RICHARD ALBERT
Richard Albert, born and raised in Canada, is the William Stamps Farish Professor of Law and Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. He has published over 20 books on constitutional change and reform, including Revolutionary Constitutionalism (Hart, 2020), Constitutional Amendments: Making, Breaking, and Changing Constitutions (Oxford University Press, 2019), and Canada in the World: Comparative Perspectives on the Canadian Constitution (Cambridge University Press, 2018). He is a former law clerk to the Chief Justice of Canada, and a graduate of Yale, Oxford and Harvard. He can be reached at www.richardalbert.com.
REBECCA ALTY
Rebecca Alty became the 15th Mayor of Yellowknife when she was sworn into office on November 5, 2018. Prior to being elected as Mayor, she served as a Yellowknife City Councillor for two terms, from 2012 - 2018, and worked in communications and community relations for the Diavik Diamond Mine, NGO's, and the Government of the Northwest Territories. Outside of work, she enjoys walking, gardening and travelling.
ERIKA ARBAN
Dr. Erika Arban is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Laureate Program in Comparative Constitutional Law at Melbourne Law School. Her research interests include comparative federalism, comparative constitutional law, and legal research methodology. She is also a lecture in comparative federalism at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). Erika is the co-editor of the Blog of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL) and the co-convenor of the IACL research group ‘New Frontiers of Federalism'. Erika received her PhD from the University of Ottawa (Canada), where her doctoral thesis “Italian Regionalism and the Federal Challenge” was awarded the Governor General Gold Medal for the best thesis in the Humanities. Prior to joining Melbourne Law School, Erika was a (part-time) lecturer at the University of Ottawa.
SIMON ARCHER
Simon Archer is a partner at Goldblatt Partners LLP where he specialized in labour relations and public interest litigation. He is a director of the Centre for Research in Law and Political Economy at Osgoode Hall Law School and is a Fellow at Kings College London. He was a member of the legal team that brought the constitutional challenge to Ontario’s Bill 5.
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BEDARD-RUBIN
Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin (LL.B. Laval, LL.M. Toronto) is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto. His doctoral dissertation, supported by a SSHRC Joseph-Armand-Bombardier Scholarship, provides an intellectual history of the idea of constituent authority in the French-Canadian liberal tradition. Drawing on a variety of methodological approaches, his work explores Canada’s constitutional culture from a comparative perspective writ large and has appeared in various academic publications in English and French. In 2020-2021, Jean-Christophe is the R. Roy McMurtry Fellow of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History.
DANIEL BELAND
Daniel Béland is Director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada and James McGill Professor at the Department of Political Science at McGill. A student of politics and public policy, he is currently working on research projects focusing on issues ranging from universal social policy and health care reform to the role of ideas in policy development and the relationship between fiscal policy and welfare state development.
Professor Béland holds a PhD in Political Sociology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris), where he returned as a visiting scholar in the spring of 2014. A Part-Time Professor at the University of Southern Denmark from January 2014 to December 2017, he has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University and the National University of Singapore, a visiting professor at the University of Bremen, the University of Helsinki, the University of Southern Denmark, and a Fulbright Scholar at The George Washington University and the National Academy of Social Insurance. Before joining McGill University in January 2019, he held a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) at the University of Saskatchewan (Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy).
He received B.A. and M.A. (Sociology) from the Université du Québec à Montréal.
RUDI BORRMANN
Rudi Borrmann, Deputy Director, Open Government Partnership Local, joined OGP in March 2020 and leads OGP’s work at the local level, helping to accelerate impact and reforms where government is closer to citizens by supporting strategic national-local integration, enhancing subnational participation in OGP and improving knowledge and learning opportunities for open government reformers.
Previous to this role he was Undersecretary of Public Innovation and Open Government at the Cabinet Office of Argentina from 2015 to 2019. In this position, Rudi was in charge of the National Open Government Strategy, developing Argentina’s first open data infrastructure, establishing open government reforms with three open state action plans and running LABgobAR (the National Government Lab) to support capacity building and innovation projects using user-centered design with more than 30.000 government officials involved. In 2018 he chaired the Digital Economy task force during Argentina’s presidency of the G20. In 2012 he founded the Buenos Aires Innovation Lab, led the city’s Open Government project and was part of the very first new media office of Latin America, three pioneers' projects in Argentina.
BRIAN BOWMAN
Brian Bowman was first elected Mayor on October 22nd, 2014 becoming Winnipeg’s 43rd Mayor. He was re-elected Mayor on October 24th, 2018, increasing his plurality and capturing more than 53 percent of the votes cast.
Both of Mayor Bowman’s campaigns signalled a positive, forward thinking vision for building a city whose population is on track toward a million people, and a vision to unite the city’s many diverse communities and cultures.
During his first term, Mayor Bowman successfully worked to ensure Winnipeg became a key national voice on racism and inclusion, setting the city on a journey of reconciliation and adopting the city’s first Indigenous Accord. In his second term, he’s committed to making Winnipeg an international leader for human rights education, leadership, and promotion.
Since Mayor Bowman took office, the city’s population has grown from 698,000 to over 753,000. Brian has remained focused on building a city today for the needs of a population forecasted to grow steadily and strongly well into the future. He oversaw and supported the city’s adoption of its first city-wide Asset Management Plan, as well as improved public disclosure and oversight of major capital projects.
Mayor Bowman has been a committed supporter of Winnipeg’s business community including the city’s growing innovation and technology sectors. He has supported annual reductions to the city’s business tax, reduced administrative barriers for businesses, and has worked to build the city’s reputation and attract international businesses to Winnipeg such as Ubisoft, an international leader in software development.
Prior to taking office, Mayor Bowman was a business lawyer and a partner in a major Winnipeg law firm. Alongside his law practice, Brian held many leadership roles across a range of boards and community organizations.
Mayor Bowman and his wife Tracy are proud parents of two sons. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Adv) in history and political studies from the University of Manitoba and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Toronto. He is the recipient of an honourary CPA.
