ACE Mentors
Distinguished Professor Emeritus Gerry Ferguson
Gerry Ferguson is an Emeritus Professor, having retired in 2022 as a University of Victoria Distinguished Professor of Law. He is also a senior associate with the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy in Vancouver. Professor Ferguson is a member of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Anti-Corruption Academic Development Initiative (ACAD) under whose auspices he has published his open access e-book, Global Corruption: Law Theory and Practice (4th ed. 2022). He is also the co-author, with Professor Michelle Lawrence and Justice Dambrot, of the annually updated two-volume book, Canadian Criminal Jury Instructions and he is the Canadian Overseas Reporter for the Australian Criminal Law Journal. Professor Ferguson is the author of many articles and book chapters with special focus on the access and discriminatory aspects of various criminal justice topics including codification of the criminal law and he has taught criminal law as a Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong, the University of Auckland, Monash University, the University of Malaya and the University of Airlangga in Indonesia.
ACE Associates
Dr. Amanda Butler
Amanda Butler is an Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University’s School of Criminology. She holds a PhD in Health Sciences from Simon Fraser University (SFU), an MA in Criminology from SFU, and BA (Hons.) in Criminal Justice and Public Policy from the University of Guelph. Her key research interests include improving outcomes for justice-involved people with mental and substance use disorders, complex comorbidity, continuity of care, and criminal justice diversion. She has published several academic articles, book chapters, and technical reports on issues at the intersections of health and justice, and was awarded the SFU Dean's Convocation Medal for her PhD work. She is a founding member of the Health and Justice Applied Research Collaborative (HJ-ARC).
Dr. Tamil Kendall
Tamil Kendall (she/her) has more than twenty-years experience working as a community-based and academic health researcher and policymaker focused on public health and human rights, particularly women’s sexual and reproductive health. She has worked with government, the United Nations, universities, and local and global non-profit organizations. She is the Director of the Partnership for Women’s Health Research Canada (www.pwhr.org), an alliance of Canada’s leading women’s health research institutions, and works internationally as a consultant. Tamil is an adjunct professor at the School of Population and Public Health and an associate member of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia.
Tamil hold’s a Master’s degree in Communication from Simon Fraser University and a doctoral degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (Anthropology and Health Sciences) from the University of British Columbia. She completed her post-doctoral research fellowship (2013-2015) with the Women and Health Initiative at the Harvard School of Public Health where she was also a Takemi Fellow in International Health.
Dr. Andrew Pilliar
Andrew Pilliar is an Associate Professor at the Thompson Rivers University Faculty of Law, located in Kamloops, BC, within unceded Secwépemc'ulucw. His research interests focus on access to justice issues, including advice-seeking behaviour, alternative institutions of remedy, research methodologies and systemic change, and self-representation. He teaches courses on access to justice, the business of practicing law, family law, civil procedure, and business associations. He holds degrees in law from the University of British Columbia (PhD and LLM) and the University of Toronto (JD). He has received research grants from SSHRC, the Law Foundation of British Columbia, and the Canadian Bar Association Law for the Future Fund.
ACE Research Fellows
Kaitlyn Cumming
Kaitlyn is a doctoral candidate researching civil access to justice at the University of British Columbia’s Peter A. Allard School of Law. Her doctoral project engages the question of what a responsive and equitable approach to access to justice looks like with a focus on examining the intersection between inequality and the institutional structure of BC’s civil justice system. Kaitlyn’s approach is interdisciplinary and employs mixed methodologies.
Beyond her doctoral research, Kaitlyn is a part-time practising lawyer focusing on civil litigation, everyday legal problems, and innovative approaches to service delivery. Through her practice, she supports Access Pro Bono’s innovative new Everyone Legal Clinic, which aims to fill unmet and underserved legal needs by training articling students to provide affordable legal services through a collaborative and virtual legal clinic model.
Daniel Escott
Daniel Escott’s has an extensive background in AI regulation, legal process engineering, and access to justice. He previously clerked at the Federal Court, and is currently pursuing an LLM at Osgoode Hall Law School, where he is writing a thesis on the impact of technology in legal processes on access to justice. Daniel authored the Federal Court’s Notice on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Court Proceedings and its Interim Principles and Guidelines on the Court’s Use of Artificial Intelligence, and now advises Courts and other organizations on the use of AI in law, uniquely qualifying him in the field of AI Risk and Regulation.
Prior to his work in artificial intelligence, Daniel was the Lead Researcher on Technology and Access to Justice at the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice.
Sarah Sutherland
Sarah A. Sutherland is a writer, speaker, and executive in legal technology, information, and publishing. She is the founder and principal consultant at Parallax Information Consulting where she focuses on legal data strategy. Her book Legal Data and Information in Practice: How Data and the Law Interact was published by Routledge in 2022. Sarah was named one of the Fastcase 50 in 2022 and received the Dennis Marshal Award for Excellence in Law Librarianship from the Canadian Association of Law Libraries in 2023. She is working on her PhD at the University of Edinburgh with an anticipated completion date of 2027.
Aaron Leakey
Aaron is a PhD student in Law and Society at the University of Victoria where he focuses his interdisciplinary studies on critiquing Eurocentric approaches to justice system design. He holds an MA in Dispute Resolution from the University of Victoria and an MA in Divinity through Regent College, and is a certified Family Relations Mediator – Advanced through Family Mediation Canada. Recently, Aaron held the role of Instructor (Family Justice) at the Justice Institute of BC, delivering courses on topics that range from family violence, substance use and mental health, culture and access to justice, and financial issues post-separation, as part of training delivered to family mediators employed by the BC Ministry of Attorney General. Currently, Aaron works with MediateBC to design and deliver public education and professional development for new and seasoned mediators.
ACE Research Assistants
Kenya Rogers
Kenya Rogers (she/her) is a second year JD/JID student and community-engaged researcher with a background in trauma-informed approaches to gender-based violence prevention and response. She has a BA in Political Science (Honours, UVic) as well as a Master's in Political Science (UVic).
Kenya's Master's research focused on grassroots activism and post-secondary sexualized violence policy. She continues to volunteer as a support worker for the Anti Violence Project and facilitates workshops throughout BC related to consent, support and disclosure.
At this stage Kenya has been particularly drawn to Criminal, Property and Tort law. She hopes to use her legal education to honour community-driven practices while also contributing to the systemic transformation of legal approaches related to gender-based violence.
Sienna Wishewan
Sienna Wishewan is a second-year JD student at the University of Victoria. She holds a BA in Political Science and Global Development Studies from the University of Victoria, graduating with distinction. Her academic focus encompassed Ukrainian politics, the right to food, and gender studies. As part of the Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Award, Sienna conducted research on the use of hunger as a weapon of war, specifically examining how the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine has intensified food insecurity in the Global South.
Dedicated to advocacy, human rights, and social justice, Sienna currently serves as the Law Students' Society Accessibility Representative, where she promotes inclusivity within the legal community. Her volunteer efforts extend internationally and domestically, including supporting Ukrainian refugees in refugee camps abroad and in local settings.
Sienna is passionate about international and domestic human rights law, with a particular interest in litigation and advocacy for marginalized communities. She is driven to use her legal education to advance human rights and address systemic inequalities on a global scale.