Global Engagement Seminar's Jarislowsky Fellows are selected by the Director in consultation with the Steering Committee and Advisory Council. The Fellows work collaboratively with the Coordinator and teaching faculty/researchers in order to facilitate the problem-based projects that students will be working on through the term.
As facilitators and resident experts, Jarislowsky Fellows play key roles in the success of the Global Engagement Seminars. In their exploration of innovative ideas and potential solutions for global problems, Fellows are tasked with sharing their expertise and community-based experiences as advocates, activists and practitioners – in the classroom and the community. They are expected to take an active role in facilitating the Global Engagement seminars in direct collaboration with the faculty; to participate in the Annual Global Engagement Summit, normally held at the end of the teaching term, where the students will be presenting their projects; and to facilitate as well as promote wider discussions on the global issues under examination. While local residency is not required, we do expect fellows to immerse themselves in and to be available to engage with the greater University community during their appointment.
Meet your Jarislowsky Fellows!
Tarek Abdel-Galil
Dr. Tarek Abdel-Galil is an electrical engineer and Sustainable Energy Expert with 30 years’ of experience. He has managed and conducted many long-term planning investigations, generation interconnection assessments, and engineering and feasibility studies. He has strong background and experience in sustainable energy, electricity market regulation, transmission network studies
He has participated in developing the long-term transmission vision for BCH, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Dr. Abdel-Galil has participated in several energy planning studies for several utilities and communities and is currently the lead SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) for major infrastructure projects to decarbonize the oil and gas industry through the use of HVDC (high-voltage direct current) technologies, international interties for renewable energy trades, development of renewable energy zones, green hydrogen generation and off-shore wind development. Dr. Abdel-Galil is registered P. Eng. and Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Mohab Elnashar
Dr. Mohab Elnashar is an Engineering Manager for the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), a crown corporation responsible for operating the electricity market and directing the operation of the bulk electrical system in the province of Ontario, Canada. In this role, he leads a group of engineers to perform operational and planning studies, perform engineering analysis to assure transmission and generation systems are in compliance with North American Standards, assess performance of conventional and renewable generators.
Elnashar has over 20 years of experience in electric power engineering, renewable generation, plant commissioning, power system planning and operation. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Alexandria University in Alexandria, Egypt and later earned his PhD in Electric and Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo. He is a registered professional engineer.
Courtney Howard
Dr. Courtney Howard is an Emergency Physician in Yellowknife, in Canada’s subarctic, and a Clinical Associate Professor in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. She is a nationally- and globally-recognized expert on the impacts of climate change on health, and in the broader field of planetary health.
For Dr. Howard, grounding her work in planetary health started a decade ago motivated by two experiences at the opposite ends of the earth: In Canada’s North she heard her mostly Indigenous patients relate how the rapidly-changing landscape was impacting their food security and physical safety on the land, and read that malnutrition is likely to be the most severe health impact of climate change this century. She then worked with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières on a children’s malnutrition project in Djibouti and was devastated as severely malnourished infants died under her care. Upon returning home, she realized that given Canada’s high per-capita carbon footprint, the highest-impact way to promote a healthy future for patients both at home and globally is to work at the intersection of climate change and health.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo
Melina Laboucan-Massimo is Lubicon Cree from Northern Alberta. Melina is the Founder of Sacred Earth Solar and Co-Founder and Senior Director at Indigenous Climate Action. Melina is the inaugural fellow at the David Suzuki Foundation where her research focused on Climate Change, Indigenous Knowledge and Renewable Energy. She is the host of a TV docu series called Power to the People which profiles renewable energy in Indigenous communities across the country.
Melina holds a Master's degree in Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria with a focus on Renewable Energy. As a part of her master's thesis Melina implemented a 20.8 kW solar project in her home community of Little Buffalo which powers the health centre in the heart of the tar sands.
Afshin Matin
Afshin Matin is a power engineer with around 30 years of work experience with private and public organizations. He graduated with a master's degree in power systems from University of London and earned a second master’s degree in organizational behaviour. His early career was in power system planning with a utility company focused on transmission planning. He then worked with a major power equipment supplier on transmission equipment sales. A consulting engineering firm was his next stop that involved industrial distribution systems design. His later career was with the Government of Canada; first with the National Energy Board on electricity export/import permitting and international power lines, then with the Department of National Defence on specifying and procuring electrical generation and distribution equipment, and finally with ECCC on industrial process GHG emission estimations for the Canadian national inventory report. In the last six years with ECCC he supervised a unit engaged with electricity sector air emission regulations. This was followed by leading a new unit responsible for system integration studies on renewables, nuclear, and other low emitting and storage resources.
Shruti Sharma
Shruti Sharma is a senior policy advisor based in India for the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). Shruti’s role includes managing research projects focused on energy subsidy reform in India. Her research focuses on understanding household energy transitions involving various fuels- electricity, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking and solar irrigation. These projects focus on analyzing fuel subsidy policies to provide recommendations to national and state governments.
Her recent work has examined how well electricity subsidies target poor households and farmers in states like Jharkhand and Haryana; gender-disaggregated impacts of subsidy reform, LPG subsidy policies and renewable energy swaps.