CLAIRE KANE BOYCHUK
Claire K. Boychuk is Advisor to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Legal Defense Fund and a manager on FCM’s policy team. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, McGill’s Faculty of Law, and former Federal Court clerk, she brings a legal lens to questions of municipal finance and autonomy. In her work with the Legal Defense Fund, Claire supports FCM’s appellate-level interventions in cases where municipal rights are at issue. Claire’s previous research and writing has looked at a range of issues, including spatial-statistical modelling of voter preference in Toronto, disability rights in Canadian immigration law, and the application of privacy law to parliamentary affairs.
DANNY BREEN
Danny Breen was first elected to the St. John’s City Council in the Fall of 2009 and was re-elected by acclamation in 2013, representing Ward 1, in the east end of St. John’s. He was elected as Mayor of the City of St. John’s in September of 2017.
Danny has served as Chair of the Public Works Committee, Chair of the St. John’s Sport Event Partnership and Chair of the Finance Committee of the Eastern Regional Services Board. He has also served as Chair of the City’s Audit and Accountability Committee and the Finance Committee, as well as Co-Chair of the St. John’s Regional Fire Services Committee. He also served as Council representative on the Board of Directors of St. John’s Sports and Entertainment and continues to serve on many other Council Committees.
He is currently Council lead on Governance and Strategic Priorities; Economic Development; the Big City Mayor's Caucus; and Citizenship Court.
Danny is a Graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland with a Bachelor of Arts Degree (Political Science). In the past Danny has been actively involved in his community serving on The Board of Directors of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. He has also been involved in several school councils, minor hockey and many other community organizations.
Danny was born and raised in St. John’s, where he resides with his wife Ann; and has two daughters Erika and Katie, and a granddaughter, Kyla.
MARINA COSTA ESTEVES COUTINHO
Graduated in Law at Universidade Salvador (2011). Master’s in Human Rights and Democracy from the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (2015). International Law and Human rights Law lawyer and political adviser for the National Confederation of Family Farmers and Rural Family Entrepreneurs (CONAFER). Member of the Constitutional Studies Commission of the Bar Association – Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil, Bahia Section.
ERIN CRANDALL
Erin Crandall, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics at Acadia University. Her research on Canadian law and politics examines judicial appointment reform, representation on the bench, constitutional amendment, as well as election law. Crandall is the co-editor of What’s Trending in Canadian Politics? Understanding Transformations in Power, Media, and the Public Sphere (UBC Press, 2019).
BONNIE CROMBIE
In 2014, Bonnie Crombie was elected Mayor of Mississauga. Building regionally-integrated transit, igniting new economic development opportunities and creating a more open, engaging and inclusive city, have been Mayor Crombie’s leading policy priorities for Mississauga.
Mayor Crombie worked with Council to secure full-funding for the Hurontario-Main Light Rail Transit (LRT), the largest infrastructure project in Mississauga history.
Mayor Crombie serves as honorary chair of the Mississauga International Partnership Program Committee (MIPP), a new working group committed to leveraging Mississauga’s cultural diversity and international contacts to attract foreign-direct investment.
Mayor Crombie launched the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Taskforce, which brings together leaders from business, public sector and academia to identify strategies to further transform Mississauga into a thriving hub for innovation, entrepreneurship and capital investment.
During Mayor Crombie’s first year, she formed the Mayor’s Advisory Board on Poverty and Homelessness which has a mandate to find practical solutions to combat homelessness, hunger, poverty and address affordable housing challenges.
Mayor Crombie is also a Director with Enersource, a local energy provider which serves 200,000 residential and commercial customers across Mississauga.
Mayor Crombie was a member of the Peel Regional Police Services Board where she led the way to bring an end to the practice of street checks (carding).
Prior to her election, Mayor Crombie served as the Ward 5 City Councillor, and previous to that, as Member of Parliament for Mississauga-Streetsville. Before entering public service, Mayor Crombie enjoyed a twenty-year career in business.
Mayor Crombie has an MBA from York University’s Schulich School of Business and earned a Corporate Director’s Certificate from the Institute of Corporate Directors at the Rotman School of Management. She attended St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, earning an Honours Bachelor of Arts in political science and international relations. Mayor Crombie also studied French immersion at the Paris Sorbonne University.
PAUL DALY
Paul Daly has won global recognition for his scholarship in the broad field of public law, the study of the norms and institutions of government. In particular, Professor Daly is an internationally established expert on the administrative state, which churns out thousands of decisions every day – touching all aspects of ordinary citizens’ lives, from life-or-death immigration decisions, to compensation for workers injured on the job, all the way to the content of cable television.
Professor Daly’s academic work has regularly been cited by Canadian courts and administrative tribunals — his award-winning blog, Administrative Law Matters, was the first-ever blog cited by the Supreme Court of Canada. Fluent in French and English, Professor Daly is a highly sought-after public speaker and has spoken at a wide variety of academic conferences, professional development programmes and judicial education seminars, and is an accomplished media performer (Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Radio Canada and The Economist).
Professor Daly completed his law studies at University College Cork (where he also worked as a journalist for local and national media and produced two popular non-fiction books) before attending the University of Pennsylvania Law School (LLM) as a Fulbright scholar and completing his doctorate at the University of Cambridge (PhD) as a National University of Ireland Travelling Scholar and a Modern Law Review Scholar.
At the Université de Montréal (2012-2016), Professor Daly was successively Assistant Professor, Associate Dean and Associate Professor, before moving to the University of Cambridge (2016-2019) as a Senior Lecturer in Public Law and the Derek Bowett Fellow in Law at Queens’ College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he was also (2017-2019) Deputy Director of Graduate Studies. In addition, he has held visiting positions at Harvard Law School (visiting researcher), the University of Ottawa (replacement professor) and Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas (visiting professor). A member of the New York and Ontario bars, he articled at Lerners LLP in Toronto.
MIGUEL CALMON DANTAS
Doctor in Public Law by Universidade Federal da Bahia, Post-graduate in Constitutional Law by Universidad de Salamanca, Professor of Political Science and Constitutional Law at the Universidade Federal da Bahia, Professor of Constitutional Law and Coordinator of Law Course at the Universidade Salvador. Member of the Constitutional Studies Commission of the Local Bar Association – Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil, Seção Bahia.
MAARTJE DE VISSER
Maartje De Visser is an Associate Professor of Law, Basket Coordinator for Ethics & Corporate / Social Responsibility, and the Lee Kong Chian Fellow at the Singapore Management University, Singapore. She earned a Ph.D. (cum laude) from Tilburg University, Netherlands; a M.Jur. (with distinction), Oxford University, England, and a LL.M. (cum laude), Maastricht University, Netherlands.
