Staff

President

Follow @jenjeffs

Dr. Jennifer A. Jeffs is the President of the Canadian International Council (CIC), a non-partisan, membership-based research council focused on international affairs. Dr. Jeffs was previously the Deputy Executive Director of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI); the Founding Director of the Centro de Estudios y Programas Interamericanos (CEPI) based at ITAM in Mexico City, where she was also a professor in the Department of International Studies. Her professional background includes an executive role at the Council of the Americas/Americas Society in New York City and various positions in the financial services industry in Toronto. Dr. Jeffs is a member of the editorial board of Foreign Affairs en Español; a Director of Centro de Estudios y Programas Interamericanos (CEPI) in Mexico City; a Director of the the Canadian Council of the Americas; a member of the Board of Directors of the World Wildlife Fund, Canada; and a member of the Avisory Council of the Canada-Mexico Initiative. Dr. Jeffs holds a Ph.D. in International Political Economy (IPE) from the University of Toronto.

Staff

Rima Berns-McGown is a scholar, writer and editor whose work explores the spaces between peoples and cultures. She teaches diaspora studies with the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies and the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Toronto, and is Managing Editor of International Journal, the Canadian academic quarterly of international politics, and chair of outreach for the Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs.

Dr. Berns-McGown holds an M.A. in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University’s Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington and a Ph.D. in International Politics from the University of Wales at Aberystwyth, United Kingdom. Her first book, Muslims in the Diaspora: The Somali Communities of London and Toronto, explored the renegotiation of identity and religion that Somali refugees undertook in the first years after moving to the West. Her more recent publications include book chapters and articles based on further interviews with Somali women, on political culture, and on questions of diasporic identity and the dynamics between diasporic communities and the wider society. Her current research focuses on interviews with young diasporic Canadians on questions of identity and belonging.

Follow @anoukdey

Anouk Dey is the Deputy Editor of opencanada.org and an Action Canada fellow. Anouk recently completed her M.Phil in International Relations at Oxford University, where she was a Donovan-Moody scholar and received an Oxford Blue (ski racing). Anouk is founder and President of Reclaim Childhood, a non-profit organization that seeks to expose Iraqi refugee girls to sport. Anouk holds a B.A. (Hons) in International Relations from Williams College.

Naomi Joseph is Academic Relations Officer at the Canadian International Council (CIC). She joined the CIC in 2011 as part of the team to launch OpenCanada.org. Naomi holds an M.St. in English language and literature from the University of Oxford and a B.A. from Columbia University.

Kathryn McBride is the Office Administrator at the Canadian International Council (CIC). She graduated from the University of Waterloo with a B.A. (Hons) in Speech Communication and received a post-graduate certificate in Corporate Communications from Seneca College. Kathryn has previously worked for the Association of Ontario Midwives as an office assistant.

Tayab Mohammed is the Accountant at the Canadian International Council (CIC). He is a Commerce graduate and a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh.

He headed the finance departments for a number of manufacturing industries outside Canada. From 1974-84 he was the finance manager and company secretary of Therapeutics (BD) Ltd., a pharmaceutical firm having manufacturing agreements with three American corporations: Cyanamid Overseas Corporation, Wyeth Laboratories and Bristol Myers Inc. In 1984, he moved to Zambia to join Zambia Oxygen Ltd., then a subsidiary of British Oxygen. His last assignment before immigrating to Canada was as the financial controller of Indeco Milling Ltd., a food-grain milling company with seven milling facilities spread over the country.

Since 1997, Tayab has worked for various commercial and non-profit organizations in Canada. Before joining the CIC, he worked for a project of International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Belmont House, Toronto.

Follow @taylor_owen

Taylor Owen is the Senior Editor of opencanada.org. He is a Banting Fellow at the Liu Institute for Global Issues, teaches at the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC, and is the Research Director of the Munk Debates. His Doctorate is from the University of Oxford, where he was Trudeau Scholar. He has been a lecturer at the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto, Research Fellow at the Center for Global Governance at the LSE, Fellow in the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University and he was an Action Canada Fellow. He has also worked as a researcher at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo. His personal website is www.taylorowen.com, where he hosts published research and writings on international affairs, politics and the changing nature of media.

Deborah Shields joined the CIC team in the fall of 2009 and is the Director of Operations. She has worked in a variety of industries – banking, adventure travel and professional services, to name a few – and brings a wealth of experience to her role. Deborah has a Certificate in Business Management Fundamentals from the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies.

Follow @laurasunderland

Laura Sunderland is Vice President, Programs at the Canadian International Council (CIC). Since joining the CIC in 2007, she has worked on CIC programs and activities, communications and branch development. Prior to joining the CIC, Laura was Senior Researcher for the G8 Research Group at the Munk School of Global Affairs. She has written articles on the G8 and global health governance in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization and in Ashgate’s Global Environmental Governance and Global Finance series. Laura holds a B.A. (Hons) in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Toronto, where she studied international relations, economics and conflict resolution.