Past Fellows
Ieman Mona El-Mowafi was a 2016-2020 CRHC Research Fellow based in Amman, Jordan. She completed her Honour’s Bachelor’s in Health Sciences degree at the University of Ottawa, Canada in 2016. She has worked on multiple projects focused on women’s reproductive health, including a study documenting women’s experiences obtaining abortion care in Prince Edward Island. Her passion for reproductive health has led her to pursue a project in working to improve Syrian women’s access to emergency contraception in both the Za’atari refugee camp and urban communities in Jordan. She completed her MSc in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa.
Anna Rodriguez was a 2019 CRHC Legal Fellow based in the US. She is a legal student at Berkeley Law and a Florida native. Before starting law school, she worked on the 2016 Democratic campaign as a grassroots organizer in Iowa and as a Communications Fellow at Conway Strategic in Washington, DC. In her professional work she has done research to advance reproductive justice for marginalized people, especially in rural and Latinx communities. She hopes to eventually practice law as an impact litigator in reproductive rights.
Astrid Reyes was a 2019 CRHC Legal Fellow based in the US. She is a third year student at NYU School of Law, with a focus on the intersection of reproductive justice and international human rights law. She has worked on reproductive and women’s rights issues in the context of Latin American and the US, challenging abortion restrictions, the criminalization of pregnancy-related behaviors, obstetric violence, and forced sterilization of ethnic and racial minorities.
Samantha Lint was a 2018-2019 CRHC Legal Fellow based in Cambridge, MA. She is a student at Harvard Law School, with experience in international development, international criminal law, and reproductive health and rights. Samantha is contributing to a CRHC project through legal research on the criminalization of abortion and federal and state regulations of health care providers and pharmaceutical products. She is interested in the intersection of law, human rights, and reproductive health in conflict, low-resource, or politically hostile settings.
Kate MacFarlane was a 2016-2017 CRHC Research Fellow conducting a reproductive health needs assessment with the Rohingya refugee population residing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. While pursuing her Master's in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa, Kate carried out research projects relating to abortion and reproductive health in Canada and Turkey. She is interested in enhancing reproductive health service delivery among conflict-affected populations and continuing advocacy work in regions where abortion and contraception are difficult to access.
Ellen Tousaw was a 2016-2017 CRHC Research Fellow based on the Thailand-Burma border. After completing her Honours Bachelor of Health Sciences in French Immersion at the University of Ottawa in 2014, Ellen was part of the inaugural team of the Ottawa Birth and Wellness Centre which provides pregnancy, birth, and postpartum options for women in the Ottawa area. Her passion for women's health and her experience with under-serviced populations led her to pursue a project documenting women's experiences accessing essential reproductive health care on the Thailand-Burma border.
Grace Sheehy was based in Yangon, Myanmar as a 2015-2016 CRHC Research Fellow funded by an OceanPath fellowship through the Coady Institute. In Yangon, she developed an initiative that aims to expand opportunities for young and unmarried women to learn about sexual and reproductive health. This initiative built on her recently completed MSc thesis at the University of Ottawa, where she led a reproductive health needs assessment in peri-urban Yangon. Over the past three years, Grace has also contributed to qualitative research projects on women’s health in Ontario, interned at a global health research institute in Bangladesh, and worked at Canada’s International Development Research Centre. She is interested in exploring ways that research, policy and practice can be merged to expand access to comprehensive reproductive health care.
Dr. Yadanar was a 2015-2016 Research Fellow based in Yangon, Myanmar and Melbourne, Australia. A passionate advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for young women, Dr. Yadanar holds a medical degree from the University of Medicine in Yangon. She contributed to CRHC's reproductive health needs assessment in peri-urban Yangon in 2014, and she previously worked as the Young Women's Coordinator at the YWCA, where she helped develop safe spaces to equip adolescent girls with SRHR skills and knowledge. Dr. Yadanar's dream is to be part of the health sector reform process and contribute to policy-making in Myanmar in order to help make SRHR services and knowledge accessible to all.
Grady Arnott was a 2014-2015 Research Fellow with CRHC based on the Thailand-Burma border, where she worked to expand access to essential reproductive health care for Burmese migrants and refugees. A graduate from the University of Ottawa's MSc in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, Grady's thesis explored the implications of health policy on access to reproductive health commodities in refugee, conflict, and crisis settings. She is interested in the intersections between policy, law, and reproductive justice, and continues to pursue action-oriented research on health policy and reproductive health.
Jillian Gedeon was a 2014-2015 Research Fellow based in Mae Sot, Thailand, specializing in reproductive health research and education. She completed a Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa, Canada in 2014, where she researched women's experiences with long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) on the Thailand-Burma border. Jill's passion for reproductive health, coupled with her ability to connect with youth, has led her to mentor, train, and educate youth locally, nationally, and internationally.