People profiles

Ola Tjornbo

Archipelago consultants

Ola Tjornbo's research interests are primarily focused on social innovation, social-ecological transformation, governance and complexity, and social media and virtual social networks.

Katharine McGowan

Assistant professor, Mount Royal University

Lead researcher on the Social Prosperity Wood Buffalo project, Katharine has advanced work on Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience's (WISIR) developing social innovation theory based on historical case studies.

Nino Antadze

Visiting assistant professor of Environmental Studies at Bucknell University

Nino is a post-doctoral fellow with the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED). Read about her current work on “Cross-sector alliances to solve complex environmental issues.”

Kirsten Wright

Researcher

Lead researcher on the Social Innovation Simulation project at Social Innovation Generation (SiG) / Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR), Kirsten is doing a PhD in systems design engineering.

Michele-Lee Moore

Adjunct professor

Michele-Lee Moore is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria where she leads the Water, Innovation, and Global Governance lab based at the Centre for Global Studies. Michele-Lee is one of the faculty responsible delivering the Rockefeller Global Fellowship Program, and has previously helped deliver modules for the Graduate Diploma on Social Innovation.

She is a former McConnell Fellow in Social Innovation at Social Innovation Generation SiG@Waterloo, where she led a number of projects that examined the role of networks, social finance, and public policy in supporting social innovation.

Frances Westley

The J.W. McConnell chair in social innovation

Frances Westley joined the University of Waterloo as the J.W. McConnell Chair in social innovation in July 2007. In this capacity she is one of the principle leads in a Canada wide initiative in social innovation, Social Innovation Generation (SiG) a cross sectoral partnership to build capacity for social innovation in Canada funded by the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, University of Waterloo and the Ontario government.

Darcy Riddell

Director of strategic learning at the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation

Darcy Riddell has worked to change systems as an environmental activist, strategist, consultant, and educator for almost 20 years.

Silvia Dorado

Visiting scholar

Silvia Dorado is an associate professor of Management at the University of Rhode Island and visiting professor at the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation (WISIR) and the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED) at the University of Waterloo.

John Abraham

Assistant Professor

John Abraham

Stephen Quilley

Associate director

Stephen Quilley is the Associate director of the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience as well as an associate professor of the School of Environment, Resource and Sustainability in the Department of Environment at the University of Waterloo.

Kaitlyn Rathwell

Researcher

Kaitlyn Rathwell is an environmental change scholar and practicing performance artist.

Dan McCarthy

Director

Dan McCarthy is the Director of the Waterloo Institute of Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR), and the Associate Director, Undergraduate Studies, as well as an associate professor in the School of Environment, Resource and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo.

Melanie Goodchild

Senior indigenous research fellow and associate

Melanie Goodchild, moose clan, is a member of Biigtigong Nishnaabeg First Nation in Northern Ontario. She is the founder of the Turtle Island Institute, an Indigenous social innovation think & do tank (a teaching lodge). In her work, she weaves together her unique perspectives of Anishinaabe gikendaasowin (knowledge) with systems thinking/complexity theory and social innovation to address our society’s most intractable problems. Melanie believes in the teaching methods of her ancestors, in “coming to know” on the land, and so she supports initiatives that seek to connect people to ceremony, story, art, language and the land.

Erin Alexiuk

Research associate, PhD student

Erin has an academic background in social-ecological resilience, critical indigenist methodologies, and social innovation. Through her PhD research, Erin aims to explore links between transformative learning theory and emerging literature on unsettling settler colonial society as a way to foster greater equity and sustainability in Canadian resource planning and management.