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Elahe Koushkestani

Research Project Manager

Elahe Koushkestani is a research project manager for the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Lab at ´óÏó´«Ã½, where she collaborates with the team to investigate approaches for enhancing older adults' preparedness for extreme heat. She completed her Master's in Political Science at ´óÏó´«Ã½ with a specialization in environmental policies and marginalized populations and holds a Bachelor's degree in Law from the University of Tehran. Elahe is driven by a strong commitment to environmental justice and research in this field.

Cindy Wei

Research Coordinator

Cindy Wei is a research coordinator for COPE-Engage. She has completed her Bachelor's and Master's of Science at the University of Waterloo, where she studied Kinesiology with a focus on nutrition for older adults. She is the recipient of several notable graduate and undergraduate prizes, including the Ontario Graduate Scholarship [OGS], the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Scholarship [CIHR], and the Schulich Scholarship. She has worked for several Canadian universities, under Dr. Travis Saunders (UPEI), Dr. Jenna Gibbs (McGill), and Dr. Heather Keller (UWaterloo). In her free time, Cindy works as an academic consultant, yoga teacher, and sewist.

Letitia Zhu

PhD Student

Letitia holds a Master’s degree in Engineering from Beijing Forestry University, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Gerontology at ´óÏó´«Ã½. Her research interests lie at the intersection of art-based methods, community-engaged research, and technology, with a focus on older adults with disabilities.

Wendy Sarkissian

Older Adult Advisory Board

Wendy is an award-winning author, community planner, educator, activist, and environmental ethicist who has received over 40 professional awards. She holds a doctorate in environmental ethics from Murdoch University in Western Australia and is a Life Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia.

Wendy's research and writing focus on climate breakdown, as well as community engagement and empowerment. She is the lead author of the award-winning book Kitchen Table Sustainability: Practical Recipes for Community Engagement with Sustainability. Now at age 81, she focuses on taking personal responsibility for sustainability issues such as climate breakdown, ways of nurturing an engaged citizenry, and fostering public judgement. Wendy has authored several professional books. Her memoir, Creeksong: One Woman Sings the Climate Blues (Tellwell Talent, 2023) emerged in part from her 1996 doctoral dissertation.

In the COPE project, as a member of the advisory board, Wendy seeks to empower the voices of older adults, highlighting their unique perceptions and experiences of cities, climate breakdown and heat stress.

Charmian Bursill

Older Adult Advisory Board

Now retired, Charmian was born in East Sheen, London, UK, but spent most of her life living overseas with her family. She attended the National Theatre School in Montreal, where she completed a course in technical and stage management before going on to work professionally in theatres across Canada and the UK.  After eight years, she returned to the Maritimes and became a student at University of New Brunswick (UNB), where she graduated with first-class honours in English and German, and a postgraduate degree in Education. She later returned to the UK, where she undertook a variety of roles, ultimately becoming Export Administrator for a robotics firm in London.

Members of the Bursill family have resided in the West, mainly Vancouver, since approximately 1910, and it seemed natural to Charmian to return to Vancouver, where she has been living for about 25 years, tutoring English, after a year teaching English in South Korea. She enjoys writing poetry and short stories and has successfully published a small selection. Her other interests include non-credit courses at ´óÏó´«Ã½, supporting wildlife, voluntary work with her local constituency office and most recently her Strata Council.  As a born stage manager, Charmian enjoys organizing, planning, and participating in projects, with the COPE project being an important one as she enters this later stage of life. It seems clear that climate change, which appears to have resulted in much hotter temperatures globally, is affecting many,particularly seniors' health and well being. 

Charmian is therefore very pleased and honoured to have this opportunity to make any useful contribution that she can.