Dahdaleh Distinguished Chair in Global Governance & Legal Epidemiology
Faculty Fellow

Dr. Steven J. Hoffman is the Dahdaleh Distinguished Chair in Global Governance & Legal Epidemiology and a professor of global health, law, and political science at York University; the director of the Global Strategy Lab; the director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Global Governance of Antimicrobial Resistance; and the scientific director of the CIHR Institute of Population & Public Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He holds a courtesy appointment as a professor of health research methods, evidence & impact (part-time) at McMaster University. He is an international lawyer licensed in both Ontario and New York who specializes in global health law, global governance, and institutional design. His research leverages various methodological approaches to craft global strategies that better address transnational health threats and social inequalities. Past studies have focused on access to medicines, antimicrobial resistance, health misinformation, pandemics, and tobacco control.
Steven previously worked as a project manager for the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and as a fellow in the Executive Office of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York City, where he offered strategic and technical input on a range of global health issues. He also previously worked for a Toronto law firm specializing in cross-border intellectual property litigation, health product regulation, and government relations. Steven advised the World Health Organization on development of a global strategy for health systems research and was lead author on the background paper that provided the strategy's conceptual underpinnings. For three years he convened an academic advisory committee on science reporting for Canada's only national weekly current affairs magazine. He was previously an associate professor of law at the University of Ottawa (2014-2017), adjunct professor of global health & population at Harvard University (2015-2020) and a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford (2018-2019).
Steven holds a Bachelor of Health Sciences from McMaster University, an MA in political science and a Juris Doctor from the University of Toronto, a PhD in health policy from Harvard University, and a doctorate in law from Sciences Po Paris.
You may also be interested in...
Lassonde team developing new tool for detection of microplastics in water
Researchers at the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University are working to develop innovative methods for the detection of microplastics in bodies of water. Recently, a group of researchers successfully designed and prototyped an ...Read more about this Post
Dahdaleh Institute Researchers Awarded Over $1.4M from New Frontiers in Research Fund
Originally published by Yfile (4 May 2023). Written by Corey Allen, senior manager, research communications Seven projects led by York University researchers were awarded a combined $2.4 million from the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) in ...Read more about this Post
Recap — Utilizing Academic Research to Support Real-Time Decision-Making in Health and Humanitarian Crises
On November 30th, Dr. Ahmad Firas Khalid delivered an interactive seminar about how the Canadian Red Cross makes decisions using scientific, real-time evidence amidst health and humanitarian crises. Twenty-six participants discussed the Red Cross' involvement ...Read more about this Post