Professor De Visser’s areas of specialisation are Engagement with constitutional rules and values outside the courtroom; Constitutional courts; Transnational judicial dialogues; and Comparative pedagogy and methodology. Her current projects include Framework for extra-judicial constitutional interpretation, participatory constitution-making in small states, cultivating constitutional literacy and identity.
NATHALIE DES ROSIERS
Nathalie Des Rosiers is the Principal of Massey College. From 2016 -2019, she was MPP representing the riding of Ottawa-Vanier. She was Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry from January to June 2018. Prior to politics, she had been the Dean of Law, Common Law, University of Ottawa (2013-2016), General Counsel of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (2009-2013), Vice-President, Governance, University of Ottawa (2008-2009), Dean of Law, Civil Law (2004-2008) and President of the LAW Commission of Canada (2000-2004).
With Peter Oliver and Patrick Macklem, she co-edited the Oxford Handbook of Canadian Constitutional Law (2017). She also wrote, with Louise Langevin and Marie-Pier Nadeau, L’indemnisation des victimes de violence sexuelle et conjugale (Prix Walter Owen, 2014).
She has received the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, honorary doctorates from Université UCL (Belgium) and the Law Society of Ontario, le Prix Christine Tourigny (Barreau du Québec) and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
WANEKIA DUNN
Wanekia Dunn is a recent Junior Fellow alumnus of Massey, having completed the Juris Doctor and Master of Laws degrees at the University of Toronto. His legal areas of focus currently include Aboriginal and Indigenous law, public-private partnerships, trusts, not-for-profits, and forms of Social Benefit Corporation. Kia’s recently completed thesis focuses on the legal principle of the honour of the Crown and its implications for Aboriginal law in Canada. He has worked at the Ontario Human Rights Commission, the Metis Nation of Ontario, and is now working with Ecotrust Canada on the Indigenous Homelands Initiative which focuses on innovations in land tenure.
MARY EBERTS
Mary Eberts O.C. is a Senior Fellow in Residence at Massey College. She received her legal education at Western and the Harvard Law School and has a national practice focused on constitutional law, Aboriginal law and human rights. She is one of the counsels for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in the Bill 5 (Toronto election) case now at the Supreme Court of Canada. Mary is one of the founders of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) and was litigation counsel for the Native Women’s Association of Canada for over twenty years. She has held the Gordon Henderson Chair in Human Rights at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law and the Ariel F. Sallows Chair in Human Rights at the College of Law, University of Saskatchewan.
ALEXANDRA FLYNN
Dr. Alexandra Flynn is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia’s Allard School of Law. Her teaching and research focusses on municipal law and governance, and administrative law. Professor Flynn's current SSHRC-funded project focuses on the legal relationship between Indigenous communities and municipal governments. The goal of this project is to illuminate the legal obligations of municipal governments, including the duty to consult and accommodate, to create reciprocal, respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples and First Nations.
She is the author of many academic and popular media contributions, including an edited volume on the governance of Canadian smart cities, co-authored with Mariana Valverde. She is currently working on a book entitled Micro Legal Spaces: the Laws of Neighbourhoods and Communities, which examines overlapping geographies and governance of city spaces, including the formal and informal bodies that represent residents. She has a long history working in law and policy, and is a past TEDx speaker and a frequent media commentator.
BENOIT FRATE
Benoît Frate, LL.B. (Montréal), LL.M., Ph.D. (Ottawa), member of the Québec Bar, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Tourism at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), where he teaches municipal law, urban planning law and tourism law. His recent research and publications focus on the relationship between municipalities and human rights and the federal-provincial-municipal division of powers in Canada. His SSHRC-funded Ph.D. thesis (2020), at the crossroads of municipal law and human rights law, was recently awarded the Médaille du Barreau de Paris.
KRISTIN GOOD
Kristin R. Good is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Dalhousie University. She is best known for her research on local immigration and diversity policies, particularly her Municipalities and Multiculturalism: The Politics of Immigration in Toronto and Vancouver (2009), which won the Canadian Political Science Association’s Donald Smiley Prize in 2010. Her current research, on municipal immigration policies, explores variation in Canadian cities with different demographic configurations of Francophones (in minority settings) and Indigenous peoples.
A second and related research program critically interrogates municipalities’ constitutional status in Canada, reflected in a recent paper entitled “The Fallacy of the Creatures of the Provinces; Doctrine: Recognizing and Protecting Municipalities Constitutional Status; published as an Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance (IMFG) Paper in 2019. She is a founding co-editor (with Dr. Martin Horak) of the McGill-Queen’s Studies in Urban Governance book series.
LISA HELPS
Lisa Helps became the 52nd Mayor of Victoria when she was elected on November 15, 2014, and was sworn into office for her second term on November 1, 2018. Prior to being elected as Mayor, she served as a Victoria City Councillor for one term, from 2011 to 2014.
Mayor Helps works hard at City Hall and in the community to ensure that the city is prosperous, affordable, sustainable, and ready for the future. Taking a long-term, big-picture perspective, she looks both around the city and around the world for innovative solutions to the pressing challenges facing us including climate change, lack of affordable housing, and growing social isolation and loneliness, especially among youth and seniors.
Mayor Helps believes that the best way to address complex challenges is to bring people from a diversity of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences together and to truly listen to each other. In her experience, listening deeply with empathy and generosity and taking in new information can enable us to change our minds or at least to broaden our perspectives. She’s honoured to have been elected as Mayor of Victoria and to serve her community in this capacity.
JOANNE HERITZ
Joanne Heritz is an Assistant Professor (LTA) in the Department of Political Science at Brock University where she currently teaches Public Policy and Public Administration. She also teaches courses in Canadian Studies and Political Theory and has taught at the University of Waterloo and McMaster University. Her PhD is in Comparative Public Policy from McMaster University. She has Masters and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science from Brock University and a Master of Information Studies degree from the University of Toronto. Research interests focus on representation of marginalized minorities, urban politics, and urban Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Her research has been published in International Indigenous Policy Journal and Canadian Public Administration.
