Nexus 2025
Jessica Stockdale (conference chair) is a Master of Science Student in the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program at UBC where she is co-supervised with the Departments of Botany and Curriculum and Pedagogy. She holds a B.Sc. in Cell and Molecular Biology and Bioethics from the University of Toronto. Jessica is passionate about making science education more accessible, particularly for historically marginalized learners. During her undergraduate studies, she worked closely with the University of Toronto’s Transitional Year Programme, mentoring students and advocating for improved access to STEM pathways.
Her research focuses on access programs across Canada and how they facilitate entry into science education. She aims to contribute to curriculum development that fosters inclusivity and provides comprehensive resources for diverse student populations. Jessica is also interested in how academic research can be made more accessible for the public to give everyone the opportunity to fall in love with science!
Outside of her research, she enjoys reading, going on hikes and polar dips in the ocean.
Nexus 2024
Leena Alkhammash (Co-chair) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program at UBC. She holds an MSc in Human Anatomy from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and a BSc in Basic Medical Sciences from the Libyan International Medical University, Libya. Leena is passionate about teaching and has taught anatomy for almost 7 years in different universities in Jordan, Scotland, St Kitts in the Caribbean, Switzerland, and currently as a TA in UBC anatomy labs. Her research work will focus on creating a 3D anatomy teaching multimedia platform, and is supervised by an interdisciplinary team of professors from the Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy, Department of Psychology, Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, and Department of Film & Theatre. As an international student, Leena is a recipient of UBC’s Four Year Fellowship (4YF). She loves cooking and is now one of the cooking directors at UBC’s Cooking Club, she also enjoys traveling and learning about new cultures, snorkeling, hiking, and gardening.
Phoebe Wong (co-chair) is a PhD student in Interdisciplinary Studies at UBC, licensed audiologist, member of UBC Language Sciences, and Public Scholar. She holds a BA in Honours Linguistics with a Russian minor and a MSc in audiology from UBC. After working as a clinician in northern Canada for the past five years – Prince George, Yellowknife, Inuvik, and Iqaluit – she decided to return to Vancouver to pursue a PhD with the Department of Linguistics and School of Audiology and Speech Sciences. Her planned thesis project aims to create clinical speech perception testing stimuli in the Inuktitut language to help Inuit with hearing loss and aid in the transmission of Inuktitut to futuregenerations. She enjoys swimming, cats, backcountry camping, hiking, and cycling.
Dr. Barbara Weber is the Program Chair of the ISGP program, an Associate professor in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and an Associate of the Philosophy Department at UBC. Dr. Weber has a PhD in Philosophy, Psychology and Education from the Ludwig-Maximillian University (LMU) in Munich, Germany. During her graduate studies at LMU she worked as a performance artist, choreographer, and dancer of ballet, German expressionist dance, Bharatanatyam and Butoh. In her performance works, she combined poetry and philosophical aphorisms with embodied, ‘answers’ conveyed through the dancer’s movements.
Enid Ho is the ISGP program coordinator (and the best advocate, support system, and motivator for ISGP students). After finishing her Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History at UBC, Enid worked with international students in a Vancouver language school, and spent some time in Europe, submerging herself in the world of art and ancient civilization. Shortly after returning to Vancouver, where she calls home, Enid joined the Faculty of Education, providing guidance to graduate students on program admissions and awards. Enid brings with her a wealth of knowledge on UBC policies and procedures.