• Home
• Student Conference

Approaching Global Health at Home: Equity, Challenges, and Health for Refugees in Canada 

 

General Information

When: March 19, 11 am to 3 pm 
Where: International and Graduate Affairs Building (IGAB) Atrium
Cost: Free
Audience: Undergraduate and graduate students from any academic field

REGISTER NOW

---

About the Conference

This conference will provide participants with the chance to learn about key international humanitarian issues, connect to a community of active global citizens, and stand in solidarity with refugees and newcomers in Canada. Listen to keynote speakers, collaborate in workshops, and share ideas with your peers!

There will also be a case competition. Teams will be challenged to read, analyze, and develop recommendations to a unique issue outlined in this year’s case study. Students will present their ideas to a panel of experts.

Approaching Global Health at Home: Equity, Challenges, and Health for Refugees in Canada is a conference organized by Western Heads East (WHE), Global Health Equity Collective (GHEC), the Faculty of Health Sciences Students' Council (FHSSC), Universities Allied for Essential Medicine (UAEM), UWO students for PIH (Partners in Health), and the Western University committee of World University Service of Canada (WUSC).

---

Program

 

---

Keynote Speakers

Huda Ghadban: "Refugee Students’ Perspectives of their University Experiences in Ontario" 

Huda is deeply passionate about improving the well-being and quality of life for herself and others through enhancing leadership, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Currently working as the Wellness Education Coordinator at Western University, she led the implementation of wellness programming, including the Western Wellness Hub, and delivered workshops and resource materials serving over 3,000+ students.

Her commitment to human equity and leadership inspired her to get a direct experience with refugee camps in Jordan. As a previous Project Officer at a United Nations-funded organization, she coordinated the work of seven medical and mental health centres, ensuring quality reporting and communication. Out of 120+ applicants, she was privileged to work at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva to support the establishment of a Global Community Engagement Hub that serves as a resource for 80+ countries.

Huda received the Inclusive Research Award for her master's research focusing on engaging the perspectives of refugee students in the development of programs provided to them by universities in Ontario.

 

Melody Viczko, PhD: "How are universities engaged in refugee access to higher education" 

Melody Viczko, PhD, is an associate professor in critical policy studies in education at Western. Her research concerns the ways in which different levels of policy actors work together to make policy happen. One policy area she studies is refugee student access to higher education, and she led an international research partnership to consider how advocacy on this issue is taken up in different national contexts. She also leads a study on the impact of COVID-19 policies on university governance. 

 

 

Lisa Kaida, PhD: "What can/can't administrative data tell about refugee integration?"  

Lisa Kaida (PhD: the University of Toronto; MA: the University of Toronto and the University of Tokyo; BA: the University of Tokyo) is an Associate Professor of Sociology at McMaster University. Her research specializes in the economic and social integration of immigrants and refugees, work and occupations and the sociology of sports. Kaida’s current research projects include occupational segregation along the lines of gender, race, and migrant status (with Monica Boyd), immigrant remittance and gender (with Liam Swiss and Heather Dicks), and the economic integration of resettled refugees (with Feng Hou and Max Stick).