Our Students

Babatunde Odugbemi is a member of the pioneer cohort of students in the PhD Global Health program at York University and a Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholar. He holds an MBBS degree from the University of Lagos, MPH from the University of Sheffield and MSc in Aging and Health from Queen’s University. He has a good understanding of contextual issues affecting the health of populations in LMICs. Having worked as a physician and public health professional in Nigeria, he has also been part of teams conducting research on infectious diseases and improving the capacity of health systems. He seeks to conduct research aimed at improving global response to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) with the guidance of Professor Mary E. Wiktorowicz.

Joanne Ong is a PhD student at York University in the Department of Global Health. She holds a BA and MA from York University in sociology. She is passionate about how the social determinants of health, the political determinants of health and the commercial determinants of health shape health and health inequalities across scales. Her supervisor is Professor Cary Wu, a scholar of trust, health and inequality, and she is assisting his research project which seeks to establish a political sociology of health framework using trust as the key unifying concept and analytical tool. A large part of this project includes interrogating the social determinants of health model to consider its analytical utility to understand health inequality. To this end, she aims to explore how the social organization of power causes and shapes the social determinants of health and health inequality. Her research hopes to contribute to knowledge of the upstream factors that shape the distribution and quality of the social causes of health among and between groups.

Kathirvel Soundappan, MBBS, MD (Community Medicine) is an Associate Professor at the Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh, India. He is an alumnus of the WHO Structured Operational Research Training Initiative (SORT IT) and IARC Summer School on Cancer Epidemiology. He mentored multiple Operational/ Implementation research from South Asia and Africa. He provided clinical services and conducted community-based research among vulnerable and marginalized populations in India. He is a Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholar (2024-25). His area of PhD research (Supervisor-Professor Mary E Wiktorowicz): Influence of Interdisciplinary area-related policy/regulatory frameworks on Antimicrobial Resistance (Special emphasis on Antifungal resistance).

Lathika is a PhD student in the Global Health program at York University, specializing in gender and smokeless tobacco use in South Asia. Her research, supervised by Prof. Steven Hoffman and Prof. Mathieu Poirier, explores the sociocultural factors behind gender differences in smokeless tobacco consumption across 11 South Asian countries, utilizing quantitative methods. Lathika is also the Director of Operations at the Global Strategy Lab, where she plays a pivotal role in overseeing the lab’s daily operations and strategic goals.

She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Saskatchewan, and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto. Passionate about health and the well being of all, Lathika extends her expertise and dedication beyond her role at GSL by serving as a Board of Director for the Human Rights Internet, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to human rights information and resources relevant to Canada.

Michael Davies-Venn is a policy analyst and communication professional. He holds MPP, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, Germany, MA, University of Sheffield, UK. He was awarded BSc (Hons).

With assumptions on changes to global climate impacts on human health, Davies-Venn focus on infectious and arboviruses disease etiology and epidemiology and global environmental governance. His interests include understanding links between disease phenomena emerging from environmental transformations induced by climate change – such as extreme drought and floods – and risks to population health. His study on global environmental politics introduces sociopolitical determinants of health on global environmental governing on Planetary Health including, health inequities, disease burden and population patterns and environmental causal factors in developing regions.

Using diverse methodologies, including systems thinking, research results contribute to identifying recommendations for transnational adaption policies for disease prevention, health system infrastructure, reducing global public health inequities and risks through vector control and prevention.

He is recipient of numerous awards from North American and European institutions, was recently Junior Fellow in Ethics of the Anthropocene, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands, and member of the Earth System Governance network. Previously he was adjunct communication professor, consultant with the United Nations and communication director with a Canadian provincial political party.

Naeema Hassan is a PhD student at York University’s Global Health Program. Her research investigates the ethical dimensions and implementation strategies of machine learning in healthcare, with a particular focus on mitigating bias, safeguarding data privacy, and fostering equitable, patient-centered care. Naeema’s journey in global health began as an undergraduate student in the same program, which laid the foundation for her deep interest in health equity and technological innovation.

With a background in Digital Health management consulting, Naeema has worked extensively with healthcare organizations on digital health strategies, governance models, and the integration of AI to streamline clinical decision-making. She has also gained valuable experience working in innovation hubs and the Ontario public sector, where she contributed to policy analysis, development, and implementation across various government initiatives.

Her academic and professional journey reflects a deep commitment to using technology and policy to drive healthcare innovations that prioritize equity, ethics, and data privacy.

Orit holds an Honours Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto, completing a double major in Molecular Biology, Immunology and Disease, and French, as well as a minor in Psychology. She has also completed a master’s degree in Global Health Systems from Western University. Soon after her completing her master’s degree, she began her tenure at Women’s Health in Women’s Hands Community Health Centre, where she is the Program Lead for the National HIV Prevention Strategy for African, Caribbean, and Black people in Canada, which strengthened her interest in HIV/AIDS work.

Orit Awoke is currently a first year PhD candidate in the Global Health program at York University focusing on HIV/AIDS stigma research. She is specifically interested in studying the persistent HIV/AIDS stigma within the Ethiopian population residing in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian diaspora in Canada, through a comparative analysis. She aims to use a qualitative paradigm to conduct this research, under the supervision of Dr. Amrita Daftary.

Aside from HIV/AIDS work, Orit is also heavily involved in extra-curriculars. She loves to volunteer at a local non-profit organization, which provide services to Ethiopian and Eritrean youth in Toronto/GTA area, where she provides tutoring services and supports with event planning for youth activities.

Rupsha is a Doctoral Student at the School of Global Health at York University and a Graduate Scholar at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research where her work focuses on Human-Centered Design to improve the quality of life for people living with dementia in global communities. Her Master of Design thesis focused on building supportive technologies in augmented reality to help people living with dementia with their daily rituals. She received a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for this work. Rupsha has worked for a diverse array of clients in government, healthcare, non-profit, and clean beauty space, including the Detox Market, Habitat for Humanity Waterloo Region, and the Ontario Public Health Association. With an interdisciplinary approach and an empathetic mindset, she develops meaningful solutions and strives to shape a better future through design education, research, and practice.