainable community development, with particular attention to community priorities, local knowledge, and Indigenous perspectives. Drawing on an interdisciplinary background in geography (MSc) and urban development engineering (BSc), Narges applies research, spatial analysis, and geographic information systems (GIS) to support inclusive decision-making, environmental planning, and place-based development.