Current Students

Adam is a PhD student at the Telfer School of Management. He is studying in the Accounting and Control stream under the supervision of Tiemei Li. 

He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Telfer with a specialization in Accounting and an option in Finance. He completed his MSc at Telfer under the supervision of Walid ben Amar and Shujun Ding. His MSc thesis focuses on the effect of IFRS adoption on Canadian family firms. 

Adam has spent several years of his time at Telfer as a teaching assistant for various accounting and finance courses. Off campus, Adam spends free time biking and playing quidditch.

Afshin Kamyabniya is currently pursuing his PhD studies in Management with a focus on Health Systems specialization under the supervision of Professor Jonathan Patrick. By joining the research team of Professor Patrick, Afshin wishes to focus on operations management and its applications in the context of healthcare operations research, logistics, and disaster relief operations.

Before arriving at the Telfer School of Management, Afshin graduated from Iran University of Science and Technology in the field of Industrial Engineering with honors and distinction. He obtained his BS in industrial safety engineering at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. Upon completion of his master's studies in 2015, he was granted a research scholarship from the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology of Iran to work as a researcher at Purdue University, Indiana, USA. At Purdue University, he worked with Professors Yuehwern Yih and Hua Cai, and published two research papers with them related to multi-organizational coordination modeling in the context of healthcare and disaster relief operations in prestigious journals. Also, he worked for 5 years in Iran in different capacities in the field of logistics and supply chain network design for the telecommunication industry and for disaster relief organizations.

Since Afshin’s arrival at Telfer, he was nominated and won the Ontario Trillium Scholarship (OTS) for four years. He is passionately devoted to his doctoral studies by exploring new areas of research and aims to progress steadily towards valuable contributions. During his free time, he loves hiking, playing football and volleyball, watching TV series, and spending time with family and his friends. Afshin also enjoys recording and narrating stories and poems, as well as music and singing.

Afshin Kamyabniya holds the Ontario Trillium Scholarship.

Alex Chung is a Ph.D. Management Candidate at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management. His research looks at how information systems can be designed to help users change their behaviours and form new habits. Accordingly, he's interested in the interface between human behaviour and information systems design.

His research proposal was accepted to the prestigious International Conference on Information Systems’ (ICIS) doctoral consortium in Munich, Germany in 2019 and has since been published as proceedings for other renowned venues.

He holds an M.Sc. in Systems Science from the University of Ottawa, and a B.Sc. in Biology from Carleton University. Prior to joining the Ph.D. program, Alex worked as a management consultant and researcher while also teaching part-time at the Telfer School of Management.

Alex was awarded the Lilian and Swee Chua Goh Doctoral Scholarship (2016), the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2018-2019), and the Telfer Ph.D. Student Engagement Award (2020). He was also twice awarded the John Duncan and Deb Cross Award for best publication by a Telfer Ph.D. student and recently received the James M. Flaherty Research Scholarship from the Ireland Canada University Foundation.

Ali Mahdi is a Ph.D. student at the Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa. He is studying entrepreneurship under the supervision of Dr. David Crick. He specializes in marketing and entrepreneurship research. His research utilizes both quantitative and qualitative methods and his previous research focused on consumer behaviour and social networks. His current research is concerned with immigrant and ethnic entrepreneurs in the nascent stage of business venturing. Ali comes from a family of entrepreneurs and has been interacting with the concept of entrepreneurship from a young age. He took on several marketing roles within his familys business while completing his bachelors and masters degrees in marketing. He is actively looking for collaboration with researchers and businesses and is aspiring to spend his career in academia. He has been giving class and lab lectures to undergraduate students at different universities since 2017, with an emphasis on facilitating learning through using methods of active learning.

Ali Coates is a PhD student in Management, in the Health Systems specialization. She holds a BSc (Honours) degree from Mount Allison University, a MBA in Healthcare Management and a MS in Healthcare Data Analytics from Clarkson University and has held a variety of healthcare leadership roles during her career. Ali began working in the field of clinical research and eventually led the founding and early growth phases of a successful imaging core laboratory. Following a family move to the rural North Country region of New York, Ali led the establishment of a new clinical research program within St. Lawrence Health System. She was the Assistant Vice President of Physician Relations at Adirondack Health before being accepted to Telfer School of Management. While completing her MBA and MS degrees, Ali chose to focus on the rural context to understand how core management principles apply in rural health systems. 

Ali's PhD Research will examine health services innovation in rural health systems with a particular focus on understanding how evidence informs these efforts. Ali believes in approaching rural health from a salutatory, complex adaptive systems perspective which celebrates strengths and emphasizes place-based over problem-based solutions. 

