Our Board of Directors

Mr. Wagner was a partner in the law firm Norton Rose. His practice focused on Canadian federal administrative and regulatory laws that affect business, including competition/antitrust law, government procurement law and particularly international trade law, where his expertise has been recognized by several independent organizations. Mr. Wagner regularly advised and represented Canadian and foreign clients in relation to customs, trade, competition and procurement issues before government departments and agencies, tribunals and the courts.

Andrew Parkin is the Executive Director of the Environics Institute for Survey Research, a not-for-profit agency created in 2006 to promote relevant and original public opinion and social research on important issues of public policy and social change.

Prior to joining the Institute, Andrew served as the Director of the Mowat Centre (2007-19), Director General of the Council of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC) (2010-14), Associate Executive Director and Director of Research and Program Development at the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation (2004-10), and Co-Director of the Centre for Research and Information on Canada (2000-04). He has also worked as an independent public policy analyst and consultant, providing strategic advice, issue analysis, and policy research to a variety of national and international clients in the areas of education and skills development, social and economic policy, and public opinion research. Andrew has convened, informed, and led national and international discussions on a wide range of public policy issues and acted as an authoritative public spokesperson on education, federalism, and the Canadian political community in both official languages.

A political sociologist by background, he completed his post-doctorate at Dalhousie University, his Ph.D. at the University of Bradford (U.K.), and his B.A. (Honours) at Queen’s University. He has received several academic honours, including a Commonwealth Scholarship and a Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship, and has authored or co-authored numerous publications on Canadian public policy.

Gary Birch was appointed Director of Research and Development at the Neil Squire Society in 1988 and then in 1994 was appointed Executive Director. Dr. Birch earned his B.A. Sc. in Electrical Engineering in 1983, and in 1988 received a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering (Biomedical Signal Processing), both from the University of British Columbia. His specific areas of expertise are assistive technologies, direct brain-computer interface, digital signal processing, human-machine interface systems, and service delivery programs for persons with disabilities.

In 2008 Dr. Birch was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honor for lifetime achievement, for his work with the Neil Squire Society. In 2012 he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal, and in 2017 he was appointed to the Order of British Columbia, the Province’s highest form of recognition.

From 1990 to 2019, Gordon Berlin was the President of MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization based in New York City and Oakland, California, that is dedicated to learning what works to improve the lives of low-income people. Before joining MDRC in 1990, he was Executive Deputy Administrator for Management, Budget, and Policy at the New York City Human Resources Administration. He also was Deputy Director of the Ford Foundation’s Urban Poverty program and worked as a program analyst and project officer in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. Berlin was the founding Executive Director of the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation.

Berlin has authored and coauthored numerous publications, including Poverty and Philanthropy: Strategies for Change; Rewarding the Work of Individuals: A Counterintuitive Approach to Reducing Poverty and Strengthening Families; and What Works in Welfare Reform: Evidence and Lessons to Guide TANF Reauthorization. He has served on a number of boards and advisory committees, including for the National Academy of Sciences, the MacArthur Foundation-funded Network on Transitions to Adulthood, the National Poverty Center, and Youth Service America.

Erica Di Ruggiero, PhD, is Director, Centre for Global Health, Director of the Collaborative Specialization in Global Health, and Associate Professor, Social and Behavioural Health Sciences Division and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (University of Toronto). Prior to joining the university in 2016, she was the inaugural Deputy Scientific Director with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research-Institute of Population and Public Health, where she led the design, implementation, and evaluation of research, partnership, and knowledge translation initiatives to address priorities including global health, health equity, environments and health, and population health intervention research. She previously worked in health policy at the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and was a nutrition and public health research consultant for such organizations as Cancer Care Ontario, Health Canada, and Ottawa Public Health. She has served as Honorary Vice President, American Public Health Association and chair, Canadian Public Health Association. She has previously held adjunct and status faculty appointments at the University of Toronto. Erica received a Masters of Health Science (community nutrition) and a PhD in public health sciences from the University of Toronto. She is also a registered dietitian. Her research and teaching interests include the study of population health interventions (e.g., health and health equity effects of work policies), global agenda setting processes in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals, evaluation of global health research capacity building initiatives, and partnership, governance, and knowledge exchange strategies that influence public health decision-making at national and global levels.

Marie-Lison Fougère was Deputy Minister Responsible for Women’s Issues from March 2020 to March 2023. She also continued to serve as the Deputy Minister for Francophone Affairs until March 2023. Previously, she was the Deputy Minister of Long-Term Care and the Deputy Minister for Seniors and Accessibility.

