Behind the scienceA multidisciplinary team of scientists and practitioners

Jessica Leifer

Senior Lead, Behavioural Science

In this role, she is responsible for leading the Behavioral Science team’s collaborations with federal departments and external partners to apply BeSci insights to improve the impact of various government programs and policies.

Prior to joining the Privy Council Office, Jess worked for a U.S.-based BeSci organization where she managed a large portfolio of projects applying BeSci insights to improve health and well-being, combat poverty and inequality, and build financial capability in partnership with governments, non-profit organizations, and businesses locally and internationally. Jess also worked as an Social Impact Bond Fellow for the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing where she advised non-profit organizations interested in developing social impact bonds and innovative finance programs.

Jess received her Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. While at Penn, she researched self-control and willpower with Dr. Angela Duckworth. Jess is passionate about experimentation, and using data and evidence about what works to drive innovation and demonstrable social impact.

Dr. Lauryn Conway

Senior Lead, Behavioural Science

Dr. Lauryn Conway is the Lead of Behavioural Science at the Impact and Innovation Unit within the Privy Council Office. In this role, she provides strategic oversight and direction for central team projects and initiatives, applying insights and methodologies from the behavioural sciences to help improve policy, programs and service delivery across the Government of Canada.

Previously, Lauryn was an Impact Canada Fellow at the Public Health Agency of Canada where she focused on dual population health aims of preventing chronic disease and reducing health inequalities. Lauryn holds a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology, Human Development from McGill University and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Toronto.

As an academic and applied practitioner working across public and social sectors, Lauryn has worked passionately on the application of behavioural science and experimentation to domestic and international policy and program design with a subject matter focus on health and wellbeing. She also has experience consulting for intergovernmental bodies and not-for-profit research institutes in the areas of educational policy and government-sector relations.

Sofia Deleniv

Behavioural Science Fellow, Environment and Climate Change Canada

Sofia is an applied behavioural scientist working with the Impact and Innovation Unit of the Privy Council Office and Environment and Climate Change Canada on helping Canada meet its ambitious greenhouse gas emissions targets.

Sofia received her doctorate in neuroscience from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, where she studied the brain mechanisms of perception and decision-making. Prior to joining the Impact and Innovation Unit, she held applied behavioural scientist positions at consulting firm BEworks and, more recently, the Canadian office of The Behavioural Insights Team. There, she worked on applying behavioural insights to challenges ranging from COVID-19 vaccine uptake to financial app regulation and mental illness diagnosis.

Dr. Amanda Desnoyers

Behavioural Science Fellow, Employment and Social Development Canada

Amanda is a Behavioural Scientist and Fellow at the Impact and Innovation Unit located in the Privy Council Office. Her current placement is with Employment and Social Development Canada within the Canadian Education Savings Program where she is exploring how behavioural science can be used to help increase awareness and decrease barriers to accessing educational savings incentives such as the Canada Learning Bond.

Prior to this current role, Amanda supported the Government of Canada’s response to COVID-19. Specifically, she supported the COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring in Canada (COSMO) longitudinal study that surveyed Canadian’s on their perceptions, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours surrounding COVID-19.

Amanda has a Masters degree in Experimental Psychology from Laurentian University and in 2018 earned a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Wilfrid Laurier University where she studied mindfulness and its impact on mental health.

Dr. Nicholas Diamond

Behavioural Science Fellow

Nicholas is a Behavioural Science Fellow at the Impact and Innovation Unit. He is using behavioural science and quantitative approaches to understand the problem of misinformation and disinformation, and he will be working with partners at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to help with the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to this position, Nicholas completed a PhD in psychology at the University of Toronto and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. He investigated human memory using real-world and virtual reality experiments, neuroimaging and electrophysiology, and a focus on age-related memory changes.

Dr. Maral Yeganeh Doost

Behavioural Science Fellow

Maral received her doctorate from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, in Neuroscience in 2018 and followed this with a postdoctoral position at Montreal Neurological Institute of McGill University in cognitive neuroscience and motivation. Before joining the Fellowship program, she has worked as the behavioural science content creator for a management consulting firm. She has also worked as an independent behavioural science consultant with non-profit organizations.

 

Dr. Tyler Good

Behavioural Science Fellow, Public Health Agency of Canada

Tyler is a Behavioural Science Fellow at the Impact and Innovation Unit who will be working with partners at Office of Strategic Policy and Planning at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). In this role, he will provide a behavioural science lens to many initiatives at PHAC including the governmental response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to this position, Tyler completed a PhD in psychology at the University of Toronto where he studied the long-term consequences of concussion using large-scale network modeling and multivariate statistical techniques.