Amirhossein is a PhD student at Telfer School of Management, specializing in Health Systems. During this program, he works under the supervision of Professors Onur Ozturk and Jonathan Patrick. Amirhossein graduated from Iran Azad University with an MSc in Industrial Engineering and a BSc in Industrial Engineering. In his Master’s thesis, he investigated the Operating Room Planning problem under real-world uncertainties using Business Analytics. In 2017, his Master’s thesis awarded the title the best thesis of the university. He has published articles in various international journals including Computers & Industrial Engineering, Journal of Industrial and Management Optimization, European Journal of Industrial Engineering.

Amirhossein has extensive experience in Research Assistantship (RA) for more than three years. During his RA, he studied various problems in Supply Chain Management. He is currently a Teacher Assistant at Telfer School of Management.

Amirhossein’s research interests are focused on applications of Business Analytics in Healthcare and Supply Chain Management. He is also interested in developing algorithms such as metaheuristics, heuristics and Bender's decomposition methods for large-scale problems.

Andreas passion for the culinary arts is equally matched by her love of healthcare. 

Andrea is a PhD student in Management, in the Health Systems specialization. She completed a Masters of Science in Health Systems at the University of Ottawa in 2012.  She was the recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, the Telfer School of Management Excellence Scholarship and the 2011 Star Award. Her masters thesis examined the family caregivers experiences navigating the stroke rehabilitation system, during the transition home from a rehabilitation facility, using the theories of continuity of care and complex adaptive systems.

Prior to commencing her doctoral studies, Andrea worked at Algonquin College as a part-time instructor and course developer for the School of Dental Hygiene where she instructed on inter-professional collaboration in the healthcare system. She also had the opportunity to travel abroad where she gained international healthcare experience. Further, Andrea has over three years of work experience in health research, as a research manager and research assistant at the University of Ottawa, and as a student researcher at the Canadian Institute of Health Research. 

Under the supervision of Dr. Craig Kuziemsky, Andreas doctoral research examines the multi-dimensional space configurations at a social pediatric center, using the theories of complex adaptive systems and the production of space. Andrea was also the recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Her research interests include healthcare delivery and transformation, vulnerable populations, care transitions, information systems, design thinking, and social innovation.

Andrea hopes to apply the skills and experiences gained in her doctoral studies to a career that will enable her to better the healthcare system through research. 

Andrew is a PhD Student in Management (Health Systems), at the Telfer School of Management. His research interests are at the intersection of: health economic evaluation, risk analysis, innovation, health policy, and health system management. His personal research explores risk-based decision analysis and its relation to precautionary policy development pertinent to public health risks; he is studying under the supervision of Dr. Kevin Brand.

Prior to joining Telfer, Andrew worked for the Ivey International Centre for Health Innovation at the Ivey Business School at Western University where he collaborated with senior health system stakeholders in research projects that leveraged both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Andrew holds a Master of Science from Western University and a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from Thompson Rivers University.

At Telfer, Andrew is the incoming President of the Telfer Graduate Research Programs Student Association (TGRPSA) for 2019-2020. He has also been a Teaching Assistant for Statistics for Management (ADM2303) and Statistical Methods in Business (ADM2304).

Boushra is a PhD student in Management, in the Finance specialization.

Boushra holds a Master of Science in Management, from the University of Ottawa, which she completed in 2011, and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Ottawa, completed in 2008. Boushra graduated with highest honour - Summa Cum Laude, and her name was listed on the Dean’s Honour List for the 4-year program period. She received the Telfer Leadership Award (2008), and is also a recipient of the University of Ottawa Merit Scholarship, the University of Ottawa Admission Scholarship, and the Telfer School of Management Admission Scholarship. She is a member of the Golden Key International Honours Society, which comprises the top 15 percent of students at the University of Ottawa, and a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) Honours Society. The membership in BGS is the highest recognition a business student anywhere in the world can receive in a business program accredited by AACSB International.

Boushra has 10 years of experience in the public sector. Her professional profile includes a work term at Cognos incorporated as a Customer Support Technical Analyst, and assignments at the University of Ottawa as a Teacher Assistant for the ADM1500 (Introduction to Business Management) and ADM2702 (Business Decision Models) courses.

Boushra holds the SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship.

Ms. Chamberland-Rowe is currently undertaking her final year of study in Health Systems stream of the Telfer School of Managements PhD in Management at the University of Ottawa. She also holds an MSc in Health Systems, and a BSocSc in International Development and Globalization. Ms. Chamberland-Rowes primary goal as a researcher is to engage in collaborative dialogue with patients, providers, and policy-makers to produce evidence that is of utmost relevance and utility in addressing critical health workforce challenges.

