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    Grand Challenges Canada is dedicated to supporting Bold Ideas with Big Impact®.
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    Funded by the Government of Canada and other partners, Grand Challenges Canada funds innovators in low- and middle-income countries and Canada.
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    The bold ideas Grand Challenges Canada supports integrate science and technology, social and business innovation – known as Integrated Innovation®.
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    One of the largest impact-first investors in Canada, Grand Challenges Canada has supported a pipeline of over 800 innovations in more than 80 countries.
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Grand Challenges Canada

Bold Ideas with Big Impact®

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Karlee Silver

Karlee Silver DPhil

Co-Chief Executive Officer
Ex-Officio Board Member

Karlee Silver is Co-CEO of Grand Challenges Canada, giving leadership and oversight to all aspects of the organization’s activities together with Co-CEO Jocelyn Mackie.

Prior to being appointed co-CEO, Dr. Silver was VP Programs where she set strategy for development and humanitarian innovation initiatives, and enabled the programs, investments, and knowledge management teams to source, support, and transition to scale promising innovations for social impact in low- and middle-income countries. She represents Grand Challenges Canada in the International Development Innovation Alliance (IDIA) and in the Grand Challenge network, and advises on a range of global initiatives aligned with women’s and children’s health and development and global mental health. She is the Chair of the Every Woman Every Child Innovation Marketplace Steering Committee.

Dr. Silver has been with Grand Challenges Canada since it launched, and led the process of selecting the organization’s prioritized grand challenges. Prior to joining Grand Challenges Canada, Dr. Silver trained in the laboratory of Dr. Kevin Kain at the Sandra Rotman Centre in Toronto where she helped to identify host responses of malaria infection in pregnant women to harness for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

Dr. Silver received her doctorate in 2006 from the University of Oxford, where she attended as a Rhodes Scholar and trained in genetics and immunology. An accumulation of inspirations, including traveling through southern Africa after Oxford, led to a refocus towards global health. Witnessing both the strength of women to sustain their families and communities, and the vulnerability of these same women to the consequences of poverty inspired Dr. Silver to apply herself to empowering women and girls.

In her spare time, Dr Silver explores the outdoors with her dog, practices yoga, and studies wine tasting.

@KarleeSilver

    Recent Posts

    • Saving Brains: Innovation in Early Childhood Development

      In 2011, Grand Challenges Canada launched Saving Brains: a grand challenge to increase human capital in low- and middle-income countries by sourcing and supporting bold ideas to support healthy brain development in the youngest and most vulnerable children. As of mid-2018, we have supported a broad portfolio of 115 innovation projects in 30 countries testing […]


      07/20/2018
      Read Post
    • Flipping the Gap: Mental Health as a Development Priority

      This World Mental Health Day, we celebrate the progress made in recognizing mental health as part of the global development agenda and in investing in global mental health. However, we need to do more in order to reach millions.


      10/09/2016
      Read Post
    • Canada supports innovations that address violence against women in developing countries

      Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the Government of Canada, supports 12 innovative projects that address violence against women in the developing world.


      05/17/2015
      Read Post
    • Wanted: Investors to transform global mental health

      In 3 short years, Grand Challenges Canada has become one of the leading funders in mental health innovation in the world.


      09/01/2014
      Read Post

    Grand Challenges Canada’s programs are primarily undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through Global Affairs Canada.

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