The University of Toronto Model Parliament Executive Board is advised by a board which brings experience from some of the world’s leading centres of thought. A brief biography of Academic Advisers and Student Advisers can be found below:

Academic Advisers

Tina Jiwon Park, Adviser

Tina J. Park is a recent graduate of Trinity College, University of Toronto,with an Honours B.A. in international relations and history. In her undergraduate years, Tina was actively involved with the International Relations Society, G8 Research Group, Journalists for Human Rights chapter and North Korea Research Group. Her academic interests include the Responsibility To Protect doctrine, the Rwandan Genocide, Canadian foreign policy and North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. For her contributions to the U of T community, Tina received the Robert H. Catherwood Scholarship and the Gordon Cressy Leadership Award. Tina was also awarded the Ambassador Kenneth Taylor Prize and the William Kilbourn Prize for her academic achievements. In the past, Tina has volunteered as a legal and medical interpreter for North Korean refugees in Toronto and as a photographer for Dignitas International. She speaks Korean, French and Spanish. In the fall of 2009, Tina will be starting her Ph.D. programme at the U of T’s History Department. She plans to study Korean-Canadian relations from the 1880s to 1980s. Tina will advise the UTMP executive on academic and logistical matters.

We are currently in the process of convening a board of academic advisers for the 2009-2010 year.

Student Advisers

K. Sonam Cheema

Senior Strategic Adviser

(University of Western Ontario, Harvard University)

K. Sonam Cheema is a third year honours undergraduate student at The School of Health Studies at The University of Western Ontario, where she is specializing in Health Science. She has previously studied law and psychology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An advocate of youth political initiatives and measures to decrease youth apathy, Sonam brings several years of political organizing experience and insight to the UTMP executive as a strategic advisor. A native of the greater Toronto area, Sonam is an active member of the London community, where she volunteers at the London Health Sciences Centre, casually assists with medical innovation research at the University, and has worked in the field of child health in the past, through the Child Health and Activity Modification Program (UWO, School of Health Studies). A member of the Faculty of Health Science Students’ Council and past intern of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, Sonam is largely interested in the fields of health policy (national and international), bioethics, global healthcare delivery, and sustainable health development across the world, and hopes to one day train and specialize in rural and emergency medicine. She is fluent in Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu, and is currently working towards fluency in French and Spanish.

Thomas Pinnington
Strategic Adviser

(University of Trinity College, University of Toronto)

Thomas Pinnington is a third year undergraduate student specializing in history and political science at the University of Toronto. Formerly the director of communications, Thomas stepped down in order to serve as Head of Trinity College. Outside of the UTMP, he is the secretary of the Trinity College chapter of the Atlantic Council, the conference director for Students for International Development, and the Trinity College representative on the St. George Round Table. He is also a member of the University of Toronto Varsity lacrosse team. Returning to Canada from Brussels, Belgium, Thomas acts as a sounding board to all branches of the executive, as well as being an advisor to the office of the chairs. Thomas’ interests lie in historiography, minority groups, genocide, and national identity, specifically concentrating on the Holocaust, national groups in the Eastern Bloc, and Canadian sovereignty

Nastasja Vojvodic
Strategic Adviser

(University of Trinity College, University of Toronto)

Nastasja Vojvodic is a third year undergraduate student majoring in international relations at Trinity College, University of Toronto. A former member of the executive board, where she served as Director of Communications, she is taking a year abroad at Sciences Po in Paris, France. A graduate of the Trinity One Program, Nastasja brings a strong understanding of organizational culture, and decision-making from her background in political science. She is also involved in various research and advocacy organizations on campus. She advises the executive on the UTMP communications and engagement strategy, and is responsible for in-part forming the broad direction of the initiative.