Profiles

Alexandra Post is currently pursuing her Masters of Environmental Studies (MES) in Social and Ecological Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. Alexandra’s work is rooted in participatory action research, and she is passionate about  community-based projects.

Brenda Panasiak is the Administrative Coordinator for the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Reslience (WISIR), which became a sub-centre of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation (WICI) in 2022.

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.

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

Erin Alexiuk is a senior PhD candidate in the School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. Since joining WISIR as a Research Associate in 2014, Erin has played an instrumental role supporting the incubation of several early-phase social innovations. Throughout her graduate career, Erin has worked with visionary leaders to help operationalize innovative ideas, catalyze change, and realize impact. While at WISIR, she has applied her academic background in complex systems thinking and social innovation to long-term projects with two ground-breaking Indigenous organizations: the Centre for First Nations Governance and Turtle Island Institute. 

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. 

 John Abraham

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

Katharine McGowan is an associate professor of social innovation at Mount Royal University‘s Bissett school of business in Calgary/Mohkinstis, Alberta.  Her research focuses on social innovation, resilience and complexity, connecting current questions such as just transitions, transformation and reconciliation to historical patterns, events and arrangements.

Kira Cooper is a postdoctoral fellow exploring the nexus of inner and outer sustainability. 

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.

Melanie Chaplier is a cultural anthropologist from Belgium who just joined WISIR as a postdoctoral Research Fellow. She previously earned her PhD at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve and was a Fulbright Fellow at Dartmouth College in 2015-2016.

Melanie Goodchild is an Anishinaabe (Ojibway) complexity and systems thinking scholar.  She is moose clan from Biigtigong Nishnaabeg and Ketegaunseebee First Nations.

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.

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.” 

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

Sean Geobey is the Co-Director of the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience as well as an Assistant Professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development at the University of Waterloo.

His research focuses on the governance and design for collective action for social innovation, including the use of evidence in interdisciplinary decision-making, design for participatory decsion-making, and social finance.

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.

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. 

Tara is a designer specializing in change-enabling collaborative processes. As designer-in-residence at WISIR she prototypes, facilitates, and studies collaborations on a variety of projects.

Terrellyn Fearn's research interests focus on Rematriation, ethical learning space, and healing centered design. Terrellyn has worked to transform systems by advancing wellbeing through Indigenous social innovation for over 25 years.

Gryphon Theriault-Loubier is a doctoral candidate at the University of Waterloo School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED). As the program manager for Strategic Design at WISIR, Gryph works with our staff and postdoctoral researchers to find strategic alignment and opportunity within the Investment Readiness Program (IRP). Within the IRP partnership team, Gryph works in collaboration with the data and digital products teams to create a knowledge base and meaningful platforms for connection across the ecosystem. Gryph’s research focuses on the development of approaches that improve the ability of organisations to manage in complex environments.  Gryph is interested in strategy, systems, design, complexity, and related fields of research.  

Katey Park is a postdoctoral researcher leading a Principles-Focused Evaluation of the Investment-Readiness Program. Throughout this project, she is working collaboratively to develop meaningful principles for the Canadian social finance ecosystem and assess the extent to which social innovators align with these principles.

Maryam Mohiuddin Ahmed is currently the JEDI+A advocate at the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience, a Senior Fellow at Social Innovation Canada, a Senior Consultant at the Center for Social Innovation, and an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Foresight Canada. She is also a PhD Candidate in Sustainability Management at the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Environment.  

Meg Ronson, former Innovation Lab Manager at WISIR, is a social economy mobilizer and economic development practitioner.  Prior to her departure in 2023, Meg was instrumental in building partnerships essential to the successful launch of the IRP 2.0 project and provided support for WISIR's general research and development needs. Meg designed much of the infrastructure that has empowered the project team to collaborate effectively throughout this project. 

Dilek Sayedahmed is a Postdoctoral Reseacher at Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR), leading the systems mapping components of the Investment Readiness Program Evaluation, Mapping and Peer Learning project in partnership with the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet).

Sergio Nava-Lara is a Postdoctoral Researcher at WISIR, supporting peer-learning for capacity building in the Investment Readiness Program. He holds a Master's degree in Social Sciences Applied to Regional Studies from the University of Quintana Roo and a PhD in Educational Innovation from Tecnologico de Monterrey.

Leena Yahia, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR) supports the Investment Readiness Project.