Current Students

Ali Mahdi is a Ph.D. candidate at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa. He is specializing in entrepreneurship under the supervision of Dr. David Crick. His research is at the intersection of marketing and entrepreneurship and focuses on topics within the entrepreneurial marketing research domain. His research utilizes quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method approaches and focuses on answering questions and finding solutions to problems centering around value creation. Ali comes from a family of entrepreneurs and has academic and professional experience in entrepreneurship and marketing. He took on several marketing roles within his family’s business while completing his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in marketing. He is actively looking for collaborations with researchers and businesses and is aspiring to spend his career in academia. His teaching philosophy relies on student-centered and active learning methods. Since 2017, Ali has been involved in various university teaching roles across several higher education institutions.

• Mahdi, A., Farah, M.F. & Ramadan, Z. (2022). "What to believe, whom to blame, and when to share: exploring the fake news experience in the marketing context". Journal of Consumer Marketing, 39(3), 306-316. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCM-05-2020-3863
• Farah, M.F., Ramadan, Z., & Mahdi, A. H. (2019). The impact of fake news on brands and social media. Summer AMA Academic Conference.

Award: Best Paper in Track The Digital World: Digital and Social Media Marketing.

Ali Coates is a PhD student in Management, with a Health Systems specialization. Her work focuses on community assets and engagement in rural health systems planning. She is a recipient of the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships Program Doctoral Scholarships (CGS-D) by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Ali holds a BSc (Honours) degree from Mount Allison University, an MBA in Healthcare Management and an 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 began at 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 how rural hospitals meet the IRS and New York State requirements for Community Health Needs Assessments, especially the mandates to identify community assets and include community contributions to the planning process. She will seek to uncover how state-level priorities and mandates shape local health system planning in rural areas and will determine the degree of alignment of the health plan with the community’s needs. 

PAPERS IN REFEREED JOURNALS

• Scarffe, A. D., Coates, A., Evans, J. M., & Grudniewicz, A. (2022). Centralization and innovation: Competing priorities for health systems?. The International Journal of Health Planning and Management.
• Coates, A., Fuad, A. O., Hodgson, A., & Bourgeault, I. L. (2021). Health workforce strategies in response to major health events: a rapid scoping review with lessons learned for the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Human resources for health, 19(1), 1-18.
• Coates, A. M. (2019). Sustaining Rural Access to Emergency Care through Collaborative Emergency Centres in Nova Scotia. Health Reform Observer, 7(2). DOI: 10.13162/hro-ors.v7i2.3821.

INVITED CONTRIBUTIONS AND/OR TECHNICAL REPORTS

• Coates, A. Zahnd, W., Burgin, C. (2022). Toward a Sustainable Rural Health Workforce. National Rural Health Association [Policy Paper].
• Coates, A., & Roseamelia, C. (2021). NW Cares: Learning from COVID [Final Report].
• Coates, A., & Fleet, R. (2020). Report to the Rural Road Map Implementation Committee: Rural Patient Transfer and Repatriation [Final Report].
• Bourgeault, I., Coates, A., Mihailescu, M., Fuad, A.-O., Sim, J., & Jutai, T. (2020). Health Workforce Strategies to Help Ensure Optimal Supply & Health System Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Barriers & Facilitators to their Adoption & Implementation. Canadian Health Workforce Partners.

Amirhossein is a PhD student at Telfer School of Management, specializing in Health Systems. He works under the supervision of Dr. Onur Ozturk and Dr. Jonathan Patrick. Amirhossein and graduated from Azad University with an MSc in Industrial Engineering and a BSc in Industrial Engineering. During his Master’s thesis, he applied Business Analytics to investigate the operating room planning problem, which was awarded the title of the best thesis of the university. Also, for his PhD thesis, he is studying planning and scheduling problems in long-term care and medical daycare sectors.

Amirhossein has published articles in various international journals including, Computers & Industrial Engineering, Journal of Industrial and Management Optimization, and European Journal of Industrial Engineering. During his PhD program, he was awarded the International Ontario Graduate Scholarship twice. As a part of his volunteer activities, Amirhossein serves the Graduate Student association at Telfer School of Management as the Board Director. Amirhossein has extensive experience of over three years in research assistantship. During his research assistantship, he studied various problems in Supply Chain Management. Also, he is currently a teaching 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 optimization algorithms such as metaheuristics, heuristics and Bender's decomposition methods for large-scale problems.

Refereed Journal Papers

• Nikfarjam, A., & Moosavi, A. (2021). An integrated (1, T) inventory policy and vehicle routing problem under uncertainty: an accelerated Benders decomposition algorithm. Transportation Letters, 13(2), 104-124.
• Moosavi, A., & Ebrahimnejad, S. (2020). Robust operating room planning considering upstream and downstream units: A new two-stage heuristic algorithm. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 143, 106387.‏
• Moosavi, A., & Nikfarjam, A. (2019). A multi-path routing-inventory problem for a closed-loop supply chain considering the heterogeneous fleet of vehicles. International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 12(3), 174-188. https://doi.org/10.1080/19397038.2019.1566412.
• Erfani, B., Ebrahimnejad, S., & Moosavi, A. (2020). An integrated dynamic facility layout and job shop scheduling problem: A hybrid NSGA-II and local search algorithm. Journal of Industrial and Management Optimization, 16(4), 1801. https://doi.org/10.3934/jimo.2019030.
• Moosavi, A., & Ebrahimnejad, S. (2018). Scheduling of elective patients considering upstream and downstream units and emergency demand using robust optimization. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 120, 216-233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2018.04.047.
• Rezaee, N., Ebrahimnejad, S., Moosavi, A., & Nikfarjam, A. (2019). A green vehicle routing problem with time windows considering the heterogeneous fleet of vehicles: Two metaheuristic algorithms. European Journal of Industrial Engineering. The manuscript has been accepted for publication.
• Zanganeh, M., Ebrahimnejad, S., Moosavi, A., & Tayebi, H. (2018). A bi-objective model for humanitarian logistics network design in response to post-disaster. International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management. The manuscript has been accepted for publication.
• Ebrahimnejad, S., Rahimi, V., & Moosavi, S. A. (2018). A proposed grey fuzzy multi-objective programming model in supplier selection: a case study in the automotive parts industry. International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 29(4), 409-435. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJLSM.2018.090471.

