Our Team

Dr. Julia Christensen is Associate Professor, Geography and Planning at Queen’s University. Most recently, Julia’s research endeavours have focused on the social dimensions of urbanization in northern and Arctic regions, innovations in the area of community-led housing initiatives, transitional and supportive housing models in the northern context, and interactions between housing policy with other policy domains.

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Dr. Damian Collins is a Professor of Human Geography in the Faculty of Science, at the University of Alberta. Damian is the Director of Building a Resilient Community Housing Sector in Canada, a research partnership within the Collaborative Housing Research Network. Reflecting his particular interests in cities, human rights, and housing, Damian focuses on the right to housing, which is of central importance in his current SSHRC-funded research.

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Dr. Catherine Leviten-Reid is an Associate Professor in the MBA in Community Economic Development program. Her research covers housing, community development, the social economy, and social care. She is currently leading two research projects on affordable housing, one as part of the Collaborative Housing Research Network and the second in partnership with Cape Breton Community Housing Association. In 2018, she was awarded the Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

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Professor Alexandra Flynn’s teaching and research focus on municipal law and governance, administrative law, and property law. She has published numerous peer-reviewed papers, public reports, media articles, and a book on how cities are legally understood in law and how they govern.  She is the Director of the Housing Research Collaborative, which comprises CMHC and SSHRC-funded projects focused on Canada’s housing crisis: the Housing Assessment Resource Tools project, which helps communities to measure and address their housing need; and the Balanced Supply of Housing Node, which brings together academic and non-profit community organizations to research responsive land use practices and the financialization of housing.

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Steve Pomeroy is Head of Focus Consulting Inc. and Senior Research Fellow for the Centre for Urban Research and Education (CURE) at Carleton University. He is widely recognized as one of the leading housing policy experts in Canada and was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition for his contributions to housing policy and research. Steve has been an advisor to national associations, municipalities, provinces and territories, as well as the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Canada’s federal housing agency. His work also includes a number of comparative studies examining housing systems across a range of countries, in comparison to Canada.

Duncan, a resident of Nova Scotia, is an applied economist with interests in housing, neighbourhoods and cities. He was the Founding Director of the Collaborative Centre for Housing Research at the University of Glasgow. He is Emeritus Professor of Housing and Urban Economics at Glasgow, Visiting Professor in Housing Economics at the City Futures Research Centre, University of New South Wales (Sydney) and an Adjunct Professor at CHEC-CCRL. He has also held senior government roles in Scotland (Special Adviser to the First Minister), Australia (Chief Economist, State of Victoria) and was Chief Economist at Infrastructure Canada.

Emma Baker is Professor of Housing Research at the University of Adelaide where she leads the Housing and Healthy Cities Research Group. Her work examines the health impacts of housing, and location in urban and regional environments, producing academic, as well as policy-relevant research. She is currently leading the construction of a national housing conditions dataset. Recent publications include an analysis of the effects of cold housing on individual health, a quantification of the health outcomes of housing security and stability, and and assessment of the cumulative influence of multiple housing problems on health and wellbeing.

Ken Gibb is Director of the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE), Professor in Housing Economics (Urban Studies) within the School of Social and Political Sciences, amongst several other roles. Ken’s research interests are focused on the economic, financial and policy dimensions of housing. His current interests are on the financing and economics of social and affordable housing, and, the application of behavioural economics to housing. Ken has carried out research for government departments, the Economic and Social Research Council, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, trade bodies, the private sector and international organisations like the OECD.

Paul Johnson is General Manager, Healthy and Safe Communities at the City of Hamilton. He is responsible for overseeing the city’s work in fire, paramedics, housing, health, and human services, including its social housing portfolio. Paul previously spearheaded the City’s Healthy Neighbourhoods Strategy and served as Director of the LRT Project. Before joining the City, Paul worked as Executive Director for Wesley Urban Ministries.

Mylène Riva holds the Canada Research Chair in Housing, Community and Health and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Institute for Health and Social Policy at McGill University. The research activities of Prof. Riva and her team are focused on the socio-environmental determinants of health, and especially on housing and communities as important place-based determinants of health and as settings for interventions to improve population health and to reduce inequalities. She leads and collaborates on various scientific initiatives in these areas.

Julia Woodhall-Melnik is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Arts at the University of New Brunswick and Director of the Laboratory for Housing and Mental Health. Julia’s research explores housing as a social determinant of physical and mental health, addiction and concurrent disorders. She also studies the impacts of climate change on housing outcomes and mental health and has conducted research on the mental health effects of housing loss due to flooding.