Summer Institute Series

Neil Arya (BASc MD CCFP FCFP DLitt)

• Neil Arya (BASc MD CCFP FCFP DLitt)
• Founding Board President PEGASUS Institute
• Adjunct Professor- Environment and Resource Studies, University of Waterloo
• Former Chair Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP) Environmental Health Committee and member Pest Management Advisory Council of Health Canada
• Detailed biography of Dr. Arya

• Izzeldin Abuelaish- MD, MPH, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Passionate and eloquent proponent of peace between Palestinians and Israelis and has dedicated his life to using health as a vehicle for peace.
• Nathan Funk- Associate Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Waterloo
• Innocent Ntaganira- Public Health Expert. Former Head of the World Health Organization Liaison Office to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
• Yogesh Choudhri- Public health doctor and Senior Epidemiologist at the Public Health Agency of Canada in the Epidemiology branch. Previously worked for Health and has consulted for the World Health Organization in many countries in Africa and Asia and currently is the Solomon Islands’ Ministry of Health’s Senior technical advisor on COVID-19.
• Eliana Barrios Suarez (PhD MSW BSc) was an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University until 2021 and is currently an Adjunct Professor. Eliana received her PhD and MSW from the University of Toronto an Honours BA in Psychology from Trent University and an Honours BSc in Economics from the Universidad del Pacifico (Peru). Born and raised in Peru, she began involvement with the Pegasus Institute as a peace and human rights advocate, committed to eradicate gender-based violence.
• Barry S. Levy (MD, MPH) is a physician, an epidemiologist and a an Adjunct Professor of Public Health at Tufts University School of Medicine, who has written and spoken extensively on the public health impacts of war and terrorism as well as social injustice, climate change, and environmental and occupational hazards. His recently published book, From Horror to Hope: Recognizing and Preventing the Health Impacts of War, documents the health consequences of war.
• Vinay Jindal- Family Physician. Acting President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Canada. Board Member of PEGASUS Institute
• Rob Chase- Rob Chase MD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, at the University of Manitoba. Specialty fellowship in Public Health and Preventive Medicine. Involved in developing ‘Peace Through Health’ at McMaster University and Founder of the Sri Lanka Butterfly Peace Garden
• Seddiq Weera– Studied epidemiology and worked at McMaster University. Began PhD at the Centre for Peace Studies. Peace education activist, expert, leader and consultant, on system reforms in education, promotion of a culture of peace and advocating a national reconciliation program. Author of the school textbook on Life Skills; covering topics such as emotional intelligence, problem solving, conflict resolution and reconciliation, which has been used in all Afghan public schools since 2004.
• Kaveh Khoshnood- PhD, MPH- Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases); Faculty Director, Innovate Health Yale; Program Co-Director, Global Health Ethics Program, Yale Institute for Global Health; Program Director- BA-BS/MPH Program in Public Health at Yale
• Samer Jabbour- MD, MPH Professor of Public Health Practice, American University of Beirut. Founding Chair Global Alliance on War, Conflict, and Health. Former Director of the Department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office
• Emperatriz Crespin- Emperatriz Crespin is a physician with a Master’s degree in Public Health. She has worked as National and International facilitator of the programme Problem Solving for Better Health since 2000. Dr Crespin has been a member of IPPNW since 2001; she is Coordinator of the Medical Students’ Chapter of IPPNW El Salvador (E-MESARES) and is the Small Arms Project Coordinator of MESARES.
• Janis Alton- Past Co-Chair of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace. Conducted over 30 + study tours for women to UN sites and has initiated and coordinated national and international peace conferences and workshops. Serves/served on related NGOs Board of Directors, including International Peace Bureau, Canadian Pugwash Group, Science for Peace, and IPPNWC and PEGASUS Institute.
• Pakisa Tshimika- Public Health Expert. Executive Director and Founder of Mama Makeka House of Hope
• Friederike Bubenzer – MPhil, Development Studies and Social Transformation. Senior Project Leader in the Peacebuilding Interventions Programme at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation. Contributes to peacebuilding, social cohesion and reconciliation processes with policy makers and civil society leaders across the Africa and Globally. Mental health and psycho-social support (MHPSS) and peace building expert.
• Marianne Tankink- PhD, MA.Anthropological Researcher and Trainer. Former Consultant for Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) on Mental Health, linking Mental health and Psychosocial Support and Peacebuilding. MHPSS and Peacebuilding expert.
• Chloe Eward- MPH, HBA- Public Health. Director Francophone Network PEGASUS Institute. Author and Researcher WHO Situational Analysis of the Resources and Capacities Available for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Somalia. Health Planner for Entité4 (a health planning Entity for French-Language health services for central-southern Ontario).
• Melissa Whaling- MA, BA- Executive Director of PEGASUS Institute.Works with Dr. Neil Arya on various Peace through Health Projects. Author and Researcher WHO Situational Analysis of the Resources and Capacities Available for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Somalia
• Erika Richter – Department of National Defense. Co-founder of Common Ground: Conflict Resolution Services. BASc (double major) in Peace and Conflict Studies from McMaster University. Masters of Arts in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from Carleton University. ODA Campaign Coordinator at Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC-CCCI).
• Faculty are still being confirmed and there may be changes to the above list.

The connections between health-disease and peace-war are multiple. Militarized violence and war have serious and negative effects on human health, both directly and indirectly- directly, through casualties and injuries, and indirectly, through disrupted economic and social systems that address health needs as well as instilled fear and distrust. Thus, working against violence in all its forms should promote human health and wellbeing. The health sector offers an especially interesting form of peacebuilding, known as “Peace through Health” or as termed by WHO “Health as a Bridge to Peace”. The course is meant to allow critical analysis of the interrelationships between health-disease and peace-violence and the role of health-related interventions and humanitarian work as a means of discouraging violence and addressing root causes. A case study approach including examples from personal experiences of lecturers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Israel/Palestine, El Salvador, Sri Lanka through a theoretical lens of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention.