RAN HIRSCHL
Ran Hirschl (PhD, Yale University) is Professor of Political Science and Law at the University of Toronto, holder of the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship in Comparative Constitutionalism at the University of Göttingen and heads the Max Planck Fellow Group in Comparative Constitutionalism.
He is the author of several major books including City, State: Constitutionalism and the Megacity (Oxford University Press, 2020); Comparative Matters: The Renaissance of Comparative Constitutional Law (Oxford University Press, 2014) — winner of the 2015 APSA Herman Pritchett Award for the best book on law and courts; Constitutional Theocracy (Harvard University Press, 2010) — winner of the 2011 Mahoney Prize in Legal Theory; and Towards Juristocracy (Harvard University Press, 2004), as well as over 100 articles and book chapters on constitutional law and its intersection with comparative politics and society.
Professor Hirschl has won academic excellence awards in five different countries. In 2014, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC).
ED HOLDER
Mayor Ed Holder was sworn in as London’s 64th Mayor on December 1, 2018. Prior to being elected to City Council, Ed served as Member of Parliament for London West from 2008 to 2015 and Federal Minister of Science and Technology.
Ed currently sits on the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee, the London Police Board, the London Economic Development Corporation Board, the London Convention Centre Board and the Western University Board of Governors.
Ed studied at Western University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy. He worked many years in the insurance industry, and served as President of Stevenson and Hunt Insurance. Other notable business accomplishments include being founder of the Directors Club of London, serving as President of the London Chamber of Commerce, President of the London Club, and Chair of the London Convention Centre. He has also served as a member of Western University’s Board of Governors and Senate.
Community service and civic participation are important to Ed. He has held leadership positions in more than 40 community and not-for-profit organizations. Of note, he was co-chair of London’s Rockin’ New Year’s Event, Co-founder of the Business Cares Food Drive, Past Chair and Patron of St. John Ambulance. and is a member of the Rotary Club of London. He is past President of the Sunshine Foundation of Canada and Co-chair of 2 major endowments – the 'Sunshine Dreams for Kids' endowment and the 'Y Fore Kids' endowment. His volunteerism has been recognized with more than two dozen awards, including the Canada 125 Medal, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteerism.
Ed is proud to call London home for four decades. Throughout his time in the city, his focus has been two-fold – on successfully building his businesses and in giving back to his community.
DON IVESON
Since his election as Edmonton's 35th Mayor in 2013, Mayor Iveson has led Edmonton's transformation into a more uplifting, resilient, and globally competitive city. Alongside his remarkable partner Sarah Chan, they both serve our community while raising two young children, working to make things better for all our kids and grandkids.
Harnessing a new confidence among Edmontonians, he is focused on the priorities of growing an opportunity economy, building a more family-friendly city, accelerating our leadership on energy and climate, and planning for a million people - all while strengthening integrity and performance at City Hall.
Prior to entering public life, Iveson studied Political Science at the University of Alberta, then served as president of Canadian University Press in Toronto. He returned home to a city that appeared to be exporting young, smart leaders, thinkers, creators, and entrepreneurs faster than it could attract them. As a proud Edmontonian, the challenge of attracting and retaining more people inspired Iveson to run for City Council in 2007. As a result, one of his key performance indicators - as both a Councillor and Mayor - is to build the kind of city that, when the time comes, his children will never want to leave.
NIGEL JACOB
Nigel Jacob is the Co-founder of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, a civic innovation incubator and R&D Lab within Boston’s City Hall. Nigel’s work is about making urban life better via innovative, people-oriented applications of technology and design. Prior to joining the City of Boston in 2006, Nigel worked in a series of technology start-ups in the Boston area.
He was also previously the Urban Technologist in Residence at Living Cities, a philanthropic collaboration of 22 of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions, is currently a board member at organizations such as Code For America and coUrbanize, and is an Executive-in-Residence at Boston University.
Nigel’s work has been written about extensively in magazines such as Wired, MIT Technology Review, Fast Company and books including The Responsive City, by Stephen Goldsmith and Susan Crawford and Smart Cities by Anthony Townsend.
This ground-breaking work has earned Nigel a number of awards including being named a Public Official of the year in 2011 by Governing Magazine, a Whitehouse Champion of Change, and the Tribeca Disruptive Innovation award for 2012. Nigel is also a 12th level Wizard-Pirate with a special focus on causing chaos in large municipal bureaucracies via befuddlement spells.
MARY JANIGAN
Dr. Mary Janigan is a Toronto-based journalist and historian. She has written extensively about Canadian public policy and politics for the Toronto Star, Maclean’s and the Globe and Mail. Her work earned the Hyman Solomon Award for policy analysis, a National Newspaper Award and the John Dafoe Award for Let the Eastern Bastards Freeze in the Dark: The West Versus the Rest Since Confederation (Knopf Canada). Her most recent book is in The Art of Sharing: The Richer Provinces versus the Poorer Provinces Since Confederation (McGill-Queen’s University Press).
ALAN KASPERSKI
Alan Kasperski is the Conference “Connector” and Executive Producer of the City In Sight podcast, bringing together the people, events, places, and things that will make for a successful and important event. Trained as a systems analyst, he has a varied and interesting c.v. that has seen him provide information on commercial credit reports on major Canadian businesses for Dun & Bradstreet, working in the PMO and on a Prime Minister’s tour staff during a federal election, being a founding employee at Dell Canada, to advising a variety of European and Asian businesses on opportunities in the Canadian market. He has a long-held belief that democracy and its’ institutions have become stale, uninspiring and must evolve to better serve Canadians in the 21st-century. He acts and advocates on that belief.
HOI KONG
Hoi Kong is the Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, P.C., UBC Professor in Constitutional Law and a Scholar at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies. He researches and publishes in a range of areas of public and constitutional law and theory. Much of his work has focused on how to make the substance and processes of public and constitutional law more legitimate in the eyes of citizens. He has been an academic visitor at, among other institutions, Cornell University, Kyoto University, the Australian National University and the University of Fribourg. At the outset of his career, he was law clerk to Justice Deschamps and Justice L’Heureux-Dubé at the Supreme Court of Canada.
