
Stand Up for Student Well-Being has been delivering effective programs for six years in Ontario. More than 2000 young people have benefitted from our programs. Our program delivery model is unique and our Student “Playbooks” have been developed by educators to maximize the impact on learning. Due to the critical and extensive need for this kind of programming, we are proud to be a registered charitable organization in Ontario, Canada to expand our work.
We would like you to meet our highly dedicated Staff Team.
Creative Team

Joel Buxton
Creative Director
We are thrilled to announce the addition of Joel Buxton to our team as Creative Director, who will be working with us to develop new and exciting programs for our comedy camps. Joel is a comedian and former highschool teacher with a strong background in stand-up, sketch comedy and screenwriting. He is looking forward to applying his experience to enrich our comedy camps experience. Joel has performed stand-up comedy for over a decade, appearing at JFL42, NxNE, CBC Music Festival, and produces his own shows at Toronto’s iconic Comedy Bar. He is an alumni of the Toronto sketch supergroup The Sketchersons, has released two sketch comedy albums, and assistant directed Second City Toronto’s 79th mainstage sketch revue.

Melissa Story
Program Manager
Melissa is a comedian with almost 20 years of experience in the Canadian Comedy Industry. She loves to tell hilariously animated stories and has a very unique perspective. She tackles human nature, work-life and relationships with biting wit and her trademark maniacal yet contained anger. Melissa fell in love with comedy in her early years as she developed her humor as a tool to make friends and endure enemies.
Melissa is a comedian, writer and actor who is also known as the co-creator of the sketch series ‘Story with Chong’, which has been nominated for two Canadian Comedy Awards and was a great success on the website ‘Funny or Die’. Melissa was invited to Just For Laughs for CBC’s ‘Stand Up and Pitch’ contest and has appeared in CBC’s illustrious Halifax Comedy Festival and the Burbank Comedy Festival. She also has a podcast ‘Story with Chong’ and is proud to be on the Yuk Yuk’s roster and enjoys performing in Clubs all across Canada.
Marc Hallworth
Lead Comedian Coach

Trevor Burnett
Lead Comedian Coach

Jeremy Dobski
Lead Comedian Coach

Christel Bartelse
Comedian Coach
Christel Bartelse is an Actor, Storyteller, Writer, Creator and Teacher. She is the co-producer & co-host of the Toronto Storytelling Show, “But That’s Another Story”, currently held the first Sunday of the month. Recently Christel was awarded the 99-Second Story Grand-SLAM Winner. Christel teaches numerous workshops in improv, physical comedy, movement around the city and is a proud faculty member of Humber College, The Toronto Film School and George Brown College. She is also the Co-Founder and Operator of Comedy Coop- Canada’s first online comedy school for Women.
Keesha Brownie
Comedian Coach
Keesha Brownie is a Toronto-based comic and multi-disciplinary artist with a global reputation. Her dynamic comedy material includes act-outs, parody songs, and sometimes even backup dancers. Recently, Brownie is the Curator and Host of Stand-Up Stitches a virtual show broadcasted live at The Rose Brampton Theatre. So, whether sharing the stage with top comics or travelling across North America and the Caribbean, Keesha Brownie knows how to work the room and delivers better laughs than your weird uncle at Christmas time.
Chili Davidson
Comedian Coach

James Island
Comedian Coach

Harpreet Sehmbi
Comedian Coach

Kevin Shawanda
Comedian Coach

Isabel Zaw-Tun
Comedian Coach
Isabel Zaw-Tun has performed at the Port Hope Comedy Festival and Montreal’s Zoofest. She also co-produces Hack Couture, Toronto’s one and only fashion comedy show. Her jokes have been featured on Buzzfeed, Huff post, Funny Or Die, The Chicago Tribune, and Tallboyz. She starred in a turboTax ad that has 43 thumbs down on YouTube.
Thanks to Greg Rodrigo for being our amazing webmaster!
Thanks to Madhu Thyagaraja, Chili Davidson, Sebastian Chow and Joey Crewe for their expert social media posts!
Thanks to Nic Rodrigo for his graphic arts skills!
We will be forever grateful to Kyle Woolven for his magic and skill as one of our original Comedian Coaches. We were thrilled to have the Fabulous Kenny Robinson on our team and learned so much from his many years in the comedy world. We wish Kyle and Kenny success in their future adventures.