Upcoming Events

The field of implementation science has yielded considerable evidence to support the sustained uptake of healthcare interventions. Yet, despite the rapid growth of the field, many global health implementation efforts fail to translate this knowledge into practice. This seminar will draw on ongoing doctoral research to illustrate some of the tensions in implementing and scaling up mental health interventions in low-resource settings. Through a brief presentation of field experience and facilitated discussion, it invites a critical reflection on the very nature of implementation evidence and the power and politics involved in universalizing and medicalizing mental health.

Speaker Profile

Luma is a PhD candidate in health systems research at the University of Toronto's Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME). Her research explores the implementation of WHO's flagship mental health program, the mhGAP, drawing on her work experience at WHO in Jordan and the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Luma has a background in psychology, neuroscience, and global mental health, and her academic and professional interests lie at the intersection of global mental health, implementation science, and transcultural psychiatry.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, January 22, at 1:00 p.m. ET

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How do you get ready for your real life’s work?

This highly interactive DI Seminar will involve an ‘Inspired Conversation’ with Don Simpson, PhD, Chief Explorer of the Renaissance Expedition; Senior Fellow, Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research; and 2024 Order of Canada Recipient. The conversation will be moderated by Harvey Skinner, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Psychology & Global Health; and Senior Fellow, Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research.

Format: opening 45 minutes of questions and reflections between Don and Harvey; followed by 45 minutes of open questions from the audience, especially from the Global Health doctoral students in attendance.

Speaker Profile

Don Simpson, PhD. Chief Explorer of the Renaissance Expedition and Senior Fellow, Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research.

Don Simpson is Canada’s greatest unknown treasure. For 7 decades he has wandered the world as an explorer, working as an educator, entrepreneur, administrator, researcher, program designer and mentor. 

Don stands out - not just because of the longevity of his work or the passion he brings to every project - but because of his uncommon capacity to listen, collaborate, communicate and connect. He has an amazing ability to absorb vast amounts of information in various forms, bring meaning to it and turn it into a story that attracts everyone who hears it.  

Don is the supreme question asker, the challenger, the “why-not? er”. You won’t find Don as the President, Founder or Chair, but when you dig deeper around some of Canada’s most prominent individuals and initiatives, you will ALWAYS find him “in the picture”. He creates conditions under which things happen.

Don’s work has consistently fostered inclusivity, diversity, and innovation. In the 1960s, he co-founded the African Students Federation, enabling 350 African students to study in Canada, and helped establish Operation Crossroads Africa in Canada, building meaningful international relationships. During the 1970s, as Executive Director of Western University’s Office of International Education, he pioneered cross-cultural learning innovations like the Cross-Cultural Learning Centre, now a thriving charity.

Don also supported First Nations education, co-chairing initiatives that decentralized administration and established Arctic College. In global development, he led the IDRC’s Global Education Program, creating networks to solve education challenges collaboratively.

In the 1990s, Don transformed the Banff Centre into a hub for innovation management and led Alberta’s Roundtables, engaging 20,000 citizens to shape an innovation-driven economy. His Challenge Dialogue System©️ empowered others to tackle complexity, leaving a legacy of collaborative problem-solving across diverse fields.

In 1992, Don led a team to create the “Innovation Expedition” as a new style, virtual, global, values driven, business network for inspiring and implementing transformational change. The network focused on mentoring leaders to unleash innovations in various sectors, with a particular interest in initiatives that included a goal of reducing social and economic injustices. He co-created globally tested, knowledge products for driving improved performance, as part of a comprehensive program conceptualized under the theme of “Modern-Day Renaissance Leadership”.

Since 2008, Don has chronicled these experiences in The Global Odyssey LogBook series—15 volumes highlighting Renaissance Leadership concepts through case studies and training programs.

As a “Storyteller with A Purpose,” Don’s mission is to share the principles of Renaissance Leadership, spotlight innovations by our Renaissance Pathfinders, and inspire others to embrace the mindset of a modern Renaissance leader.

Harvey Skinner PhD, is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology & Global Health; Senior Fellow, Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research; and was Founding Dean of York University's Faculty of Health (2006-2016).

Harvey is placed in the Top 2% World Scientists by the Stanford University worldwide analysis with respect to research citations and impact metrics. Currently, Harvey co-leads the Wellness Impact Lab at the Dahdaleh Institute. At a personal level, Harvey maintains a daily wellness practice of Mindfulness Meditation and Qi Gong. His passion is ‘healing ourselves, healing our world’.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, January 29, at 1 p.m. ET

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This seminar will provide an overview of HIV/AIDS among Girls and Women in the Asia-Pacific Region including country wise variations. Further, key challenges faced by Women Living with HIV (WLHIV) and interventions/strategies that works in supporting WLHIVs will be shared. Some key recommendations to address the challenges faced by WLHIVs will be also presented.

