About Us
An interdisciplinary team grounded in lived experience and community partnership, uplifting women’s voices in child and family health
Dr. Mandy Archibald
Lead Investigator
Dr. Archibald leads a research program focused on the creative engagement and use of research findings based on family’s lived experiences. She is a nurse-researcher, artist, Associate Professor at the University of Manitoba, and Research Scientist with the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba. She received her PhD from the University of Alberta in 2016 and completed CIHR postdoctoral training at Flinders University from 2016-2019. As an applied research methodologist, she develops and applies technological and arts-based innovations to promote family involvement in child health research and care using mixed methods approaches. She is a CIHR SickKids New Investigator, Research Manitoba New Investigator, and recipient of the Falconer Rh Institute Foundation Emerging Researcher Award.
Fun fact: I love hip hop culture and getting back into breaking. I love how it pushes both my creativity and physical limits.
Research Staff
Clara Tam
Lab Manager
Clara is the Lab Manger of the AMPLIFY Lab in the College of Nursing at the University of Manitoba. She brings a multidisciplinary background in creative design, technology, and child health research, holding a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Interactive Media Design and Production and a Master of Engineering Science (MESc) in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Western Ontario. In her role at AMPLIFY Lab, she supports co-design, digital storytelling, and family-partnered research approaches to ensure that lived experiences are heard, respected, and meaningfully reflected in research.
Fun fact: I practice kendo, a Japanese sword martial art. I really enjoy the challenge and the focus on continuous self-development it brings!
Amy Abegglen
Research Coordinator
Amy is originally from Wisconsin and brings a background in Exercise Science (B.Sc.) and Kinesiology (M.Sc.) to her role as Research Coordinator for Collaboration Station. Her research focuses on patient and caregiver lived experiences, with interests spanning women’s heart health, community engagement, and early mobilization in the cardiac surgery intensive care unit. She is passionate about creating meaningful opportunities for families to engage in research and share their experiences in ways that help improve care and outcomes.
Awards
- Masters’ Poster Competition Award (First Place, 2025)
- Masters’ Service Award from the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management (2025)
Fun fact: I am a certified group exercise instructor and previously
taught in Wisconsin.
Dr. Bernadette Kina Kombo
Senior Research Analyst
Dr. Kombo is a critical social science researcher and medical anthropologist with a PhD in Community Health Sciences. Her scholarship is grounded in long-term ethnographic inquiry and qualitative research, with substantive focus on problem drinking, HIV prevention among marginalized and vulnerable populations, and community-based participatory research and practice. She works across multiple qualitative methodologies, with particular growing interest in arts-based research approaches, poetic inquiry, and other creative analytic forms that foreground lived experience, voice, and relational meaning. Theoretically, her work draws on material semiotics and Actor-Network Theory to examine how substances, technologies, policies, and social relations co-produce realities of health, care, and risk, particularly in relation to substance use and mental health. She has a growing program of research on mental health among Black newcomer and immigrant families, with attention to structural conditions, intergenerational dynamics, and culturally grounded forms of care and resilience. She currently works as a Senior Research Analyst in AMPLIFY Lab at the College of Nursing, University of Manitoba, where she contributes to qualitative and arts-based health research focused on community priorities and intervention design. She also collaborates on multiple global health projects through the Institute for Global Public Health at the University of Manitoba, engaging in interdisciplinary research on public health policy, implementation, and community-engaged program science.
Awards
- IMPaCT Postdoctoral Training Award (2026-2027)
Fun fact: I have a habit of organizing and reorganizing spaces until they feel coherent and aligned in my brain.
Trainees
PhD students
Michaela Bourque
Michaela was born and raised in Atlantic Canada, where she completed both a diploma in Criminology (2017) and her undergraduate degree in psychology (BA, 2021). During her undergraduate studies, she fell in love with research, which led her to pursue her Master of Science in Psychiatry at McGill University (2023). Michaela is now a PhD Candidate in Individual Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Manitoba and a research assistant in the AMPLIFY lab. Her research spans the College of Nursing and the Department of Psychology, where she employs mixed-methods and arts-based approaches to investigate how social narratives, interpersonal interactions, and healthcare environments influence illness experiences, particularly in the context of cancer survivorship.
