Leadership Committee - Connected Minds

Meet the Connected Minds Leadership Team!

Composed of Directors/Associate Directors from affiliated Research Centres, our core Leadership Team brings a wealth of experience and diverse perspectives to the Connected Minds Program. This team has been strategically designed to unite and integrate the three themes of Connected Minds and advance the strategic priorities, strengths and capacity of both York and Queen's with bold new directions of research excellence. See below to learn more about our team and the exciting work we are doing.

Shayna Rosenbaum

Home Institution: �첥��Ƶ
Faculty: Health
Department: Psychology
Role in Connected Minds: Scientific Director
shaynar@yorku.ca

Dr. Shayna Rosenbaum is the Scientific Director for Connected Minds. Dr. Rosenbaum is a Professor and York Research Chair in the Department of Psychology and Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) Program at �첥��Ƶ and is an Associate Scientist at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest. She is registered as a Clinical Neuropsychologist with the College of Psychologists of Ontario. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Toronto in 2004 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Rotman.

Dr. Rosenbaum has published extensively on the topics of memory and decision-making, and has received awards for her neuroimaging and patient research, including a Sloan Research Fellowship and early career awards from the Canadian Association for Neuroscience, Canadian Society for Brain Behaviour and Cognitive Science (CSBBCS), and International Neuropsychological Society. She is an elected member (emerita) of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists and is a past member of the Board of Trustees of the Ontario Science Centre.

Gunnar Blohm

Home Institution: Queen’s University
Faculty: Queen’s University School of Medicine
Department: Biomedical and Molecular Sciences
Role in Connected Minds: Vice Director (Queen's)
gunnar.blohm@queensu.ca

Dr. Blohm is a Professor in Computational Neuroscience at Queen’s University, best known for his work in eye movement coordination and sensory-motor control of arm movements. His research combines experimental techniques (behaviour, psychophysics, HD-tDCS, EEG, MEG, patients) with mathematical modeling, computer simulations and machine learning approaches. He is interested in planning, decision making, emergent behaviours and network control among others.

Dr. Blohm is also recognized as an award-winning educator and founder, co-director and instructor of Neuromatch Academy. He is passionate about democratizing science and education through improving accessibility and equity in science, e.g. by co-founding and co-directing the Neuromatch Open Publishing initiative.

Dr. Blohm brings extensive experience to the position of Vice-Director (Queen’s University) of Connected Minds.

Sean Hillier

Home Institution: �첥��Ƶ
Faculty: Health
Department: School of Health Policy & Management
Role in Connected Minds: Associate Director
shillier@yorku.ca

Dr. Sean Hillier will serve as the Associate Director for Connected Minds. He is a queer Mi’kmaw scholar and a registered member of the Qalipu First Nation. He is an associate professor and York Research Chair in Indigenous Health Policy & One Health in the Faculty of Health of �첥��Ƶ. He is also the Interim Director of the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages. Sean sits on the National Interagency Panel on Research Ethics & Chaired the creation of the Indigenous Research Ethics Board at YorkU. Additionally, Sean is a Board Member of the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto and the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT). His collaborative research program spans the topics of community engagement, aging, living with HIV and other infectious diseases, and antimicrobial resistance, all with a concerted focus on policy affecting health care access for Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Dr. Hillier has been successful in receiving funding from each of the three federal granting agencies, with more than 10 external grants.

Elham Dolatabadi

Home Institution: �첥��Ƶ
Faculty: Health
Department: School of Health Policy and Management
Role in Connected Minds: Lead of Research Committee
edolatab@yorku.ca

Dr. Dolatabadi will serve as the Lead of the Research Committee for Connected Minds. Elham Dolatabadi has over a decade of experience leading AI initiatives to enhance scientific discovery, evidence-based decision-making, and healthcare efficiency. Prior to accepting a position at �첥��Ƶ (YU), she was a Scientist and Health Lead at Vector Institute, where she directed seven large-scale and thought leadership projects with organizations such as Public Health Ontario, Unity Health Toronto, and Trillium Health Partners, as well as three industry collaborations, engaging over 20+ industry stakeholders and 50+ scientists.