ANNIKA KRESS
Annika Kress is Researcher at the Institute for Comparative Federalism at Eurac Research, Bolzano / Bozen (Italy). She holds a Master’s degree from the Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law, University of the Basque Country (Spain). Her interests include comparative federalism, local government, diversity in multilevel systems, as well as (sub-national) constitutionalism and socio-legal approaches to constitutionalism.
She has authored and co-authored several publications, among them two studies on public participation in local decision-making. She is the Project Manager of the EU-funded project “LoGov – Local Government and the Changing Urban-Rural Interplay” that brings together 18 partners from around the world.
KONRAD LACHMAYER
Konrad Lachmayer is professor of public law, European law, and foundations of law at Sigmund Freud University Vienna, Austria and visiting fellow at Durham Law School, UK. In his research he focuses on comparative public law. Konrad was visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge, the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg and at Central European University in Budapest.
He published more than 100 papers and edited more than 20 books. See further information: www.lachmayer.eu.
R. STACEY LAFORME
R. Stacey LaForme is the elected Giima of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation (MNCFN). Born and raised on MNCFN, Giima Laforme has served his community for over twenty years, being first elected to council in 1999.
Giima Laforme has participated in a number of committees and boards throughout his seven terms served as a Councillor, including involvement with the MNCFN’s Pan Am Games Secretariat (PAGS). As Chair of the PAGS Committee, Giima LaForme was instrumental in raising the profile of all First Nations through the recognition of the MNCFN as the first ever official Host First Nation of the Pan Am/Parapan Am Games. Giima LaForme is committed to increasing involvement and communication between Elected Council and both on and off-reserve membership.
He is very active throughout MNFCN’s traditional territory, which encompasses 3.9 million acres of Southern Ontario, not only as a Giima, but as a notable storyteller and poet. His best-known poem is Remember. Its words are on the Veterans Memorial, and a reading of it is available on You Tube. His most recently published volume of poetry is titled Living in the Tall Grass: Poems of Reconciliation.
Giima Laforme is an Honorary Senior Fellow for Massey College, joining the former chancellor of the University of Cambridge (Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh) and the chancellor of the University of Oxford (Lord Patten of Barnes) as Distinguished Honorary Fellows. Giima Laforme is only the third person awarded the highest honour the college can bestow.
JEAN LECLAIR
Jean Leclair was born in Montréal in 1963. Having graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from Université de Montréal in 1985, he worked as legal secretary for the honourable Alice Desjardins, judge of the Federal Appeals Court of Canada. Recipient of the Duff Rinfret Scholarship, he subsequently furthered his studies (LL.M.) under the direction of Professor André Morel. In 1991, he was appointed a professor of constitutional law and legal history at Université de Montréal. He founded a course entitled “Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Law” in 1999. Professor Leclair was one of four Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation fellows in 2013 and recipient of the 2016-2017 Prix-André-Morel for teaching excellence. This charitable national organization, which is independent and has no political affiliation, “recognizes fellows who have set themselves apart through their research achievements, their creativity, and their social commitment” on an annual basis.
His interest in federalism has inter alia led him to author several works on environmental management in the federal Canadian framework and on the constitutional foundations of Canadian bijuralism. Jean Leclair has devoted more than a decade to studying the (re)configuration of political relationships between Indigenous peoples and governments and within Indigenous communities themselves. His chosen field of research focuses on the structural effects of law in the unfolding of these relationships. He also contemplates epistemological issues raised by the interaction of law and other social sciences. Professor Leclair seeks to formulate a theory of federalism that would satisfy Indigenous political communities’ quest for self-determination without demanding that the members of such communities adhere to a monistic conception of identity.
JEFF LEHMAN
Jeff Lehman is the 46th Mayor of the City of Barrie. Mayor Lehman represented Barrie's Ward 2 as a Councillor from 2006-2010 before being elected Mayor in 2010. From 2014-2017, Lehman chaired Ontario's Big City Mayors' Caucus (LUMCO), representing Ontario's 28 largest cities. He was re-elected in 2018 with 91% of the popular vote.
As the head of Council, he is leading Barrie through a period of rapid change. During his first term in office, major new campuses were developed in Barrie by IBM, TD Bank, Cogeco, Napoleon, and others, and Barrie led all metropolitan areas east of Alberta in the rate of job creation. In 2015, Barrie was named the safest big city in the country, and in 2016 was named Canada's 3rd most entrepreneurial city, by the Financial Post. Mayor Lehman is also a founding director of Alectra, the second largest community-owned utility in North America, serving more than a million customers in southern Ontario.
Lehman holds a Chartered Director (C.Dir) designation and has served on the Boards of Directors of 8 separate organizations over his ten-year career in public service, including on the Board of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. His articles concerning the future of municipalities have appeared in the Globe and Mail and industry publications and he has been a frequent keynote speaker at conferences, focusing particularly on innovation in the public sector and the intersection of business, community, and government. He liaises frequently and directly with senior government both on behalf of his municipality and on behalf of the municipal sector. In 2017, he was awarded the Gil Bennett Award by the Conference Board of Canada for excellence in corporate governance education through the Director's College. He was also named the 2017 Community Leader Influencer of the Year by the Economic Developers Council of Ontario. In 2019, the prestigious US business magazine Fast Company named Lehman number 26 in its top 100 Most Creative People in Business for his innovative solutions in government.
He holds a B.A. from Queen's University, and a Master's Degree with first class honours from the UK's London School of Economics, where he lectured for two years following graduation. As an economist, he worked with cities across the country to manage redevelopment and invest in their urban infrastructure during a ten-year career as a consultant before entering public life. Mayor Lehman is a passionate believer in transforming urban economies through public and private entrepreneurship.
EMMETT MACFARLANE
Emmett Macfarlane, Ph.D. is an associate professor of political science at the University of Waterloo. He is the author of 'Governing from the Bench: The Supreme Court of Canada and the Judicial Role' (UBC Press, 2013) and 'Constitutional Pariah: Reference re Senate Reform and the Future of Parliament' (UBC Press, 2021). He is also the editor of 'Constitutional Amendment in Canada' (University of Toronto Press, 2016), 'Policy Change, Courts, and the Canadian Constitution' (University of Toronto Press, 2018), and 'Dilemmas of Free Expression' (forthcoming, University of Toronto Press).