Ms. Fougère has more than 25 years of experience in the Ontario Public Service. Her prior positions include Interim Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities; Assistant Deputy Minister of the Strategic Policy and Programs Division at the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities; Assistant Deputy Minister at the Office of Francophone Affairs; and a variety of senior management roles at the Ministry of Education.

Ms. Fougère studied Political Science and German Literature at Dalhousie University in Halifax and Heidelberg University in Germany. She also holds a Master’s degree from York University in Toronto, and is fluent in French, English, and German.

Ms. Reynolds is the Managing Partner of Sterling Lifestyle Solutions (Canada) Inc., an Edmonton based management consultancy. Her work focuses primarily in the areas of early brain development, child and youth mental health and well-being, and public policy. She currently is a Policy Fellow with the Max Bell Foundation and the Burns Memorial Fund working to develop and advance knowledge about the role natural supports and naturally supportive communities can play in supporting children in their middle years. For the past 12 years she has been a member of the Faculty of the Max Bell Public Policy Training Institute where she lectures on the role of research in public policy.

From 2003 to 2012, following 10 years in executive leadership roles in the Ministries of Health and Children’s Services with the Government of Alberta, Ms. Reynolds served as the Inaugural President and CEO of the Alberta Centre for Child Family and Community Research, now known as PolicyWise. Under her leadership, the organization was well respected both within the academic and policy communities, and was recognized for its innovative approaches to the generation, gathering, and mobilization of evidence to inform public policy.

An active volunteer throughout her career, Ms. Reynolds currently serves as Board Chair, Canadian Mental Health Association Edmonton Region, Past Chair, National Institute of Families for Child and Youth Mental Health, and Member of the Board, Boys and Girls Clubs Big Sisters Big Brothers of Edmonton and Area.

Dr. Lyons is the Founding Chair and Scientific Director Emeritus of the Bridgepoint Collaboratory for Research and Innovation, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto and Bridgepoint Health. She has been developing a new research and research training program in health systems re-engineering and chronic disease. She was also Adjunct Professor, a former Tier One Canada Research Chair in Health Promotion and former Scientific Director of the Atlantic Health Promotion Research Centre (AHPRC), Dalhousie University. She was Special Advisor to the President of CIHR for three years.

The focus of her work has been the social context of chronic disease with emphasis on knowledge translation (KT) and health policy. She has been principal investigator for over $30 M in health research funding for large health promotion, chronic disease and knowledge translation projects, including work on stroke, health and human relationships, rural health, and physical and social environments and health.

In 2008 Dr. Lyons was elected Fellow to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Dr. Lyons received her university education at Dalhousie University, Xavier University (Cincinnati), the University of Oregon, and UCLA.

Satya Brink is a policy research expert with a career spanning 30 years in a range of senior roles in the public sector, academia and international agencies, followed by 10 years of international consulting. She worked as the Director Research of Child, Youth and Social Development and later as Director of National Learning Policy Research at Human Resources and Development Canada, Government of Canada. She was a Canadian delegate for the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and co-chaired the Governing Board of the
38 participating countries for the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). She served for over a year as a Senior Advisor at the Education Directorate at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in Paris. Following her retirement from the Federal Public Service, she worked with a number of international organizations including the OECD, World Bank, European Union, Conférence des ministres de l’Éducation des États et gouvernements de la Francophonie (CONFEMEN), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) supporting governments of both developed and developing countries to improve their education performance and skills development to meet future needs for national growth and development. She has conducted projects in Finland, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Egypt, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.

She has her doctorate from Purdue University, USA. She is currently an affiliated researcher with ENCELL – Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Jönköping, Sweden.

Tim Aubry, Ph.D., C. Psych., CE, is a Full Professor in the School of Psychology and Senior Researcher at the Centre for Research on Educational and Community Services at the University of Ottawa. Throughout his career, Tim has collaborated on research projects with community organizations and government at all levels, contributing to the development of effective social programs and policies. He was a Member of the National Research Team and the Co-Lead of the Moncton site in the At Home / Chez Soi Demonstration Project on Housing First of the Mental Health Commission of Canada. He was holder of the Faculty of Social Sciences Research Chair in Community Mental Health and Homelessness at the University of Ottawa.

Trained as a community-clinical psychologist, he completed his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Manitoba and his B.A. (Honours) at St.-Francis Xavier University. In 2013, he received the Contribution to Evaluation in Canada award from the Canadian Evaluation Society. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association and the Society for Community Research and Action (Division 27 of the American Psychological Association).