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“We have chosen a strong team of women with expertise in research and women’s equality issues,” said Dr. Fry. “Through a nomination process and with the help of external advisors, we selected individuals from a variety of disciplines. Over time, the full range of women’s diversity will be represented by staggering and rotating the committee’s membership.”

The external committee for the Policy Research Fund includes:

• Caroline Andrew, a political scientist from the University of Ottawa;
• Francine Descarries, a sociologist from the Université du Québec, Montreal;
• T. Brettel Dawson, a lawyer from Carleton University, Ottawa;
• Vanaja Dhruvarajan, a sociologist from the University of Winnipeg;
• Isabelle McKee-Allain, a sociologist from the Université de Moncton, New Brunswick; and
• Verna Kirkness, former Director of the First Nation House of Learning at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

“This Fund will bring policy research on women’s equality issues into the public policy arena,” said Dr. Fry.

The Fund has an annual budget of $1.25 million and focuses on nationally relevant public policy research. It will fund research that identifies policy gaps, trends, emerging issues, and provide concrete recommendations and alternative solutions to policies and programs affecting women.

Editor's Note: Biographies of the external committee for the Policy Research Fund are attached.
For more information contact:
Cathy McRae, Tel: (613) 995-7835, SWC,
Artur Wilczynski, Tel: (819) 997-9900, Office of the Honourable Hedy Fry

Status of Women Canada’s external committee for the Policy Research Fund

MEMBERS

Caroline Andrew
Professor Andrew has taught in the Department of Political Science at the University of Ottawa since 1971. She was the Vice Dean of Social Sciences from 1986-1992, and was Coordinator of Women’s Studies in 1992-93. She has extensive experience evaluating research and is past president of the Social Science Federation of Canada (1988-89), the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW) (1992-93), and the Canadian Political Science Association (1983-84).

Francine Descarries
Professor Descarries has taught in the Department of Sociology at Université du Québec, Montréal (UQAM) since 1986 and is presently the Director of Graduate Studies. She was the Director of the Centre de recherche féministe at UQAM from 1988-92 and is a founding member of the Conseil de l’Institut de recherches et d’études féminites (IREF) de l’UQAM. She has done research evaluations for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Conseil québécois de la recherche sociale, the Fonds pour la formation de chercheurs et l'aide à la recherche (FCAR), and in 1992 was part of the SSHRC working group to evaluate its Strategic Program on Women and Work.

T. Brettel Dawson
Professor Dawson is currently Chair of the Department of Law at Carleton University, Ottawa, and has taught law since 1986. She has researched and/or published in the area of feminist legal theory and methodology, contract law, sexual assault, pornography, sex discrimination, and sexual orientation. She has served as: a grant reviewer for SSHRC and other organizations; Editor of the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law (1991-92 and 1994-96); and a director of the Canadian Law and Society Association (1996).

Vanaja Dhruvarajan
Dr. Dhruvarajan, has been teaching in the Department of Sociology at the University of Winnipeg since 1972, and from 1994 to 1995 held the Ruth Wynn Woodward Chair in Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University. Her research activities focus on gender equality; ethnic and racial equality; women of colour; women and development; family and socialization; immigration; and South-Asian women.

Isabelle McKee-Allain
Dr. McKee-Allain has taught Sociology at the Université de Moncton in New Brunswick since 1982, and has been Acting Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences since 1996, Vice-Dean from 1995-96, and Director of the Sociology Department from 1993-95. Her research expertise lies in the areas of ethnic and gender relations; Acadian women; francophone minorities; women and power; and youth. She has also been involved with the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW), and the Réseau des femmes, New Brunswick. She is a member of the editorial board of two feminist journals, Recherches féministes and Atlantis.

Verna Kirkness
Professor Kirkness, currently retired, was the Director of the First Nation House of Learning at the University of British Columbia. She has worked in the area of Aboriginal education for over forty years. She was named Canadian Educator of the Year in 1990 and received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award in Education in 1994. Professor Kirkness initiated the first World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education (1987). She is Cree and a member of the Fisher River First Nation in Manitoba.