Upcoming Events

Join us for the 2024 World Health Assembly Simulation beginning virtually on May 1, 2024 and in-person from May 2 to May 3 in Toronto, Ontario. This immersive experience replicates the highest level of governance at the World Health Organization. Students will engage in captivating discussions on urgent global health matters, connect with an array of diverse experts, and gain valuable insights into potential global health career paths and more. The theme for the WHA SIM 2024 is "One Health", which emphasizes the interconnected nature that binds together human, animal, and environmental health. This event is brought to you by the School of Global Health.

Seats are limited, so don't delay and secure your place today to be a part of this transformative event!

John Amuasi is head of the Global Health Department at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana and a W2 Professor of Global One Health in Hamburg, Germany. Via a talk and discussion titled "Learning to Shift the Goal Post: One Health Research and Policy", he shares his rich experience in infectious disease research from a One Health perspective.

Speaker Profile

John Humphrey Amuasi is based at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), where he is Head of the Global Health Department of the School of Public Health and Leader of the Global One Health Research Group at the Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR). Amuasi is also a W2 Professor of Global One Health at the Bernhard Nocht Institute of Tropical Medicine and the University of Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany, an adjunct Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in the USA, and an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford in the UK. Amuasi trained as a physician in Ghana, and later graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, USA, with post-graduate degrees terminating in a PhD in Health Research and Policy.

Amuasi set up and was the inaugural head of the Research and Development Unit at the 1,200-bed Komfo Anokye teaching Hospital in Kumasi. For over 20 years, he has engaged in Tropical Medicine and Global Health research in LMICs - including in malaria, NTDs, AMR and One Health. He has also consulted for several Global Health-focused organizations and supported civil society organizations with technical expertise on matters related to access to drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics, as well as strategic advice related to Global Health research priorities. Amuasi’s current research involves clinical and field epidemiologic studies on malaria, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, AMR, snakebite and other neglected tropical diseases. He further serves as Co-Chair of The Lancet One Health Commission, an adjunct to a number of academic institutions, and as a regular technical advisor/contributor to the WHO, Africa CDC, African Academy of Sciences, and several other Global Health organizations. John is a board member of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in the USA, The Soulsby Foundation in the UK, and an advisory board member of The British Medical Journal. Amuasi is passionate about mentorship and sustainably building both clinical and non-clinical health research capacities in Africa.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, May 1, at 1 p.m.

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On Wednesday, May 8, Dahdaleh community fellow Rajnish Prasad will provide a brief overview of gender inequity in health, followed by detailed analysis of health inequity among girls and women across life cycle in India. He will discuss the role of social and gender norms in perpetuating inequities and the health outcomes. Drawing from his own experiences working at the UN Women's Asia-Pacific Regional Office, Rajnish will share the insights gained from implementation of community-level health initiatives in India. Register below to join us in an engaging discussion about the implications of gender inequality.

Speaker Profile

Rajnish Ranjan Prasad is currently working as Programme Specialist- Gender Equality and Health & HIV/AIDS at the UN Women’s Asia-Pacific Regional Office. He has around 17 years of experience in addressing inequalities, empowering marginalized communities and providing technical support to Governments. Rajnish is working with UN Women Country Offices in the Asia Pacific region to address gender inequality in planning, and utilization of health services. He has previously worked with UNFPA and supported Government of Rajasthan, India in strengthening of large-scale programmes for holistic development of young people specially girls, addressing gender inequalities and to promote youth leadership. He has also worked with National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), Government of India and managed large-scale HIV/AIDS programme.

Rajnish holds a Doctorate in Public Health from IIHMR University, India, a Postgraduate Certificate in Global Health from the University of Manchester, Postgraduate Diploma in Public Administration from University of York, Master’s in Rural Management from Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) and Bachelor’s in Computer Application from Devi Ahilya University, Indore.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, May 8, at 10:30 a.m.

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Cognitive decline and sleep disorders are prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, but the role of extreme heat in these conditions remains poorly understood. In this seminar, Professor Godfred Boateng and Dr. Gabriel John Dusing will discuss their latest research findings analyzing extreme heat events which are increasing in frequency and intensity, and impacting the health of older adults. Their study explored the relationship between temperature, sleep quality, and cognitive function in Ghanaian adults over the age of 50, particularly women.

Using structural equation models and accounting for data clustering, they examined the direct and indirect relations between increasing average temperatures in the past, sleep difficulties, and cognitive impairment, while adjusting for appropriate covariates. They created a novel dataset by combining data from the WHO Ghana Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (2014/2015) with temperature measurements derived from the Climatic Research Unit (University of East Anglia) gridded Time Series (CRU TS v.4.07). The speakers will then recommend the acceleration of climate mitigation and adaptation practices that aims to reduce the effects of global warming for Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Join us for this talk addressing global health inequities for socially disadvantaged populations, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, amidst a rapidly changing environment.