Speaker Profile

Rajnish Ranjan Prasad is currently working as Programme Specialist- Gender Equality and HIV/AIDS with the UN Women’s Asia-Pacific Regional Office. He has 17 years of experience in addressing inequalities, empowering marginalized communities and providing technical support to Governments. He is working with UN Women Country Offices in the Asia Pacific region to address gender inequality in planning, and utilization of health services.

He has previously worked with UNFPA and supported Government of Rajasthan, India in strengthening of large-scale programmes for holistic development of young people specially girls, addressing gender inequalities and to promote youth leadership. He has also worked with National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), Government of India and managed large-scale HIV/AIDS programme. He has received PhD in the area of Public Health from IIHMR University, India.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, February 5, at 9:30 a.m. ET

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This seminar will introduce the One Health governance concept, and explore how its implementation can positively impact efforts to mitigate antimicrobial resistance (AMR). It will build on findings from a scoping review to identify the governance domains most relevant to applying the OH approach to the design and evaluation of AMR surveillance systems. This review found that governance is a crucial component of the development of surveillance systems equipped to tackle complex, structural issues such as AMR. The governance domains identified include participation, coordination and collaboration, management, sustainability, accountability and transparency, and equity. The seminar will also provide a case study in which this framework was applied in practice.

Suggested readings in preparation for this seminar are cited below. PDF copies of the readings can be found here.

Ruckert, A., Harris, F., Aenishaenslin, C., Aguiar, R., Boudreau-LeBlanc, A., Carmo, L. P., Labonté, R., Lambraki, I., Parmley, E. J., & Wiktorowicz, M. E. (2024). One Health governance principles for AMR surveillance: a scoping review and conceptual framework. Research Directions One Health, 2. https://doi.org/10.1017/one.2023.13

Carelli, D. E., Ogne, J. B., & Pierre, J. (2024). Coming of age: governance challenges in updated AMR national action plans in the EU. European Journal of Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckae067

Speaker Profile

Arne Ruckert is the Director of Research at the Global Strategy Lab’s AMR Policy Accelerator, with a current research focus on One Health governance. His previous academic work revolved around understanding how social determinants of health are driving global health inequities, using political economy and social sciences approaches. More recently, he has researched the governance of AMR surveillance drawing on the One Health approach, as well as the role of equity considerations in the global AMR response.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, February 12, at 1:00 p.m. ET

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The city of Lusaka, Zambia, experiences recurring cholera outbreaks as rapid urbanization and climate change bring about groundwater contamination and flash floods. What results is an uneven distribution of waterborne disease where drinking water is produced at multiple scales and locations across the city, superseding the ‘modern infrastructural ideal' of centralized and separate circulations of water and waste. Based off of recently completed fieldwork in Lusaka, this presentation will use the measurement and mapping of free residual chlorine in drinking water during a recent cholera outbreak there as an entry to explore how water quality becomes a contested attribute across a range of actors who are drawn into water’s flows in urban space. The use of chlorine to contend with bacteria and protect life in Lusaka makes water quality far more than a straightforward biophysical measurement, offering a view of how water and its quality becomes deeply implicated in the urban governance of the city.

Suggested readings in preparation for this seminar are cited below. PDF Copies of the readings can be found here:

• Gething, P. W., Ayling, S., Mugabi, J., Muximpua, O. D., Kagulura, S. S., & Joseph, G. (2023). Cholera risk in Lusaka: A geospatial analysis to inform improved water and sanitation provision. PLOS Water, 2(8), e0000163. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000163
• Nading, A. M. (2016). Local biologies, leaky things, and the chemical infrastructure of global health. Medical Anthropology, 36(2), 141–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2016.1186672

Speaker Profile

Hillary Birch is a PhD Candidate in Environmental Studies in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University. Her PhD explores the urban governance of water quality in Lusaka, Zambia. She holds a master’s degree in urban governance from Sciences Po, Paris where she studied community responses to Ebola in Monrovia, Liberia, as well as a master’s degree in political science from McGill University. Hillary is a Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholar in Planetary Health, and her research is supported by a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship and an IDRC International Doctoral Research Award.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, February 26, at 1:00 p.m. ET

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The rising number of suicide cases in Chinese academia are not isolated incidents but rather reflect systemic issues within the academic and sociopolitical environment. In this seminar, Cary Wu will first provide an overview of recent advancements in creating a public health approach to suicide prevention. He will then share results from analyzing a unique database created through a systematic search and hand-coding of media reports on suicide cases within China’s scientific community over the past several decades. Finally, he will outline a public health framework specifically tailored to China’s scientific community.

Speaker Profile

Cary Wu (PhD, UBC) is an assistant professor of sociology at York University. His research focuses on political culture, race and ethnicity, and health inequality. He has published widely on these topics and often shares his research with the public via national and international TV, radio, and newspaper forums including NPR, CBC, CTV, Washington Post, Toronto Star, Maclean’s, and The Economist. He is currently working on a five-year (2022-2026) SSHRC Insight Grant research project to develop a political sociology of health (PSH) to study social and political trust as essential determinants of health.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, March 19, at 1:00 p.m. ET

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