Awards
- Canadian Cancer Society Research Training Award (2023)
- Nancie J. Mauro Graduate Scholarship in Oncology Research (2024)
- Murphy Foundation Scholarship in Graduate Research in Oncology Nursing (2024)
- Celeste Waldman Nursing Research Scholarship (2025)
Fun fact: In my spare time, I enjoy horseback riding and spending
time with my corgi, Timber.
Raymond Chhun
Raymond is from the West Coast, Vancouver B.C., where he is currently teaching as a nursing instructor at the Vancouver Community College. He completed his MSN at UBC with a focus on psychological trauma and resilience. His research interests is in men’s mental health with his PhD thesis focusing on how marginalization shapes mental health among young men living in urban Canadian contexts.
Fun fact: I am an avid runner who enjoys the quiet moments of reflection that running provides, using each run as a chance to think, reset, and gain perspective.
Master students
Stephanie Mazzon
Stephanie is a Women’s Health Registered Nurse and 2nd year graduate student pursuing her Master of Nursing at the University of Manitoba. She is actively involved in clinical facilitation and her research focuses on the experiences of parents of children with congenital heart disease.
Fun fact: I have two adorable wiener dogs.
Aniela Mora Menendez
Aniela is a Registered Nurse currently on the path to achieving her Master in Nursing at the University of Manitoba specializing in clinical-focused research. She has years of hands-on experience in a specialized service for children, adolescents and their families living with neurodevelopmental needs. Aniela is committed to bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and its real-world applications.
Princess Finecountry-Okezie
Princess is a Master of Nursing Student at the University of Manitoba, with a research interest in neurodevelopmental differences in children and family‑centered care. She has contributed to research examining the nurses' attitudes and perceptions toward managing the care of children with neurodevelopmental disorders, offering insights that support a more responsive and evidence‑informed practice. She is committed to informing better strategies to improve the care and support available to individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders and their families.
Madissen Sitka
Volunteer Research Assistant
Madissen is in her second year of the MA program in clinical psychology. Her research focuses on stress physiology and how wearable technology can be used to create physiologically informed mental health interventions.
Fun fact: I enjoy spending time outside hiking, running and at the dog park!
Undergraduate students
Bunmi Adeyemi
Volunteer Research Assistant
Bunmi is a 4th year student completing her bachelors in the Interdisciplinary Health Program (IHP) within the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. Her volunteer work with neurodivergent and neurodevelopmental communities in Winnipeg sparked her interest in the Collaboration Station project. She is passionate about raising awareness and making research more accessible to neurodivergent communities, particularly youth. Bunmi is a recipient of the Undergraduate Research Award (URA) and is working as a research assistant in the AMPLIFY Lab.
Tyler Fernando
Volunteer Co-op Student
Tyler Fernando is a second-year Honours Science–Business Co-op student at the University of Waterloo with interests in biotechnology, patient engagement, and pediatric health research. His volunteer experiences in healthcare and work with families led him to Collaboration Station, where he was drawn to the project’s focus on centering family voices and making research more accessible. Tyler hopes to pursue a career in medicine and is interested in how patient and family-informed research can support more compassionate care.
Fun fact: I was a Lifeguard and Swim instructor.
Former team members
We would like to acknowledge and thank our former lab staff and trainees for their valuable engagement and contributions to both our past and ongoing research. Although they are no longer actively involved with the lab, their work continues to inform our research.
Omolara Akinwale, BSc, MPH
Yejin Cha, BA
Prakash Dahal, BN
Gifty Dzorka, PhD
Oluwatoyosi Fagbuyi, MN
Ben Freeman, BHSc
Teri-Lyn Healy, MN
Farrah Jabar, BN
Cade Kuehl, BA, MSc
Sharifat Makinde, RN, MSc
Shahina Parvin, PhD
Hannah Payumo, BN, RN, MN
Cassandra Szabo, BA
Jennifer Toews, BN
Sandra Weibe
Gordon Zhang, BHSc
Grace Zhou, BA