Kaynaat is a fourth-year student at the University of Toronto Scarborough pursuing a double major in Population Health and Psychology. Her research interests lie in implementation science, treatment outcome variability, and symptom persistence across the lifespan within the context of mental health disorders. Her research and community work align most closely with SDGs #3 (good health and well-being), #4 (quality education), and #10 (reduced inequalities).
Mackenzie is a graduate student in the Master of Environmental Science (MEnvSc) program at the University of Toronto, with experience supporting conservation and sustainability initiatives through program implementation, strategic planning, and cross-sector collaboration. She is committed to integrating scientific knowledge with diverse perspectives to develop practical solutions to environmental challenges.
She is passionate about building sustainable, resilient, and just approaches that connect people, communities, and the natural world across local and global scales. Her work is guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Climate Action (SDG 13), Life on Land (SDG 15), and Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17).
Her research and professional interests focus on addressing climate change and environmental challenges through collaborative solutions that promote resilience, sustainability, and the well-being of people and the broader ecosystem.
I am broadly interested in:
Cities present exciting opportunities for basic and applied ecological research, which can contribute to solutions for urban environmental challenges we face today and tomorrow. The goal of my research is to link biodiversity to ecosystem services in ways that connects people to nature and supports critical wildlife habitat.
The specific objective of my research program is to understand how people influence the ecology and diversity of plants and pollinators, and the interactions between them. In our lab, we examine these relationships at different taxonomic and geographic scales and at the intersection of other exciting topics in urban ecology including invasive species management, urbanization gradients, heterogeneity and environmental filtering, pollination for urban crops, and the design of green infrastructure, including green roofs.
Prof. Cadotte is a globally recognized plant ecologist, known for research on the impacts of human activities on plant biodiversity and ecosystem function. He has developed methods to incorporate genetic and physical trait information into broadly applicable biodiversity measures. His work has provided important insights into how changing biodiversity impacts ecosystem function and the benefits to people. He leads a global research network that examines how cities are influencing plant diversity around the world, providing fundamental new insights into the impacts of urbanization, trade, and colonization on global biodiversity homogenization.
Prof. Cadotte has worked extensively with non-academic organizations to understand and improve habitat management and restoration outcomes, especially in cities. Work with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has quantified the impact of urbanization on changing biodiversity in woodlots, and on the spread of invasive species. His lab has created processes for invasive species management prioritization and identifying critical habitats and ecosystem services impacted by invasives.
There is a well understood gap between research and implementation in applied ecology. Prof. Cadotte has dedicated himself to ensuring that the information that practitioners produce and need are available in permanent, searchable, and citable formats. In partnership with the British Ecological Society, he created a free grey literature repository that hosts project reports, policy briefs, and best management practices produced by practitioners, called Applied Ecology Resources. Along with this, he also created the open access journal, Ecological Solutions and Evidence, that caters to applied management and practice.
Emmanuel Taiwo is a chartered environmental professional and a doctoral researcher at the IMPACT Lab, University of Toronto, Scarborough. A Vanier Scholar (SSHRC) and a Connaught Public Impact Fellow, Emmanuel’s research focuses on investigating and tackling equity and justice barriers hindering Canadian communities, especially across the Greater Toronto Area, from accessing innovations in climate and energy transitions. His research centers a whole-of-society and co-production approach, partnering with community-based organizations, grassroot partners and various stakeholders in his research design and execution. Emmanuel previously advised the UK Government, Global Affairs Canada, and several others on multimillion dollar climate, energy and environmental projects, and has led sustainability initiatives in the UK and across Africa over the last decade. He completed an MSc in sustainable environmental management with distinction from Greenwich as a Commonwealth Scholar and a Master of Public Policy from the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford as an Africa Initiative for Governance Scholar. Emmanuel has held fellowships with Massey College, the Earth System Governance Project Network, the Canada Excellence Research Chair Network for Equity in Sustainability Transitions, the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, and loves spending time motivating future sustainability leaders of the next generation.
Anushay Irfan Khan serves as the Experiential Learning (EL) Operations Lead, supporting the Associate Dean of Experiential & Global Learning, Professor Lynn Tucker, in driving decanal EL initiatives. She collaborates with stakeholders to develop administrative processes for the Experiential & Global Learning (EGL) unit, leads EGL committees and strategic initiatives, and supervises staff. Anushay manages the Experiential Learning Fund (ELF), aligns workflows, supports EGL assessment, and coordinates communication efforts. Committed to fostering EGL opportunities, she engages in global experiential learning initiatives while pursuing a Ph.D. in Social Justice Education at OISE/UT.
Nino Bariola is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Culinaria Research Centre. He received his PhD in Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. His interests include food culture and race, sustainability, and gender and racial inequalities in organizations. Bariola's dissertation and book project examines the case of Peruvian cuisine to shed light on how—and with what social and environmental implications—racialized foods accrue legitimacy in the transnational culinary field. Bariola’s research appears in American Behavioral Scientist, Conservation Biology, Regional Studies, and other academic journals and books.