Profile
Dr. Maryam Mohiuddin Ahmed is an Assistant Professor of Business (Teaching Stream) at the University of Waterloo and the JEDI+A Advocate at the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience. A social innovation scholar-practitioner, her work foregrounds decolonial and relational approaches to social entrepreneurship, finance, systems change, and knowledge co-creation. Her research and pedagogy center “dialogues of wisdoms” and plural ways of knowing, doing, and being to reimagine social innovation as a path toward more equitable, regenerative futures.
Maryam is also a co‑steward of the Transition Bridges Project (TBP), a collaborative initiative pioneering systems mediation to address the polycrisis. TBP's practice involves acting as intermediaries across actors, scales, and systems to facilitate dialogue, mutual understanding, conflict transformation, and collective action toward resilient, regenerative communities.
Maryam completed her PhD in Sustainability Management at the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Environment, where she was named Valedictorian. She also holds an LL.M. in International Law from the University of California, Berkeley, and B.A. and LL.B. degrees from LUMS University, Pakistan. She was the co-founder of the Social Innovation Lab, an ecosystem builder for social innovation in South Asia, and Daftarkhwan, the largest co-working space network in Pakistan. Her current work bridges academic inquiry and lived practice through community-engaged learning, critical pedagogy, and systems-mediation experimentation.
Publications:
Peer-reviewed articles:
Ahmed, M. M, Sayedahmed, D., (forthcoming, 2025) Patterns of New Shifts in the Funding Economy of Non-profit Organizations: What Can We Learn from Global Experiences? Social Innovations Journal
Ahmed, M. M., Roholt, R. V., & Catalano, J. M. (2024). An Upside-Down Approach to Social Innovation at Institutions of Higher Education. Canadian Journal of Nonprofit and Social Economy Research, 15(1), 21-pp.
Roholt, R. V., Fink, A., & Ahmed, M. M. (2023). The Learning Partner: dialogic approaches to monitoring and evaluation in international social development. Knowledge Management for Development Journal, 17(1/2), 181-204.
Books:
Ahmed, M. M. (Forthcoming, 2026). Journeys towards Wisdom: eco-centric pedagogies for transforming self and systems. Peter Lang.
McGowan, K., Ahmed, M. M., Bubbar, K. (Forthcoming, 2027). The Handbook for Systems Thinking and Social Change. DeGruyter.
Ahmed, M. M. (editor), Ayub, A., & Khan, T. Z. (2012). The Handbook for Social Enterprise in Pakistan. Literaty Pakistan Publishers.