The Community-University Research Exchange (CURE) facilitates research collaborations between grassroots community groups and university students. CURE is a core project of QPIRG Concordia & McGill, and has existed since 2007.

CURE is organized day-to-day by CURE coordinators, as well as a CURE committee comprised of QPIRG staffers and board members. The CURE committee meets regularly and is the main decision-making body for CURE. Ultimately, CURE is responsible to the memberships of QPIRG Concordia & McGill, via their Board of Directors.

The newly-formed CURE Advisory Board – comprised of community members, students & faculty – provides the CURE committee with feedback about CURE and its development as a community-based social justice research project. Advisory Board members are selected by the CURE committee for one-year terms (beginning in September of a given year).

The Advisory Board provides a tangible way for CURE to receive regular feedback from community groups, students and faculty. It also provides Advisory Board members with a means to support CURE, and to show broad involvement and support for CURE’s mandate.

Advisory Board members are encouraged to attend CURE events, based on their own availability and schedules. The only requirement of Advisory Board members is to provide feedback about CURE, when they can. The Advisory Board is structured in such a way to allow busy community members, students and faculty to nonetheless show their public support for CURE.

CURE Advisory Board – 2011-2012

* ANAIS CADIEUX VANVLIET: Anais is a former CURE Coordinator (school year 2010-2011). They are currently studying social work at McGill University. Anais is interested in how support work can be applied to larger social justice efforts (ex: how to support protesters post-protest and how we can be kinder to each other and ourselves within activism efforts).  For them, research and organizing go hand in hand.  Anais is an acadian who strives not only to share knowledge but to also learn from all the great people that surround them.

* SHAYLA CHILLIAK: [NEED SHORT BIO]

* AZIZ CHOUDRY: Aziz is Assistant Professor, International Education, Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University.

* LAURA GLOVER: Laura is a fourth year Concordia student pursuing a double major in Playwriting and Political Science. She is the Vice President of Student Life and Sustainability at the Concordia Student Union.

* KEVIN GOULD: Kevin is an assistant professor of Geography at Concordia University. He studies neoliberal development policies in the Americas and teaches Political Ecology, Geographies of Postcolonialism, and other courses.

* MOHAMMAD HASSAN: Mohammad is an ordinary family man doing extra ordinary work at the grassroots level in Parc Extension. He is involved with the Jobra Center, developing a solidarity cooperative (Laundry Coop) which encourages and supports collective action for social change.

* YUSEPH KATIYA: Yuseph is a former coordinator of CURE (2011), and is completing his M. Sc. in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at Concordia University. He is a member of the Planners Network, an association that brings together students, planners and activists around progressive urban planning.

* JULIE NORMAN: Julie is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and the Interim Director for the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS) at Concordia University.

* LENA CARLA PALACIOS: Lena is a doctoral student in Educational Studies and Communication Studies at McGill University. She is a Chicana from working-class origins who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and is an original member of Critical Resistance.

* GABRIELLA PEDICELLI: Gabriella is a collective member at the People’s Potato soup kitchen at Concordia and is involved in several social justice initiatives. She has authored the book “When Police Kill” and and is involved in the Oct22 Coalition which supports family members of those killed by the police by helping to expose systemic police violence. She is also a penal abolitionist and member of Re-con, a prisoner initiated lifers group, which strives to create community links between prisoners and the community.

* JOËL PEDNEAULT: Joël Pedneault is a Sociology student raised in Ottawa by francophone parents. He is Vice-President External of the Student Society of McGill University, working as students’ link to community groups in Montreal.

* MORGAN PUDWELL: Morgan is a 4th year student in the Theatre & Devlopment program at Concordia focusing studies and experiences on working with marginalized peoples and social justice. Morgan is also the VP Advocacy & Outreach at the Concordia Student Union (CSU).

* SOPHIE SCHOEN: Sophie is a registered nurse and a community organizer with Solidarity Across Borders, a migrant justice network that has initiated a “Solidarity City” campaign and demands “Status for All”.

* DEGANE SOUGHAL: Degane is a graduate of McGill University and a past CURE coordinator at QPIRG McGill.