Matt Drabenstott PhD
Researcher, Knowledge Translation & Mobilization, Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement at the Students Commission of Canada
2026
For 14 years, Matt has mobilized stories of youth and adults who work closest with them to shift environments and cultures to be safer, more inclusive, and health promoting, particularly for youth furthest from opportunity. As a qualitative researcher, he employs arts-based, oral, written, and co-design methods in step with participatory action research to drive intergenerational partnership, community strategy development, and bridge youth voice into shaping the community and country they want. Matt centers youth voices throughout research, working across life domains (e.g., virtual, school, home), rapid analysis, and circling back to youth to reflect their impact. Key to listening to and working in an often messy and challenging day-to-day lived realities of youth, he brings a wholeheartedness and an unwavering belief that youth voice is the currency of change. Matt is particularly passionate about helping suicidal young people choose to stay. He has been an active contributor to the Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement since 2017. Matt is grateful to live in the traditional lands of the Kansa, Osage, and Kiikaapoi peoples (Cession 69).
My network of professionals working on countering hate in all its forms grew exponentially after attending Eradicate Hate in 2021. The myriad voices represented at Eradicate Hate, from big tech companies to academic researchers to those with lived experience, reinforced to me the importance of cross-cutting and collaborative approaches to counter hate and its devastating impacts on society. I’ve been fortunate to sustain and build those networks with many of those I met at Eradicate Hate in 2021.