Amlan is a fourth-year doctoral student, who is pursuing research in Family Business & Entrepreneurship. Prior to joining the doctoral program, he obtained an MSc in Management with a focus on family business from Telfer School of Management. His doctoral research primarily focuses on issues related to management, compensation structure, and organizational outcomes in family business.

Amlan is a trained economist and has earned his PhD in Economics from the Fogelman College of Business and Economics, University of Memphis, Tennessee, USA. He also holds a MA Degree in Applied Economics from University of Cincinnati.

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. 

• Kuziemsky, C., & Ghazzawi, A. (2019). A Systems Model of HIT-Induced Complexity. In Embracing Complexity in Health (pp. 267-277). Springer, Cham.
• Ghazzawi, A., Kuziemsky, C., & OSullivan, T. (2016). Using a complex adaptive system lens to understand family caregiving experiences navigating the stroke rehabilitation system. BMC Health Services Research, 16(1), 538.
• Sundareswaran, M., Ghazzawi, A., OSullivan, T. (2015). Upstream Disaster Management to Support People Experiencing Homelessness. PLOS Currents: Disasters.
• OSullivan, T.L., Ghazzawi, A., Stanek, A., Lemyre, L. (2012). We dont have a back up plan: An exploration of family emergency preparedness plans following stroke. Social Work in Health Care. 

Andrew is a PhD Candidate in Management with a concentration in Health Systems. His research is focused on risk perception and weight of evidence approaches to decision-making in the lay public and he is supervised by Dr. Kevin Brand and Dr. Wojtek Michalowski. Some of his other research interests include health economic evaluation, innovation, and science advice/science communication. Andrew is the recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2020-2021), the Telfer PhD Engagement award (2021), the Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship for Science and Technology (2021-2022), and the Mitacs Accelerate Entrepreneurship Scholarship (2020-2022).

Peer Reviewed

• Siu, S.C., Scarffe, A.D., Barrett, D.R., Strong, M.J., Schulz, V., Dixon, D.R., & Calvin, J.E. (2019). Enhancing physician managerial capabilities: Partnership between medicine and business. MedEdPublish. 8. DOI: 10.15694/mep.2019.000096.1
• Scarffe, A.D. (2017). International agreements for health systems development: Nature, drivers, barriers and benefits of international partnerships. International Journal of Healthcare Management. 11 (4). DOI: 10.1080/20479700.2017.1397306
• Scarffe, A.D., Smith, A.D., & Barrett, D. (2017). Reshaping health care through mHealth: Lessons from the on-demand economy. Mevielle, L., Menvielle, W., & Audrain, A. (Eds). The digitalization of healthcare. Palgrave-MacMillan. DOI: 10.1057/978-1-349-95173-4_2
• Snowdon, A. W., Bassi, H., Scarffe, A.D., & Smith, A.D. (2015). Reverse innovation: an opportunity for strengthening health systems. Globalization and Health, 11(1), 1. DOI: 10.1186/s12992-015-0088-x

Peer Reviewed (Teaching Materials)

• Scarffe, A.D., Kirkonnell, P., & Barrett, D.R. (2019). Patients First?: End-Of-Life Health System Navigation. Ivey Publishing. London, Ontario
• Smith, A., Scarffe, A.D., & Snowdon, A. (2015). Ivey Business School Case Niagara Health: An innovative communications strategy (Cases A & B). Ivey Publishing. London, Ontario.

Ben is a Ph.D. student at the Telfer School of Management in the Finance Specialization. He is studying under the supervision of Dr. Miwako Nitani and his research interests include quantitative behavioral finance, venture capital, valuation, and investment management.

Before joining Telfer, Ben obtained his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering at Shiraz University during which he honed his skills in quantitative concepts and modeling. Furthermore, he designed a production method for Light Transmitting Concrete during his bachelor's and gained experience in building construction.  Moreover, he completed his research-based MBA at the University of Tehran and started to work as a stock trader in the second year of his master studies and his thesis was focused on wide-herding in stock markets.

During his spare time, Ben enjoys working out, boxing, swimming, and watching movies.

Carolina is a PhD student in the Strategy and Organization specialization under the supervision of Dr. Daina Mazutis. Her main interest is to support organizations to implement sustainability-focused strategies that can impact the world and help society and the environment. 

Carolina has more than 10 years of experience in the corporate world through the development of business strategies centered in the promotion of sustainable products. She holds a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Los Andes University in Colombia and a Master's degree in Engineering management from La Sabana Unversity in Colombia. In her Master's thesis she applied system dynamics to the analysis of the environmental problem of accumulating single-use plastics in landfills and proposed a business model to transfrom the plastic bottle into one made of a compostable and biobased plastic. 

Carolina is a mom and a wife. She loves animals, she is vegan and loves riding bike with her daughter, swimming and eating good food and enjoying a good coffee while sharing with her family.

Chen Li is a second-year Ph.D. student at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa with a specialization in Finance under the supervision of Professor Shantanu Dutta. His research interests include credit rating, risk management, insider trading and data mining.

He obtained his bachelor’s degree from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in 2016, majoring in Quantitative Economics. He obtained his master’s degree from Northwest A&F University in 2020 in China, with a specialization in Finance. During his master’s study in the field of credit rating, he explored several machine learning models with hyperparameter optimization in default prediction. He participated in the 16th National Post-Graduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling in China and won the 2nd prize in 2019. Now, he is also a certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM).

Daniel James Quintal-Curcic (he/him/his) is a Ph.D. Candidate in Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources at the Telfer School of Management, under the supervision of Dr. Laurent Lapierre. Daniel's research interests include mental health, leadership, and social support. Daniel’s research focuses on how managers/supervisors may best protect and promote their employees’ mental health. 

