Faculty

Melanie Gampel (she/her) is the program co-ordinator and a professor of Seneca’s Social Service Worker (SSW) program at Seneca@York.

Melanie holds a master’s degree in counselling psychology and is a registered psychotherapist and certified Canadian counsellor. She has worked in postsecondary institutions across the Greater Toronto Area for more than 15 years as a counsellor and educator. She values the opportunity to help students maximize their academic and personal potential.

Outside of Seneca, Melanie works on the frontline in the trauma and mental health field.

Valerie Vickery (kwe/she/her) is Anishinaabe and a member of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation.

Valerie has been a part-time faculty in Seneca’s Social Service Worker - Gerontology (SSWG) program for a number of years and became a full-time Field Placement co-ordinator at Seneca@York in the Social Service Worker program in the fall of 2019. She has also been a part-time faculty with George Brown in their recreation co-ordinator program. Valerie worked in the long-term care sector with Extendicare Canada for 17 years in various capacities.

Valerie is a graduate of Seneca's SSWG program.

Rubaiyat Karim (she/her) is an international writer and speaker on gender, race and migration. For the last 20 years, Rubaiyat’s career has focused on direct service, fund development, community development, policy advocacy and research. Most recently, she served as the executive director of a family justice centre and director of community investments at United Way Greater Toronto. She is now a full-time professor in the Social Service Worker diploma program at Seneca. She also serves as the treasurer at Family Services and operates a private practice, where she supports individuals using various counselling modalities.

She is a Registered Social Worker and holds a master of social work from the University of Windsor. She also completed a diversity and inclusion certificate from Cornell University and is a Certified Solution Focused Coach trained through the University of Toronto. Rubaiyat is committed to education equity and inclusion, and draws from her experiences in crisis intervention, case management, counselling, community organizing, stakeholder engagement and organizational development to support student learning. Rubaiyat’s publications include contributions in Unsettled Settlers: Barriers to Integration, Racism in America and Contemporary Immigration: Psychological Perspectives to Address Challenges and Inform Solutions.

Jamie Lemen (she/her) is a Registered Social Worker and holds a master of social work from the University of Toronto. Her social work and teaching practice is rooted in a deep commitment to social justice, solidarity and the act of witnessing. Jamie brings more than 10 years of experience working in the mental health, addictions, housing and homelessness sectors — offering assessment, referral, advocacy, crisis intervention and counselling.  

Her most recent roles include mental health clinician with University Health Network in the Poul Hansen Family Centre for Depression, supervisor of a community walk-in counselling clinic with WoodGreen Community Services, concurrent disorders clinician with WoodGreen and Fred Victor, and course facilitator with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Jamie currently sits on the Board of Directors with the Toronto Hostels Training Centre and operates a private practice with the Healing Collective, where she supports the wellness of individuals and couples. 

Kevin Kennedy (he/him) is the program co-ordinator for Seneca’s Social Service Worker (SSW) program. Kevin has been involved in the social service field for more than 25 years since his graduation from Seneca’s SSW program. Prior to becoming a faculty member, Kevin worked at Blue Door Shelters in York Region where he helped to open the region’s first youth shelter and its only family shelter. During this time, Kevin volunteered as a founding steering committee member for the Ontario Social Service Workers Association and served for 10 years as a councillor for the profession’s regulatory body, the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers.

Kevin has also co-facilitated the Jamaica Program for Seneca’s Community Services Department. This annual two-week intensive community practice project takes a number of second-year students to a challenged area in Kingston, Jamaica to build relationships, assess community strengths and develop lasting and sustainable partnerships. Kevin is a Distinguished Alumni award winner and was a recipient of the Doug E Lear Award in 2014, handed out annually to the volunteer of the year for York Region.

Philip Ackerman (he/him) is a program co-ordinator for the Social Service Worker – Immigrants and Refugees program. Philip is an adult educator who, for the past several years, has been committed to working with diverse newcomer populations, focusing most of his efforts in working with newcomer youth at a Toronto-based community organization. Through Philip’s determination and approachable nature, the community organization was able to surpass its goal of engaging 50 newcomer youth in group sessions to approximately 200 in five years.

Philip has extensive years as a teacher locally and internationally, including Taiwan and Hong Kong. He is a strong advocate of access to education for newcomer and migrant youth and is currently involved in a community-led initiative to highlight the barriers that exist. 

Philip completed a master's degree in adult education and community development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and is also a graduate of the Seneca Immigrants and Refugees program.

Angie Arora (she/her) has experience that spans front-line and community practice, board governance, policy work and education primarily in gender-based violence impacting non-status, immigrant and refugee communities. In addition, she works at the cross-section of human-animal interactions relating to pet loss, equity and inclusion within veterinary medicine and veterinary wellness.

She is a professor in Seneca’s Social Service Worker – Immigrants and Refugees program and teaches a microcredential on acute self-care for veterinary professionals to foster wellness.

Angie earned a bachelor of social work from Toronto Metropolitan University and a master of social work from York University. She completed the bereavement education certificate program with Toronto Advanced Professional Education and is a Certified Compassion Fatigue Specialist trained through the Traumatology Institute. She is the author of a chapter in Out of the Shadows: Woman Abuse in Ethnic, Aboriginal and Refugee Communities, Unsettled Settlers: Barriers to Integration and Roots and Routes of Displacement and Trauma: From Analysis to Advocacy and Policy to Practice. She was the principal investigator for Seneca’s applied research study with VCA Canada in which best practices for veterinary teams supporting clients through pet loss was developed.

Dr. Roohullah Shabon’s (he/him) educational background includes adult education, being a medical doctor in primary health care, a master of business administration and post-graduate studies in public health and psychology.   

For the first decade of his career, Dr. Shabon, a refugee himself, worked as a team leader in refugee camps supporting refugees in resettlement and reintegration programs. Moving forward, he worked as international humanitarian aid, social and health worker in more than 20 countries with the World Health Organization, International Medical Corps, Swedish Committee, Right to Play International and Save the Children. Dr. Shabon also served as a manager, front-line worker and education specialist in different Canadian and U.S. educational and community-based institutions. 

Throughout his career, Dr. Shabon supported many community-development agencies and educational institutions in the roles of volunteer president and board member. He is currently a professor at Seneca, a member of the Canadian Council for Refugees and a mentor with the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council supporting newcomers in Canada.