Samantha Nutt is an award-winning humanitarian, best-selling author and acclaimed public speaker. A medical doctor and a founder of the renowned international humanitarian organization, War Child, Dr. Nutt has worked with children and their families at the frontline of many of the world’s major crises—from Iraq to Afghanistan, Somalia to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone to Darfur, Sudan. A leading authority on current affairs, war, international aid and foreign policy, Dr. Nutt is one of the most intrepid and recognized voices in the humanitarian arena. With a career that has spanned more than two decades and dozens of conflict zones, her international work has benefited hundreds of thousands of war-affected children globally.

Dr. Nutt is a respected authority for many of North America's leading media outlets. She is a regular foreign affairs panelist on the acclaimed news program, CBC TV NEWS The National with Peter Mansbridge. Nutt has appeared in More Magazine, Marie Claire, and on NBC Nightly News, BBC World News Service, WGN, and NPR, to name a few. In November 2015, Dr. Nutt spoke at TED Talks Live “War & Peace” at The Town Hall Theater, which aired on PBS, and has, since, garnered over a million views online on TED.com

Dr. Nutt’s critically-acclaimed debut book entitled Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies and Aid, was released in 2011 and was a #1 national best-seller in both hardcover and paperback. Damned Nations is a bracing and uncompromising account of Dr. Nutt’s work in some of the most devastated regions of the world.

Dr. Nutt was nominated in 2016 for the prestigious DVF People’s Voice Award. She has been recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and Time has featured her as one of Canada's Five Leading Activists. In July 2011, Dr. Nutt was appointed to the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honor, for her contributions to improving the plight of young people in the world's worst conflict zones.

 

Topics:

  • Over the last decade, we've seen a lot of corporations scrambling to add a social responsibility component to their brand. Consumers want to buy from a company that is doing good in the world. Millennials are estimated to account for 1.3 trillion dollars, and they are demanding that the companies they buy from are caring and authentic. But how do we know if these companies are truly making a difference? Sam has witnessed first-hand the social responsibility efforts of these corporations—and she knows what works, and sadly, what efforts can be detrimental. In this presentation, Sam discussed the most pressing issues your company can tackle, and how to create an effective strategy around social responsibility that results in real, lasting global improvement.

  • This presentation combines humor and personal reflections on women in the 21st century and why the women’s movement is unfinished everywhere. Nutt’s often satirical take on hot topics such as “Lean In” and whether “women can have it all” offers an engaging, thought-provoking and entertaining examination of the challenges women still face in the world and how women (and men) can advocate for change.

  • Our world is accelerating, and our communities are colliding, not always for the better. Whether it is the terrible garment factory fires in Bangladesh, the diamonds on our fingers, the components in our cell phones, the profits in our pensions, or the environmental wreckage—such as the Gulf oil spill—associated with our energy needs, our interdependence means that we need to frame the questions differently.