Daniel has had the opportunity to present his research at the Canadian Psychological Association Annual Convention, the Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, and the Academy of Management Annual Meeting.

Daniel has a passion for health and wellness, and outside of academia, he enjoys cooking plant-based recipes, meditating, endurance training, and the art of drag.

• Lapierre, L. M., Kelloway, E. K., & Quintal-Curcic, D. (in press). How can managers at different levels support employees’ mental health? In L. M. Lapierre & C. L. Cooper (Eds.), Organisational stress and well-being. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press
• Quintal-Curcic, D. J., & Scott, K. A. (2019, July). How Leader Envy Mediates the Relationship Between Subordinate Power and Leader-Member Exchange. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2019, No. 1, p. 18130). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

Danielle is a PhD student in Management, with a specialization in Health Systems. Under the supervision of Dr. Mirou Jaana, she is interested in exploring technology innovations in long-term care homes and how they can be used to support the work of healthcare professionals and to improve the quality of life of residents.   

In her previous studies, Danielle obtained an Honours Bachelor of Public Health degree from the University of Waterloo and a Master of Science in Health Systems from the Telfer School of Management. Her master’s thesis explored the factors that managers consider to inform their decision to adopt health information technology in long-term care homes.

During her time at Telfer, Danielle worked as a teaching assistant and research assistant. She is also a research assistant at Perley Health, Ottawa’s largest long-term care home. She hopes that her research can be used to improve the quality of life of older adults living in long-term care.

Elizabeth is a PhD Candidate in Management, in the Entrepreneurship specialization, under the supervision of Dr. Peter Jaskiewicz. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of King’s College and a Master of Arts degree in English Literature from Dalhousie University. Within the Entrepreneurship specialization, Elizabeth focuses on transgenerational entrepreneurship and family business. Specifically, her research explores the impact of mental health not only in terms of the functioning of the business family, but also on the health and vitality of the family business.

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.

• Bayat, M., Khalilnejad, R., Akbari-Sari, A., Harirchi, I., Zalani, G. S., Mirbahaeddin, S. E., Shokri, A. (2019). Factors Associated with Dual Practice in Surgery Specialists: Application of Multi-Level Analysis on National Registry Data. Iranian Journal of Public Health, 48(5), 882-892.
• Bayat, M., Zalani, G. S., Harirchi, I., Shokri, A., Mirbahaeddin, E., Khalilnezhad, R., Akbari-Sari, A. (2018). Extent and nature of dual practice engagement among Iran medical specialists. Human Resources for Health, 16(1), 61. DOI: 10.1186/s12960-018-0326-4
• Bayat, M., Shokri, A., Khalilnezhad, R., Mirbahaeddin, E., Khodadost, M., Fattahi, H., Akbari-Sari, A. (2018). Effect of dual practice on service delivery time by surgeons in the Islamic Republic of Iran: a multi-level analysis of a national survey, 2016. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 24(09), 866876. https://doi.org/10.26719/2018.24.9.866
• Bayat, M., Shokri, A., Khodadost, M., Fattahi, H., Mirbahaeddin, E., Harirchi, I., Khalilnezhad, R. (2018). Factors influencing medical specialists dual practice in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 24(09), 877887. https://doi.org/10.26719/2018.24.9.877
• Zalani, G. S., Khalilnezhad, R., Mirbahaeddin, E., Shokri, A., Kashkalani, T., & Bayat, M. (2018). Human resources for health strategies: the way to achieve universal health coverage in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 24(09), 846854. https://doi.org/10.26719/2018.24.9.846
• Vatankhah, S., Alirezaei, S., Khosravizadeh, O., Mirbahaeddin, S. E., Alikhani, M., & Alipanah, M. (2017). Role of transformational leadership on employee productivity of teaching hospitals: using structural equation modeling. Electronic Physician, 9(8), 49784984. https://doi.org/10.19082/4978
• Maryam, Y., Sima, R., Omid, K., Elmira, M., Mina, J., Samaneh, S., & Mohammad, E. R. (2017). A systematic review of factors influencing healthcare services marketing in Iran. Bali Medical Journal, 6(2), 268. https://doi.org/10.15562/bmj.v6i2.536
• Salehi Zalani, G., Bayat, M., Shokri, A., Mirbahaeddin, S. E., Rasi, V., Alirezaei, S., & Manafi, F. (2016). Affecting factors on the performance of community health workers in Irans rural areas: A review article. Iranian Journal of Public Health, 45(11), 13991410.
• Bayat, M., Harirchi, I., Salehi Zalani, G., Akbari-Sari, A., Shokri, A., Khodadost, M., Mirbahaeddin, S.E., Yaseri, M., Jaafaripooyan, E. (2017). Estimation of oncologists active supply in Iran: Three sources capture-recapture method. Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal, 19(7). https://doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.56126
• Esmaillzade, H., Mafimoradi, S., Mirbahaeddin, S. E., Rostamigooran, N., & Farshadfar, F. (2016). Devising a National Mens Health Policy Document?: The Current Challenges to Men s Health in Iran. International Journal of Mens Health, 15(2), 174193. https://doi.org/10.3149/jmh.1502.17

Farzad Jafari is a PhD student at the Telfer School of Management who is specializing in finance. His research interests lie at the intersection of decentralized finance (DeFi), financial technology (fintech), and risk management. He works under the supervision of professors Jonathan Li and Cheryl Qi.
In 2012, Farzad graduated the University of Isfahan, Iran, with a BSc in electrical engineering - electronics. Due to his passion for finance, he decided to pursue a master’s degree in finance at the University of Tehran, one of Iran’s top universities. His master’s dissertation focused on the relationship between gold investment returns and Tehran Stock Exchange returns. This research experience reinforced his passion for conducting research in financial economics and paved the way for his application for the PhD program in financial management at the University of Tehran. For his PhD dissertation, he examined the impact of economic variables on investor herding behaviour on the Tehran Stock Exchange, and the results of this study were published in the Journal of Money and Economy.
Farzad Jafari has over 10 years’ work experience in the field of finance. He has worked at prominent financial institutions in Iran, including Iran Fara Bourse (IFB) Securities Exchange Company, EN Bank, and Iran Currency Exchange Company. He also serves as an editor of the Journal of Economics and Environment (JEE) and as a reviewer for the Journal of Mathematics and Modelling in Finance (JMMF).

