Our team
Julian Lam
Julian Lam (he/him) is one of the co-organizers of 17 Rooms-McGill. He is a recent graduate of the Masters of Public Policy program at McGill and currently works at the DIGITAL Supercluster in Vancouver B.C. where he is building the organization’s global strategy. He also serves as a research associate at the Center for Media Technology, investigating Canada’s role in global AI governance. Prior to his Masters, Julian worked for CPP Investments in their global public affairs division and in the Municipal relations department of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority. Julian is deeply interested in sustainability - particularly at the global governance level. For fun, Julian loves trying new food, playing tennis and travelling.
Michelle Hahn-Baker
Michelle Hahn-Baker (she/her) is one of the co-organizers of 17 Rooms-McGill. She is a second-year Master’s student in the Department of Geography, where her research focuses on agriculture and sustainability issues. She is the President of the Geography Graduate Society and has several years of experience working in sustainability-related roles, with organizations such as the United Nations Environment Programme, the Global Youth Biodiversity Network, and Canada’s International Development Research Centre. Michelle loves hiking, reading, live music, travelling, and spending time with friends.
Shirley Wang
Shirley Wang (she/her) is one of the co-organizers of 17 Rooms-McGill. She is a 2L in McGill’s Faculty of Law, where she also serves on the McGill Law Journal as a junior editor, as a student clinician at the Clinique juridique itinérante (Mobile Legal Clinic), and as communications coordinator at the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism. She is also research assistant to Professor Jonas-Sébastien Beaudry, working on disability law, ethics, and theory. Prior to law school, she worked at a small environmental NGO in northern Quebec, working on building community engagement with sustainability. She is interested in the intersection of sustainable development and international investment arbitration. Shirley loves the outdoors and playing pretty much any sport with her friends.
Sophie Weider
Sophie Weider (she/her) is a research assistant for 17 Rooms-McGill. She is a fourth-year undergraduate student in the Sustainability, Science, and Society Interfaculty Program at McGill. Sophie is interested in the intersection of the arts and sustainability. She is the leader of a collaborative creative project called Zine for Hope which is working to foster climate optimism through the arts. In her honours research, supervised by Professor Elena Bennett, she is studying how the arts can be used as a tool for community engagement about sustainability. Outside of her academic work, Sophie is an artist and has written and illustrated two environmentally-themed children’s books. You can learn more about her work at sophieweider.com.
Abbigail Whitcher
Abbigail Whitcher (she/her) is one of the research assistants of 17 Rooms-McGill. She is a 1L in McGill’s Faculty of Law. Curious about learning nearly anything and everything, she loves to learn about disciplines outside her own like sustainability. Abbigail loves physical activity, reading, being in nature, and enjoys laughing as much as possible!