POST-DOC & research associates
2023-2025
Judith Anyango Oloko
Judith Anyango Oloko is from Kisumu city, Kenya, where she was born and raised. She is a Sociology degree holder from Maseno University and now undertaking her Masters in Sociology from Maseno University. She is currently an exchange student at the University of Victoria doing her research on the IMPACT OF SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT ON THE LIVELIHOODS OF LOW INCOME POPULATION AND ITS ECONOMIC VIABILITY. Her interest stems from her experience in working at a waste management organization during her internship where she witnessed open dumping and open burning as the main implemented waste treatment in the low income population community. She envisions a complete turnaround of this through her research and partnership with MACCE-a newly registered CBO in Kenya that depicts the concept of circularity from waste generated and recovered in a bid to provide sustainable employment to the youth in the region.
Judith also has experience from working at WISE, which is Women in Sustainable Enterprise where the focus has been providing alternative green business support as a source of livelihood to girls and young women in the fishing villages in Kenya that has greatly impacted the lives of women in the regions.
Indigo Eilers
Indigo (she/her) is going into her final year of undergraduate studies at the University of Victoria, taking a bachelor of arts in Geography with a minor in English. With a passion for sustainability, she is interested in learning about the relationships between waste management, economics, and social wellbeing. Soon, Indigo will be doing research, facilitated by Jutta Gutberlet, where she will interview individuals who engage in informal waste-management in the hopes of assisting the destigmatizing of their work. Indigo is a settler who has lived most of her life on the unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Indigenous peoples.
Abigail R. Lorz
Abigail R. Lorz is a published author, researcher, and community advocate driven by an eager curiosity to explore, innovate, and address pressing environmental issues. Driven by a constant desire to learn and contribute, she thrives on tackling new projects, translating scientific and empirical data into written papers, and turning research insights into actionable policy and real-world results.
As a published author in the journal Biodiversity, Abigail has authored research spanning global conservation frameworks, fisheries law and justice, green sea turtle recovery, and the impacts of ocean darkening on marine ecosystems. Building on this work, she remains dedicated to researching today’s most urgent environmental issues.
Collaborative, adaptable, and deeply motivated, she is always eager to lend her skills to new research, support team initiatives, and contribute to sustainable communities.
Allan Santos de Oliveira
Allan is a Ph.D. candidate in the Professional Graduate Program in Environment, Health, and Sustainability (ProASaS) at the School of Public Health, University of São Paulo (USP), under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Leandro Luiz Giatti. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering and a Master’s degree in Public Health from USP.
His doctoral research focuses on a qualitative analysis based on machine learning, conducted through Action Research addressing Environmental Racism in collaboration with waste pickers in cooperatives and women in a local healthcare non-profit organization in the municipality of Suzano, São Paulo. In addition to his academic research, Allan has served, since 2017, as an Environmental Analyst for the Municipal Environmental Secretariat in Suzano where he plans and implements public policies in Environmental Education. He also serves as the Coordinator of the Technical Chamber for Environmental Education of the Upper Tietê Watershed Committee (CTEA/CBH-AT).
Starting September 2026, Allan is conducting a visiting research period (sandwich Ph.D.) at the Community-Based Research Laboratory (CBRL) at the University of Victoria (UVic). His work at CBRL centers on qualitative analysis of participatory approaches within UNICATA (University for and with Waste Pickers), leveraging machine learning techniques to support qualitative data processing and insights.
Isabella de Carvalho Vallin
Isabella is a Ph.D. student in the Postgraduate Program in Environmental Sciences (PROCAM) at the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil, with an ongoing sandwich period as a visiting Ph.D. student at the UVic. She holds a Master's degree in Science and a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Management. She is a researcher at the Center for Research on Organizations, Society and Sustainability (USP) and the Community Based Research Laboratory (CBRL/UVic). She conducts research on climate justice, environmental justice, and solid waste, with a particular focus on plastic pollution. Furthermore, she works with social movements and educational initiatives through university outreach with waste pickers.
Isabella de Carvalho Vallin
ResearchGate | LinkedIn
Lenin Alfonso Morales
Na! Nuegambi ! (Hi in Gunadule Language [Panamá & Colombia]). Lenín is Gunadule and a PhD student in the Department of Environmental Health at the Universidade de São Paulo (USP-Brazil). His work focuses on the Gunadule indigenous people from the Comarca Gunayala in Panama, where one of the island communities was forced to relocate to the mainland due to climate change. Through his proposed participatory research project, Lenín aims to investigate the Nexus water, energy, and food as they relate to the Gunadule people's environment and livelihood. Furthermore, Lenín holds a bachelor’s degree in water and environmental management from the Universidad de Panamá (UP-Panamá), as well as a master’s degree in environmental education from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (FURG-Brazil)
Lenin Morales
LinkedIn
Carolina Carvalho
Carolina has a PhD in Environmental Planning (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ, Brazil), with a research period at the Royal Institute of Technology (Tekniska Kunliga högskolan - KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. She did a postdoc research using Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) applied to urban governance, at the Public Health Faculty (University of Sao Paulo) and Aalto University, Espoo, Finland. She was a visiting researcher at the University of Birmingham (UK), in 2022-2023.