As foundation models become more powerful, the real challenge is figuring out how to integrate them in ways that support and strengthen, rather than replace, the human-centered nature of healthcare. Dr. Dolatabadi's research contributes toward making foundation models evolve as dynamic and adaptive tools to enhance health through iterative learning, alignment, and interpretability. You can find more about her research and recent works

Natalie Coulter

Home Institution: �첥��Ƶ
Faculty: Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Department: Communications & Media Studies
Role in Connected Minds: Lead of Training Committee
ncoulter@yorku.ca

Dr. Coulter will serve as the Lead of Training Committee for Connected Minds. Natalie Coulter is an Associate Professor in Communication and Media Studies and Director of the Institute for Digital Literacies (IRDL) at �첥��Ƶ, Canada. She is co-author of Media and Communication in Canada (9th ed) and co-editor of Youth Mediations and Affective Relations (2019) and author of Tweening the Girl (2014) She is a founding member of the Girls’ Studies Research Network (GSRN) at �첥��Ƶ, and the Association for Research on the Cultures of Young People (ARCYP).

Sylvia Bawa

Home Institution: �첥��Ƶ
Faculty: Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Department: Sociology
Role in Connected Minds: Lead of EDI Committee
bawa@yorku.ca

Dr. Bawa will serve as Lead of the EDI Committee for Connected Minds. Sylvia Bawa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at �첥��Ƶ and her research focuses on the interconnections of globalization, human/women’s rights, human-non-human connections, critical developmen, Afrofuturism, Decolonization and AI in postcolonial contexts. Dr. Bawa is interested in the mobilizing impact of human rights; i.e. how discourses of rights, self-determination and development evolve and are shaped by global events, new technologies (AI) and opportunities. For instance, is Afrofuturism a form of self-determination within third generation human rights? She leads and co-leads various funded international collaborative research projects with funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), as Principal investigator and co-investigator, among others. Dr. Bawa is also an elected board member of the Congress of the Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences in Canada.

Matthew Pan

Home Institution: Queen's University
Faculty: Engineering and Applied Science
Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Role in Connected Minds: Lead of Knowledge Mobilization Committee
matthew.pan@queensu.ca

Dr. Pan will serve as the Lead of the Knowledge Mobilization Committee for Connected Minds. Matthew Pan is a faculty member of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Queen’s University and a core member of the . His research areas include human-robot interaction, haptics, virtual/augmented reality and human augmentative technologies. At Queen’s, he leads the .

Previously, Dr. Pan was at , where he worked on animatronic technologies and guest-facing interactive experiences designed for Walt Disney Imagineering and Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products. There, he led projects involving social and physical human-robot interaction as well as mixed reality technologies.

Dr. Pan obtained his MASc and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering at the  in Vancouver, Canada. He received his BASc in Mechatronics Engineering from the in Waterloo, Canada.  His prior research areas include the study of haptic displays, affective and psychophysiological computing, assistive robotics, and human-computer interaction.

For more information about Dr. Pan and his research, visit the webpage.

Murat Kristal

Home Institution: �첥��Ƶ
Faculty: Schulich School of Business
Role in Connected Minds: Lead of ICC Committee
mkristal@schulich.yorku.ca

Dr. Kristal will serve as the Lead of Innovation and Commercialization Committee for Connected Minds. Murat Kristal is the founding Program Director of both the Master of Business Analytics (MBAN) and the Master of Management in Artificial Intelligence (MMAI) programs at the Schulich School of Business. He is a Professor of Operations Management and Information Systems.

Dr. Murat Kristal completed his doctoral degree (PhD) in Operations, Technology and Innovation from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With a research focus on supply chain and operations management, Dr. Kristal has completed projects in resource allocation in manufacturing, the impact of competition on supply chain, and the development of mass customization capabilities through organizational learning and knowledge management. Channeling his passion for analytics and artificial intelligence, he pioneered the first analytics programs of its kind in Canada. His expertise in innovation, ideation and research is evident through his distinct ability to connect business problems with analytical and AI solutions.

Doug Crawford

Home Institution: �첥��Ƶ
Faculty: Health
Department: Psychology
Role in Connected Minds:
Senior Advisor
Primary Investigator
Inaugural Scientific Director (March 2023-February 2024)
jdc@yorku.ca
/jdc/index.html

John Douglas (Doug) Crawford led the ‘Connected Minds’ grant proposal and contributed his knowledge and leadership experience toward the successful launch of this program as the inaugural Scientific Director, and now serves as a Senior Advisor.