1. Farzad Jafari*, Reza Tehrani and Ezzatollah Abbasian."Impacts of Economic Variables on Herding Behavior in Tehran Stock Exchange Industries." Journal of Money and Economy Vol. 14, No. 3 (2019): 317-333.

2. Saeed Tajodin, Farzad Jafari and Majid Lotfi Ghahroud. "Unusual Behavior: Reversed Leverage Effect Bias". Journal of Mathematics and Modeling in Finance. Vol. 1, Issue 1 (2020).

3. Majid Lotfi Ghahroud, Farzad Jafari, Rassol Rahimnia, Hamed Besarati and Mahdi Parseh. “Environmental protection strategies by socially responsible ETFs.” Journal of Economics and Environment Vol. 1, Issue 4 (2020): 7-12.

4. Niloufar Ebrahimiyan, Majid Lotfi Ghahroud , Shayan Bastani Allah Abadi and Farzad Jafari*. “Tokenization and Its Application in Different Countries” Journal of Fintech and Artificial Intelligence Vol. 1, Issue 1 (2021): 14-19.

5. Majid Lotfi Ghahroud, Farzad Jafari and Jamal Maghsoodi. “Review of the Fintech categories and the most famous Fintech start-ups” Journal of Fintech and Artificial Intelligence Vol. 1, Issue 1 (2021): 1-7

6. Saeed Tajodin, Amir Hamooni, Jamal Maghsoodi, Farzad Jafari* and Majid Lotfi Ghahroud. “Trade War and the Balanced Trade Monetary Theory” Journal of Mathematics and Modeling in Finance. Vol. 1, Issue 1 (2021).

Ghazale is a PhD candidate in Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior (HR/OB) at Telfer School of Management working under the supervision of Dr. A.J Corner and Dr. Laurent Lapierre. She is interested in examining the positive and dark sides of workplace relationships and investigating how these aspects influence both individual and teams’ wellbeing.

Before joining to Telfer, she completed her Master of Science in Business Administration at the Amir Kabir University of Technology, and she got her B.A in Industrial Engineering at the Khaje-Nasir University of Technology in Iran.

She has various studies on teams’ motivation, leader-member exchange, the dark side of mentoring and so on. Before starting her PhD, she worked as teams’ mentors at the Amir Kabir University innovation lab. Due to her interest in research, she voluntarily joined the Iran Immigration Observatory as the research assistant to study interpersonal relations’ issues for professional immigrants in host countries.

By studying her PhD and doing cutting-edge research, she hopes to help employees be happier at work. She is proud of having a supportive supervisor, an encouraging husband, and a caring family who help her achieve her dreams.

Guilda is a PhD student at the Telfer School of Management in the Finance specialization. She is studying under the supervisions of Professors Jonathan Yumeng Li and Fabio Moneta. Her current research interests are centered on Financial Engineering, Portfolio Management, Risk Management, and Asset Pricing.

Before joining Telfer, Guilda obtained her M.Sc in Industrial Engineering in the field of Financial Systems at University of Tehran, Iran in 2018. During her master studies, her research was focused on Portfolio Optimization and Risk Management.

She has worked as a Financial Engineering Expert at an Investment Bank in Iran. She has done some research in this field as part of her job. She also has experience working with different novel financial instruments and has been involved in issuing bonds for Iranian companies in Tehran Stock Exchange and Money Market.

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.

Lizhi is a PhD candidate at the Telfer School of Management with a specialization in accounting. She received a Bachelor of Economics from the Northeastern University in China followed by a master’s degree in economics from the Central South University.

Prior to applying for the doctoral program, Lizhi became a member of the CICPA (Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants) and passed her level one CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) exam. The theories and skills she learned in economics helped improve her understanding of accounting issues.

In the past five years, Lizhi worked as an auditor where she developed her professional expertise through annual audit and IPO programs, including China state-owned enterprises, multinational corporations, and private companies.

In her free time, she enjoys traveling, participating in outdoor activities with her baby and spending time with her friends.

Manal is a PhD candidate in Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management (OBHR) at Telfer School of Management working under the supervision of Jane O’Reilly and A.J. Corner. Manal is interested in workplace relationships, including the precedents and outcomes of strong leader-follower interactions. 

Before joining Telfer, she completed her Master of Science in Organizational Psychology through the University of London, UK. Her dissertation titled “When your leader is darker” won top prize for her year. Manal’s Bachelor of Science degree was awarded by the American University of Beirut in Mathematics, and in between she completed the IBM Professional Certificate in Data Science which proved helpful for data analysis and visualization at the graduate level. 

Manal has over fifteen years of work experience in multinational organizations out of which over 7 years were in a leadership capacity. Her most recent employee survey results exceeded her colleagues' and superiors' results, and reflected her passion for leadership. This success sparked her interest in leadership theories and research within Organizational Behaviour.

On a personal front, Manal goes on long walks with her dog and enjoys sports including swimming, hiking, and basketball.

Mariam is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources field. She is studying under the supervision of Professor Sharon L. O’Sullivan.

Mariam’s research interests focus on cultural variations concerning verbal and non-verbal communications. Her doctoral dissertation will explore the potential role of empathy in facilitating intercultural interactions between individuals from different cultural backgrounds in service provider contexts in Canada.

To further her research skills, Mariam had the opportunity to contribute to the GLOBE 2020 study as a Country Co-Investigator. She recently attained a certificate of excellence in cross-cultural research to recognize her efforts in the same study. Mariam also worked with Dr. O’Sullivan on her research project focusing on the dynamics of Indigenous developmental relationships. A SSHRC grant finances this project. Mariam continues to work with Dr. El Badawy (College of Business, Auburn University at Montgomery, Alabama, USA) on numerous research projects in Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources. Together, they have successfully published several papers addressing topics relevant to the workplace.