Jacob Graham

Behavioural Science Fellow

Jacob is a Behavioural Science Fellow at the Impact and Innovation Unit within the Privy Council Office, where he will be working to bring behavioural science insights to policy spaces.

Jacob holds an honours bachelor’s degree in economics (first class) from the University of Calgary and a master’s degree in economics from the University of British Columbia, where the focus of his education was on applied game theory and consumer theory. His master’s thesis explored the intersection of behavioural economics and labour theory through differential analysis of COVID-19 work-from-home policies. Prior to joining the IIU,

Jacob worked at the Canada Energy Regulator where his research focused on economic analysis of hydrogen as a viable energy alternative for Canadians.

Kathryn Harper

Behaviour Science Fellow, Environment and Climate Change Canada

Katie is a Behaviour Science Fellow with Impact Canada. She will be working within Environment and Climate Change Canada, helping to apply a behaviour science approach to government communications.

Prior to working with Impact Canada, she worked for a research consulting firm, where she applied her research skills to the development and evaluation of multiple projects addressing public health issues.

Katie obtained her PhD in Psychology (focusing on lifespan development) from Ryerson University in 2021.

Dr. Kyle Hubbard

Behavioural Science Fellow

Kyle is a Behavioural Scientist in the Impact and Innovation Unit at the Privy Council Office, Government of Canada. He works with the IIU’s Behavioural Science Team to expand the Federal Government’s capacity to apply behavioural science (BeSci) to key priority areas including COVID-19 and climate change.

Prior to joining the core Behavioural Science Team in the IIU, Kyle was a Behavioural Science Fellow at Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). During his time at ECCC he led BeSci research to promote pro-environmental behaviour change; applied a BeSci lens to the development of program, policy, and service initiatives; and helped build capacity for using experimentation and evidence-based decision making wherever possible.

Kyle holds a Doctorate of Philosophy (educational psychology) from McGill University.

Vivian Li

Behavioural Science Fellow, Natural Resources Canada

Vivian is a Behavioural Scientist partnering with Natural Resources Canada, applying a behavioural science and experimentation lens to education and adoption initiatives around zero emission vehicles.

Prior to joining the Impact & Innovation Unit, she led the research program and consumer insights strategy for multiple leading household brands at Procter & Gamble Canada.

Vivian was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia, and holds a PhD in Psychology from Yale University.

Emma Littler

Behavioural Science Fellow

Emma is a Behavioural Science Fellow at the Impact and Innovation Unit within the Privy Council Office. Emma completed a Master of Science in Psychology (specialization in Cognitive Neuroscience) at Queen’s University, where she studied the impact of early-life adversity on stress sensitivity in rodents. Her Master’s thesis used a meta-analytic approach to explore the long-lasting impact of adolescent stress on adult behavioural outcomes in preclinical populations. She also holds an Honours Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Neuroscience from the University of Guelph.

Before joining the Fellowship program, Emma worked as a teaching assistant at Queen’s University, where she taught undergraduate courses on quantitative research methods and statistics for applications in the behavioural and health sciences.

Elliot MacDonell

Behavioural Science Fellow

Elliot is a Behavioural Science Fellow with Impact Canada. He received his Doctorate in Psychology (Social/Personality Concentration) from Brock University in 2021. His academic research focused on the relationship between personality and antisocial behaviours, as well as psychometrics and the challenges of measuring latent constructs.

Prior to working with Impact Canada, Elliot worked as a Research Associate within the Goodman School of Business at Brock University. In this role, he consulted on research examining the challenges faced by refugees seeking asylum in Canada.

Harry MacKay

Behavioural Science Fellow, Public Health Agency of Canada

Harry is a Behavioural Science Fellow at the Impact and Innovation Unit within the Privy Council Office, where he will work with partners at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to bring insights from behavioural science to policy design and implementation.

Harry holds a B.A. in Psychology from St. Francis Xavier University, and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Carleton University. Prior to this position, Harry completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine where he studied the role of epigenetic mechanisms in the development of brain and behaviour using genome-wide bioinformatic techniques.

Dr. Mark Morrissey

Behavioural Science Fellow, Public Health Agency of Canada

In this role, Mark is currently supporting work on vaccine confidence within the Immunization Promotion and Partnership Unit. Mark is working on the application of BeSci to advancing projects and initiatives supporting the Government of Canada’s response to COVID-19, particularly as it relates to vaccination uptake.

Mark received his doctorate from the University of Toronto in Psychology and Neuroscience in 2015, and followed this with a postdoctoral position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. Prior to joining the Fellowship Program, Mark worked as an Associate at a behavioural science management consulting firm. In 2019, Mark also began instructing undergraduate courses in Psychology at the University of Toronto Scarborough as a Lecturer and is now a part-time Assistant Professor. Mark is energized by the interest within government in the application of behavioural sciences and at the opportunity to work and collaborate with so many dedicated and bright minds.

