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OUR TEAM

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DR. KATHY SANDERSON

Project Lead

Dr. Kathy Sanderson is an Associate Professor of Human Resources and Organizational Behaviour in the Faculty of Business Administration.  She is a Registered Psychotherapist (Ontario), and has provided mental health counselling, program development and workplace crisis interventions for over 20 years while holding managerial positions.  Kathy is a lifelong resident of Northwestern Ontario.  For eight years, she was the Coordinator of the Cultural Care Program for the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Hospital, conducting cultural assessments and training, while managing the outcomes of a million dollar, multidisciplinary project.  For the past two years, she has been conducting research focused on reducing pain at work.  Her areas of focus are emotional abuse and coercive control at work, workplace ostracism, and job rejection.  Wanting to make a contribution to employment knowledge in Northwestern Ontario, she has recently been studying onboarding of new immigrants, and recruitment strategies for women and Indigenous people. 
As the lead on the Welcome NWO project, Kathy will be managing the project team and connecting with the key informants, to ensure that the project meets the needs of the three communities.  She is looking forward to connecting with employers to determine how this project can assist their businesses and organizations in meeting its human capital needs.

DR. IRFAN BUTT

Communications Lead

Dr. Irfan Butt is an Assistant Professor at Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University. His research interests include consumer behavior, digital marketing, and emerging markets. He has authored several papers using systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis. He has published in top tier journals. He regularly reviews papers for journals and serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Business Ecosystems and International Journal of Business and Data Analytics. As an invited guest speaker, he has given talks at universities and conferences in Canada, USA, Pakistan, and Oman.

Within this project, he will be responsible for working with, and training, the team on a communication plan development. On a continual basis, he will consult with the team to ensure that all communications posted on social media and distributed within the communities are motivating, appropriate, and clear to a diverse audience

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JULIA WHITNEY

Research Assistant

Julia is a graduate of Lakehead University's Honours Bachelor of Commerce program and Master of Science in Management program. Being born and raised in Thunder Bay, Julia has a keen interest in the growth of Northwestern Ontario and making it a welcoming environment for newcomers. Her experience in digital marketing serves as an asset in the communication and outreach efforts of the project. 

RYAN HRON

Research Assistant

Ryan is a graduate student at Lakehead University in the Master of Science in Management program. Born and raised in the small town of Waldhof, Ontario (located between Dryden and Kenora, Ontario), Ryan also has a strong interest in continuing to create a welcoming environment for newcomers in Northwestern Ontario. His combined experience and education serves as an asset in the research efforts of the project.

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