Ms. Chamberland-Rowes doctoral dissertation is conducted in collaboration with the Champlain Maternal Newborn Regional Program, where she holds a CIHR Health System Impact Fellowship. Her fellowship project aims to engage local stakeholders in a collaborative health workforce planning process to elicit the structural conditions that would be necessary to equitably support pregnant peoples access to the full range of maternity care providers across Ontarios Champlain Region.  In her role as a health workforce consultant for the Canadian Health Workforce Network, she has also contributed to the development and operationalization of an integrated primary care workforce planning toolkit for the City of Toronto.

Ms. Chamberland-Rowe is actively engaged in the domestic and international academic communities of practice surrounding health workforce policy, planning, and management through her participation in the Canadian Health Workforce Network, the International Health Workforce Collaborative, and the Global Health Workforce Network. She also serves as the founding trainee lead of the University of Ottawas chapter of the CIHR Institute of Gender and Health Sex and Gender Science Trainee Network.

Daniel James Quintal-Curcic is a PhD student in Management specializing in Human Resources and Organizational Behaviour at the Telfer School of Management, where he is under the supervisor of Dr. Laurent Lapierre. Daniel's areas of interest centre on leadership, supervisor-subordinate relationships, and power dynamics in workplace relationships.

Prior to embarking on his PhD journey at Telfer, Daniel completed his Masters of Science in Management at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University, where he specialized in Human Resources Management and Organizational Behaviour, under the supervisor of Dr. Kristyn Scott. His thesis explores if leaders are envious of subordinates who are perceived to have more expertise, charisma, and influence in the organization, and how this may impact the quality of relationship a supervisor/manager initiates with that subordinate. In addition, Daniel received his Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Guelph.

To date, Daniels research has had the opportunity to be shared at the Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention and at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting.

Outside of school, Daniel enjoys his quality time with his friends, including catching up, laughing, going for walks, spontaneous day trips, as well as trying new drinks and food. 

Elizabeth is a PhD student in Management, in the Entrepreneurship specialization, under the supervision of Dr. Peter Jaskiewicz. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in English from the University of King’s College and a Master of Arts degree in English Literature from Dalhousie University. Elizabeth’s master’s thesis examined female Great War Poets, particularly Dame Rose Macaulay, and her engagement with pacifism and apatriotic views. Following the completion of her master’s in December 2016, Elizabeth started working at the Rowe School of Business as a research assistant. Her studies of literary histography helped to inform her work at the Rowe, as the projects she was working on were interested in using network analysis to help understand succession of Atlantic Family Businesses that were established before 1917. Elizabeth, under the mentorship of Dr. Albert James, Dr. Bill Foster, and Dr. Binod Sundararajan, presented some of the preliminary findings of this work at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM) in 2017. Elizabeth continues to collaborate on a number of different qualitative projects at the Rowe, some pertaining to structures and hierarchies impacting succession in family firms and Indigenous entrepreneurship. Elizabeth is also a doctoral fellow on an ING SSHRC Funded grant with Dr. Albert James.

Through the researched completed at the Rowe and under the mentorship of Dr. Jaskiewicz, Elizabeth has developed keen interest in transgenerational entrepreneurship and the relationship between family values and firm values as they pertain to succession.

In addition to her interest and work in research, Elizabeth took her passion for teaching across different disciplines and was a teaching assistant for the Dalhousie English Department, the Rowe, the Department of History of Science and Technology. Elizabeth has most recently worked for as the Research Coordinator for the Mood Disorders Centre of Ottawa on a CIHR funded study examining the development of mood disorders within families. Off campus, she enjoys spin class and family time.

Elmira is a Ph.D. candidate in the Management program with a specialization in health systems. Her doctoral program of research is addressing the work role of peer support workers (PSWs) and its implementation in mental health care. Her thesis project has been shaped through her collaboration with her supervisor in a grant project that involved the transition to virtual peer support during the COVID-19 pandemic. She aims to unfold the impact of this transition on providers and users of peer support. Her goal is to demonstrate the true potential of PSWs during crises like the pandemic and conduct impactful research with societal implications.

Along with her doctoral studies, Elmira has developed her professional skillset as well. She has obtained the project management professional certification (PMP). In addition, she has started teaching undergraduate courses at Telfer school, e.g., cross-cultural management which brings together OB/HR theories in the context of international business. As an immigrant, this has been an opportunity for her to share her lived experiences of cross-cultural encounters with the students.

Elmira obtained her previous degrees from top-ranked universities in Tehran, Iran. She has multi-disciplinary background knowledge in management. Her bachelor’s degree was in health services management with a dissertation about change management and health systems reform and she holds a masters’ degree in executive management. Before settling in Canada, Elmira was a full-time researcher for almost four years at a research center that provided evidence-based policy recommendations about health workforce topics. Her collaboration at this stage led to several co-authorships that have been published in peer-reviewed journals.