Anthony Murkar

Behavioural Science Fellow

Anthony Murkar received his PhD from the University of Ottawa (Ottawa, ON) in Psychology with a specialization in Behavioural Neuroscience in 2020, and followed this with a postdoctoral fellowship at The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research. He is also a Psychology lecturer at Lakehead University in the areas of psychopharmacology and neuroscience.

Prior to joining the Impact and Innovation Unit, he worked on pre-clinical and clinical pharmacological experiments to discover new treatment strategies for mental health disorders. His work has also focused on the neurological mechanisms behind the memory-altering qualities of medicinal plants.

Brian Pereira

Behavioural Science Fellow

Brian is a Behavioural Science Fellow within the Behavioural Science team at the Impact and Innovation Unit. He will be working on applying behavioural science research in response to COVID-19, including projects related to misinformation and disinformation.

Prior to joining the Fellowship program in April 2021, Brian worked at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health studying predictors of substance use behaviour in young adult populations.

Brian holds a Master of Science in Neuroscience from Western University and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Toronto.

Dhawal Selerka

Behavioural Science Fellow

Dhawal is a Behavioural Scientist with the Impact and Innovation Unit, Privy Council Office, Government of Canada. He is responsible for applying insights from the behavioural sciences (e.g. social psychology, cognitive sciences, etc.) across a range of files, including how the government communicates with its citizens, using experimental methods and techniques.

Prior to working with the core team at the IIU, Dhawal was placed at Transport Canada to help apply behavioural science across numerous programs and domains, including boating safety, organizational safety, and policy formulation.

Prior to his current role, Dhawal was a graduate student with the University of Toronto where he received a Master of Arts (Psychology)

Nick Thompson

Research Associate

In this role, he executes statistical analysis to generate policy insights targeted at assisting the Government of Canada’s COVID-19 response. In addition to his work with the Privy Council Office, Nick is currently completing a Master of Public Policy at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Before joining the Impact and Innovation Unit, he was a Research Associate at the Munk School’s Policy, Elections and Representation Lab where he helped launch a dashboard visualizing data on jurisdiction-level policy responses to COVID-19. Nick holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Political Studies from Queen’s University.

Currently Most Interested in… The application of Python to problems requiring statistical analysis. In particular, the use of Python to engage in automated approaches to analysis and large-scale data manipulation.

Thomas (Tom) Vargas

Behavioural Science Fellow, Public Health Agency of Canada

Tom is a Behavioural Science Fellow at the Impact and Innovation Unit, where he will support efforts to integrate behavioral science and public policy.

Prior to this position, Tom completed a PhD in political science from the University of Minnesota and a postdoctoral fellowship at McMaster University. His fields of study were comparative public policy and quantitative methodology. Before graduate school, he worked at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) helping to translate academic research into public policy action.

He earned a Master’s in Public Policy from the College of William & Mary, and an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University.

Sarah Wall

Behavioural Science Fellow, Public Health Agency of Canada

Sarah Wall is a Behavioural Science Fellow at the Impact and Innovation Unit within the Privy Council Office. She will also be working within the Public Health Agency of Canada to support the application of Behavioural Science and experimental methods to their continued response to COVID-19.

Sarah is educated at Wilfrid Laurier University where she earned her Master’s degree in social psychology, and is working concurrently on completing her Doctorate in social psychology, with a focus on motivation and decision-making in close relationship domains.

Alyssa Whalen

Advisor

Alyssa is an Advisor on the Behavioural Science team in the Impact and Innovation Unit at the Privy Council Office, Government of Canada. In this role, she applies principles and methods from Behavioural Science and other human-centred approaches to address complex policy and program challenges across the Government of Canada. During Alyssa’s time at the IIU, she has carried out numerous priority-driven projects as an applied researcher, and played a leading role in scoping and coordinating the team’s program of Behavioural Science research supporting the Government’s response to COVID-19.

Prior to joining her current role, Alyssa researched and studied at Queen’s University, concentrating in consumer behaviour and decision-making research. From Queen’s, she holds a Master of Science in Marketing and an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, as well as certificates in Business and Social Impact. 

Wook Yang

Behavioural Science Fellow

Wook is working under the Natural Resources Canada’s energy efficiency program, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across Canada. To deliver an effective program, he will be working with a multidisciplinary team and applying behavioural approaches throughout the development process.

Wook holds a Master’s degree in Developmental Psychology and he is currently completing the final year of his PhD in Social and Behavioural Health Sciences at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health where he focuses on aging and mental health of Canadian minority populations.