Fifteen Exceptional Scholars Awarded 2026-2027 Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholarships

Last updated September 23, 2026

The Dahdaleh Institute is delighted to announce this year's recipients of the 2026-2027 Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholarships, and we extend our warmest congratulations to the following recipients.

"We are proud and elated to support fifteen exceptional graduate scholars whose research will advance impactful scholarly and real-world contributions to global health across a diverse range of faculties and programs at York University," said Professor Mary Wiktorowicz, interim director of the Dahdaleh Institute. "Their inspiring research pursuits build momentum for the vision of the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research to enhance effectiveness, equity, and excellence in global health research through a critical problem-solving approach to 21st-century challenges."

Doctoral Level

Alexandra Scott

The myth of "good enough": lethal autonomous weapon systems and international law

Alexandra is a PhD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and Global Health Graduate Scholar. She also holds an LLM, a JD, and a BSc(Eng) in chemical engineering (First Class Honours) from Queen's University. Her doctoral work primarily focuses on two areas of legal uncertainty: (1) whether lethal autonomous weapon systems (or "killer robots" that are capable of operating with full autonomy) may be lawfully deployed under existing international law and (2) what legal, regulatory, and professional concerns may be implicated by the deployment of lethal autonomous weapon systems in contexts beyond international armed conflict.

Ana Carolina de Almeida Cardoso

Fighting for Tomorrows: (UN)Making the Future and International Climate Politics at the End of the World

Ana (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in environmental studies in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (EUC) at York University, with a master’s degree in international relations from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC Rio) and a bachelor's degree in law from Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV Direito Rio). Her research interests lie at the intersections between coloniality, modernity and "nature", with particular focus on alternatives to development, the Anthropocene and decolonial futures. Ana's doctoral research focuses on the concept of “colonization of the future”, the futuristic imaginaries of the climate crisis and their onto-epistemic implications to international climate politics. For this, she has been attending UNFCCC meetings since 2023 and engaging in negotiations with the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC), having also collaborated with Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) and Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN).

Ayesha Shahid

Land, livelihood and the polycrisis: Political ecology of rural development in Pakistan

Ayesha is a doctoral student in geography studying rural-urban transformations with a focus on development and its related impacts on poverty and livelihoods. Her graduate project studies the political ecology of land and livelihoods in Pakistan to understand the drivers of deagrarianization in the countryside and its related impacts on community health and extra-human ecology. Focusing on the rain-fed northern districts of Pakistan, she also explores the potential of agroecological methods in mitigating some of these challenges through the strengthening of food security, and by creating more resilient agricultural livelihood opportunities.

Babatunde Odugbemi

Developing Context and Systems-Informed Evidence to Bridge the One Health Antimicrobial Resistance Governance Gap.

Babatunde Odugbemi is a PhD student in Global Health and a Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholar at York University. Babatunde’s doctoral research explores how to improve coordination and accountability for antimicrobial resistance plans among One Health actors, taking governance contexts and resource availability into consideration. He is carrying out this research under the supervision of Prof. Mary E. Wiktorowicz. Babatunde has an MBBS degree from the University of Lagos, Master of Public Health degree from the University of Sheffield, and a Master of Science degree in Aging and Health from Queen’s University. Professionally, he has contributed to strengthening the capacity of the health workforce as a public health specialist and working as a physician in Nigeria. He actively participates in collaborative research addressing infectious disease and their determinants and fortifying health system capacities. Babatunde is a recipient of the Canada Graduate Doctoral Research Scholarship awarded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Chelsea Williams

Child and Youth Engagement in Climate Change Governance

Chelsea Williams Cleary is a PhD student in Global Health at York University and a Graduate Student Scholar at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research. Her doctoral research examines child and youth participation in climate change governance globally. Her current projects include two scoping reviews exploring young people’s participation in invited climate change governance spaces and youth-led or claimed spaces. In addition, she is currently working on a project reviewing existing theories and frameworks on how young people are engaged in climate change governance processes, examining how these approaches address different stages of participation - before, during, and after engagement - and where gaps remain in understanding the process as a whole.

Overall, this work is building to explore qualitatively who can access climate governance spaces, how agency and power are distributed within them, and how participation affects young people’s well-being.

