Our Team
Chanèle Rioux-McCormick
Co-Supervising Lawyer and Founding Member
Chanèle is a class action litigator at a local London law firm. Her practice involves a wide variety of issues, including representing survivors within the context of institutional abuse.
Throughout law school, Chanèle was a caseworker and Team Lead at Community Legal Services and co-authored a FAQ guide for survivors of sexual violence with respect to legal remedies available to them on campus and beyond.
Beyond her role as supervising lawyer, Chanèle also leads LISA’s community outreach efforts, management, and administration.
Vanshika Dhawan
Co-Supervising Lawyer
Vanshika is a civil litigator at a law firm in Toronto. Her practice focuses on representing survivors of sexual assault and childhood sexual abuse.
As an undergraduate student at Western, Vanshika was actively involved in advocacy around sexual and gender-based violence, work that she continued on other campuses throughout her graduate and law degrees. Advocating for sexual and gender-based violence prevention and support remains an important addition to Vanshika’s legal practice, including appearing as an expert witness to Government committees on policy and legislation that impact survivors.
As a supervising lawyer, Vanshika leads LISA's community outreach, management, and administration.
Dr. Mandi Gray
Program Evaluator and Founding Member
Mandi Gray (PhD) is an Assistant Professor at Trent University in the Department of Sociology in the Criminology program.
She has worked as an advocate for women and girls involved in the legal system since 2008.
Mandi is the author of Suing for Silence: Sexual Violence and Defamation Law (UBC Press, 2024). In this book, she examines the growing trend of men accused of sexual violence using defamation law to silence disclosures and reports of sexual violence. She is currently leading two research projects – one on restorative and transformative justice options for sexual harm and one on civil litigation following sexual violence.
Mandi has long advocated for survivors of sexual violence to have access to independent legal counsel. When she learned about LISA, she recognized the importance of such a project and volunteered her skills in program evaluation and development.
When Mandi is not doing research or teaching, you can find her with her dog CeCe or at a stand-up comedy show.
You can learn more about Mandi at mandigray.com
LISA Volunteers
All LISA volunteers are current Western Law students. Volunteers are responsible for meeting with the students who request assistance from LISA. All volunteers have gone through a rigorous selection process and have demonstrated experience, empathy, and drive to support survivors. The volunteers received training on trauma-informed practices from Anova and have undergone extensive training regarding the options available to survivors.
