Dr. Ghayda Hassan
Director and Founder, Canadian Practitioners Network for the Prevention of Radicalization and Extremist Violence; University of Quebec in Montreal; Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Clinical Psychology at UQAM university, UQAM
2022, 2024, 2025
Dr. Ghayda Hassan is a clinical psychologist and professor of clinical psychology at UQAM university in Montreal and has several research, clinical and community based national and international affiliations. She is the director of the Canadian Practitioner Network for the Prevention of Radicalization and Extremist Violence (RPC-PREV; funded by PS Canada). She is also a UNESCO co-chair in Prevention of Radicalization and Extremist Violence (UNESCO-PREV). From 2022 to 2025 she sat as the Chair of the Independent Advisory Committee (IAC) for the Global Internet Forum for Countering Terroriss (GIFCT). She is a member of the RCMP Management Advisory Board and was a member of the expert advisory group on online safety at the Ministry of Canadian Heritage. She is a researchers and senior clinical consultant at the SHERPA subteam RAPS for Research and Action on Radicalisation and Social Suffering at the CIUSSS Center-West of the island of Montreal.
Her systematic reviews, research and clinical activities are centred around four main areas of clinical cultural psychology: 1) Social suffering, intercommunity relations, hate, racism and extremist violence ; 2) Intervention in family violence & cultural diversity ; 2) Identity, belonging and mental health of children and adolescents from ethnic/religious minorities ; 3) working with vulnerable immigrants and refugees.
The effort to eradicate hate requires the active participation of every component of our society, to include governments, the private sector, communities of faith and indeed every aspect of civil society. There is no more urgent task in front of us. The organizers of the Eradicate Hate Global Summit are doing the United States and the world an enormous service by tackling hatred and extremism with a focus on honest dialogue and conversation, genuine learning and practical solutions. This will not happen overnight, but the Pittsburgh community’s leadership in this effort is genuinely inspiring and motivating.