Joanne Ong

Cross-national differences in the gender gap in self-rated mental health: the role of women’s political empowerment

Joanne Ong is a PhD student in Global Health at York University and a Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholar. Her doctoral research investigates whether women's political empowerment helps explain cross-national differences in the gender gap in self-rated health and mental health.

Kathirvel Soundappan

Systems Thinking Approach to Strenthen Antimicrobial Resistance Governance

Dr. Kathirvel S, MBBS, MD (Community Medicine), is an Additional Professor in the Department of Community Medicine and the School of Public Health at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India. He is an alumnus of the World Health Organization's Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative (SORT IT) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC-WHO) Summer School in Lyon, France.

As part of his graduate research, he aims to develop an enhanced antimicrobial resistance governance framework and strengthen AMR governance through comparative country case studies. His research seeks to generate evidence that can inform policy and improve governance mechanisms for addressing AMR at national and global levels.

Lathika Laguwaran

Women’s Smokeless Tobacco Use in South Asia: Implications for Policy and Intervention

Lathika is a PhD student in the Global Health Program at York University and Director of Operations at the Global Strategy Lab. Her research examines smokeless tobacco use among women in South Asia. By integrating gender, intersectionality, and policy evaluation, her work identifies populations most at risk and generates actionable recommendations for more equitable tobacco control. Although centred on South Asia, her research will have relevance for Canada, where South Asian communities are large, and tobacco continues to impose a health and economic burden. Her doctoral work has been recognized through the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, the Manulife Graduate Scholarship, and the Dahdaleh Scholarship.

Naeema Hassan

From principles to practice for equitable global health research partnerships: university, funder and journal perspectives

Naeema Hassan is a PhD candidate in Global Health at York University and a Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholar. Her research examines how institutional allyship can be established among research funders, academic journals, and research institutions to support more equitable global health research partnerships. Drawing on systems thinking, institutional theory, and co-design methodologies, her work explores how these institutions can collectively advance policies, practices, and accountability that are grounded in equity and informed by anti-colonial principles. As global health continues to evolve, her research seeks to inform more collaborative and accountable institutional approaches to the future of global health research. As a Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholar, Naeema contributes to the Institute's mission of advancing equitable global health through interdisciplinary research, collaboration, and knowledge exchange.

Olena Zinovatna

Integrating Data Quality and Standards into a Learning Mental Health System in Mental, Neurological, and Substance Use conditions for children and youth

Olena is a PhD student in the School of Global Health, Faculty of Health. She holds both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Information Systems, specializing in data analytics and information privacy. Before beginning her doctoral studies, she built extensive experience in the health sector, leading and delivering complex, high-impact projects while providing technical expertise across the full spectrum of Business Intelligence and Data Analytics solutions.

Her doctoral research focuses on establishing a Learning Health System for children and youth with mental, neurological and substance use conditions in Ghana. This work aims to create a foundation for a scalable, equitable, cost-effective, and culturally responsive model of care that improves health outcomes for children and youth. By integrating data-driven decision-making with continuous learning and system improvement, her research seeks to strengthen health systems and inform sustainable, evidence-based policies and practices in global mental health.

Rupsha Mutsuddi

Co-Designing a Service for People Living with Dementia to Preserve Rituals in Order to Address Loneliness

Rupsha is a Doctoral Researcher at the School of Global Health at York University and a Graduate Scholar at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, where her work focuses on Human-Centred Design to improve the quality of life for people living with dementia in global communities. She is a recipient of the Canada Graduate Scholarships Doctoral Program (CGS-D), and the Connected Minds Scholarship. Her Master of Design thesis focused on building supportive augmented-reality technologies to help people living with dementia with their daily rituals. Her doctoral research focuses on systemic service design for people living with dementia in global communities to address loneliness. Rupsha has worked for a diverse array of clients in government, healthcare, non-profit, and clean beauty sectors, including The Detox Market, Habitat for Humanity Waterloo Region, and the Ontario Public Health Association.

