Panel Discussion

Cities of Learning: The University in the Americas

May 11, 2015 from 2:45 – 4:15 PM

Munk School of Global Affairs – Campbell Conference Facility, University of Toronto - St. George Campus, 1 Devonshire Pl, Toronto, ON M5S 3K7

"Could Toronto become the first large city in the world in which every person could access healthy, affordable and delicious food, within walking distance,

365 days a year?"

This is the question that will be addressed by a prominent social entrepreneur and environmentally conscious city-builder, and a panel of academics. Together, they will stimulate the audience to discuss what it would take to transform Toronto into an incubator for a scalable, sustainable model for urban food security.

During the panel, the participants will address a wide spectrum of questions, such as:

• How could Toronto become free of hunger? • What would it take to erase food desserts in Toronto? • How could Toronto self-sustain in the face of a catastrophic event? • What partnerships are needed to make it happen? What barriers must be overcome?

The overarching question is an integral part of the One Toronto for the World initiative, which seeks to transform the city into an incubator for elegant, effective, scalable, radically collaborative and sustainable solutions to the most pressing challenges of our time, through public engagement and promotion of social ventures. The initiative is hosted by the Institute for Global Health Equity & Innovation and the Faculty of Forestry, and has been inspired by the 2015 Pan Am Games.

The panel will also set the scene for a conversation that matters, a ‘safe space’ for discussions to legitimize the “unasked” questions, the “elephants in the room”, the taboos, the contradictions and the tensions that are exacerbated by differences in opinions, views or ideologies held by people tackling challenges at the intersection of global health, equity and innovation.

The Institute for Global Health Equity & Innovation is an University-wide EDU-C, housed at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Its strategic direction is to work on ideas and projects that align with the “sweet spot “at the intersection of global health, equity and innovation. One Toronto for the World was enriched by input from IdeAction, an effort convened by the Faculty of Medicine, which brings together faculty from across UofT and TAHSN sites, to support the creation of interventions that enable ideas to turn into action.

This panel discussion is planned as a part of the Cities of Learning: The University in the Americas Symposium being organized by the University of Toronto, in the spirit of President Gertler's priorities, especially city-building and internationalism, and the 2015 Pan American and Parapan American Games.

Please register here: http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/conferences/citiesoflearning/rsvp/

Guest Speaker and Panelist: Geoff Cape Chief Executive Officer, Evergreen Brick Works  

          Host: Alejandro (Alex) R. Jadad, MD DPhil FRCPC FCAHS Founder, Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, University Health Network Canada Research Chair in eHealth Innovation Interim Director, Institute for Global Health Equity & Innovation Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

 

                               

Dr. Jadad is a physician, educator, researcher, entrepreneur and public advocate, whose mission is to enable people to live full, healthy and happy lives until their last breath, through innovative global collaborative efforts enabled by information and communication technologies (ICTs).

He has been called a “human internet”, as his research and innovation work seeks to identify and connect the best minds, the best knowledge and the best tools across traditional boundaries to eliminate unnecessary suffering. Such work is powered by a radical 'glocal' innovation model designed to identify and funnel proven innovations from around the world to key local environments prepared to assess their ability to improve the capacity of humans to live long, healthy and happy lives until the last breath. The lessons generated are then transformed into new models that could be disseminated and adopted globally.

Dr. Jadad holds the Canada Research Chair in eHealth Innovation at the University of Toronto and the University Health Network, where he is the Founder of the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation and Principal Investigator, Techna. He is also Interim Director, Institute of Global Health Equity & Innovation and Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and in the Department of Anesthesia, in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.

Geoff Cape is the founding CEO of Evergreen since 1991. Day to day, Geoff is focused on the development and acceleration of good ideas that advance Evergreen’s mission. With a background in real estate development, sustainability and urbanization trends globally, Geoff helps to evolve Evergreen programs to offer leadership solutions for cities and citizens.

Selected in 1999 as one of Canada’s “Top 40 Under 40” by The Globe and Mail Report on Business magazine, Geoff has also been honoured with the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in recognition of “Canadians who have made outstanding and exemplary contributions to their communities or to Canada as a whole.” In 2005, Geoff was inducted into an International Fellowship by Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. In 2007, Geoff won the prestigious Schwab Foundation’s “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” award. Geoff was founding Chair of the Sustainability Institute, Deputy Board Chair, Development for Downsview Park, a crown corporation in Canada, and a past member of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation Selection Committee. Geoff has been a regular participant and speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and is on the “Future of Urban Development Advisory Board” and the “Technology Pioneers Selection Committee” for the World Economic Forum. Geoff lives in the Annex neighbourhood in Toronto with his wife Valerie and three boys Toma, Ben and Sebastien, and cycles to work every day—even in blinding snow storms.

 

 

 Panelist: Sandy Smith, BScAgr, MSc, PhD Former Dean & Professor, Faculty of Forestry University of Toronto

       

Panelist: Blake Poland, PhD, MA, BA Associate Professor, Social and Behavioural Health Sciences, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Dr. Blake Poland is an Associate Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, with a cross-appointment in the Department of Geography. A social geographer by training, his research focuses primarily on urban community development in North America, inter-sectoral collaboration, the role of place in intervention design and evaluation, social justice, and issues of theory and method in critical qualitative research. He has published 21 book chapters and 70 peer-reviewed articles in a wide range of journals. Since 1993 he has led 18 grants as principal investigator, and participated as co-investigator in 37 others.

Since 2008 Dr. Poland has increasingly reoriented his work to issues of urban environmental justice, community resilience, and the role of social movements in the transition to a low-carbon future. This has included leading a SSHRC-funded study on the emergence of the Transition Town movement in Canada, multi-university research network in environmental justice,, and participation several funded research projects looking the green energy and green job sectors.

Dr Poland has been recognized with awards for excellence in graduate teaching (2001), interdisciplinary mentorship (2007), and “paper of the year” by the Society of Public Health Education (2010). Along with Dr. Patricia O’Campo, Dr. Poland is the co-lead of the Healthier Cities & Communities Hub at the Dalla Lana School of Public. The Hub encompasses education, research, knowledge translation, and service activities focused on informing, designing and evaluating solutions for complex urban problems impacting population health, and is currently focusing on resilient cities, the built environment and health, and place-based interventions.

Dr. Sandy M. Smith is a Full Professor and Dean, Faculty of Forestry at the University of Toronto (UT). She is cross-appointed to the University’s Centre for the Environment and Dept. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. Prof. Smith has conducted research and teaching at UT since 1988. She completed her Bachelor and Masters in agriculture at the University of Guelph, her PhD in forestry entomology at UT and has worked with the Canadian Forest Service and European Biocontrol Laboratories in France and Switzerland.

She has been recognized for her excellence in teaching and innovative research by the University of Toronto Faculty of Forestry (twice), the Entomological Society of Canada, and the Ontario Federal Science & Sustainable Development Leadership Program. Dr. Smith's scholarship focuses on forest health, insect biodiversity, community ecology, biological control and invasive species in forest systems. She has been a Director for the NSERC Biocontrol Network and the International Organization of Biological Control, a member of NSERC’s Strategic Grant and Major Facilities Access Grant panels, and Associate Editor of NRC’s Canadian Journal of Forest Research. She has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and President of both the Entomological Societies of Canada and Ontario. Sandy has also served as Examiner for the Ontario Professional Foresters Association and is in demand as an international management expert for invasive species, and as a consultant to federal, provincial and municipal operations and policy-makers. Dr. Smith is married to Graham Rempe and they have 3 teenage sons.