Michael Widener
Vice-Dean, Academic Operations
Professor, Department of Geography & Planning
Contact
Email: vicedeanacademicoperations.artsci@utoronto.ca
Tel: 416-978-3935
Executive Assistant: Linda Silmer
Office: SS2005, Office of the Dean, Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George Street
Portfolio
The Vice-Dean, Academic Operations has oversight of all interdivisional teaching agreements, including financial management and implications for the Strategic Mandate Agreement. In addition, the Vice-Dean, Academic Operations works closely with the CAO and the Executive Director of Faculty Budget, Planning & Finance Office to advise the Dean on financial matters.
Areas of Responsibility
- Advising the Dean on budget and financial matters
- Interdivisional relationships and partnerships
- Interdivisional teaching agreements
- Information & Instructional Technology, divisional lead
- Institutional research and data governance
Biography
Professor Michael J. Widener most recently served as chair of the Department of Geography & Planning, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Transportation and Health. He also holds a non-budgetary cross-appointment in the Division of Epidemiology at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
Widener is a health geographer whose research focuses on how public health affects — and is affected by —movement, transportation systems, and urban planning. He has led several SSHRC, CIHR, and foundation-funded projects that explore how time pressure, transportation options, and divisions of household labour impact access to food, dietary behaviours, and food insecurity. Additional studies are focused on the links between housing, migration, and health, and on how advanced geospatial technologies (such as GPS) can be used to provide useful insights for urban and public health policies.
He teaches courses on geographic data science, mapping health information, and spatial statistics at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Outside of U of T, Professor Widener is co-editor-in-chief of the journal Health & Place. He serves as a member of CIHR’s College of Reviewers, co-leads the Social and Health Factors Cluster of the Network of European Communication & Transportation Activity Researchers and sits on the editorial boards of Geographical Analysis, Information Geography, and Discover Social Science and Health.
Professor Widener was appointed Vice-Dean, Academic Operations effective July 1, 2025 until June 30, 2030.