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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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