Marva is a social worker, advocate and educator. A graduate of the University of Calgary, she holds a BSW and MSW in social work, certificate in Disaster Management from Mount Royal University, and trainer/facilitator in Mental Health First Aid and Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM).

Marva spent the last 9 years working in mental health as the Employee Assistance Program Coordinator Counsellor at the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) Prairie Region. Her other professional affiliations include: Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse (CCASA), Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter, and Alberta Health Services. She is presently is an Assistant Professor at Mount Royal University, in the faculty of Child Studies and Social Work, and has taught the Inter-professional communication and Introduction to Social Work Practice.

Marva’s current research interest is in sequence migration with a focus on The Personal Stories of Jamaican Adults who migrated to Canada as Children
Marva will co-present on Creating a Culture of Respect: Delivering Gender and Sexual Diversity Curriculum at the International Society for the Scholarship Conference, Calgary Alberta in October 2017. Additionally, she will present on: The Role of Parents/Grandparents in Family Structures, Family Stability and Sustainability and how Reunification have Transformed the Jamaican Family in Canada, at the 10th Annual Strangers in New Homelands’ Conference 2017 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Marva sticks close to her Jamaican roots, and is patron of the sports program at the Labyrinth Primary School, St Mary, Jamaica.