Our Team
Sébastien Jodoin
Dr. Sébastien Jodoin is the director and co-founder of the Disability-Inclusive Climate Action Research Programme. He is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law of McGill University, where holds the Canada Research Chair (tier 2) in Human Rights, Health, and the Environment. He is also a member of the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism and an Associate Member of the Institute of Health & Social Policy, the Max Bell School of Public Policy, and the Bieler School of Environment. His research on the relationship between disability and climate change has been cited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and has been covered by media outlets around the world, including the CBC, the BBC, The Guardian, and The Weather Channel. His scholarship and advocacy in this area draws on his experience of living with multiple sclerosis. Sébastien is the author of Forest Preservation in a Changing Climate: REDD+ and Indigenous and Community Rights in Indonesia and Tanzania (Cambridge University Press, 2017) and the co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Human Rights and Climate Governance (Routledge, 2018). Prior to his appointment at McGill, Sébastien worked at the United Nations and the Canadian section of Amnesty International. A former Trudeau Scholar, he holds a Ph.D. in environmental studies from Yale University, an M.Phil. in international relations from the University of Cambridge, an LL.M. in international law from the London School of Economics, and B.C.L. and LL.B degrees from McGill University.
Nandini Ramanujam
Dr. Nandini Ramanujam is a co-investigator with the Disability-Inclusive Climate Action Research Programme. She is an Associate Professor in McGill University’s Faculty of Law and the Executive Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism (CHRLP). Through her leadership of CHRLP’s Disability and Human Rights initiative, she has worked with international DPOs and CSOs on applied and clinical legal and policy research projects in the fields of disability, human rights, and international development. Before joining the McGill Faculty of Law, she served as the Director of the Higher Education Support Program of the Open Society Institute and continues to be part of the Open Society Foundations’ Disability Rights Consortium.
Alexis Buettgen
Dr. Alexis Buettgen is a co-investigator with the Disability-Inclusive Climate Action Research Programme. Dr. Buettgen is a community-engaged scholar with an interdisciplinary academic background in community psychology and critical disability studies. She has over 15 years of experience in collaborative, co-creative and participatory action research and evaluation as a senior researcher at community-based research organizations, academic institutions and activist organizations of persons with disabilities. These experiences inform her research program to critically examine issues of poverty, exclusion, and intersectional approaches to promote equity, sovereignty, and social and environmental justice for historically marginalized groups of people. Her current research focuses on disability inclusion in the green economy which aims to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and climate action. Her work connects the local with the global through fieldwork carried out at local, national, regional and international levels and published for academic, government and broader community audiences. She is an Assistant Professor in the Community Psychology program at Wilfrid Laurier University and adjunct faculty member at McMaster and York Universities. She is also a Board member of Citizens With Disabilities Ontario - a provincial cross disability non-profit organization of persons with disabilities and the Viessmann Centre for Engagement and Research in Sustainability.
Mathieu Simard
Mathieu Simard is a PhD candidate in Rehabilitation Sciences at McGill University, where his research focuses on disability-inclusive approaches to disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation. His work in this area draws on his extensive and diverse record of professional experience in the field of disability, which ranges from clinical service provision to providing capacity-building and training in various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and universities in Canada and abroad. He has also served as an instructor at UQAC, Laval and McGill Universities on topics ranging from global health issues to exercise prescription for complex clienteles with multicomorbidities. He currently chairs Rehabilitation International’s Task Force on Disability, Armed Conflict, and Natural Disasters and serves as the Deputy-Vice President North-America and Vice-Chair of its International Commission on Accessibility and Technology. Mathieu holds a MSc in Global Health and Development at University College London, a BSc in Kinesiology, and a BSc in Physiotherapy. He has also completed the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative Program in Humanitarian Emergencies.
Katherine Lofts
Katherine Lofts is a Research Associate with the Disability-Inclusive Climate Action Research Programme. As a member of the Canada Research Chair in Human Rights, Health, and the Environment, she conducts research on linkages between the promotion of disability rights and global efforts to combat climate change. For more than a decade, she has led and collaborated on a range of projects and publications relating to climate change, human rights, and environmental governance. She holds BCL, LLB, and LLM. degrees from the McGill University Faculty of Law, as well as an MA in English literature (McGill) and a BA in English (Honours) (University of Victoria). In addition, Katherine completed a law clerkship at the Federal Court of Canada and has served as the Programme Manager for the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law's Climate Change Programme. Originally from Vancouver Island, Katherine has lived and worked in the US, the UK, France, India, and Singapore.