Nicole Luongo is a thirty-year old settler of Italian and German descent. She holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in medical sociology from the University of British Columbia. Her research interests--disordered eating, substance abuse, and the social production of Madness-- are born of lived experience. As a young person, Nicole faced housing-deprivation on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and witnessed first-hand the stigma and violence associated with socio-economic and other forms of oppression. Since then, Nicole has been involved in initiatives related to housing justice and drug policy reform. She is a proud member of VANDU (the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users) and presently teaches college-level sociology while plotting her next move. She lives in Fort McMurray, Alberta.