Elmira is a fan of hiking, swimming, gardening and traveling. Exploring different cultures and their ethnic cuisine has made her an enthusiastic cook. Above all, her greatest pleasure is spending time with her family.

Hong is a PhD candidate at the Telfer School of Management, in the Entrepreneurship specialization. Her research interests revolve around managing tensions and conflicts in the context of innovation, especially in the public sector and in hybrid organizations where multiple organizational identities, forms or logics are combined.

Hong has presented her research about managing tensions in government innovation at two international conferences, including the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM) innovation conference in 2018 and the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium in 2019.

Under the supervision of Professor Mark Freel and Samia Chreim, Hong hopes to apply the knowledge and skills gained in her doctoral studies to help build a more agile and innovative public service in todays fast-changing and highly connected environment.

Hong brings over ten years of experience as a policy analyst, program evaluation analyst in the Government of Canada. She also has five years of experience in human resources management and organizational development in China.

Hong holds a Bachelor of Economics in human resources management from Renmin University in China. She completed her Master degree in Public Administration at Dalhousie University in 2007. Hong holds the Lilian and Swee Chua Goh Doctoral Scholarship, the first admission scholarship created by donors for PhD candidates at the Telfer School of Management.

Léa Dugal is a PhD student in Management, in the Accounting and Control specialization. She holds a BBA and a M.Sc. degree in professional accounting from HEC Montréal.

She holds a CPA auditor, CA designation from the Order of Chartered Professional Accountants of Quebec. Before beginning her academic career, she was an auditor and an accounting advisory consultant in an accounting firm.

Léa also has extensive teaching experience. She taught various accounting courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. She is also involved in the correction of the CPA professional exam. Her research interests include accounting standard-setting and the accounting profession.

I am a Ph.D. student at Telfer School of Management. I am studying in the Accounting and Control stream under the supervision of Professor Cheryl Susan McWatters.

I attended a 2+2 undergraduate program which allowed me to spend the first two years at Xiamen University and the last two years at the University of Waterloo. I obtained a bachelor’s degree in economics from both schools. Then I studied at the University of British Columbia and obtained my master’s degree in economics. After graduating from the MA program, I worked as an RA at Simon Fraser University, and finally became an accounting Ph.D. student at Telfer.

My current research interest is around Corporation Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental, Social & Governance[RN1]  (ESG). Specifically, I am interested in the underlying mechanisms that drive firms to engage in such activities, which can be hardly explained by traditional economics theories.

I have various teaching experiences. For example, I have worked as a teaching assistant for a number of courses, including Financial Accounting and Micro/Macro economics theories.

In my spare time, I play saxophone as a way of relaxing. I am intrigued by and keep practicing on a wide genre of music, including classic, jazz, and pop. I think music has helped me relieve much stress from the intensive research life.

For more information about myself, please feel free to go to my personal website https://wjx5912.wixsite.com/website.

Mariam is a PhD Candidate at Telfer School of Management, specializing in Human Resources and Organizational Behaviour. She is working under the supervision of Professor Sharon O’Sullivan. Her current research interests are focused upon cultural variations with respect to attitudes and behavioural and non-behavioural communications.

Prior to joining the program, Mariam was working as a Research Associate with Associate Professor Dr. Tarek El Badawy (College of Business, Auburn University at Montgomery, Alabama, USA). Together, they successfully published several papers addressing topics relevant to the workplace. She currently receives assignments as a TA/Corrector at Telfer School. She also joined Professor O’Sullivan in her research project “The dynamics of Indigenous developmental relationships”. The project is financed by a SSHRC grant.

Mariam received her Master’s degree in 2014 from the German University in Cairo, Egypt. Her thesis addressed stereotypes, prejudices and discriminatory acts against carriers of HCV in the Egyptian workplace. She received her Bachelor degree from the German University in Cairo in 2011. She double-majored in Human Resource Management and Strategic Management. She worked as an Assistant Lecturer of Human Resource Management in the faculty of Management Technology (2011-2014).

Mariam was a recipient of the GUC Excellence Award twice. And she is a proud mother of two little boys.

Marwa is a PhD candidate at the Telfer School of Management, in the Accounting specialization. She received a bachelor of commerce degree with a major in accounting  in 2005 from Mansoura University in Egypt. Along with studying for a master’s degree at Mansoura University, she also worked as a teaching assistant and accounting instructor at different academic institutions, such as Misr Academy for Engineering and Technology, Mansoura University and Arab Open University.

She moved to the United States in 2012 to join the MSc program at the University of Memphis, where she also worked as a teaching assistant. Her master’s thesis was accepted for presentation at the 2015 International Accounting Section mid-year meeting at the American Accounting Association. She was also the recipient of an Egyptian Government Scholarship for Graduate Studies and Graduate Assistantship at the University of Memphis. 