JEAN PIERRE ELONG MBASSI
Jean-Pierre Elong Mbassi is Secretary-General, United Cities and Local Governments of Africa - UCLGA, Morocco. Mr. Elong Mbassi has held his current position since 2007 coordinating actions in decentralization, support to Local Governments services supply and infrastructure management. From March 1992 to March 2007, he was Secretary-General of the Municipal Development Partnership, West and Central Africa Office based in Cotonou (Benin Republic). He was Secretary-General of the World Association of Cities and Local Authorities Coordination (WACLAC), Geneva and from 1981-1991, he was CEO of the first Urban Project co-funded by the World Bank in Cameroon. He was Special Adviser to the President of the Planning and Cooperation Agency (Agence Coopération et Aménagement), a Paris-based French public company aimed at supporting developing countries in urbanization and territorial development.
DAVID MILLER
David Miller is the Director of International Diplomacy for C40 Cities. Mr. Miller was Mayor of Toronto from 2003 to 2010, and served as Chair of C40 Cities from 2008 until 2010. Under his leadership, Toronto became widely admired internationally for its environmental leadership, economic strength and social integration.
He is a leading advocate for the creation of sustainable urban economies, and a strong and forceful champion for the next generation of jobs through sustainability. Mr. Miller has held a variety of public and private positions and served as Future of Cities Global Fellow at Polytechnic Institute of New York University from 2011 to 2014, was an Adjunct Professor at York University in Toronto and has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Waterloo in Environmental Studies.
Prior to joining the C40, Mr. Miller served as the President and CEO of World Wildlife Fund-Canada, Canada’s foremost conservation organization. David Miller is a Harvard trained economist and professionally a lawyer. He and his wife, lawyer Jill Arthur, are the parents of two children.
RATNA OMIDVAR
The Honourable Ratna Omidvar, C.M., O.Ont. Senator for Ontario, The Senate of Canada is an internationally recognized voice on migration, diversity and inclusion. In April 2016, Ms. Omidvar was appointed to the Senate of Canada as an independent Senator representing Ontario. As a member of the Senate’s Independent Senators Group she holds a leadership position as Liaison. Senator Omidvar also served as Deputy Chair of the Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector. Previously at Ryerson University, Senator Omidvar was a Distinguished Visiting Professor and founded the Global Diversity Exchange. Senator Omidvar was appointed to the Order of Ontario in 2005 and became a Member of the Order of Canada in 2011.
AKWASI OWUSU-BEMPAH
Akwasi Owusu-Bempah BA (Carleton) MA, PhD (Toronto) is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto and a Senior Fellow at Massey College. He holds Affiliate Scientist status at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and serves as Director of Research for the Campaign for Cannabis Amnesty. Dr. Owusu-Bempah’s work examines the intersections of race, crime and criminal justice, with a particular focus in the area of policing. His current research projects include: 1) a study of public perceptions of the Ontario criminal justice system; 2) an analysis of the implementation of Impact of Race and Culture Assessments in Ontario Courts; 3) an examination of the Black inmate experience in Canada. He is also is studying various aspects of cannabis legalization in Canada and around the world. His research has recently been published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Race and Justice, and Theoretical Criminology.
JOHANNE POIRIER
Johanne Poirier joined McGill University’s Faculty of Law in August 2015 as the inaugural holder of the Peter MacKell Chair in Federalism. In 2019, the McGill Law Students Association awarded her the John W. Durnford Teaching Excellence Award.
Previously, Professor Poirier was a faculty member of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), where, between 2004 and 2015, she taught various courses on comparative law, federalism and European regionalism both at the Faculty of Law and the Institute of European Studies. From 2008 to 2012, she also co-directed the ULB’s Center for Public Law.
Johanne Poirier has been an invited professor at the University of Ottawa, the University of Montreal, the Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales of Madrid, and the Faculty of Law at the National University of Rwanda.
She has participated in a number of expert missions on constitutional design in Spain, Belgium, Tunisia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Rwanda, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan, South Sudan, and Nepal. She also has been a board member of the Forum of Federations since 2007.
Prior to her academic career, she worked as a Law clerk for the Hon. Charles Gonthier of the Supreme Court of Canada, and as a constitutional lawyer for the Canadian Department of Justice.
PhD in Law (D.Phil), Cambridge and doctorate equivalency, Université Libre de Bruxelles; License in Comparative Law (LLM); B.C.L. / LL.B, McGill; B.A. Hon. (history & philosophy), Queen’s University.
REMI POIROT
Rémi Poirot is a second-year Comparative Constitutional Law and Public Finances PhD candidate at Sorbonne Law School. He is currently working on a thesis on the comparative governance of Global Metropolises with a focus on Greater Paris, Greater London and Greater New York City, under the supervision of Professor Eleonora Bottini (Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law and Legal Theory at University of Caen-Normandie, France) and Professor Matthieu Conan (Professor of Public Finances at University of Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne).
His research aims at grasping the constitutional, legislative, financial and fiscal arrangements that dictate the ways in which these three major metropolises are governed, in order to determine the extent of home rule they are entitled to. Thus, the purpose of his thesis is to discuss the ability of local government law to embrace the metropolitisation process they are facing.
PATRICIA POPELIER
Patricia Popelier is senior professor in constitutional law at the University of Antwerp, and director of the Law and Government research group. She is also senior research fellow at the University of Kent, Centre for Federal Studies, co-promoter of the Centre of Excellence GOVTRUST, convenor of the IACL standing research group on subnational constitutions in federal and quasi-federal systems and member of the scientific committee of EURAC Institute for Comparative Federalism.
She publishes widely in the area of constitutional law, with focus on federalism, constitutional review, and legislative studies. Her most recent monography is Dynamic Federalism (Routledge 2021).
CETA RAMAKHALAWANSINGH
Ceta Ramkhalawansingh is a human rights advocate, city builder, feminist and former city councillor. Ceta worked at Toronto City Hall from 1981 to retirement in 2010 as the corporate manager of diversity and human rights where she introduced many policies aimed at making the City a social justice leader. In 2014, she was appointed as a City Councillor to fill a vacancy. She is and has been a university lecturer, author, community organizer and a volunteer board member in the non-profit sector. In 1967, Ceta’s family moved from Trinidad and Tobago to Toronto where she attended high school and the University of Toronto.
