Dr. Samantha Nutt

WAFAR Presents Dr. Samantha Nutt

Physician | Global Affairs Expert | Founder and President, War Child Canada and War Child USA

Wednesday, February 10, 2027 | 12:00 p.m. 

Ronald D. Schmeichel Building for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Room 1110

[Registration coming soon]

About the event

The Western Academy for Advanced Research (WAFAR) is proud to welcome Dr. Samantha Nutt to Western University as the inaugural speaker of the Western Global Impact Conversation.

For more than two decades, Dr. Nutt has worked with children and their families on the frontlines of many of the world's major crises, from Iraq to Afghanistan, Somalia to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone to Darfur, Sudan. 

The event is anchored in WAFAR's Possibilities for Peace research program and is open to students, faculty, community partners and the general public.

About Dr. Samantha Nutt

Dr. Samantha Nutt is an award-winning humanitarian, bestselling author and acclaimed public speaker. A medical doctor and the founder and president of the international humanitarian organizations War Child Canada and War Child USA, she is one of the most recognized voices in the humanitarian arena and a leading authority on current affairs, conflict, public health, international aid and foreign policy. Her career has spanned dozens of conflict zones, and her work has benefited millions of war-affected children globally.

Dr. Nutt is a respected authority for many of North America's leading media outlets. She is a regular foreign affairs panelist on CBC's The National and a contributor to NowThis News. Her writing has been published by TED Ideas, Reuters, The Globe and Mail, the National Post, the Toronto Star and Maclean's, among many others.

Her critically acclaimed book, Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies, and Aid, was a #1 bestseller, with a new edition released in 2018. Her TED Talk, "The Real Harm of the Global Arms Trade," was delivered at The Town Hall Theatre in New York as part of a PBS special and has been viewed more than a million times on TED.com.

Dr. Nutt is a staff physician at Women's College Hospital in Toronto, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and a senior fellow at the University of Toronto's Massey College.

Honours and recognition

• Member of the Order of Canada, for her contributions to improving the plight of young people in the world's worst conflict zones
• Member of the Order of Ontario
• 2025 inductee, Canada's Walk of Fame, for her championship of children's wellness on the frontlines of global crises
• Loyola Medal, Concordia University (2019)
• Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum
• Named one of Canada's "25 most influential figures" by The Globe and Mail
• Named one of "Canada's Five Leading Activists" by TIME magazine

Education

Dr. Nutt graduated summa cum laude from McMaster University, earned an M.Sc. in Public Health with distinction from the University of London, and holds a Fellowship in Community Medicine (FRCPC) from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. She is certified by the College of Family Practice and completed a sub-specialization in women's health at the University of Toronto as a Women's Health Scholar.