Kristen Chenier is the Director of Policy, Infectious Diseases and Pandemic Preparedness within Global Affairs Canada’s Health and Nutrition Bureau. She leads Global Affairs’ policy engagement in global health fora including the WHO, G20, and G7 and is responsible for GAC’s investments and engagement in combatting infectious diseases, as well as pandemic preparedness.
She joined the Government of Canada via the Canadian International Development Agency in 1999 and has worked in various roles in multilateral affairs and international assistance, including as Head of Cooperation in Jordan (2009–2012), as Chief of Operations in Mozambique (2009–2012), and Health Counsellor at Canada’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva (2016–2021). She also spent over a decade on humanitarian policy issues and response, managing Canada’s responses to a wide variety of protracted crises and disasters, and working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangladesh. She has degrees in Political Science and International Development from the University of McGill and Ottawa.
