Faculty Member
Robert Steiner
Director, Fellowship in Journalism and Health Impact
Assistant Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health Sciences,
University of Toronto
- Email Address(es)
- robert.steiner(at)utoronto.ca
Robert Steiner is Assistant Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto and Director of the Dalla Lana Fellowship in Journalism and Health Impact. The fellowship is the first journalism program designed specifically to teach journalism to outstanding subject-matter specialists. He also teaches political advocacy and communications to graduate students in public health and is affiliated with the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Bioethics, where he leads a project to trial new trust-building strategies in WHO member states.
Professor Steiner began his career as a global finance correspondent for The Wall Street Journal with postings in New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo, where he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, won two Overseas Press Club awards and the Inter-American Press Association Award.
After leaving The Wall Street Journal, Prof. Steiner received his MBA from the Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania) and then worked as a business strategy executive, first at The Boston Consulting Group and later as Group Vice President in charge of Strategic Planning for Bell Globemedia, parent of the Globe and Mail and CTV. From 2006 to 2010, he served as Assistant Vice President of the University of Toronto in charge of Strategic Communications.
Prof. Steiner has also held senior health policy positions in Canada. In 2021-22, he served as communications director for the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, an independent body that advised Ontario’s Cabinet during the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. In 2010 he ran communications for Public Health Ontario. In 2003-4, he advised the Prime Minister’s Office and the federal Cabinet on the creation of the Public Health Agency of Canada, after serving as health policy advisor and principal speechwriter for Hon. Paul Martin during his successful campaign to be Prime Minister. During the 2000 federal election, Mr. Steiner managed the Liberal Party of Canada’s digital campaign, working for Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.