Upcoming Events

The Humanitarian Water Engineering Intensive Online Course, running from September to December 2024, offers a comprehensive 12-week program focused on safe water supply in humanitarian emergencies. Participants will delve into subjects such as water quality assessment, source development, treatment methods, distribution, and outbreak preparedness. The course combines curated readings, interactive lectures, and problem-based learning (PBL) activities guided by experienced facilitators. It targets WASH practitioners, engineers, and graduate students, providing essential skills for real-world applications in humanitarian contexts. The course is an initiative of the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, Lassonde School of Engineering, and CIFAL York. Fees range from $600 to $2,600 CAD, with financial aid available.

Please note that the application deadline is Saturday, August 31, 2024

Today, more than 120 million people around the world are forcibly displaced and in need of urgent humanitarian assistance—the highest levels ever recorded in history. When people are displaced, the normal functioning of life falls away and everything becomes a matter of survival. People need protection, food, shelter, medicine, water—and providing these essentials is the central focus of humanitarian response efforts. In this seminar, Dr. Ali will present the fundamental role that water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) plays in controlling infectious diseases in emergencies and the work that his group at the Humanitarian Water Engineering Lab is doing to bridge the humanitarian and academic worlds and solve critical water and health challenges in emergencies. Through this presentation, Dr. Ali will lay out a vision for the newly emerging field of Humanitarian Engineering and the role that all disciplines have to play in responding to the unprecedented and overlapping crises we face globally today.

In preparation for the seminar, Dr. Ali has recommended reading the article Gaza demands a new kind of Humanitarian action, published in The New Humanitarian on May 30, 2024.

Speaker Profile

Dr. Syed Imran Ali is an experienced aid worker and engineering researcher. He has worked as a water and sanitation specialist and led operational research with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in South Sudan, Pakistan, Jordan, Rwanda, Uganda, and elsewhere. At York University, Dr. Ali directs the Humanitarian Water Engineering (HWE) Lab at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research and is Adjunct Professor in the Lassonde School of Engineering. Dr. Ali draws on his experience as a humanitarian responder to design and lead collaborative research with operational partners to solve urgent water and health challenges in emergencies. He has over 15 publications in leading engineering and global health journals; 60+ presentations at practitioner, policymaker, and scientific fora; and has held over a dozen research grants totalling >$2m. Dr. Ali specializes in translating engineering research into operational tools that advance public health engineering practice, such as the Safe Water Optimization Tool, a machine learning-enabled water quality modelling platform that helps humanitarian responders ensure water safety in emergency settings. Dr. Ali has a PhD in environmental engineering from the University of Guelph and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, September 25, at 1 p.m. ET

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Schedule

Mondays:

• Qi Gong, with Harvey Skinner noon – 12:30pm
• Mindfulness Meditation, with Susan Harris 12:30 – 1:00pm

Thursdays:

• Qi Gong, with Harvey Skinner noon – 12:30pm

Dates

• Week 1: Monday Sept 30 and Thursday Oct 3
• Week 2: Monday Oct 7 and Thursday Oct 10
• Week 3: Thursday Oct 17
  • *no session Monday Oct 14 Thanksgiving Holiday
• Week 4: Monday Oct 21 and Thursday Oct 24
• Week 5: Monday Oct 28 and Thursday Oct 31
• Week 6: Monday Nov 4 and Thursday Nov 7
• Week 7: Monday Nov 11 and Thursday Nov 14
• Week 8: Thursday Nov 21
  • *no session Monday Nov 18
• Week 9: Monday Nov 25 and Thursday Nov 28
• Week 10: Monday Dec 2 and Thursday Dec 5

For more information, please visit: interbeingwellness.info.yorku.ca/

Chris Houston, Community Fellow and President of the Canadian Peace Museum charity, will explore themes of war, humanitarianism, and peace. He will reflect on his time spent in war, the need to promote peace, and the links between peace, human health, planetary health, equity, community cohesion, art, truth, and reconciliation.

