MANVI BHALLA

Manvi Bhalla (she/her) is an experienced activist who has been community organizing since the age of 11. While completing her Honours BSc in Biomedical Science at University of Guelph, she was the President and Chief Financial Officer of the Guelph chapter of feminist anti-poverty organization, Oxfam. With that role, she managed a budget over $30,000 and organized events on violence against women/MMIWG, women’s health, voter turnout, sustainable agriculture and environmental degradation, food insecurity and health inequities faced by underserved communities. Due to the positive impact of her advocacy work on intercultural/interfaith bridge-building within Guelph, she received the Bridge Builders Scholarship award in 2018. With her strong interdisciplinary background, she put her sights on contributing to the climate justice movement through helping found the national non-profit Shake Up The Establishment. She is also a member of the Canadian Coalition for Environment and Climate Justice and is co-founder and director of the non-profit, missINFORMED, which is dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of women and gender-diverse people. Alongside lecturing on environmental racism and justice, Manvi works to ensure intersectional and decolonized approaches are always centred within the health research space. She is a published health researcher who has worked at the Hospital for Sick Children and the Universities of Guelph, Waterloo and Dalhousie. In mid-2021, she received her MSc in Public Health and Health Systems from University of Waterloo, where her research was aimed at improving climate change risk communication and at investigating barriers towards climate action within the public health sector. In 2020, she was an expert reviewer on the Federal government report on climate change & health. As of Fall 2021, Manvi is completing her PhD at the University of British Columbia in Resources, Environment and Sustainability in the Law, Governance, Justice & Policy stream; alongside being Climate Policy Lead at UBC Climate Hub.