Biography:

Dr. Mineko Wada is a senior research associate in AGE-WELL Networks of Centres of Excellence and a postdoctoral researcher in the Gerontology Research Centre at Simon Fraser University. With occupational science and occupational therapy background, Mineko focuses on life balance, activities, and their socially constructed meanings in her research. Over the past 10 years, she has been involved in various research projects: researchers’ experiences of and perspectives on transdisciplinary working, meanings of home for residents in long-term care homes, impacts of built environment on older adults’ health and well-being, older adults’ self-presentation in online dating profiles, media analyses of later life sexuality, and dual-income young parents’ conceptions of life balance. Mineko uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches, but is particularly passionate about expanding her capacity to utilize qualitative research methodologies and methods.