Kim Samuel has over two decades of leadership experience in business, philanthropy, development of multi-stakeholder partnerships and academic research.
A pioneer in the field of social isolation and connectedness, Kim Samuel, Founder of The Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness, combines academic research, writing, and lecturing with direct programmatic and partnership building experience supporting communities across the globe facing diverse challenges. Her work focusing on social isolation as a critical experiential and measurable component of multi-dimensional poverty and other critical issues underscores the importance of social connectedness to human dignity and human rights struggles globally.
Ms. Samuel is Professor of Practice at the Institute for the Study of International Development at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. In 2016, she designed and delivered the first academic course offering in the emerging field of social connectedness to graduating students in international studies and taught a new cohort in 2017. She also created the Social Connectedness Fellowship Program in 2017, which offers recent undergraduates the opportunity to pursue projects related to social isolation and connectedness in the context of community building and international development.
Ms. Samuel is actively engaged in several joint programmatic and research efforts. In 2014, she convened the first Global Symposium on Overcoming Isolation and Deepening Social Connectedness, a global gathering of over a hundred leading thinkers, activists and community leaders from over 40 countries. The second Global Symposium was convened by Ms. Samuel together with McGill University in October 2016. In her continuing leadership role in the emerging movement for social connectedness, Ms. Samuel is a commentator and author featured regularly in the Huffington Post and other media and scholarly sources.
Under Ms. Samuel’s leadership as President and Chair, The Samuel Family Foundation has committed to advancing social connectedness and to supporting and enabling people to improve their lives and reinforce their commitment to family, community and society. Several programmatic efforts have been developed in direct partnership with Ms. Samuel, including dedicated programming supporting social connectedness for children with the Synergos Institute and partner organizations across southern Africa. Ms. Samuel also plays an active and ongoing role as a member of the Board and Executive Committee of Special Olympics International. In addition, she is engaged in partnership with Indigenous communities in northern Canada, including Misipawistik Cree Nation and the Connected North initiative supporting community driven strategies for strengthening education and employment.
Ms. Samuel co-created the innovative Environmental Performance Index (EPI) with the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University. The index supports governments in accessing and addressing environmental sustainability targets, and in 2016 Ms. Samuel helped launch its 10th iteration at the United Nations. In 2017, urbanization was highlighted as a new key dimension, utilizing social isolation as the primary lens to frame the research.
Ms. Samuel served as Visiting Scholar at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, University of Oxford (2013-2014) where she continues to serve as Policy Advisor. She also served as Chair of the External Advisory Board (2007-2015) of the Yale University Center of Environmental Law and Policy (YCELP). Among other appointments and memberships, Ms. Samuel is a Director of the Synergos Institute, Founding Member of the Global Philanthropists Circle, and Member of the Disability Rights Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch.
Articles by Kim Samuel
- 2018
- Making our Metrics Count
- Social Inclusion and Environmental Sustainability: We Stand or Sink Together
- Why We Need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Sexual Violence
- Preventing Homelessness Goes Beyond Affordable Housing
- 2017
- After earthquakes and hurricanes, the question is: What do we value?
- #MeToo Should Be Everyone’s Issue
- We Shouldn’t Need to be “Successful” to Belong
- Creating More Caring University Classrooms
- Reimagining Rehabilitation: “A Treasure in the Heart of Every Man”
- The Fire This Time
- ‘One Of Us’ Has To Be All Of Us
- A Holistic Systems Approach To Mental Health On Campus
- To Reach Peace, We Must Teach Peace
- The Caring Classroom: Promoting Community-Centered Learning on Campus
- International Women’s Day 2017: Women Serve, Women Solve, Women Lead
- Conflict and Connectedness in the Middle East
- A Warning From The Past: What The MS St Louis Tells Us About Today’s Refugee Crisis
- How to Build Social Connectedness? Get Creative
- Where Is the Love? Building Belonging in an Age of Divisiveness
- 2016
- Breaking Bread and Building Connection
- Male Isolation: Recognizing the Invisible Men in our Midst
- From Common Core To Common Care: Helping School Communities Thrive
- ‘A New ‘3 R’s’ for Back to School: Respect, Recognition, and Reciprocity
- Institutionalized and Isolated: How Serbia is Failing Children with Disabilities
- Confronting Attawapiskat’s PTSD: The Painful Trauma of Spiritual Disconnection
- Moving from #BringBackOurGirls to #ValueOurGirls
- Using Social Connectedness to Unlock Sustainable Development
- The Urban Condition is the Human Condition
- Climate, Community, Collaboration, Connection: Why Measuring Environmental Performance Matters
- Finding the Wisdom, Courage, and Compassion to See That The Other Is Us
- 2015
- Social Creatures: How Animals Can Help us to Connect, Heal, and Love
- Celebrate Global Dignity Day With Empathy, Inclusion and Action
- Promoting Inclusion in an Aging World
- The Beautiful Game and the Goal of Belonging
- Showing Up Sooner: A Lesson for Caregivers
- Combating Caregiver Isolation: Respect, Recognition and Reciprocity
- Building for Belonging
- Living Long Shouldn’t Mean Living Lonely
- Fighting Isolation Via Paintbrush, Page, Song and Stage
- Let’s Resolve to Combat Social Isolation in 2015
- 2014
- The Youngest Victims: Combating the Social Isolation of Ebola Orphans
- Social Isolation and Its Relationship to Multidimensional Poverty
- Overcoming Social Isolation – Overview Video
- Opening Remarks at Symposium on Overcoming Isolation and Building Social Connectedness
- Shame, Humiliation and Social Isolation: Missing Dimensions of Poverty and Suffering Analysis
- Social Isolation: A Conceptual and Measurement Proposal
- 2013 and Earlier
- Intellectual Disabilities, Global Poverty and Isolation
- Isolation, Generosity, Giving, and Receiving