Dr. Crawford is the Distinguished Research Professor in Neuroscience at �첥��Ƶ, where he holds the York Research Chair (formerly Canada Research Chair) in Visuomotor Neuroscience. Crawford completed his PhD in Physiology at Western University in 1993 and then spent two years as an MRC Fellow at the Montreal Neurological Institute, before joining �첥��Ƶ in 1995. He has authored over 160 papers in publications such as Nature, Science and Annual Review of Neuroscience, and has garnered numerous research awards, including the 2004 Steacie Prize and the 2016 Canadian Physiological Society Sarrazin Award. Crawford has also been acclaimed for both graduate and post-doctoral supervision, having graduated over 60 trainees to successful careers in academia, medicine, and industry. Crawford founded / led the Canadian Action and Perception Network (CAPnet), the York Neuroscience Graduate Diploma Program, and the York Centre for Integrative and Applied Neuroscience (CIAN).

Dr. Crawford was principal investigator for the NSERC Brain in Action Program, the CIHR Strategic Training Program in Vision Health, and the CFREF-funded Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) Program, which he directed for seven years. He is also a member of the Canadian Brain Research Strategy Conference of Leaders.

Pina D’Agostino

Home Institution: �첥��Ƶ
Faculty: Osgoode Hall Law School
Role in Connected Minds:
Senior Advisor
Scientific Director (March 2024-February 2026)
Inaugural Vice Director (March 2023-February 2024)
gdagostino@osgoode.yorku.ca

Dr Pina D’Agostino is a law professor, lawyer, author, public speaker, board director and internationally recognized scholar at Osgoode Hall Law School, �첥��Ƶ specializing in intellectual property (IP), AI & emerging technologies, innovation law and policy. She joined Osgoode Hall in 2006 and is regularly called by Canadian and international governments for advice, has testified before the Canadian Parliament, is a widely published author, regularly serves as a consultant and expert witness and is a cited authority at the Supreme Court of Canada and in various media. She serves as the Editor-in-Chief for the Intellectual Property Journal and in 2022 has been recognized as the Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada by Canadian Lawyer Magazine and Top 5 in Business Law.

Dr D’Agostino served as the former Scientific Director for the $318M Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) Connected Minds: Neural & Machine Systems for a Healthy & Just Society; co-Founder and co-Director of the new Centre for Artificial Intelligence & Society (CAIS) for �첥��Ƶ; Founding Director of IP Osgoode and its award-winning IPilogue, Founder & Director of the IP Intensive and the IP Innovation Clinic, the first and largest legal clinic of its kind helping inventors and start-ups in Ontario and across Canada commercialize their IP and, more recently, founded the AI-powered IP Innovation ChatBot allowing underrepresented groups and the general public greater access to IP information. She is a mentor for the Canadian Italian Business & Professional Association (CIBPA) Italia360 Initiative and works tirelessly to train our future generation of students to jump start their careers while contributing to Canada’s socio-economic and legal policy landscape

She began her legal career as a lawyer at Stikeman Elliott LLP, was a Lecturer in Law at the University of Oxford, and was later recruited into the Canadian Government by the Recruitment of Policy Leaders (RPL) as a Senior Policy Analyst working on copyright policy. She was appointed by Ministerial letter to the Board of Directors of the Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI), she serves on the Board of Directors of Alectra Inc. and is the founding Chair of its GRE&T Centre Advisory Committee advancing innovation and sustainable energy solutions. She held an Order in Council Appointment at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection where she served on its Board of Directors, and currently sits on the McMichael Art Advisory Committee.

Dr D’Agostino served as an IP expert to Canada’s First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC) and served as the co-chair of the �첥��Ƶ AI & Society Task Force culminating in the Fostering the Future of Artificial Intelligence report, was appointed to the City of Vaughan Smart City Task Force and is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). She spent her last sabbatical as a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University. Dr D’Agostino is the recipient of various government and tri-council grants, honours and awards and is currently working on the second edition of Copyright Law (with Prof David Vaver, Irwin Law). Her peer-reviewed articles and her three books Copyright, Contract, Creators: New Media, New Rules, The Common Law of Intellectual Property: Essays in Honour of Professor David Vaver and Leading Legal Disruption: Artificial Intelligence and a Toolkit for Lawyers and the Law are widely available. Her latest book Social and Legal Challenges of Emerging Technologies will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2024.

She holds a MSt and DPhil (University of Oxford) with distinction, an LLB (Osgoode Hall Law School), an HonBA, summa cum laude, in English and Political Science and a specialization in French (�첥��Ƶ), holds an ICD.D from the Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto) and is a member of the Law Society of Ontario (2001 call).