Marwa also has extensive teaching experience. She taught various accounting courses including Principle of Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, Managerial Accounting and Principle of Cost Accounting. Marwa has been a Certified Management Accountant from the Institute of Management Accountants (in the United States) since 2012. Her research interests include corporate governance, earnings management and disclosure of financial statements. 

Marwa holds the Lilian and Swee Chua Goh Doctoral Scholarship, the first admission scholarship created by donors for PhD candidates at the Telfer School of Management.

Mary Valdes is a PhD student in Management, in the Accounting specialization. Under the supervision of Professor Cheryl McWatters, she is interested in research into the accounting systems of small and medium-sized firms within the Chilean mining sector. This focus combines her interest in accounting and global production networks. Her doctoral studies are funded by the Chilean government through the Becas Chile Scholarship.

Mary is a public accountant who has completed a research-based MBA, a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting and Auditing and the University Teaching diploma at Universidad Católica del Norte de Chile, all with the highest honours, including receipt of the President's and the Ministry of Education Scholarships.  She also has undertaken postgraduate studies in tax auditing at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and a specialization in tax law at the Fundação Getulio Vargas.

Prior to entering the doctoral program, Mary worked for four years as an assistant professor at the Universidad Católica del Norte where she developed her professional expertise by teaching and supporting local entrepreneurs in tax and accounting issues through the University´s social programs and other regional institutions.  This role built on her strong and diverse career including high-level positions at CODELCO, the largest publicly-operated mine in Chile, as a tax auditor for the Chilean government and as a controller at ArcelorMittal.

When not busy with her studies, Mary enjoys traveling, dancing, exploring Ottawa with her two sons and spending time with friends. 

Mary Valdes holds the CONICYT (Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica).

Mian is a Ph.D. student at Telfer School of Management with a focus on finance. He is now studying under the supervision of Dr. Yuri Khoroshilov. Mians current research interest lies in corporate governance.

Mian has a combined background. He received his Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2014 from Xian Jiaotong University (China). In 2016 Mian got his Masters Degree in Finance from Tulane University (Louisiana, USA). After graduating from Tulane University, he worked in a local venture capital firm in China for one year and then entered Telfer School of Management in 2018.

After entering Telfer, Mian worked as research assistant for Dr. Yuri Khoroshilov in his first year of Ph.D. study. He is now working with Dr. Allan Riding on the topic of payday loan alternatives. Mian also works as teaching assistant for several classes, including third-year undergraduate Corporate Finance and forth-year undergraduate Equity Valuation.

Mian spends spare time traveling and doing powerlifting.

Mohammed is a PhD student at the Telfer School of Management. He is studying in the Accounting and Control stream under the supervision of Professor Cheryl Susan M^cWatters. 

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Yarmouk University (Jordan) with a major specialization in Finance and a minor in Accounting. He completed his first MSc (Accounting) at Yarmouk University in 2005. His first MSc thesis focuses on the performance of Accounting Information Systems (AIS) in Jordanian industrial listed firms. 

Mohammed completed his second MSc -Finance (2019) at Telfer under the supervision of Professor Cheryl Susan M^cWatters. His MSc thesis focuses on the relationship between Corporate Governance and Earnings Management. 

Before joining Telfer, Mohammed’s main work experience was in banking (Dubai Islamic Bank and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank) in the brokerage department as a Stockbroker in both Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange and Dubai Financial Market. Mohammed’s other experiences include accounting instructor, research assistant, and teaching assistant.

Mohammed’s current research interest is Integrated Reporting (IR) and Corporate Governance.

Nicolas is a PhD candidate at the Telfer School of Management, in the Finance specialization. He is currently studying the financing of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Canada. His MSc in Management thesis investigated the credit availability for SMEs during the recent financial crisis in 2007-2008 and found that loan approval rates did not decline during the crisis, potentially because of the stability of Canadian banks. This finding questions the Canadian government’s monetary injection of five billion dollars in 2009 in an attempt to isolate SMEs from the liquidity shock of the crisis. Nicolas’ PhD thesis will address this issue by evaluating the efficacy of Canada’s credit guarantee scheme, a government initiative to facilitate financing to SMEs. His research therefore holds important implications to policy makers while contributing to the research literature by further informing the on-going debate about interventions and the effectiveness of credit markets, potentially mobilizing Canadian research on an international level.

In 2010, Nicolas came to the Telfer School of Management as an undergraduate student in finance, and, after graduating in 2014, continued his studies at Telfer in the MSc program. During his six years at Telfer, Nicolas spent four of those years as a teaching assistant for the French statistics courses and has worked on several projects, such as helping build the French MBA program through live and online tutorials.

Other than his passion for teaching, Nicolas participates in various intramural activities at the University of Ottawa, including basketball, volleyball, badminton and squash.

