Welcome to SBME Interfaces

On our season one finale, we interface with Ananya Mukherjee Reed, Provost & Vice-President Academic at UBC Okanagan, on the social responsibility of post-secondary institutions, Equity and Diversity in Academia, giving ordinary citizens power over their own lives, poetry, and more.

All episodes available to watch on our YouTube Channel

Guest:

Ananya Mukherjee Reed
UBC Okanagan Provost & Vice-President Academic

Professor Ananya Mukherjee Reed is Provost and Vice-President Academic at UBC Okanagan and Professor in the Department of Economics, Philosophy and Political Science. In 2020, Professor Mukherjee Reed was appointed Co-executive lead for Anti-racism at UBC. She is also Co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Development Studies.

Her scholarly work, especially since 2008, has sought to contribute to theories of alternative development, with a focus on the theme of justice. She has contributed to discourses in the fields of Development, Public Policy, Transitional Justice, Corporate Governance and Gender Studies. In 2003, Professor Mukherjee Reed became the Founding-Director of the International Secretariat for Human Development (ISHD), at York University, Toronto, where she worked previously. Under her leadership, ISHD has collaborated with leading international institutions such as the International Labour Organization (ILO), Geneva; United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Rome; United Nations Development Program (UNDP); and the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Geneva. Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic.

In 2016, she was named as one of the five brilliant women from academia by Canadian Immigrant magazine in their Third Annual Tribute to ‘Immigrant Women of Inspiration’. In May 2016 she was honoured as a Pioneer of Change and for Excellence in Social Impact by Skills for Change, Canada. She has written and commented frequently in the media and has been interviewed by the Toronto Star, Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, BBC online, The Hindu, Radio France, TV Ontario, the CBC, OMNI TV, etc. She is an avid lover of poetry, and passionately promotes the works of Asia’s first Nobel Laureate, the poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore.

Learn more about Professor Mukherjee Reed here

Hosts:
Dr. Payam Zahedi
Strategic Planning & Operations Director, UBC School of Biomedical Engineering

Payam is a born problem solver and dot connector who believes that real impact only occurs when everyone is given the means to chase it. He's the Director of Strategic Planning and Operations at UBC's School of Biomedical Engineering and holds a BASc in Biomedical Engineering and an MSc and PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences, from the University of Toronto. He believes we are better together and is an advocate for equity and inclusivity. In his spare time, when he's not chasing his two sons around, he's experimenting in the kitchen, reading crime fiction and untangling the mechanisms of effective leadership.

Miguel Eichelberger
Communications & Engagement Manager, UBC School of Biomedical Engineering

Miguel is an unflinching optimist. He is a communicator and writer whose work has appeared in literary magazines and on stages around the world. His most recent publications include Harpur Palate, the Literary Review of Canada, Plainsongs Magazine, and Soliloquies Anthology. He believes in authenticity; in doing and saying what you actually believe, and he is an obsessive student of leadership from the biological and anthropological perspectives. You've likely heard him rant about it, and he's not sorry.