Advising

Dr. Camila Cavalli is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology, teaching courses related to biological psychology, human-animal interactions, and animal behaviour. She moved to Vancouver from Argentina to complete a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Animal Welfare Program at UBC. As an immigrant to Canada, she understands some of the challenges of adapting to a new academic and cultural environment and is glad to support students navigating similar transitions. She is also happy to chat with students interested in human-animal interactions, animal-assisted therapy and other topics related to the psychology of non-human animals.

 Dr.Benjamin Cheung is a lecturer in the Department of Psychology and the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration (ACAM) program. He is also a faculty affiliate with the Hong Kong Studies Initiative in the Department of Asian Studies. As such, he cares deeply about equity issues in society and works hard to support racialized students in general. He primarily teaches about research methods (PSYC 217), cultural psychology (PSYC 307), social psychology (PSYC 308A), Asian diasporic health (ACAM 320B), and Hong Kong diaspora (ASIX 300A). He is also the Indigenous Initiatives Coordinator in the Department of Psychology. In that capacity, he works on initiatives to incorporate and centre Indigenous perspectives in psychology and coordinates with the Arts Indigenous Student Advising Office to support Indigenous students studying psychology. He has also been at UBC since he was an undergraduate student! If you want to chat about being a UBC student, equity issues, experiences as a racialized individual, or issues centring Indigeneity, please get in touch!

Dr. Jay Hosking is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology. His Ph.D. is in Neuroscience, and his courses skew toward the neurobiological bases of behaviour and cognition: e.g. PSYC304 Brain & Behaviour, PSYC301 Brain Dysfunction and Recovery, PSYC207 Drugs, Brain, and Society, PSYC101 Intro to Psychology – Biological and Cognitive. Jay is also the Advisor for the Behavioural Neuroscience program. As such, any advising questions related to interest in neuroscience, or neuroscience-adjacent career paths or schooling, are most welcome. Jay is also a first-generation scholar and is glad to advise other first-generation scholars who are navigating the hidden social, economic, and emotional aspects of their post-secondary career trajectory. Jay also substantially switched specializations/careers as an adult and is glad to speak on topics related to changing specializations, taking on new career paths, and the general existential dread of “What now?” that looms as graduation approaches. Finally, with a Masters in Fine Art in Creative Writing and a diploma in Music Industry Arts: Recorded Music Production, Jay is happy to advocate for the importance of balance, other interests, artistic pursuits, and consilience in your degree and beyond. Please get in touch if you have any questions related to these, or other, topics!

Dr. David King is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology, leading courses in personality, health, the psychology of sex differences and gender, and the psychology of death and dying. He received his Ph.D. from UBC in 2013, with a specialization in health psychology, and holds an MSc in statistical modelling from Trent University. Much of his research has looked at how people manage stress in relational contexts, including how they mitigate large-scale threats like COVID-19. In his role as Undergraduate Advisor, he is interested in helping students maximize their time and potential at UBC. To this end, he is especially passionate about supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ students and members of the queer community (to which he also belongs) as well as those dealing with loss and grief, reflecting his interests in social justice, equity, and inclusion, and end-of-life matters. For those dealing with loss specifically, there are support services available on and off campus that David can recommend. Regarding career-related inquiries, all are welcome, but those seeking advice on careers in health psychology and health-related fields in particular may benefit from David’s guidance. Given his background in stress and coping, he is also happy to offer general advice on stress management.

Dr. Andrew Rivers is a faculty lecturer (frequently teaching PSYC 102, 217, 218, & 308A). My experiences include being a transfer student during undergraduate studies as well as feeling uncertain about what to do with an undergraduate degree in psychology. Because of this uncertainty during and after my undergraduate years, I have significant work experience both inside and outside of the academic world. Within the academic world, I have a Ph.D. in Social Psychology with a minor in Quantitative Psychology and primarily research the influence of racial stereotypes through mathematical modeling. Although teaching is my most important work today, I still have an ear in the research world and feel comfortable talking with students about graduate studies in psychology. Outside the academic world, Andrew has held several positions which may be of interest to students. After undergraduate studies, I used my skills in statistics to work at a non-profit organization researching educational programs. I used my background in psychology to work at an organization helping to improve clinical psychological practice across Washington State. This included working with social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and clinical administrators to evaluate the effectiveness of their approaches and help introduce new approaches already shown to be efficacious. In this role, I worked with public mental health agencies, private providers, and First Nations mental health providers.

Dr. Eva Zysk is a Lecturer and Advisor in the Department of Psychology, and a Coach for UG & PG Psychology students and UBC faculty & staff. As a first-generation scholar, Eva graduated from UBC with a Major in Psychology and Minor in Biology. While at UBC, she gained research experience by completing a directed studies course through the Infant Cognition Lab, and working as an RA for a Psychoneuroimmunology Lab and a research coordinator for a Clinical Psychology Lab. This experience led her directly into a PhD program in the UK. Eva has since taught at 3 universities across the UK and Canada and has received two teaching awards for innovative and outstanding teaching. Her research areas lay in mental health (e.g., treatment of contamination fears in OCD, virtual reality exposure therapy for social anxiety disorder) and student success (e.g., conquering presentation assessment fears). Eva is passionate about supporting students with disabilities or physical or mental hardships, and students facing internal and external barriers to success (e.g., motivation, academic skills). She is currently leading a pilot project to assess how effective coaching can be in supporting students.