The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged Canada and the Queen’s community to think creatively about how they can harness their expertise and research skills to help confront the crisis, socially, economically, politically, and technologically.
With ongoing vaccine distribution and case numbers decreasing, there is an opportunity to have thoughtful and candid conversations about the difficult and exciting questions of the future beyond COVID-19.
The conversation on June 29 was led by CBC podcast host and Buzzfeed culture writer and editor, Elamin Abdelmahmoud, Artsci’11, where he spoke to experts in health care, psychology, organizational behaviour, and education on how we will reintegrate as a society, and what we have to look forward to.
Discussion Topics
- The implications for our health and mental wellbeing.
- Preparing ourselves and our families during the summer months.
- The integration back to work and school and how to prepare.
- Key takeaways from the COVID-19 pandemic and how our society has grown and changed.
About the speakers
Moderator
Elamin Abdelmahmoud
Elamin Abdelmahmoud, Artsci'11, is the co-host of CBC Politics' weekly podcast Party Lines and host of CBC Podcasts' Pop Chat. He is a culture writer for BuzzFeed News, and edits Incoming, the daily morning newsletter. Elamin’s work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Maclean's, and Rolling Stone. His memoir, Son of Elsewhere, will arrive Spring 2022 from McClelland & Stewart, a publisher he shares with literary heavyweight Margaret Atwood.
Panelists
Tina Dacin
Dr. Tina Dacin is the Stephen J.R. Smith Chaired Professor of Strategy and Organizational Behaviour and the Director of the Community Impact Research Program in Smith School of Business at Queen’s. Tina’s current teaching is in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, bias and ethics, diversity and inclusion, strategy, resilience, social impact, and inclusive leadership. Tina is former Chair of the Principal’s Innovation Fund at Queen’s University and former Director of the Centre for Social Impact at the Smith School.
She is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge and a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne.
Gerald Evans
Dr. Gerald Evans is the Chair of the Division of Infectious Diseases and a Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Biomedical & Molecular Sciences and Pathology & Molecular Medicine at Queen's University and an attending physician in Infectious Diseases at Kingston Health Sciences Centre.
Gerald has been the Medical Director of Infection Prevention & Control at Kingston Health Sciences Centre and Providence Care Hospital since 2011. He is a member of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, the Ontario COVID-19 Testing Strategy and Policy Task Force and the Editor-in-Chief of the Official Journal of the Association of Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada.
Allyson G. Harrison
Dr. Allyson G. Harrison is a clinical neuropsychologist. She is currently the clinical director of the Regional Assessment & Resource Center at Queen’s, a government funded center mandated to support postsecondary students through the provision of assessments. She also holds an appointment as an associate professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology at Queen’s University. Allyson’s research is dedicated to issues of differential diagnosis in Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and to issues regarding transition from high school to postsecondary education and has been a regular media expert offering insight into how people can cope with pandemic challenges, including missed milestones.
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Scott McFarlane
Scott McFarlane, BA/BPHE ’97, BEd ’98, MEd ’07 is a Vice-Principal with the Limestone District School Board. He has been a teaching adjunct with the School of Kinesiology and the Faculty of Education, as well as a Continuing Education online instructor for Queen’s. A husband and father of two teenage girls (one entering Queen’s in 2021, third generation to do so in the faculty of PHE/KIN, and is also going to be playing basketball for the Gaels), Scott has experienced the pandemic at the school level as both an administrator and parent, and is working with a great team at his school towards a positive return for students this fall.
