Dastageer Sakhizai, MPA, MSc, BSc Dastageer Sakhizai has been working as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Ministry of Health in the Government of Saskatchewan,Canada for 15 years now. His career started with Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan as a research assistant. His academic work took him to Hungary, Uzbekistan and Bulgaria for graduate studies and post-graduate specialization in the field of genetics. He obtained his Master of Science degree in this field from a Bulgarian university while working as a researcher at the Institute of Genetics in Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. After nearly ten years of research work in Hungarian and Bulgarian academy of sciences, in 1998, he left Bulgaria for Canada at the invitation of a Canadian university to present his research paper at an international conference. At the end of the conference, the University of Saskatchewan offered him a research job, which he accepted and settled in Canada. In 2001, Sakhizai decided to start a new career in public policy area and in transitioning to this career from research in genetics, he took a job in a different field as a mediator/conflict resolution officer at a Ministry of Justice – funded organization. While working as a mediator, he studied and earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration (MPA) from the School Of Policy Studies of Queen’s University in Canada. Upon graduation, he landed a permanent full-time position as a policy consultant at the Ministry of Health in the beginning of 2006 and subsequently he was promoted to the Senior Policy Analyst position. Prior to starting his new career, he was contracted by the same government for developing a strategy for retention of newcomers. His strategy was accepted and adopted as an ongoing program. Prior to starting his career with Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan, he completed his BSc. Degree in Plant Sciences at the Faculty of Agriculture of Kabul University following his high school education in the City of Baghlan where he was born and raised. In addition to his Masters degrees, Sakhizai has extensive non-degree training and work experiences in negotiation, mediation (including victim-offender mediation, and other categories of mediation), conflict resolution (including cross-cultural conflict resolutions), counselling, and suicide prevention. His involvement with voluntary sector includes years of work with different Canadian organizations in various capacity including president, chair, and board member. Sakhizai speaks Pashto, Dari, English, Bulgarian, Russian, and is pursuing French. He has a passion for travels and experiencing new cultures, people and countries.