Sarah Fessenden

Dynamic professional with extensive qualitative research expertise, and a proven track record in program design. Skilled in stakeholder needs assessment and effective communication of findings, I excel in creating impactful initiatives that enhance student success and community engagement. Committed to driving meaningful change through collaboration and innovation.

• Public Scholar Award (UBC)
• College of Liberal Arts: Best Thesis (CSULB)

• Food Justice 101. Lettuce Harvest Workshop Series., Vancouver, BC, 08/18/21
• Biopolitics of Protest: A researcher's data elicited during protest movements., KPU TALK series, 04/12/21
• In 'Why Grocery Shopping Is on Its Way Out' by Corey Mintz., The Walrus, 02/20/20
• 'Solidarity, not charity': Serving up food(-waste) in Vancouver with Food Not Bombs., Capilano University's World Food Day, North Vancouver, BC, 10/09/17
• (Re)Searching for Social Justice: The potential of food activism in the midst of hunger and waste., University of British Columbia 'PhDs Go Public' series, Vancouver, BC, 04/12/17

• Qualitative Data Software: NVivo, UCINET/NETDRAW Social Networking Software
• Microsoft Office (Outlook, MS Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Video conferencing: Zoom (I hosted a networking event for over 100 participants)
• Online learning technologies: Moodle, Blackboard, Pebble Pad, iClicker

• A sidewalk soup kitchen: Punk anarchism, ephemerality, and authentic space-making in Vancouver., In Emergent Spaces: Change and Innovation in Small Urban Spaces. Petra Kuppinger, ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan., 2022
• Drawing the contours of ethnography: Ethnographic refusal and anarchistic consent in fieldwork and writing., Collaborative Anthropologies 11(2)., 2020

• Qualitative research expertise
• Stakeholder needs assessment
• Program design and implementation
• Effective communication of findings

• Program Review Author, 2023-2025, Survey and interview data collection on efficiency and student success of NGO and Non-Profit Studies program.
• Work-Integrated Learning mentorships, 2023-present, Focus group organizer and facilitator, Richmond Food Aid Delivery Coalition.
• Lead grant-writer, 2023-present, Northern Bear Awareness Society.
• Research support and lead grant-writer, 2023-present, Cloverdale Community Kitchen.
• Public Scholars Initiative, 09/16-04/17, Food donations in Vancouver: Why donated food still goes to waste.
• Doctoral Research, 09/14-09/15, We just wanna warm some bellies: Food Not Bombs, anarchism, and recycling wasted food for protest.
• Graduate Research Assistant, Fall 2010, Archival and ethnographic research on a land dispute brought forward by local Indigenous communities.
• Graduate Level Ethnographic Fieldwork, Summer 2010, Anarcho-punk, squatter community in Barcelona, Spain.
• Graduate Level Ethnographic Fieldwork, Fall 2009, Activist food distribution in Santa Ana, CA.
• Undergraduate Level Ethnographic Fieldwork, 2005, Identity and community in a West Hollywood LGBT church, Metropolitan Community Church Los Angeles (MCCLA).