Bio
Teresa Scassa is a CIGI senior fellow. She is also the Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy and a full professor at the University of Ottawa’s Law Faculty, where her groundbreaking research explores issues of data ownership and control. Teresa is an award-winning scholar, and is the author and editor of seven books, and over 90 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. She has a track record of interdisciplinary collaboration to solve complex problems of law and data. Teresa is a founding member of the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Law, Technology and Society, is cross-appointed to the School of Information Studies at the University of Ottawa, and is a member of the Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre at Carleton University.
At CIGI, Teresa contributes expertise on the legal challenges associated with data ownership and the need for a national data strategy in a data-driven economy. Teresa also examines the governance of smart cities data and its implications for innovation, transparency, accountability, sovereignty, and privacy.
Teresa has worked as a consultant for government and the private sector, and has also worked with non-governmental organizations on issues within her areas of legal expertise. She is a member of the Canadian Advisory Council on Artificial Intelligence, and a past member of the External Advisory Committee of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, and of the Canadian Government Advisory Committee on Open Government. Teresa holds degrees in civil and common law from McGill University, as well as an LL.M. and a doctorate from the University of Michigan. She clerked for Mme Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé at the Supreme Court of Canada from 1988 to 1989.