AboutExecutive, Educator and Entrepreneur

Welcome to my personal website! Since February, 2023, I’ve been Associate Vice-President, International at the University of Ottawa, my alma mater, where I did my B.A.  L’Université d’Ottawa est la plus grande université bilingue (anglais/français) au monde. Prior to that, beginning in 2014, I was a Senior Fellow with the University of British Columbia’s Institute of Asian Research, part of the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, where I conducted research and publishing, provided media commentary and had frequent speaking engagements. I also served as a member of the Institute of Asian Research’s (IAR) former Governing Council and on the advisory committee leading to the creation of the new Policy School, which became an umbrella for IAR and other units at the university.

I have served as a consultant and/or advisor to numerous organizations including the World Bank, the International Labour Organization, the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, “The Big Picnic” (a European-Union funded project on food security involving botanical gardens), the Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, Genome British Columbia, Genome Prairie, the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). I was also on the editorial board of the International Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics published by Springer where I recruited other authors and published entries of my own. I am also a member of the scientific and organizational committee for the CityFood Research Group at New York University and advised the National Research Council in 2020-21 on a horizon scanning project regarding technology futures in Canada in light of COVID-19.

I have experience leading and being part of international as well as pan-Canadian high performing teams focused on research, public policy, program design and implementation. I was a member of an International Scientific Advisory Board for a program of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) from 2011-16 as well as a member of former US Ambassador Jacobson’s Canada-US Innovation Committee from 2012-13. I have held faculty appointments at the University of British Columbia and Dawson College in Westmount, Québec.

Here are a few other career highlights:

  • 2019-22 – Executive Director of Food Secure Canada / Réseau pour une alimentation durable, a pan-Canadian bilingual non-governmental organization with policy impact
  • 2007-14 – Vice-President of Research and Partnerships at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (www.sshrc.ca). SSHRC is an arm’s-length federal agency that promotes and supports research and advanced training in the social sciences and humanities
  • 2005-07 – Senior Director of Outreach, Communications and Research at Elections Canada, the federal arm’s length agency that manages all federal elections and related activities
  • 2001-04 – Founding Regional Director for British Columbia and the Yukon of the Centre for Research and Information on Canada and the Canadian Unity Council

I currently serve on the board of the Council of Canadian Academies, a not-for-profit organization that convenes the best experts in their respective fields to assess the evidence on complex scientific topics of public interest to inform decision-making in Canada. Until recently, I served on the boards of Farm Radio International – the only international non-profit organization focused on using radio to help African farming communities help themselves – and Équiterre – the largest environmental organization in Québec. I am also an Affiliate of the Margaret A Gilliam Institute for Global Food Security at McGill University, where I also sit on the advisory board. Over the past 25 years I’ve served on the boards of directors of numerous organizations including Crossroads International, the Association of Canadian Studies, the Vancouver Women’s Health Collective and the Foundation for International Training.

Over the course of my career I’ve created or collaborated on valuable resources on Higher Education and Research, Food & Agriculture, Knowledge Mobilization, Program Design & Delivery, Futures/Foresight, Social Protection and Asia. This work is regularly updated and shared here with you in the hope of contributing to the ongoing development in these important areas.

I also served as a French and English-language radio columnist with the CBC and Radio-Canada in Vancouver from 2000 to 2003 and again with Radio-Canada in 2017-18. Prior to 2001, I managed the Bangalore Sustainable Urban Development project at the Sustainable Development Research Institute at UBC and was a consultant to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and also worked with other clients in the area of global sustainable development.

I am fluent in English and French and have studied Thai, Urdu, Spanish and Mandarin. I have a PhD from UBC (1996), a master’s degree from McGill University (1991) and a BA (Honours) from the University of Ottawa and I am the author of numerous publications.

Click here to learn more about my career and experience on LinkedIn.

I am the author of a few books, several articles, numerous technical reports and opinion pieces. Please see my LinkedIn profile for details as well as the resources and publications page for details.