EMMANUELLE RICHEZ
Dr. Emmanuelle Richez, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Political Science and Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Windsor. Her research examines law and politics in Canada and other advanced liberal democracies, with a particular focus on ethno-cultural minority rights. Dr. Richez’s work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Canadian Journal of Political Science, the Osgoode Hall Law Journal, and the Australian Indigenous Law Review. She currently serves as a member of the Official Languages Rights Expert Panel of the Court Challenges Program of Canada. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from McGill University.
DAVID ROBITAILLE
David Robitaille, Ph.D. is Full Professor at the Civil Law Section, University of Ottawa. His recent research and publications focus on the constitutional federal-provincial-municipal division of powers on land use planning, the environment, transportation and human rights. He also acts as a pro bono lawyer in public interest litigation in constitutional environmental law and has argued for environmental organizations before various courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada. He is also counsel at DHC Avocats in Montreal, has been a member of the Legal Committee of the Quebec Environmental Law Center since 2014 and served on the City of Gatineau’s Commission on the environment and sustainable development from 2015 to 2017.
MARY W. ROWE
Mary W. Rowe, President and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute, is a leading urban advocate and civil society leader who has worked in cities across Canada and the United States. Mary comes to CUI with several years of experience as an urban advocate and community leader, including serving as Executive Vice President of the Municipal Art Society of New York (MASNYC), one of America’s oldest civic advocacy organizations focused on the built environment. A mid-career fellowship with the US-based blue moon fund led her to New Orleans where she worked with national philanthropy, governments and local communities to support rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. Prior, Mary was President of the Canadian platform Ideas That Matter, a convening and publishing program based on the work of renowned urbanist Jane Jacobs.
Mary has been a frequent contributor to national and international city-building programs, including UN Habitat and the World Urban Forum. She brings an extensive international network of practitioners from government, industry, community activism, and the city-building professions to strengthen CUI under her leadership.
GABRIELLA SAPUTELLI
Gabriella Saputelli is a Researcher at the Institute for the Study of Regionalism, Federalism and Self Government (ISSiRFA) of the National Research Council (CNR) in Rome and the 2020 Distinguished Visiting US – Italian Fulbright Assistant Professor of “Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights in the EU” at the Law School and Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame (Indiana). From 2016 - 2019 she was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Constitutional law (10 CFU) at the School of Law of the International Telematic University. She is a Teaching Fellow in Public Law at the University of Lumsa (Rome).
Gabriella received her Law Degree cum laude at the University of Teramo in 2006 with a dissertation in Constitutional law on the theme “The executive sources of law in the European Constitution”; and a Ph.D. in Italian and European Constitutional Law at the University of Teramo (Italy) in 2010, with a dissertation on “The Role of Customary Law in the Evolution of the State”.
RICH SCHRAGGER
Richard Schragger is the Perre Bowen Professor and Martha Lubin Karsh and Bruce A. Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he has taught since 2002. He is also a Senior Academic Fellow at the Miller Center for Public Affairs. His scholarship focuses on the intersection of constitutional law and local government law, federalism, urban policy, and the constitutional and economic status of cities. He is the author of City Power: Urban Governance in a Global Age (Oxford 2016), along with numerous articles and book chapters.
AMAL SETHI
Amal Sethi is a Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School where he researches on comparative constitutional law and theory from an interdisciplinary perspective. Prior to this, Amal obtained his Doctor of Juridical Sciences (SJD) from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020. For his doctoral dissertation, Amal devised normative theories of role, adjudication, and design for constitutional courts in developing democracies. During his time at Penn, Amal was appointed as a Legal Writing Fellow with the Penn Law Writing Program and was selected as a Fellow with the Salzburg Cutler Fellows Program and The Global Women Leadership Project.
Amal has been involved in several capacities and across different countries with governmental and inter-governmental agencies ranging from USAID and the US Department of Commerce to UNESCO, UNDP, UN Women, UNHCHR, and the World Bank. Currently, Amal also serves on the board of the non-profit Dagar-Pathway and is an advisor for the non-profit One Future Collective.
ENID SLACK
Enid Slack is the Director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance (IMFG) at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. She has written extensively on property taxes, intergovernmental transfers, financing municipal infrastructure, metropolitan governance, and municipal boundary restructuring.
Enid has chaired or been a member of numerous panels and commissions, including the Who Does What Panel in Ontario and the City of Vancouver’s Property Tax Policy Review Commission. She consults widely on municipal finance and governance issues with governments and international agencies. In 2012, she was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work on cities.
ANNEKE SMIT
Anneke Smit is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law and the inaugural Director of the Windsor Law Centre for Cities. She is the co-lead of the Government of Canada-funded Cities and Climate Action Forum. Prior to joining Windsor Law she held a Lectureship at the School of Law, University of Reading (UK). Dr. Smit's research, teaching and community engagement focus on urban planning and municipal law, and global refugee law and policy.
Dr. Smit has worked on domestic and global refugee law and policy with government, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations in Canada, the Balkans and the South Caucasus. She has held visiting positions at the Amsterdam Centre for Migration and Refugee Law; Oxford University's Refugee Studies Centre, and the Faculté de Droit, Université d'Aix-Marseille.
Dr. Smit's publications include Public Interest, Private Property: Law and Planning Policy in Canada (co-edited with Marcia Valiante, UBC Press, 2016), The Property Rights of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: Beyond Restitution (Routledge, 2012), and A Guide to International Law Careers, 2nd ed. (co-authored, British Institute for International and Comparative Law, 2015). She has written consultancy papers for the Jerusalem Old City Initiative (JOCI) and UNHCR Europe.
Her extensive community involvement includes two terms (2016-2020) as founding member of the national Scholars at Risk Canada steering committee, and founding the Windsor-Essex chapter of the Refugee Sponsorship Support Programme (Refugee SSP) from 2016-18. She is a regular commentator in English and French-language media on urban planning issues and refugee law and policy.
She has been the recipient of the Windsor Law Students Law Society (SLS) Faculty Award, the Windsor-Essex Local Immigration Partnership Welcoming Communities Award, the University of Windsor Alumni Association Excellence in Mentoring Award, and the UWindsor Humanities Research Group Fellowship.
