Michaela Pedersen-Macnab is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at MacEwan University. She defended her PhD in Political Science at the University of Toronto in 2025. Her first book project, Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics: Deceiving International Institutions, explains why international institutions sometimes tolerate deception by their member states.

Before joining MacEwan University, Michaela was employed at George Washington University as a SSHRC-funded post-doctoral fellow. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Michaela was recruited as political officer and policy analyst for the Greater China Division of Global Affairs Canada. In 2021 she was selected as the inaugural Margaret Meagher Research Fellow for the division. Michaela also has think tank experience, working as researcher at the China Institute, a Canadian foreign policy think tank, and as an independent researcher for the Institute for Municipal Finance and Governance and the Smart Prosperity Institute, among others. Michaela has conducted research internationally in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, mainland China, Taiwan, Norway, and the United States.