Social Research.
He has served on numerous public sector research advisory boards and has undertaken public policy research and studies for many organizations including the Law Commission of Canada, Ontario Human Rights Commission, Community Legal Education Ontario, York Region Data Consortium, Ontario Literacy Coalition, Consumer Council of Canada, Windsor Police Service, Industry Canada, International Trade and Labour Program (HRSD Canada), Ottawa Police Service, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, and Elections Canada
Dr. Jacobs held full-time teaching positions at the University of British Columbia and Magdalen College, Oxford University. In 2017 he received the highest honour for a Canadian scholar―Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy of Social Science―for his internationally recognized contributions in data science to human rights, equality of opportunity, and access to justice.
Dr. Jacobs received his PhD in Politics from Oxford University in the United Kingdom. He also earned his Master of Political Science and Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Political Science and Philosophy from Western University (London, Ontario).
Lesley Jacobs, PhD, FRSC
Steering Comittee, IDRR
les.jacobs@ontariotechu.ca
Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research (IDRR)
Dr. Jacobs is a leading international expert in applications of data science to research questions involving equality of opportunity, human rights policy, and access to justice; health and human rights in the Asia-Pacific (especially China and Japan); and applied social research methods for large projects involving data science. He held a Tier 1 York Research Chair in Human Rights and Access to Justice and led the Access to Justice Data Science Lab.
Dr. Jacobs’ administrative leadership includes serving as Chair of the Senate Academic Planning, Policy Research Committee at York University; the inaugural Director of the York Centre for Public Policy and Law; Executive Director and Senior Research Fellow of the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice; Academic Director of the Statistic Canada Research Data Centre; and Director of the Institute for