Dr. Enid Slack
Director
The Director of the Institute is Dr. Enid Slack, one of Canada's foremost experts in municipal finance. Enid has been working in this field for over 40 years and is respected nationally and internationally for her research on municipal finance and governance.
Bill Hughes
Senior Fellow
Bill Hughes is a Senior Fellow at the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance. He has over 35 years of experience in finance and public policy at both the provincial and municipal levels of government. Bill’s research and policy interests include municipal financial sustainability, demographics, urban economics, the impact of planning policy on municipal finance, and the economics of water policy.
Joe Pennachetti
Senior Fellow
Joe Pennachetti is Senior Fellow at the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance. He has over 35 years of municipal financial management experience. As the Toronto City Manager from 2008 to 2015, Joe was responsible for 37,000 staff, an operating budget of $12 billion, and a $30 billion 10 year capital plan.
Dr. Gabriel Eidelman
Faculty Fellow
Dr. Gabriel Eidelman is Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, where he serves as director of the Urban Policy Lab, with a joint appointment at the Institute for Management and Innovation. He teaches courses on urban politics, policy, and governance in the Munk School's Master of Public Policy program as well as IMI's Master of Urban Innovation program.
Dr. Alexandra Flynn
Fellow
Dr. Alexandra Flynn is an Associate Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at The University of British Columbia, where she specializes in municipal law and governance and teaches interactive, practice-based courses in legal research, municipal and planning law, and administrative law.
Dr. Aaron A. Moore
Fellow
Dr. Aaron A. Moore is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, at the University of Winnipeg, and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of City Planning, at the University of Manitoba. Aaron was formerly an Adjunct Professor at the University of Waterloo. He received his Doctorate degree in Political Science from the University of Western Ontario in 2009.
Dr. Zack Taylor
Fellow
Dr. Zack Taylor is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Western University, where he teaches and researches on comparative urban political economy, regional planning and governance, local government and finance, and local public administration. He is also a non-practicing Registered Professional Planner in Ontario.
Dr. Almos Tassonyi
Senior Associate
Dr. Almos Tassonyi is an Executive Fellow at The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary. He is a Research Associate at the International Property Tax Institute and a Research Fellow of the International Centre for Economic Analysis.
Kohbod Khandan-Barani
Manager, Programs and Research
Kohbod Khandan-Barani is the new Manager of Programs and Research for the Institute on Municipal Finance & Governance (IMFG). As Manager, Kohbod takes a leadership role in the activities of the IMFG, overseeing the Institute’s operations and designing major research programs in municipal finance and governance, as well as other projects.
Collin Bernard
Richard M. Bird Post-Doctoral Fellow
Collin Bernard is the 2025–2026 Richard M. Bird Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance (IMFG). He holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and his research focuses on the evolution of social housing finance in Canada and internationally over the past three decades.
Eun Ji Lee
Graduate Fellow
Eun Ji (Lindsay) Lee is the recipient of the 2025–2026 IMFG Blanche and Sandy Van Ginkel Graduate Fellowship from the Institute of Municipal Finance and Governance at the School of Cities. Her research examines the effect of the vacant housing tax on housing affordability and investigates whether it influences foreign residential investment.
Maria Francisca Granda Benitez
Graduate Fellow
Maria Francisca Granda Benitez is the recipient of the 2025–26 Graduate Fellowship in Municipal Finance and Governance. She is a PhD candidate in the Political Science department at the University of Toronto and is interested in state capacity and political economy in Latin America.
Piali Roy
Administrative and Communications Assistant
Piali Roy is the Administrative and Communications Assistant at IMFG. Prior to joining the Institute, she worked in both media and communications, including the public policy program within the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy as well as the Maytree Foundation.