We are a group of Calgary university students, high school students and doctors who are calling on the Alberta provincial government and the federal government for stricter regulation of vaping and e-cigarettes. SAAVE was founded by students Elliott Reichardt, Asha Hollis, and Seong Eon Ha, and Juliet Guichon in early 2019.
Team
Seong Eon Ha is a recent graduate of the University of Calgary Health Sciences program, majoring in Biomedical Sciences, and also the creator of this website. He currently works part-time with treatment for children with disabilities and autism, and is also passionate about advocating for public health. While filling up gas one day, he noticed an advertisement for a vaping device attached to the gas pump. Inside the convenience store, he was also bombarded with advertisements for various vaping devices. He thought this was odd, since advertisements for combustible cigarettes are not accessible this way. Following this discovery and realizing the severity of the “vaping epidemic,” he decided to co-found the group SAAVE. He is a graduate of Ernest Manning High School.
Elliott Reichardt is a recent graduate of the University of Calgary and the University of Cambridge. He is currently employed as a researcher in the departments of community health sciences and psychology. As an experienced public health advocate, Elliott has long taken an interest in the health and wellness of children and youth and is deeply concerned about the risks that e-cigarettes pose for a developing teenager.
Devin Aggarwal is a third year University of Calgary Health Sciences student majoring in Biomedical Sciences. Devin was a competitive swimmer and loves rock climbing. He is a strong advocate for living a healthy, active lifestyle, and has been involved with SAAVE since his second year of university, helping to raise awareness to the ongoing youth vaping epidemic.
Emily Downey is a fourth year University of Calgary Health Sciences student majoring in Biomedical Sciences. She is invested in SAAVE’s initiative to prevent vapes and e-cigarettes getting in the hands of youth. She supports the use of vapes and e-cigarettes as cessation devices but recognizes that important changes to vaping regulations need to be made in order to protect youth from vape-initiation. Emily graduated from Ecole Secondaire Notre Dame High School in Red Deer, AB.
Rav Dhaliwal is a fourth year University of Calgary Health Sciences student majoring in Biomedical Sciences. He has seen the prevalence of vaping rise since his time at Sir Winston Churchill High School. He believes knowledge of the harms of vaping must be made more accessible and that regulation must exist to protect teens from vaping as it is not a risk-free form of smoking as many believe it to be.
SAAVE 