TEAM
Founder and Director
Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon’s research focuses on threats to global security in the 21st century, including economic instability, climate change, and energy scarcity. He also studies how people, organizations, and societies can better resolve their conflicts and innovate in response to complex problems.
Deputy Director of Research and Operations
Dr. Scott Janzwood leads the development and management of the Cascade Institute's research projects. His own research focuses on how scientists and policymakers communicate uncertainty and collaborate to address global catastrophic risks such as climate change, pandemics, and other emerging threats.
Frances Westley
Fellow
Dr. Frances Westley is Professor and Director Emeritus at the Waterloo Institute on Social Innovation and Resilience at the University of Waterloo. She is a renowned scholar and consultant in the areas of social innovation, strategies for sustainable development, strategic change, visionary leadership, and inter-organizational collaboration.
Vanessa Schweizer
Fellow
Dr. Vanessa Schweizer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Knowledge Integration at the University of Waterloo. She is the Associate Director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation and sits on the Council of the Society for Risk Analysis. Her socioeconomic research focuses on strategic foresight and opportunities for resilient transitions, both globally and locally.
Michael Lawrence
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Michael Lawrence uses complexity science to understand the coevolution of conflict, violence, and social structure, and through this work he has developed expertise on global governance, societal collapse, the psychology of dehumanization, transnational organized crime, and peacebuilding.
Angela V. Carter
Fellow
Dr. Angela V. Carter is an Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo. Her research has focused on environmental policy and politics surrounding oil extraction in Canada’s major oil producing provinces. She has analyzed how environmental policy is developed and contested, emphasizing tensions between environmental/community impacts and economic imperatives.
Matto Mildenberger
Fellow
Dr. Matto Mildenberger is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). His research explores the politics of climate change in the United States and around the world.
Edward A. Parson
Fellow
Dr. Edward A. (Ted) Parson is Dan and Rae Emmett Professor of Environmental Law and Faculty Co-Director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Ted studies international environmental law and policy, the societal impacts and governance of disruptive technologies including geoengineering and artificial intelligence, and the political economy of regulation.
Chris Kennedy
Fellow
Dr. Chris Kennedy is the Director of the Industrial Ecology Program at the University of Victoria. Chris works on strategies for addressing global climate change, drawing upon economics, technology, policy, and industrial ecology perspectives. His current work involves biophysical analysis of economies towards deep decarbonisation.
Hanna Ross
Researcher
Hanna Ross is a Research Lead for the Society, Environment, and Emotion Lab at Royal Roads University where her research focuses on how emotions and socio-psychological triggers influence pro-environmental behaviours.
Jinelle Piereder
Doctoral Fellow
Jinelle Piereder is a doctoral candidate in global governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. Jinelle uses complexity science and network theory to study the relationships between worldviews and social networks, especially in emerging and rapidly evolving areas of governance, such as climate change and energy transition.
Yonatan Strauch
Doctoral Researcher
Yonatan Strauch is a doctoral candidate in Social and Ecological Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. His research examines the intersection of technological change and climate politics in the energy transition, focusing on understanding exponential changes and paradigmatic shifts in energy systems and on how to leverage these changes to address the climate crisis.
Shefa Siegel
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Shefa Siegel is a research fellow with the UBC Anthropology Department and UVic’s Centre for Global Studies. Shefa's research focuses on the human and ecological consequences of global resource scarcity.
Leah C. Stokes
Fellow
Dr. Leah C. Stokes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Her research focuses on representation and public opinion; voting behavior; and public policy with a focus on environmental and energy politics.
![Jennifer Welsh-Max Bell School[1] (1)](https://cascadeinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/cache/Jennifer-Welsh-Max-Bell-School1-1-circle.jpg "Jennifer Welsh-Max Bell School[1] (1)")
Jennifer M. Welsh
Fellow
Dr. Jennifer M. Welsh is the Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security at McGill University and a Senior Research Fellow at Somerville College at the University of Oxford. From 2013-2016, she served as the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, on the Responsibility to Protect.
Jonathan Leader Maynard
Fellow
Dr. Jonathan Leader Maynard is a Lecturer in International Politics in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London. His core research focuses on the role of ideology in political violence, mass atrocities and armed conflict.
Ian Graham
Fellow
Dr. Ian Graham is a retired IT and business consultant with management experience in financial services, research, startup, and academic environments. He previously worked at the Bank of Montreal, University of Toronto, National Research Council, and small Toronto-based startups. Ian has a PhD in Physics from McGill University.
Steven Bernstein
Fellow
Dr. Steven Bernstein is Distinguished Professor of Global Environmental and Sustainability Governance and the Co-Director of the Environmental Governance Lab at the University of Toronto. His current research investigates transformative policies and initiatives to achieve decarbonization.
Matthew Hoffmann
Fellow
Dr. Matthew Hoffmann is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto Scarborough and co-director of the Environmental Governance Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. His research on decarbonization, climate change and environmental politics has been published in 4 books and over 50 journal articles and book chapters.
Michelle Lee
Doctoral Researcher
Michelle Lee is pursuing her doctorate at the University of Waterloo’s School of Public Health and Health Systems, specializing in health information systems, global policy, and health governance in low and middle-income countries.
Norman M. Kearney
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Norman M. Kearney is interested in how societies evolve and how the evolution of societies may be influenced towards sustainability. Currently, much of Norman’s work involves modelling qualitative system dynamics using Cross-Impact Balances (CIB). He is working on projects related to the Sustainable Development Goals; the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways; archetypes of sustainability; and leverage points for sustainability transformations.
