Samaa is a Program Associate with the Global Health Innovation team. She supports innovators to enable Transition to Scale investments.
Prior to joining Grand Challenges Canada, Samaa completed her Master of Global Affairs degree from the University of Toronto, with specializations in international development and innovation policy. Her master’s internship was with UNICEF South Asia, focusing on the responsibility of businesses to uphold children’s rights during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Samaa holds a Bachelor of Arts and Science in International Development and Psychology from McGill University.
Samaa has worked with a range of local community development organizations based in Toronto, Montreal, and Mumbai, focusing on child and youth education and mentorship. She first joined Grand Challenges Canada as a Summer Fellow, where she worked with the Options for Pregnancy Termination Initiative to conduct research on safeguarding, quality of care, and risk management in safe abortion as well as a donor mapping exercise to better understand the funding landscape.