We are researchers, builders, mentors and practitioners working across the lines between health, climate, food, learning and futures.
PEOPLEPLACEPOSSIBILITY
01 · The collective
The work moves when different ways of knowing meet.
Our strength is not a single discipline. It is the ability to bring policy, public health, research, community knowledge, operations and creative practice into the same field of view—then make that connection useful.
Our interns and their supervisor on an urban agriculture field visit.
02 · Stewardship
Founding vision. Executive depth. Experience that holds the centre.
Founder & Convenor · Climate and planetary health
Dr. Marwa Suraj
Dr. Marwa Suraj is the founder and convenor of Shift Ground Axis. A physician and public health resident focused on climate and planetary health, she works at the intersections of human agency, social innovation and the changing green economy.
She created Shift.Ground as a place where communities, research, creative practice and real-world experimentation can meet—so people are not only prepared for change, but able to shape it.
Executive team · Strategy, mentorship & learning
Dr. Abdullahi Mohamed Keinan
Dr. Keinan is an executive leader, public policy adviser, human resource practitioner and reflective learning mentor with more than two decades of experience across public governance, non-profit management, education and sustainable agriculture.
At Shift Ground Axis, he helps guide strategy, research and development, operations and the mentorship of emerging professionals. His international work has spanned inclusive education, skills development and public-sector leadership across the Horn of Africa.
Executive team · Physician · Planetary health
Dr. Yousif Salim
Dr. Yousif Salim is an internationally trained physician and public health professional with a Master of Public Health from the University of Victoria focused on Indigenous Health. His clinical and community-health experience spans international settings, Manitoba and Nunavut.
As a member of Shift.Ground’s executive team, he brings a planetary-health lens to the connections among climate change, food insecurity, communicable disease, emergencies and health inequity. His work has included Canadian Red Cross emergency response and a Public Health Agency of Canada practicum on STBBIs and community-based point-of-care testing.
Board & international partner · Kenya
Saphia Sheikh Omar
Saphia is Shift.Ground’s focal person in Kenya and a public health and agricultural leader whose work bridges community wellbeing, food systems and women’s empowerment across East Africa.
She is a partner at NEP College of Health Sciences, founder of FILAYI Farm and a former County Executive Committee Member for Agriculture in Garissa County. Her perspective connects community health, youth skills, climate-resilient agriculture and practical governance.
03 · People in the work
Learning, building and contributing in motion.
Our wider team brings emerging talent and cross-sector experience into real work—where contribution and learning happen together.
01
One of the minds behind the work
Technical architecture · Regenerative systems
Morwan Suraj
A telecom engineer by training and an obsessive experimenter across forms of farming, Morwan is a natural systems thinker and one of the minds behind Shift.Ground. He helps shape technical architecture and regenerative agriculture ventures around a people-first test: closed-loop farming and modular hardware matter only when they genuinely serve and empower the communities using them. He is also a relentless generator of dangerously bold ideas—some of which actually work.
02
Founding cohort · Research
Andrew Waskul
Andrew is a University of Manitoba psychology graduate and research intern building practical experience as he prepares for graduate studies. His work with Shift.Ground has strengthened his research practice and professional development while he works toward a future in psychology and teaching.
03
Operations · AI enablement · Creative production
Jamal Tajdin
Jamal is a builder who connects how an organization works behind the scenes with how it shows up in the world. He brings experience across logistics, team leadership and public-facing communications, combining operational discipline, modern AI enablement and hands-on creative production.
04
Climate futures · Biology · Youth outreach
Jessica Fortier
Jessica is a University of Manitoba biology graduate with a concentration in evolution and biodiversity. As a climate futures intern, she is especially interested in youth outreach and the use of satellite data—and brings the observational curiosity of both a biologist and an artist.
A growing practice
Bring what you know. Build what comes next.
Shift.Ground is shaped by people willing to work across disciplines, places and generations. If that sounds like you—or like the kind of partnership you want to build—we should talk.
