Mikaela Chia (she/her) is a second-generation Singaporean Canadian immigrant settler living on the ancestral and unceded Coast Salish Territory of the Lək̓ ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ nations.

She is currently a graduate student in the Master’s of Counselling Psychology program at the University of Victoria and completing her thesis under the supervision of Dr. Fred Chou. Mikaela is particularly interested in identity, intergenerational resilience, racial trauma, and the power of collective and ancestral healing and liberation through participatory, arts-based, and narrative approaches in research. 

From her past work with youth and alongside communities in both local and global contexts through community-based participatory action research, Mikaela works from an approach that is justice-oriented and relational. She hopes to work in a way that opens up safe spaces that consider contextual and intersectional identities to honour the voices, lived experiences, and stories of people and communities in the ways that they feel most heard. 

Connect with Mikaela at mikaelachia@uvic.ca