Instructor Profiles

Frances Westley, PhD

Frances is the J. W. McConnell Chair in Social Innovation and Director of the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience. Co-author of the best-seller Getting to Maybe, she studies inter-organizational and interdisciplinary collaboration, institutional entrepreneurship, and the application of complex systems theory to intractable social problems.

J. Mark Weber, PhD

Mark is the Director of the Waterloo- McConnell Graduate Diploma in Social Innovation, and Associate Professor of Management and Organizations. Formerly with the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and an award-winning teacher and researcher, he studies conflict management, social dilemmas, trust, decision-making and group dynamics.

Thomas Homer-Dixon, PhD

Thomas is the CIGI Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and the Director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation. Author of two best-selling books — The Ingenuity Gap and The Upside of Down — he studies how societies adapt to complex economic, ecological and technological change.”

Dan McCarthy, PhD

Dan is Assistant Professor of Environment and Resource Studies, University of Waterloo. His expertise lies in complex systems with a special focus on First Nations partnerships that relate to fostering adaptive capacity for Community- based Natural Resource Management.

Brenda Zimmerman, PhD

Brenda is the founder and Director of the Health Industry Management Program at the Schulich School of Business, York University, where she is also Associate Professor of Strategy. Co-author of the bestseller Getting to Maybe, her main research interest involve applying complexity science to management, leadership and social innovation, especially as it relates to health care and not-for- profit organizations.

Carin Holroyd, PhD

Carin is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, a Senior Research Analyst with the Asia- Pacific Foundation, and Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Waterloo. Her research interests include social entrepreneurship, government-business relations, Canada- Japan relations, international trade and national innovation policies.

Olaf Weber, PhD

Olaf is the Export Development Canada Chair in Environment Finance, and Associate Professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, University of Waterloo. His research and teaching interests include environmental and sustainable finance with a focus on sustainable financial and credit risk management, socially responsible investment, social banking and the link between sustainability and financial performance of enterprises.

Ed Jernigan, PhD, PEng

Ed is the founding Director of the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Knowledge Integration, and Professor of Knowledge Integration. An award-winning teacher, he has directed the nationally recognized Shad Valley program at Waterloo since 1984, and created a new enrichment program, Waterloo Unlimited, in 2004. His research interests focus on perception in the broadest sense; vision and image processing, pattern recognition, non-linear and adaptive systems, and design thinking.

Numerous other thought leaders and expert consultants.