🫱🏾🫲🏼 The Project Team
Mikahelia Wellington (she/her)
Research Assistant & Project Coordinator
Mikahelia Wellington is a registered dietitian working in the community health setting. She has a professional background in Public Health Nutrition & Dietetics and social justice.
The intersections of her personal and professional experiences and expertise have helped her recognize the critical role that stories, values, community and heritage play in improving the well-being of people and communities by challenging and re-envisioning unjust norms.
This inspired her to create Making Kitchen Legacies Inc., a business aimed to teach and practice affirming and nourishing health promotion and health management through community nutrition. She acknowledges that this work requires ongoing learning and action and is dedicated to the cause. Mikahelia currently offers workshops and seminars for the community and community partners and also to nutrition students, educators, and professionals.
Website: https://makingkitchenlegacies.com/
Sherana Syed (she/her)
Research Assistant & Project Coordinator
Sherana Syed is a fourth-year student pursuing a degree in Food and Nutrition at Toronto Metropolitan University. Driven by a deep passion for food and nutrition, she made a career transition from Project Management. She has previously worked in nonprofit organizations, specifically focusing on inclusivity, diversity, and anti-racism projects. Her dedication to inclusivity and diversity has been a central theme throughout her career. In the ABR in Dietetics Project at TMU, she takes on the roles of both Research Assistant and Project Coordinator, leveraging her passion in the project. She has been a nutrition ambassador at TMU for the last two years and is a Vice President of the Toronto Metropolitan Home Economics Association (TMHEA). She also has a food Instagram account, @spoonsoflemon, where she shares her love for food and inclusive cooking.
Email: sherana.syed@torontomu.ca
Instagram: instagram.com/spoonsoflemon/
Emanuel Tessema (him/his)
Research and Project Assistant
Emanuel Tessema is a fourth-year Nutrition and Food student at Toronto Metropolitan University.
He is interested in clinical nutrition and its intersection with pediatric and maternal health, as well as improving access to opportunities for underrepresented groups in the nutrition field. He’s also developing a growing interest in health professional education and nutrition education, particularly in improving the quality of nutrition training health professionals receive so that dieticians and other healthcare providers can collaborate more effectively.
Email: emanuel.tessema@torontomu.ca