As a Ph.D. candidate, Mariam presented her first conceptual paper on empathy in organizational contexts at the ASAC 2020 under the Organizational Behaviour stream. Her second conceptual paper just got accepted under the International Business stream at the ASAC 2021. Such exposure adds to her experience and hones her research skills.

Mariam attained numerous teaching assistant contracts at Telfer, including ADM4338, ADM4337, ADM3319, ADM2336, ADM2337, among others. She recently taught ADM3319 twice remotely during 2020. Mariam is currently completing the requirements of the Certificate in University Teaching at uOttawa.

Mariam received her master’s degree in 2014 from the German University in Cairo (GUC), Egypt. Her thesis addressed stereotypes, prejudices, and discriminatory acts against carriers of Hepatitis C in the Egyptian workplace. She received her bachelor’s degree from the GUC in 2011. She double majored in Human Resource Management and Strategic Management. She held the position of Assistant Lecturer of Human Resource Management in Management Technology, GUC (2011-2014).

Mariam holds the Telfer’s Admission Scholarship. She was the recipient of the GUC Excellence Award twice. Mariam is a proud mother of two little boys.

• Mohamed, A. A., Saad, M., & Magdy, M. M. (2019). The Construction and Validation of a New Hepatitis C Virus Social Stigma in the Workplace Scale. Psychology, Community & Health, 8(1), 1-13. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.5964/pch.v8i1.207
• El Badawy, T.A., Chinta, R. & Magdy, M.M. (2018). Does ‘Gender’ mediate or moderate the relationship between ‘Quality of work life’ and ‘Organizational commitment’? Evidence from SMEs in Egypt. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 33(4), 332-348.
• El Badawy, T.A., & Magdy, M.M. (2017). Change management in the private sector: A literature review and proposed research questions. International Journal of Management and Administrative Sciences, 4(4), 85-91.
• El Badawy, T.A., Gutiérrez-Martínez, I. & Magdy, M.M. (2016). Impression Management and Its Interaction with Emotional Intelligence and Locus of Control: Two-Sample Investigation. International Review of Management and Business Research, 5(3), 1191-1203.
• Magdy, M.M., Mohamed, A.A. & Saad, M. (2016). Stereotyping, prejudice, and intentions to discriminate against employees with Hepatitis C virus: The mediation and moderation effects. Proceedings of the 2016 Africa Academy of Management Conference, Nairobi, Kenya (5th Jan-10th Jan. 2016).
• El Badawy, T.A. & Magdy, M.M. (2015). The Impact of Globalization on HRM Policies and Practices in Egypt: The Case of the Public Sector. Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(2), 24-39.
• El Badawy, T. A., Marwan, R. M., & Magdy, M. M. (2015). The impact of emerging technologies on knowledge management in organizations. International Business Research, 8(5), 111-119.
• Mohamed, A. A., Saad, M. & Magdy, M. (2014). The mother of all evils: Hepatitis C virus stigma in the workplace. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2014 Annual Meeting.

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).

Meraj is a PhD candidate in Management at the Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa. He is studying entrepreneurship under the supervision of Dr. Wadid Lamine. His research interest revolves around establishing a systematic view of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Particularly, he is interested in exploring the role of entrepreneurial support organizations in entrepreneurial ecosystems. He is also interested in implementing new methodologies like computational simulation to capture non-linear and evolving relationships in entrepreneurship studies.

Meraj holds a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran and an MBA from Khajeh-Nasir University, Tehran. He also has experience working in the energy sector and consulting firms in Iran. Parallel to his studies, he also has seven years of experience in the education sector as a teacher and event executive.

Outside of school, Meraj enjoys hiking, swimming, playing music, and traveling. He also likes exploring new cultures, their foods and music, and spending time with friends.

Mian is a Ph.D. candidate at Telfer School of Management with a focus on finance. He is studying under the supervision of Dr. Ali Akyol. Mian’s current research interest lies in corporate governance.

Mian has a combined background. He received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2014 from Xian Jiaotong University (China). In 2016 Mian got his master’s degree in Finance from Tulane University (Louisiana, USA). After graduating from Tulane University, he worked in a provincial venture capital firm in China a year and half, and then entered Telfer School of Management in 2018.

After entering Telfer, Mian has worked as research assistant with Telfer faculty members in several projects. Mian also works as teaching assistant for several classes, including third-year undergraduate Corporate Finance and forth-year undergraduate Equity Valuation.

Mikaila is a PhD student, under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Dimoff, in the Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources specialization. Her research focuses on worker well-being, women’s health, and gender in leadership. Mikaila currently holds SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship (2022-26).

Mikaila obtained her MSc Management specializing in Organizational Behaviour in 2022 from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) in Human Resources from the University of Saskatchewan in 2020. Her SSHRC CGS-M funded master’s thesis investigated how menstruation effects work behaviours and outcomes.

Mikaila has presented her research at numerous conferences including, the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, the Canadian Psychological Association Convention, and the Administrative Sciences Association (ASAC) Conference. In 2020, her BComm thesis won Best Student Paper at the ASAC Conference.

Outside of studying, Mikaila stays active with hiking, running, and fitness classes. She also is a foodie and enjoys trying out new restaurants and cafes. 

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.

Niki is a second year PhD student in management, specializing in the field of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She holds a master’s degree in Environmental Engineering, and an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology. She initially joined the program out of her burning interest for sustainability, aiming to broaden her knowledge on core management theories to better understand the interplay between entrepreneurship and sustainability.

Currently, her research agenda is concerned with the cognitive and social implications of entrepreneurial behaviors. She is working on entrepreneurial resilience in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, investigating the responses of affected businesses to understand what makes some entrepreneurs more likely to recover and renew in the face of such major disruptions. This empirical work was presented at the 2021 Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC), “M. Khorasanizadeh, M. Freel, A. Rostamkalaei, Entrepreneurial Resilience of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Amid COVID-19, Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference, Technical University of Munich, Germany, 2021.”

