Meet the Team

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Vass is the Managing Director of SHIELD. 

Recognized as one of Canada’s sharpest policy minds, she is known for cutting through corporate jargon and bureaucratic inertia to ask the questions others won’t. With a career spanning think tanks, government, academia, and media, Vass has built a reputation as a fearless and independent voice on the policies that shape our daily lives. In 2020, she co-founded the Master of Public Policy in Digital Society program at McMaster University, where she also taught courses on policy design.

Vass is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, a Fellow at the Public Policy Forum, and an advisor to both the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project and Social Capital Partners. She is the co-author of The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians and writes for the The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business where she focuses on the policies, technologies, and corporate forces that shape our everyday lives and economic futures.

Kaylie is the Chief Economist at SHIELD. 

Kaylie is a next generation economist skilled in translating complex economic concepts into accessible formats. She is intellectually curious, solutions focussed and known for her ability to deepen insights and find the common thread between outwardly opposing ideas. 

Kaylie has supported economic decision making in some of Canada’s largest organizations and institutions, advising negotiations and developing public policy that connects policy goals to people’s everyday lives. 

Kaylie is a fellow at Social Capital Partners, an Advisor to the Master of Public Policy in Digital Society program and an informal advisor to many. Kaylie sits on the Board of Directors at Kindred Credit Union where she is a member of the governance committee and Chair of the Technology and Innovation Advisory Group. 

James is the Director of Communications and Editorial Director at SHIELD.

James is a veteran communications strategist focused on innovation, economics and public policy. For more than a decade, James worked as a journalist covering a mix of politics, business and public policy. He has written for The Financial Post, MacLeans, The Line, and the St. John’s Telegram. Before joining SHIELD, James was director of communications for the Council of Canadian Innovators, working on public policy advocacy for Canadian high-growth technology companies. He is the author of "Turmoil, As Usual” about Newfoundland and Labrador politics. In his free time he is an avid watercolour painter.

Jessica is the Operations Manager of SHIELD. 

Jessica is a driven and dedicated leader who is invested in Canadian sovereignty and defence. She holds a Master’s in International Public Policy from the Balsillie School of International Affairs, with a specialization in Economics. While at SHIELD, she is also a fellow at the Canadian Maritime Security Network. Her academic and professional work reflects a strong focus on global security issues, particularly in emerging domains. She has conducted research on outer space security and cybersecurity through her roles at Project Ploughshares and Policy Horizons Canada, where she contributed to forward-looking policy analysis and strategic foresight. She is passionate about advancing Canadian sovereignty in the context of international governance, technological change, and global security.

Matt is a Senior Policy Researcher at SHIELD. 

Matt is an interdisciplinary thinker and researcher with a background that spans industries and social milieus—from construction to academia to policy. He harnesses his diverse experience to bring both practical policy expertise and deep research skills to his work. He explores complex questions about the intersections of information, institutions, and power, particularly how emerging technologies and changing geopolitical dynamics impact the future of governance, knowledge, and sovereignty across contexts. Matt previously worked at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), focusing on international governance of AI. He also completed a post-doctoral fellowship between CIGI’s Digital Policy Hub and UofT’s Media Ethics Lab on AI’s transformation of research and knowledge production. During his Ph.D. Matt studied how historical narratives shape, and are in turn shaped by, political power over time, and the relationship between written evidence and knowledge. He continues to work on multiple standardization technical committees and is an investigator on international research projects on trust, governance, and epistemology.

Emily is a Policy Research Associate at SHIELD. 

She is an interdisciplinary thinker and public policy researcher who cares deeply about issues affecting Canadians. She is also a Fellow at the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project (CAMP) and a 2025 winner of Global Affairs Canada’s International Policy Ideas Challenge. 

Formerly, she worked as a Researcher with the Centre for International Governance Innovation’s (CIGI) Global AI Risks Initiative team. 

Emily holds a Master of Public Policy in Digital Society and a Bachelor of Arts and Science from McMaster University. Her commentary has been featured in The Globe and Mail and Tech Policy Press.

David is a Policy Research Associate at SHIELD.

David is a dedicated intellectual with experience that ranges from tech policy research at GoodBot to developing innovative product ideas at the Digital Society Lab. He holds a Master of Public Policy in Digital Society and an Honours B.A. majoring in economics with a minor in philosophy from McMaster University. Stemming from time spent in the construction industry, David takes a practical and ground-level approach when thinking about policy alternatives.