Speaker Profile

Godfred Boateng

Dr. Godfred Boateng is an Assistant Professor at the School of Global Health, Director of the Global and Environmental Health Lab, a Canada Research Chair in Global Health and Humanitarianism, and a faculty fellow at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research at York University. Dr. Boateng is an expert in the design and application of culturally relevant scalable methodologies to study the multidimensional factors and processes that shape health and health equity across spatial scales (household, community, institutional, national), and how they can be promoted and sustained. His research program is transdisciplinary and focuses on resource insecurity, health, and sustainable livelihoods; the socio-ecological determinants of cardiometabolic conditions in aging adults; social inequity in health systems; quantitative data analysis methods and survey scale development; and COVID-19-related health effects. Dr. Boateng’s research in these areas has been critical in transforming the understanding of the key social and structural determinants of health among vulnerable populations, including women, infants, children, and older adults. 

Dr. Boateng’s research is supported through both internal and external funding sources from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council; Canadian Institutes of Health Research; Canadian Foundation for Innovation; International Development Research Centre; Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities; United States Health Resources & Service Administration; the National Institute of Transportation and Communities; and the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research.

Gabriel John Dusing

Dr. Dusing's research utilizes linked longitudinal health administrative data and employs techniques such as survival analysis and difference-in-differences to examine complex social and health issues. He holds a PhD in mathematics from the University of Tennessee. His publications in journals such as, Psychological Medicine, Social Science & Medicine, PLoS One, and the American Journal of Psychiatry, highlight his expertise in addressing critical topics such as mental health, population health, and the social determinants of health.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, May 15, at 1 p.m.

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Increasing recognition of the global burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on public health and resulting economic losses have led to global and subsequent national efforts to prevent and contain AMR. While these strategies emphasise a One Health based approach for governance, effective coordination among actors across relevant sectors, core principle of the approach, seems elusive, risking the effectiveness and sustainability of the mitigation strategies. Further, despite the wide acknowledgement of the critical role environmental resources play in the emergence and transmission of AMR pathogens, the first wave of national strategies have largely bypassed the design and implementation of measures to control environmental AMR. Systematic analyses of governance of AMR mitigation are scarce and have only begun recently, which nevertheless show that majority of the countries studied, especially the low and lower-middle income countries, did not even have an environmental surveillance component. Therefore, the study aims – (i) to understand existing institutions and governance mechanisms for integrating the relevant sectors and levels, (ii) identify potential barriers of cross-sectoral coordination and especially the integration of environment sector, and (iii) explore potential solutions of how to overcome such barriers in order to sustainably contain and prevent AMR development and spread through a OH approach.

The study applies a qualitative case study approach, focusing on AMR governance in Kenya and analyses from a polycentric governance perspective adapting Elinor Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. Data analysed included primary and secondary literature pertaining to the topic and the case study region and transcribed semi-structured interviews with key informants from human health, animal health, environment sectors, at national and county levels.

Preliminary results from analysis show that the governance of AMR in Kenya is fragmented across multiple sectors and legislations, often incoherent and even conflicting with each other. The coordination mechanisms at the national and county levels established under the national action plan (NAP) for AMR did not effectively integrate the environmental dimension, thereby missing components of AMR stewardship and surveillance for environment. Asymmetrically distributed information and resources negatively affect coordination among multi-sectoral actors.

It is crucial to overcome the key barriers for effective coordination, namely policy incoherence across sectors and asymmetries in distribution of resources for AMR mitigation across sectors. Besides including an integrated surveillance component across three relevant sectors in the new NAP, it is crucial to embed the new mandate of AMR surveillance and regulation within the existing framework of environmental governance, and arrangements for developing appropriate capacities of relevant actors in different sectors.

Speaker Profile

Dr. Srinivasa Srigiri received his PhD in Agricultural Economics from the Humboldt University Berlin in 2010. His primary research interests involve governance of natural resources, sustainability transformations in rural and agricultural sectors, and strategies for climate adaptation at national and subnational levels. Since August 2019, he holds a position as senior researcher within the Research Programme on Environmental Governance at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS). Prior to joining IDOS, he held research positions with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India, and Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) and Humboldt University Berlin in Germany. 

Register below and join us on Wednesday, May 22, at 1 p.m.

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Please join the Rooted and Rising Lab (R+R Lab) for a reflection on co-developing a new and unique kind of education for youth climate leadership. As we collectively spiral deeper into climate and ecological collapse, a global movement is taking place, often inspired and led by youth, to make way and spiral out into just, thriving, and joyful climate futures (now). Amidst this dual spiral of collapse and regeneration, we contemplate: what might education for climate change leaders look like? How might we co-create education as a set of knowledge, practice, and relationships to reach those desired futures now?  