Niki has a passion for problem-based and impact-driven research on social entrepreneurship, and she is eager to learn more about the processes and practices that drive social impact. She is hoping to integrate her different interests during her research career.

• M.Khorasanizadeh, A Bazargan, G Mckay, Sustainable Materials Management, In: Handbook of Novel Environmental Materials Management, Springer, January 2018.

Peyman is a Ph.D. candidate in the Management program, under the supervision of Dr. Jonathan Patrick and Dr. Onur Ozturk. He holds a master’s degree in Socio-Economic Systems Engineering and a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Iran.

After he graduated from his master’s program, he worked for about four years started as a project analyst and quality engineer in different industries in Iran. During his professional career, he enhanced his advanced analytics and operations research skills by working on applied projects.

Peyman is now working on his doctoral thesis research which is focused on scheduling problems in health systems. He has developed an iterative heuristic method to solve a patient admission scheduling problem under pandemic conditions and is working on a periodic and dynamic home health care nurse scheduling and routing problem with flexible planning horizons. He has aimed to expand his research experience to the ongoing scheduling problems in the health care services in Ottawa.

Peyman has been teaching and research assisting along with his Ph.D. studies and had the opportunity to teach undergraduate-level courses at Telfer School for a couple of semesters.

In his free time, Peyman loves to watch soccer (a keen fan of FC Bayern Munich). He plays piano and guitar, sings and covers Persian and English pop music for leisure

• Bidhandi, H. M., Patrick, J., Noghani, P., & Varshoei, P. (2019). Capacity planning for a network of community health services. European Journal of Operational Research, 275(1), 266-279.
• Smith, H., Varshoei, P., Boushey, R., & Kuziemsky, C. (2020). Simulation modeling validity and utility in colorectal cancer screening delivery: A systematic review. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 27(6), 908-916.
• Smith, H., Varshoei, P., Boushey, R., & Kuziemsky, C. (2020). Use of Simulation Modeling to Inform Decision Making for Health Care Systems and Policy in Colorectal Cancer Screening: Protocol for a Systematic Review. JMIR research protocols, 9(5), e16103.

Renato is a Ph.D. candidate in the Finance specialization working under the supervision of Professor Fabio Moneta. His current research interests center around institutional investors, empirical asset pricing, and behavioral finance. His prior research has focused on topics such as the mutual fund flow-performance relation in emerging markets, the relation between fixed-income funds and the real economy, and the behavioral determinants of capital structure decisions. 

Before joining the program, Renato was a visiting scholar at the University of Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia. Additionally, he has worked as a Senior Financial Analyst at a consulting firm in Peru where he gained equity research experience as part of his job.

Renato holds a master´s degree in Finance from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil, and a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the San Pablo Catholic University in Perú. Additionally, Renato has passed the CFA level I and level II examinations.

Renato’s research has been funded by government institutions in Brazil (CNPq), Colombia (ICETEX), and Perú (PRONABEC).

• Lazo, R., Iquiapaza, R., & Bressan, A. (2017). Influence of investors’ monitoring on equity mutual funds’ performance. Revista de Gestão, Finanças e Contabilidade 1(7), 79 - 101.
• Cavalcanti, J., Castro, S., Lazo, R., & Avelar, E. (2016) Financial debt stratification and capital structure determinants of companies listed in the BM&FBOVESPA, Revista de Gestão, Finanças e Contabilidade 6(3), 125-142.

Ritu is a PhD student in Management in the Entrepreneurship specialization under the supervision of Professor Peter Jaskiewicz. Her research interests lie at the intersection of social networks and governance within the family business context. Particularly, she is interested in exploring the role of family firms’ board networks in shaping different family firm outcomes.

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 factors 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.

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

• Virk, R.R.K., Lamertz K., Ravi, R. (2017). Airline Entry into Multipartner Alliances – The Embeddedness Effect! Proceeding of the Annual Conference of ASAC (Organizational Theory Division) Montreal, QC. 38, 59-91. This paper won the honorable mention award.

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.

Samaneh is a current Ph.D. student in management, specializing in the field of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Ottawa. She has started her education under the supervision of Dr. Ajax Persaud. She holds a master’s degree in Management of Technology for Allameh Tabataba’i University, and a B.Sc. degree in Solid Physics in Guilan University.

• Mohebalizadeh, S. Framework for Designing and Implementing National Technomart in Biotechnology Sector: An Action Research, Submitted: Journal of Science and Technology Policy (Q1) (2021, May,05)
• Mohebalizadeh, S. Ghazinoori, S. Developing A Technology Roadmap for Regenerative Medicine by Using Participatory Action Research Approach, Systemic Practice and Action Research, Published (2020 June 20).
• Ghazinouri, S. Aminloo, M. Khalilzadeh, N. Radaei, N. Mohebalizadeh, S. Applying Porters 5 forces for Developing Technology Roadmap (Case-Study: Iran Biotechnology Technology Roadmap), Management Improvement Journal. 2017 May 28; 35(1):93-116.

Sara is a PhD student at Telfer School of Management. Her research focuses on how optimization and data analysis can be used to inform policy and make health-care systems more productive, while allowing them to serve more people and to offer a pleasant experience for stakeholders, including patients and providers.

She holds an MSc in industrial engineering from Sharif University of Technology (SUT) and a BSc in industrial engineering from the University of Tehran. Prior to joining Telfer, Sara worked as a BPMS engineer at Gam Electronics Co. and a teaching assistant at SUT. She has worked as a teaching assistant at Telfer since fall 2021.

Sara was awarded a PhD graduate scholarship (2021–2025).

Moradi, S., Najafi, M., Mesgari, S., & Zolfagharinia, H. (2022). The utilization of patients’ information to improve the performance of radiotherapy centers: A data-driven approach. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 172, 108547.