Currently, she is a researcher at the Institute of Environment and Energy, of São Paulo University and founder of the Comunidades Vivas - Mapeamento Participativo, an initiative that brings participatory mapping as a tool for urban planning improvements, focusing on citizen engagement for better and healthy cities www.comunidadesvivas.com.br.
Ana Maria Castro
Ana is a PhD student in Hydraulic Engineering and Sanitation at the University of São Paulo (USP) and a visiting researcher at the CBRL. She is currently studying the integration of waste pickers in waste management and its contribution to a just transition to the circular economy. She is an environmental engineer with an MSc in Hydraulic Engineering and Sanitation. She has experience in projects about household waste management, selective collection, environmental education and the inclusion of waste pickers. She is currently a researcher in the Solid Waste Study and Research Group (NEPER-USP) and a member of the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) Young Professionals Group.
Ana Maria Rodrigues Costa de Castro
ResearchGate | LinkedIn | ORCID | Lattes
Charles Amartey
Charles was born and raised in Accra, a city known for its intriguing blend of cultures. He was always interested in the ways that art might be incorporated into many contexts and how different artistic concepts may coexist in one work. As an artist, he creates fictitious and abstract works of art by fusing scientific concepts with artistic expression. His work also emphasizes the great diversity of life on Earth as well as the beauty and intricacy of ecosystems. depicting a range of species in his artwork to highlight how all life is intertwined, from microbes to plants and animals. displaying at Ghanaian museums and galleries and in the United Kingdom, respectively. He attended the prestigious Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, where he earned his bachelor's degree in fine arts. He was also a member of the BlaxTARLINES Community, a Kumasi, Ghana-based incubator for contemporary experimental art. Charles, a Ghanaian bio artist, is presently pursuing an MFA at the University of Victoria.
Kosar Movahedi
Kosar Movahedi is a visual artist and communications designer.
Kosar holds an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of Victoria, Victoria, BC and a BSc in Architecture from University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
Their work has resulted in solo and group exhibitions
in Canada, Iran and the UK.
Angela Hinostroza
Angela Hinostroza holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication Arts and Sciences with a focus on Advertising from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. Over the past six years, she has worked for the Canada Peru Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with the Embassy of Canada, focusing on communication and marketing strategies to strengthen the ties between Canada and Peru. She has also actively participated in various art exhibitions that promote sustainable concepts and is happy to be involved with the CBRLab projects.
Sayed Mohammad Nazim Uddin
Dr. Uddin is currently working as a Visiting Research Associate in the CBRL-UVic and managing research projects in Bangladesh on 'Waste and Sanitation Hazards in Rohingya Refugee camps' and 'Livelihood and Health Status of Waste Pickers in Dhaka.' He has also been teaching as a Sessional Lecturer at UVic's Geography since 2017. He worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Jutta Gutberlet during 2016 and 2018 and involved in several research projects in the fields of Environmental Health. Moreover, he is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences at Asian University for Women (AUW) in Bangladesh. AUW is the first of its kind: a fully independent regional institution dedicated to women's education and leadership development—global in outlook (American Style liberal arts and science) but rooted in the context and aspirations of the people of Asia. With an International Research Funding from Action Contre la Faim (ACF) International France, Dr. Nazim completed his Ph.D. from the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB), China. Additionally, he held Research Project Manager and performed graduate supervision and mentoring during his Ph.D. tenure at USTB. He has more than 15 years of experience in research, teaching, scientific supervision, and mentoring, development, and implementation. Over 40 scientific peer-reviewed journal articles, international conference proceedings, technical reports and guidelines, policy briefs, and compendium have already been published by him in the fields of Environmental Health, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), Waste Management, Wastewater Treatment, Humanitarian Science and Engineering.
Pre-2023
Leandro Giatti
Leandro Giatti is an associate professor at the School of Public Health – University of São Paulo (USP). He is a biologist and PhD in Public Health. Giatti has international expertise with sustainability and public health, health promotion, and participatory research approaches. His experience characterizes through interdisciplinary studies and with the main efforts dedicated to socioenvironmental vulnerable groups. He is a member of the Institute of Advanced Studies at USP, and associate editor of the journal Ambiente & Sociedade (SCIELO). In his academic research projects, he has advised thesis and dissertations of graduate students and also has supervised post-doctoral partners.
Crystal Tremblay
Crystal completed her MA in 2007 and PhD in 2013 with the CBRL, working as a Research Assistant with the Participatory Sustainable Waste Management project in Brazil and other local projects with the binning community in Victoria and Vancouver. Her work has been strongly rooted in the investigation of innovations in community-driven development, participatory governance and public policy related to waste, sanitation and water with informal and underserved communities in urban Canada, Brazil, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. The integration of creative visual methodologies, and use of participatory video in particular, has been at the heart of her research and engagement approach. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Special Advisor on Community Engaged Scholarship at the University of Victoria. She has published widely on topics related to community university research partnerships, training in community-based research, social innovation and participatory policy in water and waste governance. for more information please visit her website: www.crystaltremblay.com