An activist and educator, Kim Samuel is the founder and chief belonging officer of the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness; visiting scholar at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, University of Oxford; the Fulbright Canada ambassador for diversity and social connectedness; and author of the forthcoming book, On Belonging: Finding Connection in an Age of Isolation.
Kim Samuel is a social activist and educator. She is the founder and chief belonging officer of the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness, a Montreal-based “think-and-do tank” that partners with leading advocacy groups and research organizations to conduct ground-breaking work in the field of building belonging. She has lectured at institutions including Oxford, Harvard, and Vancouver Island University, and during her time as a Professor of Practice at McGill University’s Institute for the Study of International Development, she developed and taught a course addressing social isolation and social connectedness through the dual lens of program and policy development.
Ms. Samuel is currently serving as the first-ever Fulbright Canada Ambassador for Diversity and Social Connectedness. She was also recently named a visiting scholar at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, University of Oxford. She has organized three Global Symposia on Social Isolation and Deepening Social Connectedness, with a fourth currently slated for Fall 2022. Her book On Belonging: Finding Connection in an Age of Isolation will be published with Abrams Press in September 2022.