Nicolas holds the Lilian and Swee Chua Goh Doctoral Scholarship, the first admission scholarship created by donors for PhD candidates at the Telfer School of Management. He also holds the SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship.

I hold a masters degree in Environmental Engineering, and an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Sharif University of Technology. As a junior environmental engineer with a passion for sustainability, I have realized that in order to accomplish sustainable development, holistic approaches are essential. To develop a comprehensive perception of the interrelated concepts linked to sustainable development and to broaden my knowledge on core business disciplines, I have decided to seek a PhD program in management, particularly in the field of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Innovation plays a key role in redesigning the frameworks, and it is the only means that businesses can seek sustainable competitive advantages, while integrating environmental and social dimensions into their business strategies. I find the field of sustainable innovation intriguing and a perfect match to both my background and my ultimate professional goals. Particularly, I am interested in studying the factors that encourage and impede sustainable innovation, and I am keen to investigate the impacts of sustainable innovation on other aspects of, in particular, smaller firms performance.

Peyman Varshoei is a Ph.D. candidate in health systems management, under the supervision of Professor Jonathan Patrick. He holds a master’s degree in Socio-Economic Systems Engineering and a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Mazandaran University of Science and Technology, Iran. In his master’s thesis, he developed a simulation model to help patient flow in a hospital in his hometown, which has given him valuable insight into the components of successful healthcare workflow, particularly in hospital emergency departments.

After he finished his B.S. and M.S. programs, he started working in a dam construction project as a project manager for about two years. During his professional career as a project manager, he followed his data analytics passion and developed a simulation model for real-time resource planning in embankment dam projects. Before starting his Ph.D. program at Telfer School of Management, Peyman worked at an industrial and commercial lighting instrument manufacturing company as a Quality Engineer for almost two years, dealing with statistical calculations and developing Excel-based programs for quality control processes.

Peyman has published a paper with his supervisor, Jonathan Patrick, about capacity planning in a community care network. In that paper, Peyman used his simulation modeling skills to test the results obtained by an optimization model for capacity planning in a more realistic environment.

Under the supervision of Professors Jonathan Patrick and Onur Ozturk, Peyman is working on home health care nurse scheduling and routing problem (HHCNSRP) where he is gaining knowledge of mathematical modeling and optimization as well as utilizing his systems and simulation modeling knowledge and programming skills. Peyman has passed his comprehensive exam, which was mostly about using exact methods (such as column generation) to solve HHCNSRP and is currently studying available heuristic approaches to the vehicle routing problem. He is aiming to propose a novel heuristic method that provides competitive solutions and is capable of merging with a simulation model used for re-scheduling and online optimization purposes.

Renato is a PhD student in Management in the Finance specialization under the supervision of professor Fabio Moneta, PhD. His current research interests are focused on institutional investors, mutual and hedge funds, empirical asset pricing and behavioral finance.
Renato obtained his master´s degree in Finance in 2016 from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte (UFMG), Brazil. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the San Pablo Catholic University in Arequipa, Perú. Renato has passed the CFA level I and level II examinations.

Prior to joining the program, Renato worked as a visiting scholar in the University of Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia studying the fixed income mutual fund industry of Colombia and Perú.

He has worked as Senior Financial Analyst at a consulting firm in Peru. He also gained equity research experience as part of his job.

Renato’s research has received funding from different government institutions in Brazil (CNPq), Colombia (ICETEX) and Perú (PRONABEC).

Ritu is a PhD student in Management in the Entrepreneurship specialization under the supervision of Professor Peter Jaskiewicz. She holds a MSc in Management from the John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Montreal. Her master's thesis explored "Multipartner Alliances" in the airline industry with the purpose of better understanding the process of airline entry into multipartner alliances, development of mutipartner network structure and airline industry network structure overtime. In collaboration with Dr. Kai Lamertz and Dr. Rahul Ravi, Ritu presented her master's research at the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC) 2017. Her research paper won the Honorable Mention Award.  During her time at Concordia, Ritu worked as a research assistant with various professors and had an opportunity to work on numerous research projects ranging from entrepreneurship, family business, social networks and corporate social responsibility. In addition, she worked as a teaching assistant in the management department for various undergraduate courses.

Following the completion of her MSc, she worked as a Market

Research Analyst at Honda Canada where she had the opportunity to design customer surveys and work on numerous customer satisfaction research projects aimed at identifying the key drivers affecting the customer sale and service satisfaction. Along with her team-mates, she frequently briefed, the president and senior executives at Honda on the research findings.                                                                       

Through her prior research experience, she has developed interest in business family’s social networks and their impact on fostering entrepreneurship across generations within the family firms.

In her spare time, she enjoys hot yoga and playing with her daughter.