Speaker Profile

Chris Houston is a Community Fellow of the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, and a Certified Fellow of the Institute of Risk Management. He has worked internationally for Médecins sans Frontières, the Canadian Red Cross and the World Health Organization. Chris has governance experience at many non-profit organizations, including Médecins sans Frontières Canada and ALIMA Canada. Chris is the CEO of Humanitarian Associates consulting firm and is part-time faculty at the University of Toronto’s Global Health Education Initiative. He has appeared on the BBC, the CBC, and CTV News. His writing has been featured in the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and his weekly newspaper column Stories of Peace appears in The Bancroft Times alongside occasional news reporting.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, October 2, at 1 p.m. ET

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In this solo story-telling play, Nancy Edwards – a Canadian community health nurse – takes us to the rural villages of Sierra Leone in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Her heart-felt stories of village life convey the ravages of tuberculosis; threats of witchcraft; and tragedies of deaths related to pregnancy, childbirth, and newborn tetanus. She celebrates mothers and local advocates for health improvements. While acknowledging her role as a cultural outsider, Nancy takes us behind-the-scenes and shares how her West African experiences shaped her life and research career.

Get your complimentary Oct. 8^th tickets here!

This play is based on a portion of Nancy’s memoir, Not One, Not Even One: A Memoir of Life-Altering Experiences in Sierra Leone, West Africa (FriesenPress 2022, 318 pages).​

The performance will be followed by a panel of discussants at York University, including Salewa Olawoye (director, Tubman Institute), James Orbinski (director, Dahdaleh Institute), David Peters (dean, Faculty of Health), and Mary Wiktorowicz (chair & associate director, Dahdaleh Institute).

A co-sponsored event with the Faculty of Health, the School of Global Health, and the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and its Diasporas.

Join us on Tuesday, October 8, at 1 p.m. ET in the Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre, York University.

Food insecurity, the emergence of zoonoses, anti-microbial resistance, and the related consequences of climate change are all major global health challenges, many with common drivers.

Global health policy is an essential instrument for our collective efforts to reorient systems and address the underlying causes of these shared global health challenges. 

As global health researchers we want to ensure policy is informed by robust empirical evidence, but also that our approach has relevance and legitimacy – motivating us to think differently about how we do global health research. 

By drawing on experience conducting systems focused collaborative research, this seminar will reflect on how the use of systems methods and approaches may enable us ask and answer questions that inform system change.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, October 30, at 1 p.m. ET

Speaker Profile

Dr Penney is a population health scientist focused on the prevention of disease at the global level. She is an associate professor of Global Food Systems and Policy Research, an investigator with the Global Strategy Lab and a faculty member of the Dahdaleh institute for Global Health Research at York University. Dr Penney completed her PhD and Postdoctoral training in epidemiology and preventive medicine at the MRC Epidemiology Unit and School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, UK. By engaging in highly collaborative, multi-disciplinary, systems focused research, Dr. Penney seeks to support evidence-informed global health policy that is fit to tackle some of our greatest global challenges.

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As our global population ages, the need for innovative, thoughtful, and human-centred design solutions becomes increasingly urgent. This presentation, titled “Empathy by Design: Tailoring Life-Centered Solutions for Seniors and Individuals with Dementia,” focuses on the growing field of life-centred design and its transformative potential in creating products, services, and environments that enhance the quality of life for seniors and individuals living with dementia. The talk will explore how design, when grounded in empathy and a deep understanding of humans and the environments around them, can foster independence, dignity, and well-being for these vulnerable populations.

Speaker Profile

Dr. Desai is an Associate Professor in Interaction Design at the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, a Research Chair in Accessible Interaction Design at York University and the co-lead of the Connected Minds Training Committee.

With nearly 30 years of experience in Robotics and Participatory Design, she leads the innovative Social and Technological Systems (SaTS) lab, supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Her groundbreaking work focuses on developing accessible and inclusive technologies and services that champion the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in Health and Well-being. Dr. Desai’s research is dedicated to creating assistive technologies for vulnerable populations, including seniors, children, Neurodivergent populations, people with speech, physical and cognitive impairments, and individuals with dementia, utilizing participatory codesign and system thinking approaches.

As a committed member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dementia Knowledge Exchange, she actively contributes to global health policies and care systems. She was recently invited to be a panel member for the new WHO Grand Challenges in Social Connection program at the UN. 

She is the recipient of several awards including the 2021-22 AMPD Dean’s Research Award and the Petro Canada Young Innovator Award. She was nominated for the President’s Emerging Research Leadership Award (PERLA). She was one of the 24 semi-finalists selected from applicants worldwide for the prestigious Longitude Dementia Award in the UK, where she is working with researchers in Canada, the UK and the Netherlands to develop technologies for cueing people with dementia in everyday activities.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, December 4, at 1 p.m. ET

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