Introduction to Academics Without Borders (AWB), Programs, Opportunities and Volunteer Experiences

Executive Director, Academics Without Borders (AWB)

Greg Moran is professor emeritus at Western University, where he served as chair of the Department of Psychology, Dean of Graduate Studies, and for 10 years as provost and vice president (academic). He has also served in a number of senior roles including:

• Director, special projects at the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario
• Provost and chief academic officer of Aga Khan University (AKU) from 2011-2015.

As a developmental/clinical psychologist and professor for over three decades, he has pursued a better understanding of the nature, origins, and developmental consequences of the first relationship between an infant and his or her mother. Greg co-authored a book on the state and future of higher education in Ontario, Academic Transformation: The Forces Reshaping Higher Education.

Associate Executive Director, AWB

Corrie has been a project manager with AWB since 2010 and the associate executive director since 2014. Prior to joining AWB, Corrie was the executive assistant to the Rector and an assistant lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, Media and Social Sciences at the National University of Rwanda. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Human Geography from the University of Alberta and a master’s degree in Human Security and Peacebuilding from Royal Roads University.

Senior Program Development Officer, AWB

Dr. Rezaie’s focus at AWB is the development and scale up of the Strengthening Engineering Education and Research (SEER) program.

He led a number of development-focused research initiatives at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Global Engineering, including most recently the Engineering Education for Sustainable Cities in Africa (EESC-A) project and the International Virtual Engineering Student Teams Program.

He has extensive international experience with a PhD in Global Health and a Master of Biotechnology degree (both from the University of Toronto).  He has conducted post-doctoral fellowships at the UofT’s Rotman School of Management and the Munk School of Global Affairs and completed a post-graduate research fellowship at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemical Engineering, McMaster University

Thomas Marlin is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Chemical Engineering at McMaster University, where he has been affiliated since 1988. He has taught over 65 graduate and undergraduate courses and supervised numerous students. His research has been supported from NSERC and many industrial firms with results published in numerous journals.

While practicing as an industrial engineer he worked on projects on nearly all continents and collaborated with professionals in many countries in diverse aspects related to Advanced Process Control, Dynamic modeling (for improved design and for operator training), and Optimization.

He has many other accomplishments and recognitions including for excellence in both teaching and research.

Distinguished Professor, Faculty of Engineering, McMaster University

David Wilkinson is a Distinguished Professor at McMaster University where he joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at McMaster 1988. He has held a number of senior leadership positions including: the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering (2008-2012), Provost and Vice-President Academic of the university (2012-2017), and Director of McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute.

David Wilkinson has authored over 280 scientific publications and has been recognized through numerous prestigious awards.  He was the founding Director of the McMaster Centre for Automotive Materials and Principal Investigator for the Initiative for Automotive Manufacturing Innovation (iAMi) – a $46M research collaboration.

Acting Department Chair, Department of Civil Engineering, McMaster University

Sarah Dickson-Anderson earned her Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo in 2001 and joined the Department of Civil Engineering at McMaster University in 2002. She has 24 years of technical experience in the field of groundwater management and protection, with particular expertise in fractured rock environments, and received an Early Researcher Award in 2009 from the Province of Ontario for her work in this field. Her research group has advanced the understanding of contaminant transport in groundwater systems through a combination of field- and laboratory-scale experiments, and computer simulations using both process-based and data-driven approaches.

She works with a transdisciplinary research team to incorporate these physical elements of hydrologic systems into a coupled-systems framing of water security in rural, remote, and marginalized communities. This work has led to the development of accessible tools for communities to assess and improve their local water security. Since joining McMaster, she has supervised three post-doctoral fellows, 13 PhD, and 21 thesis masters students, and has obtained more than two and a half million dollars in funding for her research program during this time.

Head of the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering, Mbarara University of Science & Technology, Uganda

Wasswa William is a Biomedical engineer, a researcher, senior lecturer and the Head of the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering at Uganda’s Mbarara University of Science and Technology.

He has expertise knowledge in Artificial Intelligence, Medical Imaging and Robotics, and is a technical member of the African Union High level panel on Artificial Intelligence for Africa. His research is published in leading journals and has a significant focus on enhancing cervical cancer screening and diagnosis.

In 2020, he was a finalist for the UK Royal Academy of Engineering Africa Prize for Innovation.

Dr. William has played a key role in the development and implementation of AWB’s SEER program at the Mbarara University of Science & Technology. He leads a team that was recently selected for the AWB research training grant to enhance malaria diagnosis in low-income settings