The Basic Income Lab is excited to introduce our 2019-20 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Dr. Rebecca Hasdell.

Hasdell is a currently a Food Policy Fellow with the Food Policy Lab (Dalhousie University) and Our Food Project (Ecology Action Centre) and an Adjunct Faculty member in the Northern Medical Program (University of British Columbia). Over the past 10 years, Rebecca has worked in program planning and strategic policy for local governments, research institutions and not-for-profit organizations in the areas of poverty reduction, food access and environmental health, including leading major social policy initiatives as a City of Toronto Urban Fellow.

Rebecca’s research examines healthy public policy approaches to promote healthier communities and cities. Rebecca completed her Masters of Public Health (Health Promotion) and PhD (Social and Behavioural Health Sciences) at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Her mixed-method PhD (2011-2018) integrated knowledge and approaches from policy studies and population health intervention research to examine population-level solutions to improve food access in smaller cities and rural and remote regions. Her research was funded by Canadian Institutes for Health Research fellowships in public health policy and knowledge translation.

Rebecca is excited to join the team at the Basic Income Lab in September 2019 to lead a review of the global evidence base for cash-based transfer programs. Her interest in basic income is driven by her background working with communities and local government to address a wide variety of health and social inequities. Through this work, she has seen the potential for economic policy to improve community wellbeing. The fellowship will provide an opportunity to better understand the outcomes of cash-based transfers, with a focus on what works, for whom and under what contextual circumstances.