Office of the President
Dr. Jino Distasio
Interim President and Vice-Chancellor
On December 9, 2025, the University of Winnipeg Board of Regents appointed Dr. Jino Distasio as Interim President and Vice-Chancellor. Dr. Distasio will guide the University while the Board undertakes a comprehensive search for a permanent President and Vice-Chancellor.
About Dr. Jino Distasio
Dr. Jino Distasio joined the University of Winnipeg in 1999 as an Instructor in the Department of Geography. He then moved to the Institute of Urban Studies, where he worked for nearly two decades exploring Canadian and global urban issues. He actively engaged in over 200 projects, publications, and community initiatives. His areas of interest and research include urban development, housing market analysis, transportation studies, mental health, homelessness, and local and national policy.
In his administrative capacity, he served on the University’s Senior Executive under Dr. Lloyd Axworthy and supported a significant period of campus growth and development. In this role, he provided strategic support to the President on the development of numerous academic programs and initiatives. This includes the physical development of the campus as a Director on the University of Winnipeg Renewal Corporation board.
In 2013, he was appointed Associate Vice-President, Research and later Vice-President, Research and Innovation. In this role, he transformed the office to support tremendous growth in research activity and the Canada Research Chair program. He served in the role of VPRI for just over a decade. More recently, in the past two years, he acted in the roles of Provost and Vice-President, Academic and Dean of Science and Kinesiology. His administrative commitment to the University of Winnipeg spans two decades.
Externally, he served on local and national committees and boards within the urban and community development sectors. Additionally, he has extensive experience in the housing industry, supporting the building of affordable ownership, rental and student housing units along with property management experience.
At the national level, he led several large, multi-city projects that examined housing markets, tenancy supports, and homelessness. He also led the development of a national index of neighbourhood distress and a toolkit for eviction prevention. Of note, he served as a Principal Investigator on the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s At Home Chez project, which is considered the largest such study to be conducted globally. He also completed an Indigenous Housing First Toolkit for the Federal Government and played a central role in helping change the policies, programs and approaches used to end homelessness in Canada and globally.
As a faculty member in the Department of Geography, Dr. Distasio focuses on urban issues. He has held/holds Adjunct Professor status in the departments of Psychiatry, Geography and City Planning at the University of Manitoba where he supports graduate students. He enjoys writing commentary and providing local and national media comment on issues relating to urban policy, poverty, transportation, inner city renewal and other civic fields. He is the UWinnipeg Professor most cited by media over the past 25 years and is known nationally as a leader in urban issues. He has consistently taught courses and supervised students for 25 years and has remained highly funded despite a heavy administrative load.