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University of Toronto ·  Trinity College

Co-directors:
John Kirton
James Orbinski

Director of Research:
Jenilee Guebert

Research Fellows:
Joy Fitzgibbon
Lisa Forman
Steven Hoffman
Jillian Clare Kohler

John Kirton, Co-director

John Kirton [email] is co-director of the Global Health Diplomacy Program, director of the G7 Research Group and G20 Research Group based at Trinity College in the University of Toronto, and an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. He has advised the World Health Organization and the Canadian and Russian governments, and has written widely on global health governance and G7/8 and G20 summitry. His most recent books include Moving Health Sovereignty in Africa: Disease, Governance and Climate Change (co-edited with Andrew F. Cooper, Franklyn Lisk and Hany Besada, Ashgate, 2014), Innovation in Global Health Governance: Critical Cases (co-edited with Andrew F. Cooper, Ashgate, 2009), Governing Global Health: Challenge, Response, Innovation (co-edited with Andrew F. Cooper, Ashgate, 2007) and Canadian Foreign Policy in a Changing World (Thomson Nelson, 2007). He is co-author of many articles, including those published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences and Contemporary Politics. Professor Kirton is also co-editor of two book series published by Ashgate Publishing and the editor of Ashgate's five-volume Library of Essays in Global Governance, including a volume on global health published in 2009. He received his MA from Carleton University and his PhD in international studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. (See also http://individual.utoronto.ca/jkirton.)

James Orbinski, Co-director

James Orbinski [email] is co-director of the Global Health Diplomacy Program. He holds the CIGI Research Chair in Global Health at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and is a professor of International Policy and Governance at Wilfrid Laurier University. At the University of Toronto, which he joined in 2003, he is full professor of Medicine at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and Senior Fellow at both Massey College, and the Munk School of Global Affairs. In 1986-87 Dr. Orbinski lived in Sub-Saharan Africa researching HIV/AIDS in children under a Canadian Medical Research Council Fellowship. He has extensive field experience with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), including leading MSF's mission in Rwanda in 1994 and Zaire in 1996-97. As international president of MSF from 1998 to 2001, he launched MSF's Access to Essential Medicines Campaign and accepted the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to MSF in 1999. In 2004, Dr. Orbinski co-founded Dignitas International, which supports more than 200,000 people with full treatment for HIV and is scaling up its Primary Health Care treatment model in Malawi. He is also the author of the award-winning and best-selling book, An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarianism in the 21st Century (Bloomsbury, 2009). He holds an BA from Trent University, an MD from McMaster University, and a master's degree in international relations from the University of Toronto.

Jenilee Guebert, Director of Research

Jenilee Guebert [email] is the former director of research for the Global Health Diplomacy Program as well as the G8 Research Group and the G20 Research Group, based at the Munk School of Global Affairs in Trinity College at the University of Toronto. She has beeninvolved in researching and analyzing trends in global health, the G8, G20 and related institutions. Her works include "Looking to the Environment for Lessons for Global Health Diplomacy," "Canada's G8 Leadership on Global Health," "Bringing Health into the Climate Change Regime," and "Moving Forward on Global Health Diplomacy: Implementing G8 and APEC Commitments." She has had previous experience working for the Calgary Health Region, Statistics Canada and Elections Ontario. She has been a member of the field teams of the G8 and G20 Research Groups on site at several G8 and G20 summits and has been involved in a number of workshops and conferences focused on global health and Canada's year as G8 host in 2010. Ms. Guebert holds a BA in political science from the University of Calgary and has also pursued academic studies at the University of Toronto and the University of Saskatchewan.

Joy Fitzgibbon, Research Fellow

Joy Fitzgibbon [email] works at the intersection of international relations and public policy, exploring the impact of global health networks on policy reform. She is completing a book on the effectiveness of these networks in managing tuberculosis that analyses improvements in World Health Organization's tuberculosis control policy driven by Harvard NGO Partners in Health and Nobel Prize–winning Médécins Sans Frontières. She is also working with the Wilson Centre's Ayelet Kuper on the issue of constructing and transforming national medical education frameworks. She is the co-author, with Janice Gross Stein, Richard Stren and Melissa MacLean of Networks of Knowledge: Collaborative Innovation in International Learning (University of Toronto Press, 2001). She has produced policy reports for the Canadian International Development Agency and the Canadian Centre for Arms Control and Disarmament. At the University of Toronto, she has taught in the Department of Political Science, the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, the International Pediatric Emergency Medicine Elective (a joint program of Mount Sinai Hospital, Sick Children's Hospital and the Canada International Scientific Exchange Program). Professor Fitzgibbon received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Toronto and completed public health courses in the Faculty of Medicine here and at Johns Hopkins University.

Lisa Forman, Research Fellow

Lisa Forman [email] is the Lupina Assistant Professor in global health and human rights at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and director of the Comparative Program on Health and Society at the Munk School of Global Affairs at Trinity College in the University of Toronto. For more than a decade, Forman has specialized in international human rights law relating to HIV/AIDS, health and medicines. Her current research focuses on developing theoretical and practical linkages between international human rights law and trade law related to medicines, including through expanding the normative content of the right to health and developing a right to health impact assessment tool for policy usage. Forman has consulted on human rights and health-related topics for the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and South African National Commission for Gender Equality. She is the author of journal articles and book chapters on the international human right to health, access to medicines, trade-related intellectual property rights and South African constitutional jurisprudence related to health. Dr. Forman qualified as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa, with a BA and LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her graduate studies include a master's in human rights studies from Columbia University and a doctorate in juridical science from the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law.

Steven Hoffman, Rsearch Fellow

Steven Hoffman [email] is an instructor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University and an adjunct faculty member of the McMaster Health Forum. Steven's research focuses on the politics of global health governance and the relationship between global and national health decision-making processes. He teaches two undergraduate courses at McMaster on global health advocacy and governance and works full time at Gilbert's LLP, a law firm specializing in intellectual property litigation and government relations for health-related industries. Steven has worked for the World Health Organization in Geneva, where he managed the United Nations agency's Global Programme on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice. He has also previously worked for the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the WHO-based Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research. He sits on the board of directors of the International Association for Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice, chairs that association's Global Affairs Committee and serves as an advisor to the Pan-American Health Organization's Office of Caribbean Programme Coordination. He is also currently guest editing a series of papers for the Journal of Interprofessional Care on global health and development. Steven holds a bachelor of health sciences from McMaster University and both a master of arts in political science and a juris doctor from the University of Toronto.

Jillian Clare Kohler, Research Fellow

Jillian Clare Kohler [email] is an assistant professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto and principal researcher of the Initiative for Drug Equity and Access (IDEA). Her research and teaching focus on drug access issues for the global poor, the political economy of international and domestic pharmaceutical policy, and ethics and corruption in pharmaceutical systems. She is a member of the World Health Organization's Global Good Governance Medicines Advisory Committee and contributed to its pioneering work on improving transparency in the pharmaceutical system. She is also a board member of Transparency International Canada since 2008. She has worked as a pharmaceutical policy specialist for the World Bank and the World Health Organization as well as the United Kingdom's Department for International Development, and has advised governments including Brazil, Bulgaria and Ghana on pharmaceutical policy. She has published and lectured widely on a diverse range of topics related to pharmaceutical policy. Professor Kohler is the co-editor of The Power of Pills: Social, Ethical and Legal Issues in Drug Development, Marketing and Pricing (Pluto Press, 2006). She received her BA and MA in political science from McGill University and her PhD in politics from New York University.