Research Team
Meet Our Team
Our research and consulting team is a dynamic group of scholars with diverse backgrounds and a range of expertise. This, and a shared commitment to impactful, evidence-based work, has allowed us to explore and develop the research methodology and tools through a variety of lenses, with each contributing their unique perspective and insight both to the research as well as the development of the intervention and prevention materials to follow.
CO-DIRECTORS and
CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS
Dr. Joseph Michalski
Joseph Michalski is the Principal Investigator of Sibling Conflict, Aggression and Abuse Research (SCAAR), along with Co-Investigator Geneviève Bouchard. As a Professor in the Department of Sociology and the inaugural King’s Research Excellence Chair at King’s University College at Western, he has authored more than 100 scholarly articles and analytic reports including the book, An Integrated Investigation of Family Violence, published in 2022 by Cambridge Scholars Press. His latest book is Terrorism as Moralistic Violence: An Integrated Theory of Terrorism’s Lethal Nature, published by Routledge, 2026.
Dr. Geneviève Bouchard
Dr. Geneviève Bouchard is a full professor at Université de Moncton, where she has been teaching adolescent and adult development as well as psychopathology since 1997. Her expertise also encompasses clinical psychology, family psychology and couple psychology. She is the author of around sixty scientific articles and book chapters on these topics. She has studied sibling bullying through three studies, which have resulted in several publications, while also training the next generations of researchers and practitioners through Moncton’s graduate programs.
For the current research project, she serves as the Co-Principal Investigator and the Co-Director and is responsible for the French-speaking research team in conducting the national survey and student interviews in New Brunswick. Dr. Bouchard complements Dr. Michalski’s sociological perspective with her knowledge of the psychological dynamics of human behaviour, family well-being, social development, psychotherapy, and mental health.
RESEARCH & CONSULTING TEAM
Dr. Faye Mishna
University Ombudsperson, University of Toronto
Professor, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto
Faye Mishna is the University Ombudsperson at the University of Toronto; and Professor Emerita, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. Prior to her appointment at the Faculty, she had over 20 years of experience in children’s mental health including as Clinical Director of a children’s mental health center. Faye served as Dean from 2009 to 2019. Her program of research has focused on bullying/cyberbullying, consensual sexting and nonconsensual image sharing among youth, and informal cyber technology use in social work practice. She is PI on a SSHRC funded study (2025-2028) entitled, Consensual and Non-Consensual Sexting among Youth: Perspectives of Parents/Caregivers.
Dr. Corinna Jenkins Tucker
Corinna Jenkins Tucker, Ph.D., C.F.L.E.
Director, Sibling Aggression and Abuse Research and Advocacy Initiative (SAARA), Crimes against Children Research Center
Professor Emerita, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of New Hampshire
Corinna Jenkins Tucker, Ph.D. is the Director of the Sibling Aggression and Abuse Research and Advocacy Initiative (SAARA) at the Crimes against Children Center at the University of New Hampshire. She is also a Professor Emerita of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of New Hampshire, where she served on the faculty for over twenty years. She is well known for her research on parenting and sibling relationships, especially her empirical work on sibling aggression and abuse in childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood. Dr. Tucker has published in top-ranked human development and family studies, medical, public health, sociological, and psychological journals, been the recipient of multiple research grants, and has had her work featured in a variety of media outlets, including the New York Times. She has received teaching awards, serves on multiple editorial boards, and is a Certified Family Life Educator.
Dr. Don Kerr
Dr. Don Kerr, B.A., M.A., PhD.
Professor of Demography, King’s College University at Western University, London Ontario
Don Kerr is a demographer who teaches at Kings University College at Western University. From 1992 - 2000 he worked in Demography Division at Statistics Canada. His past research has focused on social demography, population estimates and projections, environmental demography, and the socioeconomic and political consequences of demographic change in Canada.
Project Team
King’s University College, London, Ontario
Kyra Patterson, Website Design
Kyra Patterson, B.A.
Kyra Patterson is an alumnus of King’s University College, and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Education at Western University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in French and Criminology, and is a teacher candidate in the intermediate/senior stream at Western University in London.
Kyra was invited to contribute to this project to apply her background in graphic and web design to help shape the visual identity and user experience of the website. With a strong foundation in graphics and a deep understanding of criminology, she is able to bridge design with content in a way that supports and enhances the research goals.
Fahimeh Nazarian, Research Associate
Fahimeh Nazarian, M.A.
Fahimeh Nazarian holds two master’s degrees in philosophy, specializing in ethics and social justice, and brings experience as a research assistant to the team. Her academic background has strengthened her understanding of social issues as well as the value of rigorous, evidence-based research. She contributes by supporting the organization, structuring, and presentation of data in a precise and professional manner, helping the team share its valuable insights with the public in clear and meaningful ways.
Jen Sever, Research Assistant
Jen Sever, BA (Hons), BHSc (Hons)
Jen is an MA student in the Department of Sociology at Western University. She holds a BA (Hons) in Criminology, minor in Psychology from King's University College and a BHSc (Hons) from Western University. As a former student of Dr. Michalski, she welcomed the invitation to assist with this project. This study, as the first in Canada to examine sibling conflict and violence on a national scale, was an ideal opportunity for her as a criminology student with a specific interest in interpersonal violence and quantitative research. Her contributions to the project included leveraging her expertise with SPSS software and quantitative methodology to clean and recode open-ended response data.
Lorene Stanwick, Project Manager
Lorene Stanwick, B.A., B.Ed., M.Ed.
Lorene’s life, learning, and work weave together art, education, mental health, personal growth and advocacy. With an academic background in Drama in Education, and a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology, she has been a college disabilities counsellor, a drama teacher, a performer both onstage and in mental health education, and has created original plays with artists with lived experience of mental health and addiction.
A survivor of sibling abuse and committed to raising awareness about the issue, she wrote and produced the play, Broken Branches, and launched SiblingAbuse.ca, a forum for learning, sharing stories, and building community. She is grateful to share her writing, advocacy, website content and co-design, and “making noise about sibling abuse” skills on this project.
University of Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick
Kaya Dandurand, Research Assistant
Kaya Dandurand
As a third-year doctoral student, Kaya Dandurand is acting as a research assistant for data collection among Francophones. Her thesis project focuses on the role of parent-child relationships in sibling relationship experiences. More specifically, she examines whether parental warmth could function as a protective factor in the relationship between parental hostility and the quality of sibling relationships during adolescence.
Kamie Leblanc, Research Assistant
Kamie Leblanc
Kamie Leblanc is a first year Psy.D. student. In the following years, she will serve as a research assistant for the current research program. Her thesis aims to examine sibling conflicts, strategies for resolving them, and their relational consequences using a mixed methodology (with both quantitative and qualitative data).
Danika McIntyre, Research Assistant
Danika McIntyre
Danika McIntyre is a third-year Psy.D. student. She is also acting as a research assistant for the present research project. Her thesis focuses on both sibling relationship experiences and relationship between the two parents. She is interested in examining the role of interparental warmth in the link between interparental hostility and sibling bullying.
Karine Talbot, Research Assistant
Karine Talbot
After completing a master's degree in applied psychology at Laurentian University, Karine Talbot is a new student in the professional doctorate program in psychology at the University of Moncton. Her thesis aims to examine the link between sibling violence in adolescence and psychological development in adulthood, considering the role of other negative childhood experiences.