MARY STOKES
After completing degrees in history (B.A. Hons. University of Toronto, M.A. University of Western Ontario) and law (LL.B. University of Western Ontario), Mary began practising law at Legge & Legge on her call to the bar in 1983. As an associate, she focused mainly on family law; now a firm partner, she works primarily in the areas of wills, trusts, and estate administration.
Mary completed her doctorate in law at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University. She has served as a course director in the Law and Society programme at York University and as an adjunct professor of the law of Trusts at Osgoode. She is a published legal historian and was a McMurtry Fellow in Canadian Legal History and recipient of the Osgoode Society’s Peter Oliver prize. She has written for and lectured in continuing legal education programs and provides legal information seminars to schools and groups.
A trustee of the Canadian Foundation for Advanced Legal Research, she also serves on the Board of Directors of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History as the chair of the communications and promotion committee and is responsible for social media for the Society. Mary also serves on the Board of Directors of the Mabel Kniseley Foundation and is active in church and community activities. Along with her husband, John, she also serves as honorary counsel to the AFC (Actors' Fund of Canada.)
ALMOS TASSONYI
Dr. Almos Tassonyi is an Executive Fellow and former Director of the Urban Policy Program at The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary. He is an Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto, and a Research Associate at the International Property Tax Institute. He is also a member of the Senate of Trinity College, University of Toronto.
He has over thirty years of experience working in the Ontario Ministries of Municipal Affairs and Finance on municipal fiscal issues and international experience in China, Hungary and India working with the World Bank, the Forum of Federations and the Canadian Urban Institute.
He has co-authored a book on property tax reform and authored journal articles and chapters in several books on municipal budgeting, property taxation and fiscal decentralization.
Dr. Tassonyi holds a PhD in economics from the University of Calgary, an MSc in Economic History from the London School of Economics and a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Economics and Economic History from the University of Toronto.
ZACHARY TAYLOR
Dr. Zack Taylor is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre for Urban Policy and Local Governance at the University of Western Ontario. He is a Fellow at the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance in the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto and non-practicing Registered Professional Planner.
His new book Shaping the Metropolis (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019) compares the historical development of Canadian and American urban governance. His comparative survey of provincial local government legislation co-authored with Alec Dobson, “Power and Purpose: Canadian Municipal Law in Transition,” was published by IMFG in 2020.
GIOVANNA TIEGHI
Adjunct Professor of ELP –Global English for Legal Studies, University of Padua, Italy –School of Law, Department of Public International and European Community Law.
Adjunct Professor of ELP – Global English for Legal Studies. PhD in Constitutional Law at the University of Padua (Italy), School of Law and previously Researcher in Constitutional Law on the project ‘Fiscal Policy and Rights of Freedom: The Taxpayer Bill of Rights in the USA and in Italy’.
Member of the Academic Research Groupon City - ‘Gruppo Progetto Città’ on the Role of the City in Contemporary Democracies with personal focus (lectures and publications) on Global Cities, Info-City States, Human Rights Cities and the Global Parliament of Mayors (GPM). (https://dirpubblico.unipd.it/node/3283)
ANTONELLA VALMORBIDA
Antonella Valmorbida, Secretary General - European Association for Local Democracy ALDA since 1999, has a senior experience in promoting local democracy, empowerment and participation of civil society, and good governance in Europe, in the Balkans, in Eastern Europe, and in the Mediterranean area. She is a European senior consultant on local development with a focus on the implementation of participatory processes for urban regeneration. She manages a network of 350 members mainly composed of local authorities and civil society groups, in over 40 countries in Europe and beyond.
Antonella Valmorbida is President of the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) and Member of the Advisory Board of Urban Foundation for Sustainable Development, Armenia. She has been Chair of the EPAN working group of CONCORD until 2016, Chair of the Committee on Democracy and Civil Society of the Conference of the INGO of the Council of Europe from 2008 to 2011, and she was the coordinator of the subgroup on local government and public administration reform of the Civil Society Forum for Eastern Partnership. In 2012-13, she was board Member of CIVICUS – the World Alliance for Citizens Participation.
Antonella Valmorbida has an academic career at the university of Padova, Italy, and published two books on the involvement of citizens at the local level to promote democracy as well as various articles. Antonella Valmorbida is a French and Italian native speaker and she is fluent in English and Russian.
MARIANA VALVERDE
Mariana Valverde is a professor at the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies at the University of Toronto, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada since 2006. She served as Director of the Centre from 2007 to 2013 and was one of the founders of the Sexual Diversity Studies program. She holds a courtesy cross-appointment to the Department of Geography and Planning as well as the Faculty of Law. Prior to joining the University of Toronto in 1993, she was an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at York University and previously taught in Women’s Studies at Trent University.
In 2016, Professor Valverde received the Law and Society Association’s Harry J. Kalven Jr. Award in recognition of “empirical scholarship that has contributed most effectively to the advancement of research in law and society.” She has twice won the Association’s Herbert Jacobs Book Prize for a major contribution to socio-legal scholarship: in 2000 for Diseases of the Will: Alcohol and the Dilemmas of Freedom (Cambridge University Press, 1998) and again in 2013 for Everyday Law on the Streets: City Governance in an Age of Diversity (University of Chicago Press, 2012).
PATRICIA WOOD
Professor Patricia Wood, Ph.D. (History) from Duke University is the Graduate Program Director, Geography at York University in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change. Her areas of interest are Citizenship & Governance; Settler Colonialism; Cities; Political Ecology; and Cultural Geographies.
Professor Woods’ current research projects are Unstable properties: book project on Aboriginal title and the invention of British Columbia, with UBC Press, co-authored with David Rossiter, Western Washington University; Toronto the Better: research project on comparative urban governance, with Alexandra Flynn, Allard School of Law, UBC; StudentMoveTO: collaborator on a multi-university and community partner project studying the mobility of post-secondary students in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, PI: Raktim Mitra, Ryerson University; and Paradoxes of Liberal Democracy: book project, with University of Toronto Press
Her publications include Mary Gilmartin, Patricia Burke Wood and Cian O’Callaghan, Mobility and Citizenship in the Era of Brexit and Trump, Bristol & Chicago: Bristol University/Policy Press, 2018 and Citizenship, Activism and the City: The Invisible and the Impossible, London & New York: Routledge. 2017.