Thursday, April 4th, 2024 Careers in Diplomacy and the United Nations - Fellows Lunch with Julia Bentley and Catherine Bragg

Description

An opportunity, exclusively for Munk School students, to meet in a small group with two Senior Fellows to learn about the day-to-day challenges and rewards of careers in diplomacy, international development assistance and humanitarian affairs: the Canadian foreign service and humanitarian assistance for both Canada and for the United Nations.   

Julia Bentley is a former career diplomat whose work has focused chiefly on Asia. She has served twice as a diplomat in China (cross-accredited to Mongolia), Taiwan and India, where she was cross-accredited to Nepal and Bhutan. She was appointed as High Commissioner of Canada in Malaysia from 2017 to 2020. Combined with other roles including as a teacher, development consultant and head of an international organization, she has spent 22 years in Asia.  At Global Affairs Canada’s headquarters in Ottawa, Bentley served as Director for Northeast Asia, Executive Director for South Asia and Director General for South Asia, encompassing foreign policy, development, trade and investment.  She previously worked as Winrock International’s Chief Representative in China and director of its NGO Capacity Building Program in China, funded by the Ford Foundation.  She was on secondment from Global Affairs Canada to the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at University of Toronto from January through December 2022 and held a policy practitioner fellowship at the University of British Columbia’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs for a semester in spring 2023. She holds degrees in East Asian Studies from Princeton University and University of Toronto, as well as a post-graduate diploma from Nanjing University in modern Chinese history.

Catherine Bragg is a former Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator in the United Nations (2008-2013). As the ASG, she was the deputy head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). Prior to her secondment to the UN, she has spent 24 years in the federal public service of Canada, in multiple departments, including Justice, Defence, and the Privy Council Office. In 2004-2008, she headed the International Humanitarian Assistance, Peace and Security Program of the Canadian International Development Agency. As Canada’s senior official, she represented Canada on the Executive Committee and Executive Board of the UN High Commission for Refugees and the World Food Program.  Bragg continues to contribute to humanitarian affairs and academic advancement through her participation globally in major national and multi-national humanitarian initiatives, governance and advisory bodies. For the past 10 years, she was Adjunct Full Professor in the Centre for Humanitarian Action, University College Dublin, Ireland, and is a frequently invited speaker in universities in Europe and Asia. In 2016-2020, she was appointed member of the Governing Council of University of Toronto. In total, she has visited over 100 countries and been involved in response to close to 30 humanitarian crises and situations. Bragg received her degrees from University of Toronto (B.Sc. Psychology), University of Cambridge (M.Phil. Criminology) and the State University of New York at Albany (Ph.D. Criminal Justice).