Sahar is a PhD student at the Telfer school of management in Finance specialization. She is studying under supervision of Professors Samir Saadi & François-Éric Racicot and her current research is focused on corporate finance. Since her background is in Industrial engineering which she learned many statistical and optimization methods, her goal is to combine her interdisciplinary major with Finance.

Sahar obtained her B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering at Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Iran in 2015. Due to her excellent work and GPA in the undergraduate courses she was awarded by the dean of Amirkabir University an opportunity to be admitted for master program without entrance exam.

Sahar continued her graduate studies in Industrial Eng. in field of Financial Systems at Amirkabir University and got her M.Sc. in 2018. During master studies she focused her research on all the valuable methods she had learned through her courses such as Portfolio Optimization, Forecasting and Stochastic Process. Furthermore, she has worked about one year at trading department of after sales and services for Kerman Motor Company in Iran. Ultimately, her backgrounds in Industrial Engineering and financial systems encouraged her to pursue her studies in Finance and now she is a PhD student at Telfer, University of Ottawa.

Shahin Basiratzadeh is a Ph.D. student at the Telfer School of Management. He is studying Management specializing in Health Systems under supervisions of Prof. Wojtek Michalowski, Prof. Herna Viktor, and Prof. Natalie Baddour. He is a member of the Mobile Emergency Triage (MET) Research Laboratory at the University of Ottawa, and a Research Assistant at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. He completed his Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering from Ajman University in Ajman, U.A.E, 2014 and Master's Degree in Engineering Management from Alghurair University in Dubai, U.A.E, 2018. He achieved the title of `Head of Class of Graduates in 2014 and 2018. Shahin completed a second Masters degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Ottawa.

Shahins current interest is a field that blends management and data-driven solutions. His research interests include the application of machine learning and Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) in decision analysis, medical decision making, and clinical decision support systems.

His contributions have received several global and local recognitions, including:

• Awarded as world-class educational innovators and the winner of the QS Reimagine Education Awards, known as The Oscars of Education, Regional Awards category for developing and implementation of AI-based solution for blind people to reshape their education using a smartphone and smart eyeglasses, 2019
• 1st Prize in a real government business case from the Canadian Space Agency | Agence Spatiale Canadienne and being top 5 among 84 teams at Candev competition for the AI-based solution to forecast Aurora phenomenon, 2018 
• 1^st Prize for Entrepreneurial pitch and business model for the healthcare mobile-based application "Sweet Touch", 2018
• 1^st Prize in The Global Innovation Summit, Education category, Inclusive education using assistive technology, UAE, 2015
• 1^st Prize in Senior Design Competition, IEEE UAE Student Day 2014 Design & Implementation of UAV for use by Ajman Civil Defense, U.A.E
• Winner of Microsoft Imagine Cup (Innovation Category), UAE, 2014

He has worked on numerous projects centred around developing practical solutions to health issues of the patients and challenged individuals. Most of his projects, such as posture measurement using augmented reality (AR) mobile application based, a non-invasive technique of measuring sugar-levels, speech to sign language translator for hearing impaired, smart home for elderly, self-indicator and self-finder using drone was designed to ease lives.

Being a teaching assistant and research assistant for eight years gave him a profound research-oriented personality. Moreover, he has published five papers; Fiducial Marker Approach for Biomechanical Smartphone-Based Measurements, Remote Monitoring and Tracking System for Patients with Alzheimer, Empowering Challenged Children through Education with Assistive Technology, Autonomous UAV for Civil Defense Applications and Smartphone-based Indoor Tracking System for Firefighters in Action.

Shaista Karim Sadrudin Jaffer is a PhD Student in Management (Finance), at the Telfer School of Management. Her research interests are at the intersection of corporate finance, financial economics and FinTech. She is currently studying under the supervision of Dr. Samir Saadi and Dr. Qianri Qi.

Shaista holds a Master of Science in Finance from Telfer, during which she studied the hedging behaviour of Bitcoin during COVID-19. She also has a Master of Arts in Economics and a Bachelor’s in a Joint Honours in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Ottawa. Prior to joining Telfer, Shaista worked as a Business Development and Strategy Manager for HealthSign, a medical device company looking to provide virtual care solutions for the elderly. She is also the founder of All Seasons Indian Catering and Tree of Africa Foods Inc., two family businesses established in Ottawa.

Vu is a PhD student at the Telfer School of Management at University of Ottawa with specialization in Entrepreneurship. Vu co-authored the article “Does Financial Integration Matter for Financial Development? Evidence from the East Asian and Pacific Region” that involves the impact of financial integration on financial development.

