Canadian Coalition for Youth, Peace & Security
Katrina Leclerc is a multi-award-winning peacebuilder and published researcher. She serves as the chair of the Women, Peace and Security Network – Canada (WPSN-C) and co-founder of the Canadian Coalition for Youth, Peace & Security (CCYPS).
From 2014 to 2024, Katrina served in multiple capacities at the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), a highly respected international coalition operating within the UN system to bridge the gap between policy and practice on women and youth rights.
Most recently, Katrina served as GNWP’s Program Director, overseeing the organization’s gender- and age-sensitive programs in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. GNWP’s programmatic and advocacy efforts, led by Katrina, were cited as best practices in the three reports on YPS of the Secretary-General to the UN Security Council.
Katrina is a technical expert for national and local governments developing policies on WPS and YPS, including those in Canada, Chad, DRC, Kenya, Lebanon, Nepal, and Rwanda. From 2021-2023, Katrina led the development of Chad’s first National Action Plan (NAP) on WPS and served as an advisor to the DRC’s first NAP on YPS. Additionally, in 2023, she chaired the WPS Dialogues FPS process to ensure the strong representation of civil society perspectives in Canada’s third NAP on WPS.
At age 21, Katrina was appointed as the lead advisor to a Canadian Senator, where she was quickly promoted as head of office. During that time, Katrina launched the Senator’s nationwide youth advisory, which supported policies focused on meaningful youth engagement within the Parliament of Canada and in federal legislation. Highlights from her time at the Senate of Canada also include creation of the diplomatic Office of the WPS Ambassador; legislation to eliminate sex-based discrimination against Indigenous women in Canadian law; Canada’s recognition of the Rohingya crisis as genocide and policy advocacy for Canadian government intervention in the case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice. She managed the secretariat for the Canadian Association of Feminist Parliamentarians.
She has published +30 academic and policy articles, analyses, toolkits, and book chapters. She has worked for Global Affairs Canada, UN Women, and several nonprofits advising on communications, government relations, and policy development.
Katrina is a Ph.D. candidate in conflict studies at Saint-Paul University in Ottawa. She holds a master’s in peace and conflict from the University of Manitoba and a bachelor’s in human rights and conflict resolution from the University of Winnipeg.