Jennie Phillips (post-doctoral fellow) is an academic-practitioner specialized in digitally-enabled human behaviour during crisis, and risk measurement and resilience development in complex virtual online networks. Building on her work in Digital Response Networks — the complex human networks that form online during crisis — she is currently a Digital Ethics & Global Health Fellow with the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health (DIGHR) at York University. Jennie is also an occasional professor in the Disaster & Emergency Management program at York University. Jennie holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and is a Doctoral Scholar with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Jennie is also a Doctoral Fellow with Citizen Lab, University of Toronto. Her practitioner experience focuses on education, innovation, training, project management, and research. Clients span private, public, academic and non-profit sectors to include the Privy Council Office/Prime Minister’s Office of Canada, Global Affairs Canada, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and York University. Jennie founded and leads ellips Design + Consulting, her consulting company running since 2001.

Rebecca Babcock is the Research Assistant for two projects at the Dahdaleh Institute: Improving Humanitarian Needs Assessments through Natural Language Processing and An Interdisciplinary Academic-Practitioner Approach to Digital Contact Tracing During COVID19: Risk-Benefit Analysis Using Complex Systems Methodology, a collaborative project between the Dahdeleh Institute and the Disaster and Emergency Management Program at York University. In 2019 – 2020, Rebecca acted as the Research Assistant for Synergies of Planetary Health Research Initiative, also at the Dahdaleh Institute.

Rebecca is passionate about research regarding digital ethics, global health, humanitarianism, and planetary health. She is working to build a research plan that uniquely intersects these fields of study and apply to the 2021 PhD Program at York University’s Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change.

Rebecca received a Master of Bioethics and Health Law from the University of Otago in New Zealand and completed her BA in English Literature and Theatre at McGill University.

Petra Molnar is a lawyer and researcher specializing in migration, technology, and human rights. She is the Acting Director of the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.

She has worked on forced migration and refugee issues since 2008 as a settlement worker, researcher, and lawyer and holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Toronto and an LL.M. specializing in International Law from the University of Cambridge. 

Her work on the human rights impacts of surveillance technologies on refugee communities was recently published in the New York Times. She is also the founding partner of a human rights consultancy specializing in migration, new technologies, violence against women, and community-based research practices. Her clients include various departments of the Government of Canada, including the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, municipal agencies, as well as the Council of Europe.

Aaida Mamuji is an Assistant Professor of Disaster and Emergency Management in LAPS. Her areas of interest are social vulnerability and capability in the disaster context, hosting and resettlement, international responses to natural disasters, and risk assessment. Aaida has received excellence awards for her research, and is the recipient of a number of internal and external research grants. Most recently, Aaida received an almost half million dollar grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to study issues of stigma during COVID-19. Aaida has recently established an academic-practitioner network focused on evolving research in the area of stigma and vulnerable communities as it pertains to the coronavirus global outbreak, and is keen to work on the establishment of the proposed network on digital contact tracing measures. Aaida has supervised over a dozen graduate students on their Major Research Papers in the field of Disaster & Emergency Management since joining York in 2015.

Dyllan is a graduate of York University’s Disaster and Emergency Management program. With a background in emergency response, he works to apply his field experience to an academic setting. A recipient of the Deans Award for Research Excellence, he is actively engaged with multiple research teams and projects focused on disaster management and sociology. Dyllan plans to pursue a graduate degree in disaster management, starting in September 2021.

Laksmiina Balasubramaniam completed her Bachelor of Science specializing in Psychology at the University of Toronto. She is currently entering her second year of the combined JD/Master of Public Policy Program at the University of Toronto. In her first year at law school she was a member of the International Human Rights Program (IHRP) Global Health Working Group. After working at Amnesty International Canada as an IHRP fellow over the summer of 2020, she plans to continue working in public interest law with a focus on health and privacy issues.

Tiana Putric is pursuing a Disaster and Emergency Management Specialized Honours degree at York University. Tiana is a member of the CEMPPR Lab where she and the Lab work to strengthen disaster and emergency policy. Tiana also worked with York University’s Office of Emergency Management to update the University’s HIRA. She and a multidisciplinary team researched food insecurity, human health, extreme weather, flooding, power outages, cybersecurity, intentional hazards, transportation vulnerabilities, and nuclear hazards.

Dr. James Orbinski is a professor and the inaugural Director of York University’s Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research. As a medical doctor, a humanitarian practitioner and advocate, a best-selling author, and a leading scholar in global health, Dr. Orbinski believes in actively engaging and shaping our world so that it is more just, fair and humane.

Dr. Orbinski is a board Member of Grand Challenges Canada, and has been a member of several bodies committed to improving health equity both in Canada and around the world. These include the  Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, the  Stephen Lewis Foundation, Canadian Doctors for Medicare, and the Climate Change and Health Council. He is an invited member of the Davos World Economic Forum’s  Global Agenda Council on Health Care Systems and Cooperation.  He was an invited member to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences 2011  Expert Panel on Canada’s Strategic Role in Global Health.  He is the author of the award-winning and best-selling book An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarianism in the 21st Century. In 2016-2017, as a Fulbright visiting professor to the University of California-Irvine, he worked on modelling the health impacts of climate change.

Dr. Orbinski holds a BSc from Trent University, an MD degree from McMaster University, and an MA in International Relations from the University of Toronto. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and has received the  Meritorious Service Cross  for his leadership in providing direct medical relief in Kigali during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. He is a member of the College of Family Physicians of Canada. 

Ignacio G. Rebollo is a visual communication and information designer, with expertise in the fields of User Experience & User Interface design (UX/UI), data visualization, design research, and graphic design. He specializes in the representation of complex information, ideas, and systems through a combination of infographics, diagrams, wireframes, interfaces, visual storytelling and illustrations.

Ignacio has worked with a diverse set of clients from the private and public sector and from multiple disciplines. He holds more than 6 years of experience in the field of information, visual design and user experience research and design. In addition to his work at the Dahdaleh Institute, Ignacio works with other international organizations such as UN-OCHA and KoBo Toolbox (part of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative), and has collaborated with institutions such as the Digital Humanitarian Network, the Digital Public Square (Munk School of Global Affairs), and Grand Challenges Canada. Originally from Spain, he has lived and worked in Belgium, Switzerland, United States, and Canada, where he currently resides.

Ignacio is a student at the Ontario College for Art and Design University in Toronto, Canada, where he is completing an MDes, Strategic Foresight and Innovation. He also holds an Honours Degree in Architecture & Design at the Instituto de Empresa University – School of Architecture & Design in Segovia, Spain.

Gautham Krishnaraj is a humanitarian researcher and consultant specializing in ethics, innovation, and training. He is also a Michael G DeGroote Doctoral Excellence and Ontario Graduate Scholarship holder, pursuing a PhD (Health Policy) as part of the Humanitarian Health Ethics Research Group at McMaster University. 

Gautham’s primary area of research is focused on the ethics of humanitarian innovation, and is concluding a two year project conducted with the UK-based Humanitarian Innovation Fund. He has also served as subject matter expert for Grand Challenges Canada, the World Food Programme Innovation Accelerator, and the European Commission Horizon 2020 Prize. In addition to this, Gautham has worked with the Canadian Red Cross in a number of roles, ranging from Information Management to Surge Logistics. He is co-founder and Principal at Humanitarian Partners, drawing on over eight years of experience in humanitarian simulations and competency based learning. His past clients have included universities, NGOs, and smaller organizations in Canada and the US, and he is a core member of the UN OCHA Simulation Training Network. 

Gautham lives in Montreal, QC, where he can be found running or riding his motorcycle somewhere along the St Lawrence.