maryam.mohiuddinahmed@uwaterloo.ca
EV1 209
Maryam is a former human rights lawyer, serial social entrepreneur and social innovation evangelist. Her work and research centers ‘dialogues of wisdoms’ and explorations around alternate ways of knowing, doing and being to decolonize systems change. Maryam believes in enabling innovators to trigger transformative change in themselves and their communities, and through that process co-create more equitable, regenerative systems.
Maryam previously co-founded the Social Innovation Lab, a social innovation ecosystem builder in South Asia and Daftarkhwan, a series of co-working spaces in Pakistan, alongside starting a number of impact focused initiatives over the last decade. She was also the Vice Secretary general of the International Muslim Jewish conference from 2015-2017 and has a decade of peace-building work under her belt. She is an Acumen Fellow, an International Youth Foundation Laureate Global Fellow, and holds a LL.M. in International Law from the University of California, Berkeley and PhD in Sustainability Management from the University of Waterloo.
Maryam’s more recent work as a Senior Fellow at Social Innovation Canada centered on creating a decolonial “pedagogy of flipping” in social innovation lab design and practice for housing affordability. As a Senior Consultant at the Center for Social Innovation, Maryam has co-led the creation of CSI’s education strategy, program design and curricula.
Maryam is currently a Post-Doctoral fellow the University of Waterloo and McMaster University where she works to promote decolonial approaches to learning, skill-development, social innovation and finance that center justice, equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility for all. Maryam is also a sessional lecturer at the University of Waterloo, where she teaches discrimination and human rights law and at OCAD university, where she teaches social innovation and business.