He holds a Master degree of Science in Finance at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, which he completed under the funding from Manchester Business School in 2014. Vu graduated with distinction as the best student in his cohort. His master’s final thesis focused on the relationship between exchange rates and macroeconomic fundamentals and whether exchange rates could be employed as one of the indicators in predicting macroeconomic factors such as interest rates, inflation, money supply and gross domestic product. Completing all necessary ACCA modules, Vu is expected to become the official member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in the UK in 2022.

Vu’s professional profile includes experience as an audit assistant at KPMG. He also had the opportunity to work as an assistant to the Chairman at Vietnam Lottery Company in which he was responsible for the optimization of the financial resources and investment of the whole organization including 50 branches scattered across 62 provinces in Vietnam. In 2017, he became the business faculty members at National Economics University, one of the leading universities in business and economics in Vietnam.

Vu is entertained by personal computer games in his free time. If it were not for an academic career, he would like to become a professional footballer.

Vusal is a PhD student in Management, in the Health Systems specialization, under the supervision of Professor Jonathan Patrick. He obtained his BS in Industrial Engineering at Qafqaz University, a MS degree in Industrial Engineering at University of Pittsburgh and a MS degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics with a focus on Health Economics at Western University. While studying at Western University, Vusal wrote his master’s thesis on Economic Evaluation of Brentuximab Vedotin for Persistent Hodgkin Lymphoma under the supervision of Professor Greg Zaric of the Ivey Business School.

His research interests broadly lie in the healthcare operations research domain. His current research work includes designing an optimal drug formulary and reducing patient wait times at Canadian healthcare facilities. He is also interested in exploring optimal advanced schedules in a multi-resource and multi-class healthcare setting. In the past, Vusal developed a discrete-event simulation model of a radiation treatment planning at the London Regional Cancer Centre to improve wait times and staffing levels.

Prior to starting his doctoral program at the Telfer School of Management, Vusal worked as a Health Economist at Pivina Consulting Inc. in Toronto, Health Economics Associate at PATH Research Institute in Hamilton, under the supervision of Professor Ron Goree, and at Health Quality Ontario in Toronto. Throughout these roles in the private and public landscape, he developed various economic models for medical technologies and treatments considered for use in Canada and published various abstracts, papers and reports.

Vusal loves research, teaching and interacting with students and aspires to be a faculty member at a university in the near future. He loves hiking and spending his time with friends and family. He is married with no children.

Vusal holds the Ontario Graduate Scholarship.

https://sites.google.com/uottawa.ca/vusal

I completed my undergraduate study at East China University of Science and Technology in China. My major is accounting. After that, I came to University of Ottawa to pursue my MSc (in accounting) degree. During my master's study, I work as a research assistant as well as a teaching assistant. These precious experiences motivate me to apply for a PhD after graduation. My master's thesis explored the climate change disclosures in family firms under the supervision of Prof. Walid Ben-Amar. For my PhD study, my research interests will still focus on family firms and corporate disclosure. After work, I love cooking and travelling. 

Yanhong is a PhD student in Management under the supervision of Dr. Laurent Lapierre, in the Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources specialization. Her research focuses on courage in the workplace, work-family interface, and employee well-being 

She obtained her MSc in Management in 2017 and her Honours B.A. with specialization in Psychology and minor in Statistics in 2015 from the University of Ottawa.

Under the supervision of Dr. Laurent Lapierre, her master’s thesis focused on factors that contribute to individuals’ work-family enrichment using meta-analyses. Yanhong continuously looks for research opportunities within and outside of her field of study. She is currently working on several projects to identify problems related to, raise awareness of, and advocate for diversity, inclusion, equity, and employee well-being.

Yanhong’s doctoral thesis studies workplace moral heroes – individuals who stand up for what they believe in despite perceived risks. She spends almost all of her free time on fiber- or fabric-related crafts, fulfilling her houseplant-obsessions, and training her cats using behavioural theories she learned from her Psychology degree.

Yanhong Li holds the Lilian and Swee Chua Goh Doctoral Scholarship (the first admission scholarship created by donors for PhD candidates at the Telfer School of Management) and the Telfer PhD Engagement Award. She was a recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and currently holds the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships Program Doctoral Scholarships (CGS-D) by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Yasamin is a PhD Student in Management, with a specialization in Health Systems, at the Telfer School of Management. Her research interests include IT adoption in health care, implementation of EMR and PHR and their facilitators and barriers. She is studying under the supervision of Dr. Mirou Jaana and Dr. Samia Chriem.

Yasamin holds Master of Science (MSc) (Information Technology Management)  from Tehran University and a Bachelor of Science (BSc) (Accounting-Auditing) from Kharazmi University. Her Master’s thesis examined the impacts of digital technologies on business process management.

Prior to joining Telfer, Yasamin worked as a sales accountant for the Towzin Electric Company (TEC) at Tehran, Iran.