Shahin Basiratzadeh is a Ph.D. student at the Telfer School of Management. He is studying Management, specializing in Health Systems under the supervision of Professors Wojtek Michalowski, Herna Viktor, and 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 Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from Ajman University in Ajman, UAE, in 2014, and completed his Master's Degree in Engineering Management from Alghurair University in Dubai, UAE, in 2018. He achieved the title of Head of Class of Graduates in 2014 and 2018. Shahin completed a second Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Ottawa.

Shahin's 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 on developing practical solutions to health issues. Most of his projects, such as a mobile application for posture measurement using augmented reality (AR), a non-invasive technique that can be used for measuring sugar levels, translating speech to sign language for the hearing impaired, a smart home for elderly, self-indicator and self-finder using a drone was designed to ease lives.

• S. Basiratzadeh, E. D. Lemaire and N. Baddour, "Augmented Reality Approach for Marker-based Posture Measurement on Smartphones," 2020 42nd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC), 2020, pp. 4612-4615.
• S. Basiratzadeh, E. Lemaire, M. Dorrikhteh, and N. Baddour. "Fiducial Marker Approach for Biomechanical Smartphone-Based Measurements", in 3rd International Conference on Bio-engineering for Smart Technologies (BioSMART), 2019, pp. 1-4.
• Tazeen Sharif, Shahin Basiratzadeh, Masoud Dorrikhteh.  "Empowering Challenged Children through Education with Assistive Technology", 27th International Academic Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovations (IACETI), Zurich, Switzerland, February 2016. The paper is published in The International Journal of Innovative Research and Development (IJIRD), (ISSN 2278 0211), Volume 5, Issue: 6, May 2016, (paper with ID: AW-IACETIZRCH-11026-776).
• S.Basiratzadeh, M.Mir, M.T.Tahseen, A.D.Shapsough, M.S.Dorrikhteh, A.Saeidi, "Autonomous UAV for Civil Defense Applications", Proc. of The 3rd World Congress on Computer Applications and Information Systems (WCCAIS2016), Dubai, UAE, January 2015. The paper is published in The International Journal of Embedded Systems (IJES), Volume 5, February 2016, (DOI: 08. WCCAIS.2016.1.2).
• Mohamed Nasor , Armita Farsiani, Shahin Basiratzadeh, Freshtah Faraji, Imane Hilal, "Remote Monitoring and Tracking System for Patients with Alzheimer", The International Conference on Communications Computer Science and Information Technology (ICCCSIT2016), Dubai, UAE. The paper is published in The International Journal of Software Engineering (IJSE), Volume 6, June 2016 (DOI: 10.ICCCSIT.2016.1.12).
• N. A. Nazir, N. Dawood, R. A. Karim, M. S. Younis, M. Mir, M. S. Dorrikhteh and S. Basiratzadeh, "Smartphone-based Indoor Tracking System for Firefighters in Action", Proc. of The International Conference of Computer Technology and Information Systems (ICCTIS'2015), Dubai, UAE, August 2015, (DOI: 07. ICCTIS.2015.1.9)

Shahryar Moradi started his Ph.D. in Management, specializing in Health Systems, at Telfer in 2021. His research is being co-supervised by Dr. Jonathan Patrick and Dr. Antoine Sauré. Prior to joining Telfer, Shahryar received an M.Sc. in industrial engineering from Sharif University of Technology. He also completed his B.Sc. in industrial engineering at University of Tehran in 2018. 

During his M.Sc., Shahryar contributed to several healthcare-related projects, including elective surgeries sequencing in the operation unit, patient appointment scheduling for radiotherapy centers, and outpatient clinics operations management. He employed the findings of his research, including his M.Sc. thesis, in a real-world environment at Milad hospital, in Tehran, Iran. 

Since he has a strong background in operations research and statistics, his research is also concentrated on employing optimization methods, such as stochastic and data-driven optimization, in problems in which there is a high level of uncertainty. 

While doing his Ph.D., Shahryar is working as a teaching assistant at Telfer. He also has extensive experience in doing research on developing models and solving real-world problems in the healthcare sector, using a combination of data analytics methods and optimization approaches.

Shaila Nusrat Aurin is a PhD student specializing in finance at the Telfer School of Management under the supervision of professors Miwako Nitani and Shantanu Dutta. Her research focuses on the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate governance on firm value.
Prior to her admission to the PhD program, she completed an MSc in management at Telfer with a concentration in finance. Her master’s thesis, which was entitled “Investigating the behavioral aspects of stock market reactions to various social and environmental events”, was nominated for an award for best master’s thesis in 2021. She also holds an MBA with a major in finance and an undergraduate degree in business administration from the most prestigious business school in Bangladesh.
Aurin has been a teaching assistant for several undergraduate finance and accounting courses at Telfer, including fourth-year (Finance, Ethics and Social Responsibility), third-year (Corporate Finance and Fixed Income Investments), and second-year (Financial Management and Managerial Accounting) courses. She has worked as a policy research intern at the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO) and at the C.D. Howe Institute. She has also served as a research assistant for a SSHRC Insight-grant funded research program that studies the link between financing availability and subsequent growth of small-to- medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Aurin has recently served two terms as vice-president of the Telfer Graduate Research Programs Student Association (TGRPSA). She holds a Telfer admission scholarship.

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.

Shirin is a PhD student in Management, specializing in the field of Entrepreneurship under the supervision of Dr. Wadid Lamine. She holds an M.Sc. with honors in Industrial Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran.  Prior to joining the Ph.D. Program at Telfer School of Management, she gained hands-on experience in the entrepreneurship ecosystem and cooperated with several technology-based startups in her capacity as a market research analyst at an Innovation and Technology Management Co. in Iran. She has previously authored and co-authored papers in the Journals of Futures, Cleaner Production, Sustainable Production and Consumption, and Environmental Science and Pollution Research. Currently, her research interests include digital entrepreneurship and business model innovation. She hopes that her Ph.D. journey ultimately leads to contributions to both theory and practice in the field of entrepreneurship.

