Welcome Haven Team

Rachel Kronick (she/her) is a researcher and child psychiatrist. She is co-director of Outpatient Child Psychiatry Services at the Jewish General Hospital and child consultant with the Cultural Consultation Service. She completed her residency training and masters in Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill University. Her clinical and research Fellowship in child and youth psychiatry was based at the University of Toronto and focused on trauma, homelessness and refugees families. Her primary research is on the social determinants of mental health for refugee, asylum-seeking and precarious migrant children and families, with a specific focus on migration policies and practices in Canada. Her work has focused on the immigration detention of children and preventative community- and school-based ecosocial interventions for refugee claimant and newcomer families. Her current CIHR and SSHRC research-to-policy projects address the present public health crisis of mass arrivals of asylum seekers with the resultant need for temporary accommodation sites in Ontario and Québec and the stressful context this creates for children and families during the first months after arrival Canada. Her research uses qualitative and mixed-methods methodologies including Critical Ethnography, Visual and Arts-Based Methodologies and Participatory Action Research.

Languages: French and English

Akua is a doctoral student in Counselling Psychology in the department of Educational and Counselling Psychology at McGill University. Her research interests include exploring how people’s mental well-being is impacted by their experiences of resettlement, racism and/or racialization. Presently, as part of her doctoral research program, she is developing a mindfulness-based and compassion intervention for asylum claimants in temporary accommodations.

Fun Fact: Akua loves music and has been playing viola for most of her life.

Language: English

Marianne completed her residency in Psychiatry at McGill and she is currently pursuing residency in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Université de Montréal. In parallel, she is pursuing a Master’s in Mental Health at McGill. Her research focuses on the experiences and the mental health of migrant families with a precarious status, specifically families who are ineligible for asylum, either due to inadmissibility on security grounds, or because they entered via the United States.

Languages: English, French

Passang (she/her) is a master’s student in Mental Health in the department of Psychiatry. Previously, she graduated from McGill’s Honours Cognitive Science program with a joint focus in Neuroscience and Psychology and a minor in Interdisciplinary Life Sciences. She has a background in child and youth advocacy and is currently using arts-based methods to investigate the psychosocial wellbeing of refugee claimant youth in transitory living spaces.

Languages: English, Tibetan

Sewar research interests are on art-based interventions to support mental health for refugees and asylum seekers in community-based settings and temporary shelters. She also focuses on implementing such interventions for war-affected children in the Gaza Strip with a culturally adapted approach. 

Languages: Arabic, English

Ateş Balsoy is an undergraduate student at Concordia University specializing in Urban Planning and minoring in Human Environment at the Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment. His research interests include segregation, displacement, urban public policy, and social aspects of urban spaces. Before being the Research and Advocacy Program Fellow of Welcome Haven under the SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation, he worked at Welcome Haven in different positions from communication and outreach to data visualization since January 2024. During this time, he completed a research project on how the spatial locations of the federal temporary accommodation sites contribute to the urban experiences of asylum seekers. When not working on his research or studying for that next exam; you can find him doing ceramics, writing short stories, or scrapbooking.

Rana Fakhri is a Psychology student at Concordia University whose research interests include psychosocial adjustment and the impact of cultural dynamics on mental health. She has contributed to several research labs, exploring topics like sleep, cultural psychology, and children’s reasoning about property and resources, as well as supporting adults with developmental disabilities at the Centre for Arts in Human Development. With that, she brings a unique blend of academic insight and hands-on care to her role at Welcome Haven.

Fun Fact: Having travelled to over nine countries and drawing from her Arab heritage, Rana is a passionate history enthusiast and language lover so you will always catch her chatting about ancient civilizations or picking up bits and pieces of languages like Spanish, Farsi, and Hindi.

Languages: English, Arabic

I graduated as a medical doctor from the University of Jordan in 2017. My research interests involve early childhood development, refugee populations’ mental health and psychosocial interventions in low- and middle-income countries. I pursued my master’s degree in War and Psychiatry from King’s College London through a Chevening Scholarship. Currently, I am doing my Ph.D. at McGill University, mental health program. I speak Arabic and English.

My publications include:
Alzaghoul, A., McKinlay, A., & Archer, M. (2022). Post-traumatic stress disorder interventions for children and adolescents affected by war in low- and middle-income countries in the Middle East: Systematic review. BJPsych Open. 8(5): E153.

Languages: Turkish, English, German, French

Margaret received her Graduate Diploma in Communications at Concordia University which deepens her understanding of the interesting dynamics of communication in contemporary society. In her role at Welcome Haven is the Communications and Research Intern, she is supporting the team’s initiatives and research efforts. Her academic background includes philosophy and linguistics, which equips her with a nuanced perspective on the significance of language and its impact on societal narratives in particular to refugees. Through her work, she hopes to bridge gaps in understanding and promote a more informed and empathetic discourse surrounding migration and displacement.

Languages: English, Vietnamese, French

Adina is completing her undergraduate degree in History and World Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at McGill University. Adina has been involved in youth-led organizations and is committed to advocacy on a range of social justice issues. She hopes to pursue a career at the intersection of law and social work to activate and empower youth.

Language: English