Tareq Al Khalaf

Exploring Programs Supporting Health and Wellbeing of Family Caregivers of Individuals on The Spectrum of Autism and Their Fit for Social Prescribing

Tareq is a PhD student in Health at York University under supervision of Prof. Farah Ahmad. His research examines the lived experiences of family caregivers of racialized and minority children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Canada. His work focuses on how collaborative community-centered approaches can enhance caregivers’ health and well-being through equitable partnerships between healthcare providers and community organizations, particularly those aligned with Social Prescribing (SRx) models. His study aims to facilitate knowledge translation that informs and strengthens systems of care in Canada, with broader applicability in global/local context. His research interests include social prescribing, autism, caregivers’ health, interprofessional collaboration, primary health care, and healthcare quality improvement.

Yousef Albaba

ONE TABLE: Leveraging a Global One Health Approach for Food System Transformation To Promote Human, Animal and Environmental Health and Prevent Disease.

Yousef Albaba is a medical doctor and public health researcher whose work sits at the intersection of global health, humanitarianism, and systems thinking. Originally from Gaza, he earned his Doctor of Medicine from Al-Quds University before completing a Master of Public Health in Global Health at Queen's University Belfast, where he graduated with a First-Class equivalent and received the prestigious Copty Scholarship for Palestinian students. His path into public health has been shaped by direct experience of providing care in humanitarian and conflict-affected settings, where communities face prolonged food insecurity, environmental degradation, and health system collapse. These realities motivate his commitment to research that both strengthens the public health effectiveness of humanitarian response and interrogates the structural drivers of humanitarian crises.

As a doctoral researcher at York University's Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, Yousef's work focuses on developing a Gaza-focused case study examining food system fragility, health equity, and One Health interactions in a protracted humanitarian setting. His research is situated within ONE TABLE, an international initiative led by Dr Tarra Penney that leverages a global One Health approach to food system transformation. Using systems thinking, participatory systems mapping, qualitative methods, and policy analysis, he aims to identify leverage points where humanitarian and development actors can engage more effectively with the systemic drivers of vulnerability. In the long term, he aims to work at the interface of global health research, humanitarian policy, and systems innovation, advancing more effective and just humanitarian responses.

Yvette Nkurunziza

Assessing the Intersectional Association Between Socioeconomic Factors and Tuberculosis Treatment Outcomes Among People Living With HIV Coinfected With Tuberculosis in Rwanda.

Yvette Nkurunziza is a second-year PhD student in Global Health at York University. Her doctoral research assesses the intersectional association between socioeconomic status, intersectionality, and tuberculosis (TB) treatment outcomes among people living with HIV in Rwanda. The research explores how factors such as income, education, occupation, gender, and migration status intersect to shape TB/HIV treatment outcomes, with the aim of informing more equity-driven TB/HIV policy in Rwanda and similar settings. Yvette holds a Master's in Global Health Delivery, Gender and Sexual Reproductive Health track, from the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda, and a Master of Public Health from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. She currently works as a research assistant for a project that explore gender based violence among people with TB. Yvette is a scholar at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, where she contributes to the Institute's mission of advancing interdisciplinary, community-engaged research on the social and structural determinants of health, with a focus on infectious disease and health equity.

The Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholarship was also renewed for PhD student Michael Davies-Venn.

The Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholarship was created to attract exceptional incoming and continuing domestic and international graduate research students to the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research. These scholarships will support graduate research and related scholarly and creative activities in line with the three themes of the Institute—planetary health, global health and humanitarianism, and global health foresighting. The scholarship will be granted annually to graduate students who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement in global health research. The scholarships will be granted to new or returning students based on research excellence or promise of excellence, and applications will be evaluated using the student’s past performance and potential in their graduate program.

Scholarship recipients will:

• be designated as “Dahdaleh Graduate Global Health Scholars” at the Dahdaleh Institute;
• attend and participate in the Dahdaleh Institute’s weekly global health graduate seminars;
• present their graduate work at least once per year, preferably at the Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholars Symposium, or at other suitable venues;
• receive occasional invitations to participate in workshops and special events at the Dahdaleh Institute; and
• have access to the Dahdaleh Institute open workspace.

For more information, please visit the Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholarship Program webpage.

You may also be interested in...