• S. Biglari, L. Mayo, A. Beynaghi, R. Maknoon, F. Moztarzadeh, M. Mozafari, " Rethinking the brain drain: A framework to analyze the future behavior of complex socio-economic systems", Futures, 2021 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2021.102835).
• S. Biglari, Sh. Beiglary, T. Arthanari, "Achieving Sustainable Development Goals: Fact or Fiction?", Journal of Cleaner Production, 2021(https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.130032).
• M. Shafiei, S.H. Moosavirad, A. Azimifard, S. Biglari, "Water Consumption Assessment in Asian Chemical Industries Supply Chains Based on Input–Output Analysis and One-Way Analysis of Variance", Journal of Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2020 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-07707-6).
• M. Golestani, S.H. Moosavirad, Y. Asadi, S. Biglari, "A Multi-Objective Green Hub Location Problem with Multi Item-Multi Temperature Joint Distribution for Perishable Products in Cold Supply Chain", Journal of Sustainable Production and Consumption, 2021 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2021.02.026).

Sneha is a Ph.D. candidate at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa. She is specializing in Entrepreneurship under the supervision of Dr. Evelyn Micelotta. Her research is at the intersection of entrepreneurship and social progress in society. She focuses on topics within the Social Entrepreneurial research domain.  Sneha comes from a family of entrepreneurs and has academic and professional experience in entrepreneurship and business management. She started her own venture during her final semester while pursuing her Master's program at Thunderbird School of Global Management. She is aspiring to spend her career in academia while pursuing her venture in India. 

Sneha is a SHARE Fellow, enjoys scuba diving and spending time in her hometown in a quaint village in India where she teaches the English language to kids and adults from the tribal regions. 

Trang Pham-Lam is a PhD student at Telfer School of Management where she works under the supervision of Dr. Hien Thu Tran and Dr. Mark Freel. Trang's research interests focus on innovation, absorptive capacity of organizations, and knowledge management.

Trang holds a master's degree in Investment Analysis from Aston University and a bachelor's degree in International Business from Jyvaskyla University of Applied Sciences. Her master's thesis investigates stock price analysis of UK firms.

Prior to her PhD program at Telfer, Trang worked as a lecturer of Business Ethics and Cross-cultural Communication courses at National Economic University, Vietnam. She has taken part in multiple consulting projects for SMEs as well as conglomerates.

• “Impact of Perceived Risk of Mobile Banking Usage Intentions: Trust as a Mediator and a Moderator” - International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets (2020) Vol.12 No.1 - coauthor.
• " Zero Leverage and Product Market Competition" - SN Bus Econ (2021) Vol. 1 Issue. 4, coauthor.

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.

• Farhad, T.H., Nguyet, T.M.P., Hanh, H.T.H., Vu, T.C. 2019. Does Financial Integration Matter for Financial Development? Evidence from the East Asian and Pacific Region. Journal of Economic Integration, 34(4), 591-618.

Wrenford Thaffe is a P.h.D student in Entrepreneurship at University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management. He works with supervisor Dr. Ajax Persaud on research related to innovation and entrepreneurship. His current areas of interest include organizational legitimacy, fintech, and financial inclusion in developing countries. Wrenford’s approach to management research is fueled by a multidisciplinary academic background and a diverse set of interests.

Wrenford holds a Master of Law (LLM) in Intellectual Property from University of West Indies, Jamaica. In 2013, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree from Amherst College, Massachusetts where he double majored in Chemistry as well as Art and the History of Art. Wrenford is also a graduate of United World College (UWC) - Atlantic College, Wales. Among his recent academic awards are an Amherst Memorial Fellowship and a United World College Davis Scholarship.

Before joining Telfer, Wrenford worked for over 6 years as a Corporate Researcher and Technical Recruiter with startup clients in Boston, New York and in California.

Outside of research, Wrenford enjoys art exhibitions and long outdoor runs.

Xiaoyu Sun is a PhD student at the Telfer Management School, with a concentration in Finance and works under the supervision of Dr. Fabio Moneta. Her research interests are institutional investors, mutual funds, and asset pricing.

She holds a master’s degree in Finance and Investment from University of Leeds, UK, and a bachelor’s degree (Hons) in Economics from Dalhousie University, CAN. After graduating from Leeds Business School, she worked as a security analyst on market strategies in a Chinese security company and then joined Telfer in the Fall of 2020.

Xiaoyu spends her spare time drawing, practicing photography, and traveling.

Xin Ding is a PhD student in Management with a specialization in Accounting, under the supervision of Professor Walid Ben-Amar and Professor Lamia Chourou. Her research interests focus on corporate disclosures, particularly climate change disclosures.

Xin obtained her MSc in management from the University of Ottawa in 2019 and her B.Com degree in Accounting from the East China University of Science and Technology in 2017. Her master’s thesis focuses on the carbon disclosures in family firms under the supervision of Professor Walid Ben-Amar.

Xin is currently working as a research assistant on carbon disclosures. She was a teaching assistant for ADM 1340 (Financial Accounting), ADM 2336 (Organizational Behavior), ADM 2302 (Business Analytics), ADM 2341 (Managerial Accounting), and ADM 3346 (Cost Accounting). During her free time, she loves travelling and playing video games.

Guo is a PhD candidate in Organization Behavior and Human Resources Management (OBHR) at Telfer School of Management, working under the supervisor Dr. Jane O’Reily.

Before joining Telfer, she got her Bachelor of science degree in Mechanical Engineering and her first Master of Science degree in OBHR from Purdue University in United states. Later, she completed her second Master of Science degree from Concordia University in Montreal, QC.

Guo is interested in studying the area of the bias and stereotypes in workplace and how those behaviors influence workplace interactions. She is also interested in exploring numerous factors relating to individuals' and teams’ well-beings.

Her research has focused on bias towards minority groups and fairness in workplace in the past. She has also participated in project aimed at designing training program which raises awareness of implicit bias and stereotypes.

In her spare time, she likes to spend time and traveling with friends and family. She also enjoys music and dancing.