The R+R Lab is an intergenerational network of relationships that co-create and support climate education programs to help us remember the importance of caring for the natural world and all its biospheres and creatures. In this presentation, we will reflect on the 2^nd Rooted and Rising Youth Climate Leadership Certificate program that took place in this past fall and winter 2024. The program is certified by the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, the Faculty of Education, and various youth-serving community partners. This 13-week hybrid leadership program offers youth (aged 13-30) a space to build on their existing passions and to work and learn about climate change and ecological degradation. We will discuss our approach, showcase student projects, share lessons for theory and practice, welcome open discussion, and future collaborations. 

Speaker Profiles

Kristen Sison, Co-Community Fellow 

Kristen Sison (she/her) is a Filipina woman born in Scarborough, Toronto on Dish With One Spoon Treaty Territory. She is a community archivist + artist-healer in the community arts and climate justice realms, storytelling ways of embodying reverence. A founding member of grassroots groups Kapwa Collective, Conscious Minds Co-operative, and Rooted and Rising, she has been devoted to co-creating intergenerational spaces for decolonization and deep listening to commune with the sacred. With 15 years spent witnessing the evolution of these alternative community spaces, she walks with the knowing that we can and are re-imagining and living into thriving, joy-filled futures. Sometimes her work takes the shape of community publications: in 2016 she edited and self-published Womxn, about reclaiming our power and stepping into our sacred responsibilities to land and water, and in 2021 she edited and self-published It’s Bigger Than All Of Us, featuring the work of 50+ BIPOC creators reflecting on their path to wholeness. In the Spring of 2023, she designed Filipinx/a/o Farmers and Earthworkers in Tkaronto, a zine about Filipinx/a/o food sovereignty in Tkaronto, and what it means to be farming and earth working on Indigenous lands. www.bonesthrown.com

Roxanne Cohen, Community Fellow 

Roxy Cohen (she/her) is a white Jewish settler treaty person raised along Ouentironk (Lake Simcoe), now living in Tkaron:to, Dish with One Spoon Wampum Territory. Roxy is an educator and consultant (and aunty) who is dedicated to transforming the education system and uplifting cooperative community leadership for thriving and joyful futures(now). Roxy has been a climate activist since high school, and now, she creates education programs with youth and educators that re-imagine how we teach in and with climate change. At 21, she co-founded Conscious Minds Camp & Co-op – a youth-led summer camp for imagining and practicing the world we want. After many years of camp and community organizing for food sovereignty with the St. James Town Co-op, Roxy co-instigated Rooted and Rising in her PhD on Re-Storying Education in the Era of Climate Change. She is proud to now be a Community Fellow at DI, coordinating and amplifying the Rooted and Rising Lab. Roxy also trains managers and team members in Change Leadership, Mental Health, and Communication in a diversity of settings.

Bella Lyne, Global Health Intern 

Bella (they/them), they are a white settler, treaty person living in Dish with One Spoon Wampum Covenant Territory, Tkaron:to. Bella has been passionate about climate and environmental justice for as long as they can remember, founding an arts-based initiative in high school that advocated for the rights of mother earth. Currently, Bella organizes in their community around issues of affordability, disability justice and climate justice. Bella joined Rooted and Rising in 2019 to help create the kind of loving community of youth climate leaders that they have always craved. Bella is honoured to continue this work as a Global Health Intern, supporting the growth of the Rooted and Rising Lab. Bella is completing a Master’s degree in communications and culture at York University. Their thesis, Networks of care: Mutual aid and Social Media Infrastructures, focuses on the challenges and possibilities that have emerged through the practice of online mutual aid throughout the covid-19 pandemic. All of Bella's work is rooted in a commitment to building movements centered in deep solidarity, and care and to living out their treaty responsibilities.

Kate Tilleczek, Executive Faculty Fellow 

Kate’s ancestors came from Ireland in the 1840s to escape famine and live on Turtle Island (Prince Edward Island via New York).  Kate is a grandmother, educator, Professor, and Canada Research Chair in Youth, Education & Global Good in the Faculty of Education at York University. Kate is also the Director (and founder in 2009) of the Young Lives Research Laboratory (YLRL) which has been co-created with scholars, communities, youth  and youth-serving organizations to form a unique intergenerational and intercultural space for research and communication alongside young people as they navigate the complex, digital and warming world.  Kate is leading the Partnership for Youth and Planetary Wellbeing which aims to better understand how young people from various ecological and social contexts are living well and sustainably.  Together, the partners conduct research and share findings through co-development of education for youth wellbeing, attend to what and how youth most wish to learn, and share.   

Andrea Bastien

Andrea Bastien has an extensive, continuous, and evolving relationship with music and community engagement. She has worked with an abundance of organizations including Redwire NYM, UMAYC, Indigenous Media Arts Group, Raven Spirit Dance, imagineNATIVE, Toronto Aboriginal Youth Council, TDSB Aboriginal Education, Naadmaagit Ki Group, and Indigenous Climate Action. Some past roles: youth advocate, advisor, administrator, performer, program facilitator, & communications coordinator. Andrea is currently in her Master of Education (MEd) at York University in the Urban Indigenous Education Cohort. 

Register below and join us on Wednesday, June 19, at 1 p.m.

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