Neil Arya (BASc MD CCFP FCFP DLitt)

• Neil Arya (BASc MD CCFP FCFP DLitt)
• Founding Board President PEGASUS Institute
• Adjunct Professor- Environment and Resource Studies, University of Waterloo
• Former Chair Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP) Environmental Health Committee and member Pest Management Advisory Council of Health Canada
• Detailed biography of Dr. Arya

• Simron Singh– Professor & Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, School of Environment, Enterprise and Development,University of Waterloo
• Riina Bray- Medical Director of the Environmental Health Clinic at Women’s College Hospital and AssociateProfessor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine with cross-appointment to the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.
• Lynn Marshall- Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
• Faculty are still being confirmed and there may be changes to the above list.
• Catherine Vakil– Health Sciences, Medicine, Family Medicine, Queens University
• Theresa McClenaghan– Executive Director and Counsel at the Canadian Environmental Law Association
• Sir Andy Haines (MBBS MD FRCGP Hon FFPH FRCP FMedSci) is the former Director (Dean) and is currently a Professor of Environmental Change and Public Health at the Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). He worked part-time as a general practitioner in North London for many years and worked internationally in Nepal, Jamaica, Canada and the USA.
• Susan Elliott is a medical geographer and professor of geography at the University of Waterloo, Elliott has an active research career. She has undertaken a range of roles including Director of the Institute of Environment and Health (McMaster), Senior Research Fellow in the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Dean of Social Sciences (McMaster University) and Dean of Health Sciences (University of Waterloo).
• Warren Bell is a family physician, past founding president of Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, and a past president of Physicians for Global Survival and the Association of Complementary and Integrative Physicians of B.C.
• George Lueddeke PhD MEd Dipl.AVES (Hon.) research associate with Future Africa and the Centre for the Centre for the Study of Resilience at the University of Pretoria, South Africa and education advisor in Higher, Medical and One Health education and transdisciplinary research and leads the self-standing international One Health for One Planet Education and Transdisciplinarity initiative (1 HOPE-TDI).
• Alan Abelsohn (MBChB, CCFP, FCFP) is an Associate Professor in Department of Family and Community Medicine, and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. He is past-chair and Provost of the Working Party on the Environment for the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA).
• Kalpana Balakrishnan is the Dean of Research at the Sri Ramachandra Institute for Higher Education and Research (SRIHER) and is a leading global environmental health scientist in India.
• Bénédicte Jacquemin has a degree in Medicine, a Master in Environmental Sciences and a PhD in Life and Health Sciences. She was a researcher at the Respiratory and Environmental Epidemiology and joined the Research Institute for Environmental and Occupational Health (INSERM-U1085).
• Jane Law is an Associate Professor in the School of Planning and an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo. She holds a Ph.D. in Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, a University Teaching Diploma, an M.Sc. in Land Information Systems and a B.Sc. in Survey and Mapping Sciences.
• David Heymann is a Professor and distinguished fellow in the Global Health programme. Previously he was the World Health Organization’s assistant director-general for health security and environment, and representative of the director-general for polio eradication.
• David Pencheon is a UK trained doctor and was the founder Director of the Sustainable Development Unit for NHS England and Public Health England. He is now an Honorary Professor and an Associate at the Medical and Health School at the University of Exeter, UK.
• Enrique Barros– Enrique is a family doctor in southern Brazil and is a professor at the Universidade de Caxias do Sul. He is the host of a national TV show called Ser Saudável (“Being Healthy”).

The connections between health-disease and peace-war are multiple. Militarized violence and war have serious and negative effects on human health, both directly and indirectly- directly, through casualties and injuries, and The course will introduce health issues related to toxins found in land water air and food and an approach to individual illness that may relate to the biophysical environment. It then looks at elements of human development such as extractive industries, forestry agriculture and energy productions and resultant waste as they relate to health of vulnerable populations and approaches to risk management followed by ways of societal design to minimize negative effects and create healthy resilient communities. We then look at climate change and reducing the impact of health care on negative change and finally look at advocacy particularly for Indigenous populations. Course participants will be encouraged to reflect and share their own observations and examples.

Rachel Kiddell-Monroe, LL.M,

• Professor of Practice, Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University;
• International Board Director, Médecins Sans Frontières;
• Founder and General Director, See Change Initiative

Teresa Bonyo, M.D/MPH

• Medical Doctor and Public Health Specialist;
• National Medical Officer, IOM – UN Migration Agency
• Board of Directors, Médecins Sans Frontières

People around the world are facing profound challenges and are living in increasingly fragile contexts. These changing dynamics are forcing us to reflect on how humanitarian assistance is conceptualized and delivered to benefit vulnerable and marginalized populations. There is a recognition that the global health system is built on a colonial structure resulting in widespread injustices shown so starkly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Structural racism is a pillar of the colonial system. Today, over 65 million people have been forced to leave their homes because of conflict, violence, climate change, or extreme poverty. They are increasingly demonized by society. At the same time, inequitable access to affordable medicines and diagnostics, and significant health impacts of accelerating climate change continue to challenge our ability to deliver meaningful humanitarian assistance. This course aims to provoke reflection and debate on these trends through the lens of decolonizing humanitarian action. With input from thought leaders and community advocates from the humanitarian, environmental, and human rights field, participants will use practical examples and case studies to explore the political, human, and ethical dimensions of these three global realities.