Eugenia Cañas
Eugenia Cañas, PhD, was a Salvadoran Canadian postdoctoral associate in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University (Canada). Born in San Salvador, she migrated to Canada in 1988. During her time at Western, she was a research trainee with the Gender, Trauma and Violence Knowledge Incubator, working with Dr. Nadine Wathen and Women & Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) to mobilize knowledge on gender-based violence. Cañas’ doctoral research used a health-information science perspective to investigate the inclusion of lived-experience knowledge in the design of mental health services for youth. Her research collaborations included roles with the Centre for Research on Health Equity and Social Inclusion, a London, Ontario Poverty Reduction Fund grant evaluating the effectiveness of a Housing First Approach, a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Development grant investigating the impact of narrative evidence upon policy change, and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) team grant focused on the impacts of structural violence upon youth wellbeing. A long-time friend and supporter of the Surviving Memory project, she officially joined the team in 2020 to support our work on youth and mental health. She was an integral member of several planning workshops in the summer of 2020 as we prepared our Stage 2 application for an SSHRC Partnership Grant. Her contributions, suggestions, and insights were appreciated by all. Sadly, Cañas passed away on June 18, 2021, after a cancer diagnosis earlier that year. She was such a bright light, a warm and positive presence, and a brilliant and intuitive colleague. She is deeply missed.
Links to Eugenia Cañas obituaries:
https://harrisfuneralhome.ca/obituaries/maria-eugenia-canas/
https://www.fims.uwo.ca/news/2021/in_memoriam_eugenia_canas.html